The Wisconsin State Journal’s Doug Moe interviews Winston-Salem State men’s basketball coach James Wilhelmi:

James Wilhelmi is among the fortunate few who knew early what they wanted in life. Wilhelmi wanted to coach college basketball.

He even knew who he wanted to emulate. In junior high school in Burlington — Wilhelmi was born in Madison, and returned for high school, at Madison La Follette — he would watch the Georgetown Hoyas play on television and marvel at their head coach, John Thompson.

It was how Thompson carried himself: a mix of authority and compassion. Thompson might embrace a player who had fouled out, or put his arm around a young man who had made — or missed — a big shot at game’s end.

“You could see he was a father figure,” Wilhelmi, 43, was saying last week. “I knew some day I wanted to have that kind of influence.”

And then, during college, Wilhelmi had the chance to meet his hero. Wilhelmi was attending UW-Whitewater, and a coach who knew his future aspirations suggested he write to college programs that were running summer camps, offering to help out. Naturally, the Georgetown camp run by Thompson was at the top of Wilhelmi’s list.

Word came back: They wanted Wilhelmi at the Georgetown camp.

Wilhelmi gave a fist pump. “Yes!”

Sure enough, at the camp, Wilhelmi got to shake hands with Thompson and tell him how much he admired him. You made me want to be a coach, Wilhelmi said.

At which point John Thompson said, “Don’t go into coaching.”

Wilhelmi blinked.

“The kids have changed,” Thompson said. “Everything has changed.”

Recalling that story last week, Wilhelmi laughed. “Actually,” he said, “the kids are still the kids.”

Wilhelmi, it should be noted, did not take Thompson’s advice. Last Thursday, Wilhelmi was officially introduced as the new men’s basketball head coach at Winston-Salem State University in North Carolina. There was a news conference in the Division II school’s field house. Wilhelmi was flanked by the chancellor and athletic director, and after they each spoke briefly, it was the new head coach’s turn.

It was a proud moment and the culmination of a long journey for Wilhelmi, who had stops in high school coaching and as an assistant at eight different college programs before joining Winston-Salem, as an assistant, in 2011.

Early in his remarks, Wilhelmi evoked a famous quote from the late North Carolina State coach Jim Valvano about finding a way to laugh, think and cry on any given day. Wilhelmi figured he might do all three at his introduction, and he wasn’t wrong. The tears came when he thanked his family for their support.

I spoke to Wilhelmi the day following his press conference. He seemed happy to talk to someone from the city to which he returns regularly; his parents still live in Madison.

Wilhelmi participated in football, basketball and track at Madison La Follette. His best sport was likely football, but he played four years of varsity basketball. The basketball game that he has never forgotten was in his junior year, a tournament game with Madison West. The Regents, with Damon Harrell, had beaten La Follette soundly twice during the regular season. Not so in the tournament.

“We ended up winning on a last-second shot by Mark Paulson,” Wilhelmi said.

Here’s how old I’m getting: I covered Wilhelmi at La Follette. I remember the game Wilhelmi referred to, which proves that postseason wins are always better than regular-season wins. The nailbiter set up another one one night later, but first …

I remember a moment Wilhelmi probably would prefer to forget — the night he got a technical foul. I don’t remember the opponent, but something didn’t go his way — either a turnover or an unfavorable call, probably — and he slammed his hand on the floor, which the official followed with the dreaded T. Today, the hand-slam probably wouldn’t get called, because I’ve seen players get away with it.

Later that season — in fact after the big West win — La Follette played Onalaska at Baraboo for a trip to state. The Lancers fell behind by, I believe, 17 points midway through the third quarter. And then over the next 16 minutes and change they climbed back into the game, thanks to hitting shots and the Hilltoppers’ missing shots and particularly free throws. At one point Wilhelmi drained a three-point shot, the first one I’d seen him hit in two years of watching him play.

Wilhelmi’s teammate, Mike Corbett, hit a jumper to give La Follette a one-point lead with 17 seconds left to complete the comeback. Unfortunately, Onalaska scored with seven seconds left, and a turnover ended La Follette’s season in the last La Follette boys basketball game I covered for the Monona Community Herald. Onalaska went on to win state, which was a nice career highlight for the Hilltoppers’ coach, John Gustafson, who died a few years later of cancer. (The star center of that team, Andy Hutchens, showed up a year later as the Hilltoppers’ pitcher and third-place hitter when I was in Lancaster. The difference, though, was that Lancaster won their sectional semifinal meeting on the way to one of the most unlikely state trips I ever got to cover.)

Now, more Moe:

Wilhelmi accepted a scholarship to play football — he was a wide receiver — for St. Cloud State University in Minnesota, but stayed only a year. He came back to Madison, worked for a time and then enrolled at UW-Whitewater. There he played football and found himself influenced by Stan Zweifel, the Warhawks’ offensive coordinator, now the head coach at the University of Dubuque.

“I did not make a lot of catches or score a lot of points,” Wilhelmi said. “But he treated me like I was a special guy. I appreciated that. Some coaches only pay attention to the stars.”

Wilhelmi filed that memory, as he did the encouragement he’d received to apply for coaching positions at summer camps. The camps were the ideal place to network. Wherever Wilhelmi went, he tried to learn something.

No place may have had greater influence than an early stint as an assistant at UW-Stevens Point, where a head coach named Jack Bennett, who won two national championships, laid out for Wilhelmi a philosophy for building a successful collegiate basketball program.

“He was my compass,” Wilhelmi said of Bennett, both in our conversation and during his news conference a day earlier.

In March, Wilhelmi traveled to Virginia to watch UW-Whitewater play for a Division III national basketball championship. Jack Bennett’s son, Nick Bennett, is now a Whitewater assistant. The Warhawks won the title.

The stars seemed to be aligning. Less than a month later, Wilhelmi was named interim head coach at Winston-Salem, replacing the departed Bobby Collins. On June 6, “interim” was removed and Wilhelmi was named head coach.

The press conference six days later drew a lot of attention. Winston-Salem plays in a highly competitive conference in basketball-crazy North Carolina. I mentioned to Wilhelmi that this must all be pretty exciting.

“It is,” he said. “And it’s just the beginning.”

This makes me feel a little old, but it’s excellent news for us La Follette alumni.