It's still pretty early on a cold, November Saturday morning. But, instead of sleeping in, or grabbing some coffee, Peter Dourdas grabs his ball bag, and heads off to work.

He's at the Hebrew Day School in DeWitt, where Peter is a teacher, kind of. Instead of a classroom, he works in a gymnasium.

Peter is a basketball coach, the former coach of the Syracuse Stallions, who now primarily works with individuals. In fact, you might call him the "trainer to the stars."

"Oh, Brandon Triche, Arinze Onuaku, Scoop Jardine," said Dourdas, rattling off a number of former Syracuse basketball players with whom he's worked.

 

What You Need To Know


  • Local basketball coach Peter Dourdas estimates he's helped 150 boys and girls earn some sort of college scholarship over the years

  • Dourdas has also worked with more than 100 Division 1 players, including former Syracuse stars like Brandon Triche and Eric Devendorf

  • After playing professionally in Greece, Dourdas returned to CNY and found his passion for coaching

  • Dourdas founded his company called "Elite Basketball", and is working on a patent for a shooting glove

 

Peter estimates he's trained about a hundred Division 1 players over the years. Today's students, however, are kids you haven't heard of--Marshall Withers from Jamesville-DeWitt, and Paul Miller from Fayetteville-Manlius. Both are, voluntarily, putting themselves through 60 minutes of Dourdas drudgery, sometimes multiple times per week, all in an effort to get better.

"It's all about fundamentals, it's not playing 50 AAU games a year," Dourdas said. "Like Kobe Bryant said, 'you've got to love the boring things in basketball'. It's not easy, it's challenging, it's repetition, it gets boring. But, that's how you become great."

And it's not just boys, Dourdas says about 60 percent of his current students are girls.

"Off the record, the girls are smarter," quipped Dourdas with a chuckle.

That's a hard lesson for a boy dad.

"They just want it more at a younger age," he continued. "They listen, they follow directions, they're great, great to work with."

And the work never ends for Peter, who also plays a part-time janitor, occasionally sweeping the floor clean of dust. He wants to make sure the kids have a clean floor to work with, plus plenty of cones to navigate.

His goal being not just to make the kids better, but also to make sure when the lesson's over, they feel just as good as he does.

"Here, I feel the reward, for them and for myself," said Dourdas, who says he's been coaching for 25-30 years after playing a few years of professional ball in Greece. "It's just a great feeling to see these kids, starting with me in third or fourth grade, and now they're juniors, seniors, and they're going to college. There is no better feeling."

Dourdas guesses he's helped about 150 kids earn some type of college scholarship money, and he's hoping that number continues to rise.

It sure beats sleeping in, any day.