Dudley, Redbirds Preach ‘Same Dude Every Day’ Attitude

ALTON – It’s on every social media post, it’s said before every practice and every game.

The Alton High School boys basketball team is given a simple motto from their head coach.

Be the same dude every day.

But what exactly does that mean?

“It means, just coming in being the same person every day,” Hassani Elliot said. “He just preaches to us every day, be the same dude every day. Be there for your teammates, be there for yourself, love the team. When the team wins, love wins. All the things like that.”

“No bad days,” Semaj Stampley said. “Every day come in, we have a little motto, the best player and the coach can have zero bad practices. Just staying consistent, even if you had a good day at school or a bad day, just come to practice and be the same person.”

Sounds simple enough.

Redbirds head coach Dylan Dudley came up with the motto, and it has a deeper meaning for him.

“I just watched over the years, my grandpa,” he said. “I’ve told the boys about this 100 times. My grandpa was 92 years old; God rest his soul. He was a bricklayer for 60 years. Got up at dawn, worked til dusk, went out to the union hall, came back, got up, and did it again.”

“He was at every single one of my sister and I’s sporting events. He never had a bad day. He never complained, he never defended himself. He may have got a little grumpy every once in a while, but from my perspective as his grandson, he was the same dude every day.”

And now the lesson he learned from his late grandfather is one he’s tying into not just basketball, but life itself.

“I learned that lesson from him, and I think it’s a lesson I try to get our boys to understand,” Dudley said. “You don’t always feel like a million dollars, you don’t always feel like going to work, you don’t always feel like coming to school, you may not always feel like coming to practice. But I think you can’t be a selective participant in life. You can’t pick and choose. You’ve got to be engaged every day.”

Dudley took over as Alton's head coach in the 2022-23 season, after a one-year stint from Eric McCrary and a two-year step-in from Dana Morgan before that. Dudley was walking into a losing program as its third different head coach in four seasons.

And it wasn’t a fairytale ending in year one. Dudley and the Redbirds finished with a record of 6-25. The year prior under McCrary the team was 4-23.

“This place, this community, they had every reason to bail,” Dudley said. “I’m just another coach coming in that has a losing record, and here we go again. And the kids had every reason to bail, and I totally would’ve understood.”

But the city of Alton, the school, and the players took Dudley in, and they began to believe.

“I’ll never forget 6-25, but more importantly, I’ll never forget 6-25 and there would be 1,200-1,300 people in the stands trying to help, whether they thought we were doing a good job or not,” Dudley said.

Dudley was previously coaching at Nolan Catholic High School in Fort Worth, Texas, but when taking the job at Alton, he and his wife Allie packed up their stuff and headed 700-plus miles to Illinois.

“Allie and I have always said this. From the moment we got here, this place has accepted us and tried to buy into what we were selling,” Dudley said. “And I’ll brag on Allie and me for a second. I think we’ve done a really good job of trying to integrate ourselves into this place. We’re always in the community, we’re trying to make an impact.”

“I think people appreciate the level of respect that we give their sons,” he said.

And now Dylan and Allie have their own son at home. Kylin Epping Dudley was born in late October and will one day learn about the ‘same dude every day’ mentality.

“It has made me a better coach. What an incredible experience,” Dudley said about becoming a father.

He gives all the credit to his wife.

“I’m so, so thankful for his mother. Allie and I have been together for a long, long time. And she’s been the greatest blessing in my life. She helped me get through some hard times. She’s helped me grow into the person I am, and for the good lord to bless us with Kylin, it’s been an incredible experience,” he said.

“She is a rockstar. Seeing her, she allows me to do this, I try and help when I can to give her a break. But being a dad is everything it’s cracked up to be. And doing it in the basketball season is hard, but I wouldn’t be able to do it without her. She deserves all the credit.”

Alton’s girls basketball head coach Deserea Howard, who has children of her own, gave some advice to Dudley.

“Luckily for him, his wife gets to bear some of the non-sleep,” she said with a laugh. “But my thing is, keep your kid around. That’s my thing. All my kids are here. As a coach, it feels good when you’ve got your family with you. It doesn’t feel like you’re missing all that time. So, that was my advice to him. Keep your family close, love on your kid, and it’ll make you a more effective coach.”

Dudley even acknowledged that as well.

“I probably can’t do what she does where she brings the kids to practice. I have a bad mouth, I need to work on that,” he joked.

He says he’s learned the most about fatherhood from his three assistant coaches – JaQuail Townser, John Steen, and Monty Lowe.

“To be honest with you, I’ve learned from Quail, I’ve learned from Steen-O, and I’ve learned from Coach Lowe,” Dudley said. “And they all have kids of different ages. Just watching how they talk to their kids, watching how they interact, watching how they encourage interaction between their kids and our kids. Those three dudes are great dads and I’ve learned so many lessons from them. Hopefully, I can do really good at my house so I can keep doing this a little bit longer.”

Things have been looking up for Dudley.

The rebuild is in process as Alton finished with a 17-15 record last year and returned much of its firepower. The team’s 10 seniors helped lead them to a season-opening win over Waterloo Monday night as well.

And Dudley has been letting it all soak in.

“This place, it’s different here,” he said about the Alton community. “We have a kid, and I have 200 text messages. We have a kid, and I have 50 emails. I have 20 direct messages on my Facebook. People saying what’s up to Allie, asking her. Just stuff coming to our house. It’s extremely humbling. I’m in a position that I do not take for granted. I cannot be more thankful; I cannot be more appreciative of all the people in Alton”

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