Less than eight weeks into his new role as head men’s basketball coach at Mesabi Range College, Christopher Partida sits in his office, reflecting on how he got here.
On his desk, a Naomi Girma San Diego Wave bobblehead. Hanging on the wall, his jersey from LA Harbor College and a Cal Pac Championship banner from the University of Saint Katherine.
Little reminders of where he came from.
“I am in a position that is impossible,” said Partida, a first-generation American whose parents grew up in Mexico. “No one in my family played sports. I had to teach myself everything. My beginning in basketball was as a little kid watching the Spurs: Tim Duncan, Avery Johnson, and Malik Rose on TV. I remember thinking, ‘I need to learn to move like them.’”
When Partida talks, Southern California comes through. “Dude” and “bro” punctuate most sentences, and his laugh is reminiscent of a surf lineup — making Virginia, a rural Minnesota town dependent on iron mining, an unusual landing spot.
Junior college head coaches are paid little, and finances are tight. He’s urgently looking to supplement his income, recently interviewing for a position at a candy store. Good tacos are hard to find, but for now, he’s living his dream.
Partida dropped out of community college four times. He was fired from jobs he considered “really good,” and spent too many late nights at clubs.
“I was a dumb [expletive],” Partida, now 32, said with a laugh. “From being a confused dumb [expletive], I know how to help other confused dumb [expletive]s.”
In and out of community college and drifting between jobs for eight years, the only constant in his life was the open run at 24 Hour Fitness and local men’s basketball leagues around his hometown of Redondo Beach.
At 26, he returned to school to pursue basketball — first as a player at Los Angeles Harbor College and then as a graduate assistant on the coaching staff at the University of Saint Katherine in San Marcos.
“I have a little bit of ‘Rain Man’ in me because basketball is the only thing that I understand,” Partida said. “I needed basketball. It’s the only thing I ever wanted to do.”
Formerly an Escondido resident, Partida graduated from USK this past spring with a master’s degree in kinesiology after earning a bachelor’s in humanities two years prior.
As a graduate assistant for four seasons, he learned under Saint Katherine head coach Kevin Williamson.
The Firebirds won a conference championship in 2022 and made two appearances in the NAIA National Tournament.
But the school abruptly closed in April, leaving students and faculty scrambling and sending Partida back into the unknown.
He kept busy scheduling exhibition games over the summer for USK players who were unsure where or how they would continue playing. He also sent out 35 job applications before being offered the head coaching job at Mesabi Range.
“I am taking deep pride in this,” Partida said. “But it’s even deeper than that. I am now one of very few Mexican head coaches at the college level. My mentor, Kevin Williamson, called to tell me how proud he was of me.”
In late August, Partida packed a few things into his 2016 Honda Accord, including the air mattress he still sleeps on, and headed east. On the way, he visited Williamson in South Dakota, now head coach at Dakota Wesleyan University.
“I observed his practice at the Corn Palace and took all of his drills,” Partida said.
On his first day at Mesabi Range, Partida met a talented but rough-around-the-edges team.
“They were a little bit of ‘Bad News Bears,’” he said. “In our first meeting, they didn’t believe I’d been a player and a coach. I expected that. The next day, we had an open run, and it was the most dysfunctional basketball I’ve ever seen. Locals told me I was brought in to clean up the program in terms of professionalism, grades, and behavior in the community.”
So far, the team has played three exhibition games, winning two, with the third ending in a tie because game coordinators didn’t want to delay a scheduled dance event with an overtime period.
“There was a lot of pushback at first, but the team is bought in now,” Partida said. “The other day, the team captain even said, ‘You really are from LA.’”
Stylistically, Partida is focused on implementing an organized offensive system, which he says the team has lacked in recent years.
“I don’t want to overload their brains,” Partida said. “The base of our offense is ball screen pick-and-roll and dribble drive, with four out and one in on every possession. If we can get a paint touch, let’s get one, then work on actions on the opposite side.”
The regular season starts Nov. 2, and Partida is trying to raise funds to cover travel costs. Donations can be made via GoFundMe.