Wearing khaki dress pants and a long-sleeve black shirt under a Highland Hawks polo, Miner Webster sits relaxed in a chair along the edge of the court in the Highland gym.

Webster is watching his team warm up from afar. People come up and talk to him. He shakes their hands and talks, but his eyes are never far from watching his team on the other side of the court.

“I would describe him as hard working, humble, dedicated, always learning and willing to share what he knows,” Highland Athletic Director Rod Houston said.

Webster is the girls basketball coach at Highland. If you knew nothing about girls basketball in Arizona, you wouldn’t know that he has accomplished a huge milestone: 800 wins. Webster would get the No. 800 win Nov. 27 as his Lady Hawks beat the Mountain View Toros 53-21.

This is Webster’s 40th season coaching basketball, 30 of which have been coaching girls.

“And to think that over those 30 years I have had a chance to win that many games and coach that many great kids and be associated with so many wonderful things,” Webster said.

Just a little over a year ago, Webster hit win No. 779 at Highland’s Thanksgiving Tournament. This win put him just past Don Petranovich, former coach at Winslow, to have the most girls basketball coaching wins in the state.

His players spoke highly of their coach and the things he does for the team.

“He is unique because he knows how to bring the best out of each player, even if they can’t see it themselves,” senior captain Kamryn Brown said.

“He has so much experience being the all-time winning coach (for girls basketball) in Arizona that he knows what works and what doesn’t,” junior guard Bella Thibaudeau said. “He sees our abilities and knows exactly what he needs to do to make our team run its best.”.

For Webster, coaching girls basketball is odd as he was coached boys basketball for 10 years before he switched over to girls basketball.

“Even being in girls basketball is a weird thing to begin with because I was coaching boys,” Webster said. “I had no desire to coach girls. So at that time the girls job opened up at Gilbert (High School) and came and asked if I would be interested and I said no, I don’t think I am going to do it.

“So I waited and waited and it got in to the summer even and finally the AD called me one day and says, ‘hey look, we’ve got someone else who wants that girls job if you don’t want it and you have to tell me right now if you want the job. And I said, ‘oh, alright I’ll do it.’”

Presented with a canvas collage of pictures throughout the years and a trophy to hold the game ball from the night, Webster seemed as collected as he had been the entire game. Like it was just another day and another game.

Unlike other coaches in the sport, Webster does not stand along the sideline during the game. He does his watching from the comfort of his chair.

“I have no idea how he’s able to stay so calm in any situation,” coach Gene Valocchi said. “Whether we are up by 20, down by 20, or with three seconds left, he just has a calm disposition, and he’s able to translate that into his teams, and over the years they’ve been able to bring home to victories for him.”

Webster said he believes that there isn’t a need to pace the sideline during a game and that everything should come beforehand.

“My whole philosophy is that I’m going to coach my kids and prepare them in practice,” Webster said. “I am going to prepare them for whatever they see or deal with in a game. That’s what I try to do so when we see different things I might have to call out that they are going zone offense or I’ll call out an out-of-bounds play.

“But, I’ve never been a fan of coaches just walking up and down and yelling constantly at their team. I think it confuses the kids sometimes, especially if they hear their name in the middle of the play or they’re playing hard and they hear something.”

Webster was described by many as having high standards, and it was again echoed from the Highland athletic director.

“His standards are set, he holds himself and his kids to the standard, and if you fail to meet them there are consequences,” Houston said. “Kids know exactly what to expect, and that there is no other option, except not being a part of the program.”

Twenty-five seasons of Webster’s career have been spent coaching at Highland. With this amount of seasons, it is possible that ways would change. But Valocchi has spent 14 seasons with Webster and says that this is not the case.

“He continues to educate himself in the game, but the thing about him, you say change, but he’s probably the most consistent person I know,” Valocchi said. “Year in and year out, he’s consistent with his program, and that’s why it’s been so successful.”

This success is something that Webster believes comes from direct effort and not finding the way around things.

PRIDE, an acronym used by Webster for his team, means “perfection requires intense daily effort,” and this is what Webster and his team use as their saying during practice and games.

“If I had a philosophy, it is trying to do things the right way all the time,” Webster said. “I believe that hard work is the most important thing to success. There are no shortcuts to success, and a lot of people look for the, they would rather look for the shortcuts than do the hard work. Be willing to put in the time and do the work and generally, success will follow.”

But 800 wins are not what are most important to Webster. It is the bigger things that have happened because of those wins.

“You know we have won eight state championships,” Webster said. “I’ve had a lot of kids go on to college and use basketball as an avenue to get a degree. Those things mean 10 times more to me than winning 800 games.

“I’ve been inducted into the hall of fame, and there are just so many awards that I’ve gotten and I’m so blessed. I’m not bragging about that, but I’m just very fortunate. But I wouldn’t say the 800 is (my biggest accomplishment). All that means is I’ve stayed around and done it for a long time, and in this day and age you don’t see that.”

The accolades that Webster has received are not all his doing and he could not have accomplished anything without the many people involved.

“I have 30 teams in essence that are all responsible for 800 wins,” he said. “I have had a lot of coaches, assistants and JV and freshman and people like that have developed the kids when they are younger, and they send them to me and I have been able to take them. They are just as much a part of this as anything.

“I’ve had great booster club people, parents, and people who have supported us and helped us and done a marvelous job of supporting our program, but a marvelous job of raising their kids so I can have them as great kids and work them and develop them. There are just so many aspects of this 800 thing. It needs to be deflected to so many people and not just me.”

Webster also said that he wished that all of his 30 teams could’ve been there on the night of the 800th win because they are the kids that have gotten him to this milestone.

For the past 10 years Webster said that he has said every year that that would be his last season but after the summer he regroups and continues on. As the second oldest of 13, Webster has quite a large family. Webster and his wife have six kids and just welcomed his 15th grandchild. As the years go by and seasons finish, Webster says that his time as a basketball coach is coming to an end.

“But some day, and I think it’s soon, someday I am not going to be able to keep going,” Webster said. “I’m going to have to stop, and I’m not sure when that will be. It could be soon though.”