Two brothers grew up farming and playing basketball in Ririe and now coach different high school teams

RIRIE – Two things have been a staple for Jordan and Logan Hamilton since they were kids: basketball and farming.

During the summer, the Ririe brothers, ages 35 and 33 respectively, grow potatoes, wheat, barley, alfalfa and canola on their family’s 6,000-acre farm. Their parents, Clark and Kristi Hamilton, own the operation spread throughout Ririe and Swan Valley. During the winter months, the duo are busy coaching two separate high school basketball teams. Jordan is the coach for the Ririe Bulldogs and Logan is the head coach for the Madison Bobcats.

In separate conversations with EastIdahoNews.com, the brothers say being coaches of two separate teams is a fun experience.

“It’s kind of surreal. It’s pretty amazing,” Jordan says. “It’s cool that we’re both doing it together and can bounce ideas off each other.”

This is Jordan’s seventh year as head coach. Before that, he was the team’s assistant coach for six years.

Logan is fresh into his position as Madison’s head coach. He started at the beginning of the season after the previous coach, Shane Humphries, decided to step down after four years.

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Before that, Logan was an assistant coach in Rigby — Madison’s longtime rival — for two years. After beating the Trojans on their home turf Friday night —- Madison scored 22 points in four minutes to turn the game around, according to an EastIdahoNews.com user —- Logan says it’s fun to face off with the team he once helped coach.

“We’ve played Rigby twice this year and have come out on top both times. Competing against those kids I got to know over the last two years is the fun part,” Logan says.

Since the two schools are in different conference divisions — Madison is a 6A school and Ririe is a 3A — the two teams will never play each other. Logan says he’s thrilled to be able to use his brother as “a sounding board” as the Bobcats head into the district tournament as the third seed.

“He (Jordan) is my older brother, somebody I’ve looked up to my entire life and somebody I’ve turned to for life advice,” Logan says. “With it being my first year as a head coach and him having a lot of experience … he’s been an awesome sounding board.”

Ririe has one more game against Salmon to finish off its regular season. So far, its record is 11-9, which puts the team in second place. It will head into the district tournament the following week.

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In the school’s history, Jordan says the Bulldogs have made it to the state championship three times. Its last victory was in 1990. Jordan helped lead the team to state two of those times as assistant coach. The team won one district championship under his leadership several years ago.

After four consecutive years as district champions, the Madison Bobcats have a winning record as Logan takes over the reins. The Bobcats have traveled to Boise numerous times for state championships over the years. Its last state title was in 2011.

Logan started coaching as a student at Utah State University. He got a job coaching Logan High School’s basketball team and fell in love with it.

He says he enjoyed his experience working with Coach Justin Jones in Rigby and jumped at the chance to coach for Madison.

“I’m passionate about basketball. I enjoy working with the youth, getting to know them and having lifelong friendships with them,” Logan says.

Growing up in ‘a basketball town’

Jordan says his love of basketball stems back to his childhood in the 1990s. He describes Ririe at that time as a basketball town with lots of youth leagues and basketball culture.

During that period, the Utah Jazz was in its heyday. He has fond memories of watching Karl Malone, John Stockton and the rest of the Jazz’s starting lineup compete against the Chicago Bulls during the NBA playoffs.

“For me, that was the best era of basketball,” Jordan says. “We were always playing ball and watching them.”

He and Logan both played basketball for Ririe’s high school team. Jordan says they enjoy working together on the family farm and now have daily conversations as coaches.

Jordan says the relationships with the kids are what he finds most rewarding. He recalls an interaction with one player during his second year as head coach. The team had a 1-27 record that year, which Jordan calls his “most brutal” season as coach. It later became his “most successful season” because of the impact it had on him and the players.

“There were a couple seniors on that team who had never had the success (the team has had in other years). At the end of it, I hoped these kids would find something good out of it. About two years later, I got a call from one of those kids. He said, ‘I want to thank you. You changed my life,'” says Jordan. “That meant a lot to me. I’ll never forget that.”

As Logan continues his first season as head coach, he says he feels lucky to be in this position and admires his players’ dedication, hard work and resilience.

“I’m beyond blessed to be a part of that,” says Logan.