Most people have no clue what goes on behind the doors of the gymnasium. Some people have this concept the coaches spend their day hanging out, talking to peers, working out in the fitness center and waiting around until practice begins as if practice time is when our day really starts. The truth is the day sometimes begins at 10:00 a.m. and sometimes at 5:30 a.m. Sometimes it ends at 6:30 in the evening and sometimes earlier but on away trips, it usually lasts until 2:00 a.m. We don't get the holidays the other staff members at the university receive as our season rolls right through Thanksgiving, Christmas and spring break. Oh it is true, we now receive a seven day recovery time during the Christmas holidays because of the NCAA Division II Life in The Balance Initiative, but our peers get a four week vacation.
So what do coaches do in a normal day? Well, first of all there is no such thing as normal. Nope. Not in the world of coaching. Every day brings a hotbed of new challenges to the table. Sometimes we have to stop everything for a "crisis" of one of our players. I put the word in quotation marks because I rarely see things as a crisis. I mostly see events now as opportunities, as doorways, and as the marker for something better to come, but most of our players have not yet gotten to that philosophy of life. They still think there are good days and bad days and evil lurking around every corner waiting to grab them up and insert its nastiness. It is our job to help them see the good and the light at then end of their perceived tunnel.
When we are not dealing with academic or personal issues of our players, we are preparing for practices, doing the much dreaded NCAA compliance paper work, and recruiting which entails writing emails, making phone calls and watching tons of games. During the season, we are mostly breaking down game film pausing the film, rewinding it, taking notes and watching, watching, watching. The preparation for a single game takes hours. We have to discover through game film how to defeat our opponents and what are the keys to winning the game, and then we must sell that to our players in a way they understand it.
The life of a coach is hectic, stressful but oh-so-rewarding. It is not the wins which feel so good; it is witnessing the growth of the players, watching them as they transition to better people. It is getting an email from Ali Tobias saying thank you and telling me how I touched her life, and hearing from Mr. Carmen how Kika is now attending law school because she learned so much from playing at UC. It is watching Jihan who we literally had to babysit through classes to make certain she graduated now bring her books and computer to study for graduate school while she is visiting her boyfriend. It is knowing I have so many former players who are now extremely successful in their chosen careers.
Coaching is a crazy profession. It requires a dedication beyond the ordinary; it requires people who live with a passion for the teaching of the game. I know I am blessed to have been a coach for 22 years, and I am so grateful for each player who passed through the gyms where I coached for each one of them taught me something valuable and made me a better person.
PLAY HARD. PLAY TOGETHER.
Friday, December 16, 2011
Wednesday, December 7, 2011
Firing From The Hip With Chrissy Keir
There are probably not many coaches who would have recruited Chrissy Keir as she stands about 5'2" on a good day with extra padding in her high top shoes. In fact, I clearly remember the day we were recruiting her. It was in a gym on the outskirts of Washington, D.C. where teams were playing on ten courts. We happened to be sitting at her court because we were watching the point guard from the other team.
As we sat and observed, we became more and more enamored with her ability to squeeze a ball between two defenders, to see the floor, and to monitor the tempo of the game. There were many coaches sitting around us all lamenting her size commenting if she were only taller they would recruit her. I wasn't in on those discussions. What I kept coming back to was the height she played not the height she was.
So now after two years of playing experience where she has shown small bits of her game, letting passes fly from the hip on occasion, holding back just a little, letting the senior starting point guard have the glory, she has finally decided to step up and be a player. During our last two games, she was the floor general fully in command supporting her troops in the way only a general could.
In the game against West Liberty, she did all the little things that only a discerning eye could see--playing position defense, calling out screens, tracing the ball on the dribbler, recognizing the play and calling it out to teammates. None of these are in the stat column, none of these are noted by reporters or even fans, but her coaches and teammates know they all make a difference in the outcome of the game.
Not only has she been playing amazing defense, but she has begun feeling when to push the ball and when to slow down the tempo recognizing the pace of the game we want. She knows when to hold the ball and allow her teammates to get into place or when to push it for the transition basket.
But what I really adore are her passes--the ones she pulls out of her trick cap, the ones nobody sees coming except for her teammates who have learned to keep their hands up and ready. She has this ability to put a spin on the ball which makes the ball travel one way and then back to a teammate. I'm not certain how this works but I do love it when a defender tries to get to the ball and thinks she has a hand on it and then it slides away from her. There is the behind the back pass and the no look pass, the passes that graze defenders' ears as they whistle by their heads on way to the posts in the low block. When she makes one of her amazing passes, it dazzles the crowds and gets her teammates off the bench in excitement creating momentum for the team.
I am thrilled to see the floor general in complete confidence, playing in the zone, commanding her teammates to play harder and faster. If no other coach or opponent notes her importance to this team, I want her to recognize the coaches do. Thanks Chrissy for stepping up and being the player you were meant to be.
PLAY HARD. PLAY TOGETHER.
As we sat and observed, we became more and more enamored with her ability to squeeze a ball between two defenders, to see the floor, and to monitor the tempo of the game. There were many coaches sitting around us all lamenting her size commenting if she were only taller they would recruit her. I wasn't in on those discussions. What I kept coming back to was the height she played not the height she was.
So now after two years of playing experience where she has shown small bits of her game, letting passes fly from the hip on occasion, holding back just a little, letting the senior starting point guard have the glory, she has finally decided to step up and be a player. During our last two games, she was the floor general fully in command supporting her troops in the way only a general could.
In the game against West Liberty, she did all the little things that only a discerning eye could see--playing position defense, calling out screens, tracing the ball on the dribbler, recognizing the play and calling it out to teammates. None of these are in the stat column, none of these are noted by reporters or even fans, but her coaches and teammates know they all make a difference in the outcome of the game.
Not only has she been playing amazing defense, but she has begun feeling when to push the ball and when to slow down the tempo recognizing the pace of the game we want. She knows when to hold the ball and allow her teammates to get into place or when to push it for the transition basket.
But what I really adore are her passes--the ones she pulls out of her trick cap, the ones nobody sees coming except for her teammates who have learned to keep their hands up and ready. She has this ability to put a spin on the ball which makes the ball travel one way and then back to a teammate. I'm not certain how this works but I do love it when a defender tries to get to the ball and thinks she has a hand on it and then it slides away from her. There is the behind the back pass and the no look pass, the passes that graze defenders' ears as they whistle by their heads on way to the posts in the low block. When she makes one of her amazing passes, it dazzles the crowds and gets her teammates off the bench in excitement creating momentum for the team.
I am thrilled to see the floor general in complete confidence, playing in the zone, commanding her teammates to play harder and faster. If no other coach or opponent notes her importance to this team, I want her to recognize the coaches do. Thanks Chrissy for stepping up and being the player you were meant to be.
PLAY HARD. PLAY TOGETHER.
Friday, December 2, 2011
Living In Optimism
When I was younger, in my twenties, I considered myself a realist. Most people who knew me would have called me a pessimist but I thought I called things as they were and lived in reality. I had no idea reality is something which is made up in one's mind so I spent much of my time looking at things and seeing the worst possibility and believing in the "facts" other people gave me as truth. Lucky for me I dropped being a realist and signed up for optimism because now I believe in all possibilities and I seek in the best in things.
Take for instance this basketball season. Had I been coaching this team full of youngsters and inexperience in my twenties and early thirties, I'm certain I would have listened to the wisdom of all those who would have offered their belief that youth cannot win big games. I would have bought into this hook, line and sinker thinking like most people do that young players don't have the experience to play in tight situations. I would have coached the team with the mindset we would be a good team the next year and take our lumps for the season.
We started the season 0-3 losing to teams which we could have beaten, looking rather raw and incapable of doing anything remotely close to resembling solid basketball fundamentals. The coaches watched from the sideline as we boinked the ball off the backboard on easy put backs, fumbled passes, threw the ball directly to the players who were not on our team, shot a measly 60% from the free throw line and generally looked like a sandlot group of athletes who were playing basketball for the first time in our lives. It was dreadful and I could have believed we were going to drown in this ugliness, swallowing too much of the missed cues, but I chose to believe in what I knew to be this team's potential.
We have speed and more speed, players who are lightening quick and appear like shadows on the court, coming in and out of a play before the opponents can see them. We have rebounders who can jump up with with great hands grab the ball right out of the air and we have this thing called "passion" which flows through so many team members it is like electricity on the court. Because I now believe in miracles, in the creation of great events in our minds, I didn't panic early in the season; I kept the faith knowing these young women would eventually come to see in themselves what the coaching staff saw in them.
Oh, it is still a work in progress and they are still trying to see the best in themselves, but they have improved from November 12th, our first game, to last night in what only could be called an amazing miracle of sorts. In our first contest, we only scored 46 points. Last night we had 44 points at half time. We have won three straight games and totally changed the pace of the way we play. In my old mind, I would have determined this was a fluke, a one time thing, but in my new mindset, I know it is only the beginning of amazing things to come. These young women will get better and better rising to the occasion, learning to see with their dreams rather than with the "facts" other people might try to sell them.
PLAY HARD. PLAY TOGETHER.
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