Myke Scholl, a newly hired men’s basketball assistant coach at University of the Pacific, passed away last week. He was 55.
“You very seldom find a person who combines being a good, caring person with being tough as nails and having expectations that are real and are tough,” said Head Coach Dave Smart.
Scholl was hired in April from Long Beach State, where he had spent the past decade. At Long Beach, he helped coach the men’s team to March Madness last season and a Big West title in 2022. In a statement, the school called him a “tireless recruiter” who brought in some of the program’s biggest stars.
Long Beach State’s statement also said Scholl had been recently diagnosed with cancer.
“I can’t even imagine to be going through what he must have been going through during the hours we were working to try to put our team together,” Smart said.
Scholl was born in Columbus, Ohio and grew up in Sacramento. After graduating from Jesuit High School, he attended Sacramento State for two years, playing on the basketball team as a guard and forward. He finished his undergraduate degree at Ohio Wesleyan University. Scholl also held a law degree from the University of Maryland and spent three years working in the law.
Prior to becoming a Division I basketball coach, Scholl spent nearly a decade in South Africa working with nonprofits and youth-support organizations. He established the country’s first national high school basketball league and implemented programs for the HIV/AIDS foundation loveLife. In 2007, he became an international scout with the Detroit Pistons.
Scholl moved back to the United States in 2008 to coach at Loyola Marymount University before joining Long Beach State in 2014.
Miriam Waldvogel is serving a summer internship with Stocktonia. She attends Princeton University and is a Stockton native.