When the girls basketball team won the 2017 state championship game last winter, Jeff Jasper embraced his son Justin in a bear hug.

This is Justin’s favorite memory of coaching with his father.

Similarly, Jeff’s favorite aspect of having his son coach with him is “when I hug him.”

Head coach of the Pascack Valley girls basketball team and history teacher Jeff Jasper works with his son and assistant coach Justin Jasper on the court.

With similar appearances and personalities, it is apparent that Jeff and his son are alike in more ways than one.

“He’s a figure that demands and commands respect, but he’s also so real and caring and I think players grab onto that sincerity,” Justin said of Jeff. “He’s just a master at solidifying relationships and making people feel that they play a part and they are important.”

Jeff said the same about his son. When Justin was younger, he made people feel that they were the most important person in the room.

“Justin is a people person,” he said. “He’s just a natural when it comes to relating to people, especially kids.”

Justin, who is the vice principal at Holdrum Middle School in River Vale, grew up in Hillsdale and played on the PV boys basketball team while in high school. During college, he played on intramural teams as a student at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn.

He can barely remember a time in his life when he was not playing basketball.

“My brothers and I have been on the court pretty much since birth,” Justin said. “I started to play basketball pretty early on.”

Practice makes perfect

Justin coached the PV junior varsity boys basketball team for the 2000 and 2001 seasons and the Pascack Hills freshman boys basketball team for four seasons beginning in 2011. This is currently his second season as the assistant coach for the PV girls basketball team.

He began to coach with his father last year after Doug Goodman, the previous assistant coach, resigned.

“It was kind of a no-brainer,” Justin said of his decision to coach with Jeff.

Justin enjoys working with his father, which he said is “definitely a learning experience.”

He said that Jeff’s coaching style is unique. As a former basketball player himself and someone who has been to other practices and played for other coaches, he said that the way his father structures practices is rare.

“He is first and foremost a teacher so just seeing the way he goes about teaching the game is very different than anybody I have ever seen,” he said. “He is very based on fundamentals and things that other coaches may take for granted. He makes sure that the players know how to master them before they move on.”

Instead of having plays, Jeff teaches his players drills based on game situations and skills which they can then use in games.

“You look to a fan in the stands that notices a skill the team is really good at,” Justin said. “Well, that skill has been practiced over and over and over again in many different ways by many different players.”

Justin has said that he admires the way his father approaches coaching.

“The way he breaks things down that in the game look like they just happen, there’s a method to that,” he said. “To see how he teaches the game is very impressive.”

Justin had only praise for the girls on the team.

“It’s a very special team in a lot of ways and the kids are all top-notch,” he said. “They are not only just talented but they are extremely hardworking.”

In addition to working hard, both the coaches and the team like to have fun, and Justin likes being a part of that.

“It’s great to see the kids’ reactions to his shtick- to how he teaches, how he coaches, how he goofs around,” Justin said.

Coach vs. father

While Justin and his brothers, Geremy and Gavin, were growing up, Jeff coached them in multiple sports, such as Little League baseball and recreational basketball. In addition, there was a two-week stretch in the early 1990s in which Jeff was both the girls and boys basketball coach while Justin was a PV student. Therefore, he coached his son for a brief period of time in high school as well.

Justin liked having his father as a coach and said he was “always a great coach to me.”

A self-described “pretty intense guy,” Jeff was the same way when his sons were young.

Jeff is infamous for his passion on the court, and Justin can relate to this sentiment, as he recalled a scenario that occurred when he was a catcher on a baseball team his father coached.

A ball would be hit into right field and would go over the right fielder’s head. Instead of my dad talking to the right fielder, I would be the one he would yell at asking why the right fielder didn’t get the ball. Needless to say, I stopped playing baseball in about 8th grade,” he said, laughing.

As Justin got older, however, Jeff would distribute his passion among all of the players on the team.

Jeff describes himself as “loud and demanding,” so much so that Justin had to tell his father not to yell at his team.

“Justin used to say to me, ‘Dad, the kids on the team are my friends,’ so then I began to take it a little easier on them,” Jeff said.

This energy was never brought home, according to Justin.

“We call it the Jekyll and Hyde Effect,” he said. “There’s an intensity that he brings to basketball and there’s a way he commands the team that is very different from the way he parents.”

In fact, Jeff’s parenting style was more similar to the way he coaches practices, rather than games.

“Growing up, I never wanted to disappoint him, but he was never a taskmaster as a father,” Justin said. “He was very open and caring, similar to the way he coaches during practice, and he would never get in my face.”

Circle of life

Justin has attended practices with his father for as long as he can remember along with his older brother Geremy.

“They were raised on the basketball court and came to basketball with their toys or whatever I could keep them occupied with,” Jeff said.

Now, Justin brings his own sons, 4-year-old Jack and 2-year-old Charlie, to practice with him. Jeff says he enjoys having his grandsons there.

“This is how I’ve softened up so much,” Jeff said laughing. “It’s the most beautiful thing; it’s like the circle of life.”

It is obvious to both Jeff and Justin that the team responds well to the boys, just as the boys love the girls on the team.

Justin remembered a practice where his sons had brought a bucket of blocks with which to play. After a little while, though, it was not just the boys who were playing, but the girls on the team had joined in as well.

“I was standing there with my dad and said to him, ‘What happened over the years? You’re getting soft,’” Justin said. “This big-time coach for a big-time program has his team playing blocks with a 4-year-old and a 2-year-old.”

The team members are some of Jack and Charlie’s best friends, babysitters, and inspirations.

“Last year, Cerina [Dunkel] hit a 3-pointer to win the game and [Jack and Charlie] were at that game,” Justin said. “A couple of days later, we were playing a game and I asked Jack what he was doing. He said, ‘I’m going to shoot a three like Cerina.’”

As of now, Justin’s children enjoy playing basketball and going to practice. They have been to the Jeff Jasper basketball camps held over the summer and have taken to imitating their grandfather.

Justin recalled that last year, after the first or second practice, Jack and Charlie were shooting into a Nerf hoop set up in Justin’s home. Jack began to name the drills he had heard his grandfather teach and the terminology used at practice.

“It was funny to see them imitate the team and my dad,” he said.

Justin loves that he has the opportunity to see his father in different roles at practice.

“It’s great to see him from different perspectives, to see him in the light of being a coach, and a teacher, and a dad, and a grandfather,” he said.

Justin is excited to coach his own kids when they start playing organized sports, like his father had coached him.

Looking ahead, Justin does not have any specific coaching aspirations for the girls basketball team.

“People ask me all the time if I’m going to take over [once Jeff retires],” he said. “There’s nobody who can take over for my dad.”