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. 

It is how you finish that is remembered

With the NCAA march Madness drawing to an end, the NBA playoffs around the corner and this first of the OBA provincial championships taking place it is very hard to ignore the fact that finishing strong is of the utmost importance. A season is often remembered for how it finishes rather than how it started and it is the memories both good and bad of the final weekend that lingers in your mind. I can still recall vividly the season we lost a bronze medal game to close rival and how bitter it was for both for me and the players. I can also recall with great details the OBA championship games that our team has won. Our season to date has been very successful and I believe we are right on track for where we need to be at this point in time.

We have been very active with our practices for the past month or so but have not had any games in just over a month. We finish the season in just over a month from now and we have three tournaments during this timespan. We are hosting one this coming weekend, a big one in Hamilton near the end of the month and culminate with the provincials at the beginning of next month. While some teams choose to overload the front end of their schedule with games I prefer to back end our schedule with an emphasis on being strong at the end of season.

Even though we are one track, we are faced with a couple challenges that we must overcome to ensure a proper finish to the year. The first challenge has been being able to keep the practices fresh and productive with the lack of games and game preparation. I have tried to accomplish this by going back to working on fundamentals and individual skills with the ladies while introducing some new skills to their toolbox. The second biggest challenge we are facing is the overcoming of injuries and illness during this past month. We have not had a full compliment of players to a practice since prior to our last tournament. This has made it difficult to work on any team systems in depth but we been able to incorporate some new concepts in a practice setting but are lacking seeing it in a competitive setting. Hopefully we can work on some of these concepts this upcoming week as despite knowing we will be short players again I am having some guest players come out to practice. This measure should allow us to put our concepts into place in a more competitive environment.

Championships are won during practice before the game even begins. 

The calm before .......

“The girls don’t seem to panic anymore at the end of games “- parent

“Your team played well and didn’t panic at all during game. They just executed and never seemed to have a sense of urgency to their play. Now that can be a good thing and a bad thing “– observing college coach

“the girls don’t seem to be overly enthusiastic during warmups. They even walk it in when it is time to come to the bench. “– parent

The above are a couple comments that have been made to me about how the team carries itself. Quite frankly I am okay with it and very happy with how they go about their business. It only bothers me when we have a slow start to games or quarters. Fortunately, I have a go to plan ready for if they are not playing with full energy. I just have to say “don’t make me call a timeout!”. You see a few years ago we started one game and the girls went the wrong way for no other reason than complete lack of focus. I then proceeded to call a timeout. During that timeout the team was forced to run sprints for the length of the timeout and since then we have not had that problem again.

When I first started coaching I used to get the team all hyped up and energized before the game started. I like many others felt that having your heart pumping hard was the key to being hard. Well as I have grown and learned that the mental aspect is just as or even more important than the physical game I have placed more emphasis on getting the mind ready to play. I must acknowledge the great Phil Jackson and his book “Eleven Rings” for having a tremendous impact on my style. Phil believes that having the proper mindset is crucial to play the game of basketball and it is for that reason that I have been leaning towards the mental development of my teams.

One other key factor is the fact that I am not a big fan of set plays or robotic basketball where B must follow A Then C comes next. I work my team to develop a system where they can take advantage of opportunities as they arise and if G is open then take it. Some call it reading the defense but more importantly it is about reading the game. Some games our beast will be taking over the game down low and other nights our guards may be on fire. I want to be able to use all tools available and this allows everyone to be a contributor on a regular basis. This is evident when I look at the numbers and see that in most games we do not have one main score but multiple scorers and contributors. I have even seen games where almost 80% of players have had at least one shot on net and one game I think we had 100% participation in shot attempts. To me that is balance!

So will I try to pump up the team before games, NO. Will I challenge their minds, YES! Will I continue to be an emotional crazy man on the sidelines, OF COURSE! 

Still Striving

Mid-Season Report  

      

We are formally at the midway point of our season in terms of games played. Three tournaments done and three tournaments to go. Fortunately the next three tournaments are the most crucial in determination of the success of our season. The next one coming up is at Brock University , then we have the very competitive Blessed Sacrament tournament which is a super warm-up and preview of what we can expect t for the years final tournament. The year concludes with the provincial championship where everything we have done throughout the season comes to fruition. The mid-season ranking came out yesterday and we are ranked where I suspected. Number three in the province is something to be very proud. We have beaten the number two team but they also beat the number one team so I am happy where we are ranked. 

We are still the hunters seeking the number one spot and it is safe to say that beating the top team will be our focus after March break. Prior to that we will be getting back to work on the fundamentals again. One thing that makes our team successful and dangerous is our ability to have both an inside and outside game but our downfall has been being able to incorporate both aspects into the same game. With our two main inside players recovery from injuries, sprained ankle and concussion, the decision to put the emphasis on shooting and our perimeter game is an easy one.

Our tournament last weekend was very successful in terms of what was achieved off the court. The team learned that they can compete with teams in an age group higher, team bonding was evident and they had an opportunity to meet and talk with a coach from the college level. On-court we played very well for two games coming out with a win and close loss but we fell apart in third game and played probably our second worse game of season. The one redeeming factor of the third game was that we lost by such a big margin that we did not have to play later in evening and got to spend more time together as a team. During the weekend we did see some great things, including the ability of the girls to beat a strong press which I attribute to their intense practices against the girls that I brought out to challenge them. Also we did see more girls step up their level of play and attack the basket a lot more. We are slowly becoming less reliant on having only one or two players be the sole determinants of our offense.

As a coach I remain very pleased and excited for we have accomplished to date and wait in anticipation for what the remainder of the season holds for us. 

Preparing for all opportunities

We had an interesting week of practice to follow our last tournament. Our focus was clearly on beating the full court press and shooting foul shots. Despite not having full attendance at either of the two practices I feel we made some good headway in accomplishing our practice goals.

Firstly, to help us work on beating a tough full court press, I enlisted the services of five extremely talented young men to put the girls through their paces. The girls were intimidated at first but once they got into the flow of things, I believe they handled themselves very well. Having the guys come out served multiple purposes for the girls. It showed them that they can play at a high level versus top talented players, it demonstrated that they must work together and also winning at the top level means more than just showing up. The night also managed to be fun for both the girls and boys on the court.

We also spent a lot more time practicing our foul shots and saw our percentages go as high as 86% and hovered around the 72% range for most of the time. We attributed this to having the ladies pay more attention to their pre-game routine.

Coming up we only have one practice this week due to the city finals for the boys and I feel it is important to allow the girls to support their school in these events. However, our one practice should be another intense one as I have enlisted the services of five girls from the top city high school and number 2 in province to apply some more full court pressure against us. I may also use this opportunity to work on our inbounds plays as they seem to be ineffective and I do not know if it is because of the defense or our lack of execution. I am interested in seeing the results.

Speaking of rankings, I have been taking a look at the results of tournaments over the last month. We should be securely in the top three for the province. I estimate that we will be 2^nd with Hamilton Transway ranked first, us second and Sudbury Jam ranked third. Transway is clearly the class of the group and our only losses have been to them. Sudbury played a close game with them but we beat Sudbury so the edge should fall in our favour. The initial rankings will not be coming out till later in the month but I like to keep on top of these things.

However, one question lingers in my mind: Do I speak up or allow things to happen as they may? Let me explain. The provincial organization implemented a league system this season and in the original guidelines it plans to have two separate championships. One for the league and one for the rest of the province. We are not in the league so the league championship is not in question for us BUT the top team is in the league. The problem lies in the fact that our team is more competitive than all but one team in the league and from a competitive standpoint we should be competing for this title also. But if we stay put then the number one team would not be in contention for the provincial championship.  So basically if things stay as they were originally stated then we become the clear favorites for the provincial championships. I have a tendency to ask questions and raise eyebrows but I am leaning towards letting things be and not bring up any concerns.

Sometimes it is better to just sit back and watch but be prepared for anything. 

Getting Closer

We are still not quite where we want to be and haven’t reached our goal of Gold but we are getting closer each day. This past weekend we earned another silver medal. Our nemesis is Hamilton Transway as they are the only regulation team to beat us so far this year. We lost by 9 on Friday evening and by 13 on Sunday in the Gold medal game. Despite the score difference Sunday’s game displayed a much better team effort from all. I knew going into the season that Transway would be our main competitor and they are living up to my expectations. We will continue to see them in at least two more tournaments with the final tournament being the provincial championship so they are on our radar as we are on theirs.

Our first game Friday evening was described by some spectators as if the  girls were playing as a group who were just coming off having the flu. From a coaching perspective it was frustrating as we were very close to obtaining victory but we did not bring our complete mental game to the table both from a player point of view and also from the coaching staff. Our offensive game was flowing nicely but our main concern was our defense, or should I say defensive breakdowns. We had too many mental lapses on our defensive assignments and versus a quality team they made us pay for each of our mistakes. We also failed to execute on the few set plays that we have. We run a fluid offense but have set plays for inbounds and we need to clear execution of these sets for success. On the coaching side we admittedly failed to anticipate a full court press and a change in their defensive scheme and as a result we did not make the needed adjustments. Needless to say we not very happy at the end of that game. In fact the thoughts of that particular game lasted with me well into the next day which is something that use to happen in the past but has been uncommon in the past few years.

The Saturday games proved to be much different. We started off our day by having a long talk with the team prior to our game. We emphasized that we as coaches made mistakes and took ownership for our actions. We also addressed the issue of being mentally focused and accountable for everyone. It is ironic because I just finished booking our next session with our Performance consultant for later in the month to concentrate on FOCUS. The end result was that we were able to come out and play two strong games and move ourselves into position to compete for the Gold medal on Sunday.

The Gold Medal game can be compared to the Super Bowl. Defense and turnovers being the difference makers. Our defense was phenomenal but we had way too many turnovers which ultimately cost us the game. We were flat out beat by their full court press and while we were able to break it on the front end we suffered turnovers in the back end. Press break and foul shooting were our downfall. Needless to say our next couple practices will be working on these two areas. Repetition, repetition, repetition.

It should also be noted that we were down a couple players this weekend and that most definitely had a negative effect on us as we could have used them on Sunday. I don’t use their absence as an excuse as the players present must be able to fill the gaps but it did play a factor.

Overall, we are making strides and learning a lot along our journey.

A Tale of Two Days

Weekend Update

Well this weekend was certainly eventful on both the positive and negative side of things.

On Saturday 8 of my girls had a great experience going to a women’s University basketball game. They were able to see firsthand the level of play and hopefully pick up a pointer or two. I feel it is important for the ladies to have something to aspire to and being able to see the game provided them with this chance. I am hoping it demonstrated to the ladies that they are able to play at this level in the next couple of years. Another key feature of the day was being able to meet some of the players afterwards and hear from them their experiences of being a student athletes. These young ladies helped dispelled some myths about the lives of student athletes and once again I hope provided some comfort to my girls. We were also addressed by their head coach who address some issues the girls need to be aware of when selecting a school. One added bonus was that I was able to have the visiting coach come in and speak to my girls also. I had established a communication with the coaches thru my regular email updates to each of them and this allowed me the opportunity to ask him to speak to the girls. So basically the girls were able to meet two university coaches directly and get to know them on a more personal basis.

Our rematch on Sunday was a completely different story. I am not one for excuses but the cards were not dealt in our favor at all. We were two players short to start with due to illness and work commitments. Three others played but were clearly under the weather and one other was playing with essentially with one hand due to fractured fingers. Their minds were more on upcoming exams than they were on the game itself. We were able to stay in the game for the first quarter but things started to fall apart just before halftime and completely fell apart in the second half. Early foul trouble was a key but more detrimental was our inability to finish our shots and foul shooting was terrible. Fortunately I didn’t keep stats for this game as they would be very disappointing to look at. The game did provide some players an opportunity to log more minutes than they would in a regular situation and in some cases it was baptism under fire. In retrospect we lost 51-21 and played a 40 minute game rather than a 32 minute game. Holding a quality team to 51 while playing an extra quarter of play is good to know especially when our best post defender had to sit for almost two quarters due to foul trouble. Our offensive output was our lowest of the season to date and I suspect the lowest it will ever be this year. Overall we told the girls that a few lessons can be learned from this game. Firstly, we cannot just walk onto the court and expect the other team to hand us the game. Secondly, we have to focus at all times and thirdly everyone has bad days and this happened to be ours. We will forget about this game and move on.

I have given the ladies the week off to prepare and write their exams and we get back at it next week. 

Taking the Next Step

Well it has been almost a week since our first tournament. While in most cases a silver would be something to be excited about BUT while we are proud we are not satisfied. It is time for us to take the next step forward on our journey.

Practice this week was uneventful due to missing players due to injuries and other commitments. It is unfortunate as my co-coach and I are looking forward to implementing some new aspects to our systems and at the same time getting back to the fundamentals. The next two weeks are hectic with the girls being on exams and practices being limited. We are taking a road trip on Saturday to watch an university game , play at halftime and meet the team after the game. We were invited by the team and I am excited to provide this opportunity for the girls. It will give them a glimpse of what the next level looks likes and hopefully provide some inspiration. The following day we get a rematch vs the Tri-county Academy at their home gym. It should be another exciting game as our girls now know they can play with and against older girls and TCA will probably come out with guns blazing to avenge how close we were last time. 

As a coach I am constantly seeking ways to improve in what I do and one way is the use of statistics to help me analyze our games.  It has opened my eyes to our strengths and weaknesses. One key example was our foul shooting and we were able to address this right away. We haven't got to the point we need to be at but we are making strides. One of our strengths is our ability to get shots up but it also illustrates our weakness in finishing.

Thru five games , the numbers show us :
62 shot attempts per game
29% shooting percentage
24 Free throw attempts per game
52% FT percentage
50 points per game
38 points against per game
In comparison OUA,OCAA teams have the following numbers for their top teams
OUA
39-44% shooting percentage
75-78 % FT percentage
OCAA
37.5 - 40 % shooting percentage
63-68 % FT percentage

Numbers don't lie and this provide us will the tools we need to help our team improve. From a coaching standpoint we are happy with our shot attempts and have not witnessed any poor shot selection from the players. In the past it was not uncommon for us to witness "Me vs We" shooting by some players but this team is not made of players with that mentality. Our next couple practices will have some main focus on not only shooting but also getting the players in better positions to be able to take easier shots.  

ALMOST

“Close but not quite there” seems to be the theme for the early part of our season.

First game we lost 44-42 and in first tournament we lost in gold medal game 55-48. Almost there but not the desired results. They say that “close only counts in the game of horseshoes and hand grenades” and I totally agree.

Now the first game was an exhibition game against a team made up of older players from various clubs. We played exceptionally well, considering it was our first game together and as a coaching staff we went with a 5 on 5 off substitution pattern to help us assess what the players have. Also many of the ladies we were playing had a good couple years’ experience on our players. As I mentioned earlier I was very pleased with the level of intensity the girls played with. It was also very nice to see how our new players were able to fit in right away and be contributors from the beginning. One of our top point guards was suffering from a severe chest cold and could only play for the first half. The comforting thing is the fact that we now have four point guards so having one go down now longer means the team is negatively affected. The ladies put on an impressive display of basketball as many of the parents voiced their optimism for the upcoming season. I was especially pleased with how balanced our team appears to be and the depth I had envisioned was apparent in this game. While we lost by two it went right down to the final play and we had our chances but failed to capitalize.

Our first tournament which took place two weeks after the exhibition game was far more successful in terms of results. Our first game was a great confidence builder but very hard to gauge our effectiveness as the competition was not near our level. Needless to say we easily won the game with a nice 40 point margin. The problems all coaches have with this type of game is the fear of bad habits coming in play. Fortunately the next couple games provided more competition and we were able to play our game. The next two games the ladies put an awesome display of our weapons as they were able to dominate both the inside game and hot shooting from the outside. Unfortunately we have yet to be able to bring both aspects to the same game and that is what hurt us in the final game. The gold medal game was an exciting game with both teams going back and forth and running the floor well. We were able to pound the ball inside and were rewarded with multiple foul shots. Our top post player turned her foul shooting game around and was 14-19 from the line. However, we were unable to put together a complete game as our shooting was not even near par. As a result, we missed a couple easy baskets late in the game and were unable to close the deficit.

The good news is that we will see the team we lost to again.

Also very impressive was the situation at the end of the game. After the medal presentations the parents were requesting a team picture. The players were reluctant to take a picture, as were the coaches, as they felt they didn’t win anything. This demonstrated to me that I have a very competitive group of young ladies who will not be satisfied easily.

You Play to win the Game

Been hearing a lot recently about youth sports needing to learn how to lose. Well I can honestly say "been there done that ". This season my expectations are quite high and in fact higher than they ever have been in my dozen years of coaching. 

There are multiple reasons for these high expectations.
1) Have what I believe is my deepest team ever in terms of talent.
2) Competition has changed
3) have spent years building this team and system
4) team chemistry is phenomenal
5) we have followed a process and our time is now. 

Is our season to be judged solely by a division 1 gold? NOPE

If we meet my earlier stated goals and provide a positive experience for the girls, then my expectations will be fulfilled.

But as Herm Edwards once said “You play to win the game!”

I have gone through seasons where winning was not high on my list but I truly feel this year is different.  I am excited not only for myself but also for those girls who were with me when we had seasons where winning was not always present. It was during those years that our focus was development of skills and passion for the game. In retrospect you could say that this season will provide evidence of weather our early efforts for the right "reasons" were actually effective.

Now don't be mistaken I love coaching and my earlier years were successful as evident by the vast number of former players who still play despite not always being on the winningest team. But I believe deep down that the stars have aligned for what I think will be a magical journey. 

Needless to say Coach is ready to play.  

First game in less than 24 hours away. 

A New Year

Well it is a new calendar year but not a new season. From a basketball perspective New Year’s Day just means that we are close to getting back to the grind of the season very soon. For the past couple years I have given the team the complete holiday break off from basketball in a team environment. I am aware that there are some teams that do not get such a long break and if I was only concerned with the basketball aspect of the team then I would probably have a couple practices during the break. I made the decision to proceed this way to allow the ladies to enjoy their time with families and friends as I strongly believe in balance for any athlete and/or person. As the season progresses there will be times will they have to forego some of their off-court relationships to fulfill their on-court commitments and this break allows them to sway the scales away from basketball for a short period. Yes, we would be stronger as a team without such a long lay-off but I truly believe we will be a happier team because of the break. That being said, allow me to go on the record that I would love to practice daily even during the holiday season but we are not in college or university just yet.

It is during this time that I also take some time away from the game to refresh, recharge and re-connect with family. I have only done minimum administrative work during this break and watch just a game on Christmas Day. A lot of that is based upon the fact that a lot of my preparation was done prior to the season and things are in place for me to get back going at full speed next week. Our first exhibition game was cancelled, so we have our first game in less than a week and one tournament this month.

Do I miss coaching? OH YEAH!!! But all things in due time.