And the verdict is ...

The Journey continues ………

After much thought and deliberation I have decided that this magical journey needs to continue and I want to continue to be a large part of it. There was a point where I wasn’t sure weather to keep the team or give them up and I want to keep them as there is still more work to do. It is an easy decision to keep going when you are fortunate to have a great group of young ladies to work with.

Will there be changes? Probably! But that is what makes it fun and challenging. 

After making the decision I already feel more energized as a whole. Perhaps just knowing what the long term plans are, has released a burden in my mind and allowed me to open myself up for new challenges this summer. 

Rose Garden

“I beg your pardon, I never promised you a Rose Garden. Along with the sunshine, there got to be a little rain sometime “

This song came into my head the other night as I was reflecting upon our season. I never promised anyone a gold medal but rather our best attempt at getting one. We did just that, we gave it our best effort and fell short. We lost in the finals by single digits to the number one team in the province finishing number 2 in the province at season’s end. I am disappointed with the result and the game is still running thru my mind even three days later. HOWEVER, I am not even close to being disappointed with the ladies and in fact I would say that I am on the other end of the spectrum as I am proud to be associated with such a great group of young ladies. The way they competed and played with class throughout the whole weekend and season for that matter is something that makes us proud as parents and as coaches. No matter the score you could count on the ladies to play the game the way it should be played, as a team with unselfish ball movement and a total lack of ME vs WE shots. While the season is over, I don’t want this to sound like a eulogy.

A quick recap of games. The Friday night game started off excellently with strong defence and decent offence, in fact we were about 30 seconds short of obtaining on of my goal of shutting out an opponent for an entire quarter but we did hold them to 1 point so in hindsight I guess that is pretty awesome. It wasn’t the prettiest win but as they say a W is a W. Saturday saw the girls rebound very nicely and put on a sweet display of basketball for the fans to enjoy during the two games. Sunday’s game started off nicely but we fell behind near the end of the first and were never able to close that gap that has hounded us all season. There is no shame in losing as they played a better total game than we did and deserved the win. Our ladies kept the game close and made them play right to the end but it just wasn’t enough.

Was the season success? Some may say it is not if you don’t win the final game BUT I beg to differ! I believe in my heart and mind that is most definitely a success. We didn’t reach all our goals but we achieve so much more. To paraphrase the great coach carter “I came to group of girls and they become a family”, in the end you can’t ask for much more than that.

Where do we go from here? Well the year end celebration is this weekend and from there I do not quite know …………….

The Time has Come

The Night Before   

         

Well here I sit the night before the big tournament. The provincial championships, the grand finale, the big enchilada, the final test. Tomorrow begins the final tournament of the year; this tournament will determine our final standing for the year. We are going in ranked #2 in the province for U17 girls and have our sights set on claiming the number 1 spot. Are we ready? I think so! Unlike last tournament where I was nervous due to lack of preparation, I believe we are prepared physically and hopefully mentally. We are almost fully healed and will have 9 active players this week with the return of the ankle and lower back ready to play. Even the cold has recovered and has had a good week of practice.

Speaking of practice, this week we were finally able to fine tune some defensive schemes and offensive adjustments. Even though we only went at half speed tonight I was very pleased with what I saw during our two practices this week. The team is gelling on the court almost to the same degree they seem to gel off the court. Of course, it would be very tough to match the connectedness this team has off the court and I am fortunate that it translates onto the court.

A very positive sign is the fact that “the Kid” is watching Space Jam while doing her homework the night before her big tournament. The other ladies seem to have a sense of anticipation for playing for a D1 championship this weekend. My final words at the end of practice consisted of me informing them that they have a chance to make history, we believe in them, and they can do it. From my end, this blog is serving its purpose as it is helping me to have an outlet for my excitement.

During the year I implemented some different aspects in terms of off-court activities and different approaches to practice. This evening I informally polled the ladies and the results are as followed.

Out of 8 players polled, 7 enjoyed and recommended the sessions with the performance consultant.

Out of 8 players polled, 7 enjoyed and recommend the university coach coming to practice and going to the university for practice.

All 8 enjoyed the idea of watching a university game.

So overall, I based upon their feedback I can conclude that the changes I made were received successfully. It is always hard to know what is going on in the minds of teenage girls and while I will never claim to fully understand them, I am glad that I was able to add some additional value to their season.

Now it is time to sit back and enjoy the games on the weekend. 

Best Laid Plans

Earlier this week I wrote about my plans to have a couple intense practices and an exhibition game this weekend. Well, things do not always go as planned. The exhibition game has been cancelled due to lack of opposition players, which works out okay as my injuries continue to have an dampening effect on the team. And the practice while they have been intense, I was not able to go five on five due to lack of regular players and shortage of extras. Nonetheless we were able to get two really good practices in with five regular players and continue to do shooting, running and even some competitive three on three and four on four. The biggest challenge has been to keep the ladies interested and still focused on the task at hand. I am disappointed that I was unable to fulfill my original plans but very happy with what we accomplished with our time.

Our current injury status is as follows, 1 ankle, 1 concussion, 1 lower back and 1 cold/flu. Unfortunately, our concussion has been forced to retire early this season as per medical advice but the great news is that she continues to come out to practice and support the team. The ankle and lower back have been out to practice to provide moral support but unable to accomplish much on the physical side. The cold/flu has been in attendance as rest is the prescribed treatment for her. The ankle and lower back provide me with a slight dilemma as a coach. Where does the priority lie, for the individual or for the team? Do I allow them to play with knowledge that they are not 100% or do I sit them because they are not 100%? In my mind the answer is two-fold 1) will they make the team stronger 2) will playing them risk long-term injury? If the answer is yes to first and no for second, then they will see time on the court. To be frank, we are playing for a very unique opportunity, a chance for provincial championship. If it was for the top spot in the province, then my reasoning would be vastly different. This is a case where the goal of the team outweighs a lot.

Are we ready? I think we are. Not as prepared as I had hoped but still we should be ready and I still have one more week to get them ready. The key is going to be getting all the players healthy physically and in the right mindset to be successful. 

The Final Countdown

The homestretch … the final days….the end is near ….. the final countdown.

No matter how you state it, the season is drawing to a near. Only two weeks left before the provincial championships. It is shaping up to be an intense final two weeks as I am trying to fit in a couple extra activities to get us ready for the championship weekend. In addition to our regular 4 remaining practices I have scheduled an exhibition game, a visit to a university and a performance consultant session.

The exhibition game is against a team playing an age group up but the coach has stated that we should be competitive with his team. The exhibition game will serve dual purposes for both myself and the players. The ladies need the competition to keep their competitive vibes going as we have been going through a lot of practices lately and they need to play against someone else. It will also help to keep their confidence up heading into the final weekend and hopefully it will allow some of my injured players an opportunity to ease back into game mode without the pressure of the championship weekend. From a coaching perspective it will allow us to gauge the effectiveness of our newly implemented defensive schemes and offensive adjustments. The game will also help to keep the ladies motivated as with most athletes they strive on competition and the hope is to fuel their hunger as the season winds down.

It is fair to say that I look forward to practices and this upcoming week is not exception. I have continued to be in contact with some of my basketball associates and should have at least 2-3 practice players at both our practices this week.  This will hopefully allow us to get some competitive practices in this week, I say hopefully because we have attempted to do so in the past but haven’t been so successful. My goal is to work the ladies extremely hard this week, try some new things in the exhibition game, work them hard during the university visit, then have two easier practices the final week. My motto has been “practice hard, game easy”, meaning the harder we work in practice the easier things will be in games. We were fortunate to have a guest coach in last week and she mentioned that her team uses the phrase “compete and appreciate” to describe their practices. She described it as, the players compete extremely hard in practice and then they appreciate each other for pushing them to their limits and beyond. One of the knocks against our team is that they are too nice, both in game and practices. They tend to take it easy on each other in practice and lack the killer instinct in games to completely destroy any team they play. If I could change one thing it would be that they were more competitive in practice and view it as the sanctuary that I often refer to it as. Now don’t get me wrong, they are extremely hard working in practice and give me every thing they have. That is probably the main reason I like to bring outsiders into our practice so that the ladies have someone else to compete against.

One of my long-time players said last week, “coach how long have you been trying to get a team that all get along and now you complain that we are too social! “The interesting fact is that she is completely correct. I have spent years and tried multiple ways to get a team that connects and this team seems to be connecting on an even greater basis than they did last year. So I guess I should be thankful and to remember the old saying “be careful what you wish for”. In reality, I am very appreciative of how connected these ladies are as it makes the season that much more special.

Oh, and by the way, the final rankings heading into the championship weekend came out and we are officially ranked #2 heading into the weekend. 

A great weekend

I usually don't write the same night as an event. It is usually a day or
so later but this is an exception. 

I am one very proud coach at this moment. The ladies came through and played
really well this weekend to capture the gold medal in our home tournament.
Operationally everything went off without a hitch and on the court the girls
came through. 

Was is the most beautiful display of basketball I have ever seen? NO! We still
need to work on our consistency for a full game but luckily we were able to
recover from slow starts in some of our games. 

This weekend our patience really paid dividends as at no time did panic
enter into our game and we kept fighting till the end. A couple of games our
quick tempo and strong defense was able to wear teams down and make the
difference in the game.  

Someone asked me what are strengths are beside the obvious awesome ball
movement and tenacious defense. I would have to respond that it is our balance
and our chemistry. They all play for each other and at any given day we can someone
different step up and makes difference on offence. Also we are lucky to have
multiple shut down defenders who take extreme pride in shutting down an
opponent. It is comforting to know that we do not need to rely on only one or
two main scorers to put points on the board. To me that is balance, as a team
may put a top defender on one person but they will need top defenders on all
players as we have so many weapons and unselfish players.  

As Hannibal from the A-Team used to say "I love it when a plan comes
together". 

Preparation Eases the Nerves

It is said that solid preparation will ease the nerves of any performance. Well I have to admit I am a little nervous going into this weekend. You see we have not had a complete roster at practice for over a month and thus have not been able to devote the needed time to go over offensive and defensive scheme adjustments. To top it off our final practice scheduled for tonight was cancelled due to a miscommunication between our administration and the facility. 

The plan was to go through a walk through our schemes but unfortunately that did not take place. Oh well, that is the way the cookie crumbles sometimes. A mentor of mine, Coach Bet from Queens College in New York, told me when I started coaching to just trust that you have prepared the team enough to play. I just hope that we have done enough preparation throughout the year to be successful this weekend.

Only time will tell.