Dream vs. Reality

There is nothing wrong with having a dream. Many players consider themselves to be better than they are. Years ago I sat with a junior college coach at a sections championship game and asked if any of these players would be playing for him in the following season. He said at this moment the boys on the floor feel they are all D-1 caliber. We'll get the ones that face reality. Of course that takes some time.
Having goals are good to have and I encourage them. Being a student athlete is a huge responsibility. Some students are ready for the full load, some are not. You are no longer pushed by your parents to do homework or study. The player is basically treated as an adult and doing assignments, arriveing to classes and practices on time is crucial for success. If the player needed to be pushed to do homework in class or on the court a junior college may be a preferable choice.
The workload for some can be overwhelming especially if the high school councellor helped miss manage the goals needed to pursue the next level. I'm not saying that councellors are bad, just once in a while I've witnessed some poor advice. Parents should be involved with the suggestions to help meet the goals of the high school student athlete.
Some colleges have mandatory study halls for student athletes. That's a good choice for the player that on occasion had trouble making a grade, term paper or finals. Workload and solid work ethic go hand in hand.
What about the players that could not perform certain critiera demanded by college ball. Hustle in college is a whole other animal. Players considered to play need to dribble with both hands, shoot with two hands, pass well and perform triple threat skills. I've seen players who have played only zone defense. Post players who can only play around the block, some have no pivot. Regardless of skill level, there is a campus for everyone.
What I'm getting at is there is nothing wrong with going to a Junior College. Those who don't respect that, I've noticed are the ones who haven't attended any college at all.
Worst agenda I've found for disaster was a student did not want to go to a particular school because..."That town sucks!" I've heard this a few times. My answer was are you going to attend a college to learn or party. It turned out those particular students have quit teams or classes, not finishing semesters.
My thoughts are...Get a solid education.

Battle for the North State 04/26/09

This picture was taken after playing the Championship

game. We came in second after losing to a solid team with

good defense. Hopefully we can get another crack at them

in the Chico event during Mothers Day weekend event.

Battle for the North State

This pic taken after winning our second game. We went to event with 7 players. At the end we were down to only 5 players, one twisting her ankle and the other fouling. The girls won the game on the free throw line in the last 6 seconds.

Humbolts 09'

The look of Humbolts Girls Basketball will change for the 2009 season. We will be a Junior varsity level team as most the players are Freshman.
Another change that will take place will be all the players will be from Eureka. In the past we have had players from different school districts.
The reason for the change is other programs have developed within the players area. It makes some sense to do this. It is illegal for school coaches to determine where someone plays during extra curricular activities. I'm not saying that is going happen. But I have witnessed it. I don't believe a player at this young age should experience the emotion of having to make this choice.
Mack has had an AAU program running for a few years. Dusty at Arcata has some good ideas to create a good program. My good friend Scott Meredith is now in Fortuna and he will continue with a solid group. South Fork looks interested. Crescent City I'm not sure, they go in and out. It's fun to go up there and scrimmage.
I'm looking forward to coaching this new team. We will participate in a local league and enter five tournaments.
It has been 5 years since having a 14u & 15u squad. The Humbolts were successful at this age group then and will be again.

The "D" is on the court

Down By Twenty

There are always feelings when a coach or a fan realizes their team are down by 20 at the half.
That's the way it was for College of the Redwoods women last night against Feather River. Wish I was there but read about it in the Times-Standard.
C R turned the game around and won 76-71. WOW!!!
Coach Newman had to come up with some kind of adjustment and inspiration. I think it shows a lot of Character and Courage by the players to not give up and play hard.
The half time discussion had to go beyond the Vince Lombardi quote book.
Congratulations to C R on a wonderful win.

Harness The Power

I visited Humboldt State Women's basketball game against Monterey Bay a couple weeks ago.
There I saw the beautiful new gym along with the always excited fans. I arrived early, I like to watch them warm-up. I know a couple players from watching them play and sometimes get a wave and a hello. That night I got a nod and a half smile. It seemed they didn't want to break a feeling they had deep inside them. I looked around at the rest of the ladies and they all displayed an emotion of power.
When they came on the floor at tip off the power was unleashed. The shots were all precise and the defense was incredible. Every player performed with excellence. When substitution was needed another breath of power came in the way storms attack the shore.
Of course, solid shooting makes for a good win but the defense created and set up every effort.
I don't think any team could have beat HSU that evening. I was overwhelmed with the POWER they had within themselves. I'm certain coaches Jodie and Skip were proud of the extreme effort.
It involves preparation, tons of it. You can come back the following week with the same preparation but not always get the same results in a game. Trying to get everyone to have that feel at the same time is a hard feat to accomplish.
Humboldt State had it that night. I hope to witness it again. I know power doesn't come in a can.
I'm sure every coach would like to harness it.

Pictures From Mack Event

Summer of 08 we played in the McKinleyville Tournament. This event featured JV & Varsity school teams from all over the area. We entered as a JV AAU team and played well as all the girls on the Humbolts had just graduated from the eighth grade.
Ralph McCarthy a local photographer was kind enough to take pictures of the event. Ralph is known as The Title 9 Guy. He has a great website dedicated to women sports. He posted the photos on his website. Check it out.
http://www.title9guy.com/ Click Ralph's photo gallery, then go to AAU basketball.

Coach R.B. -- Challenge

A couple posts earlier I wrote about a challenge from a coach on what your three most important things in basketball are. It was Coach Randy Brown. He has a wonderful website for youth coaches and especially handy for parents of players. He always keeps the site fresh with new concepts and ideas on the game. Check it out:
www.EzineArticles.com/randybrown

Inspiration

Inspiration is often all you need to get things going. Having a goal to motivate or some gimmick to get the mind going, setting the mood. A speech isn't always needed or a butt chewing or a
motivational genius coming in to inspire the team. Sometimes you just need a little something, a
tiny something like a word.
I came up with a word a game. I wrote about this in an earlier blog so I will just print the words we used for each game.
PREPARATION FEAR TRUTH CONFIDENCE
DESIRE SHARE HONOR TRUST CHARACTER
COMMITMENT SPIRIT ACCOUNTABLE
FAITH FORGIVENESS RESPECT HOPE
COURAGE FAMILY LOVE PASSION
These were the words for the Humbolts of 2008. I will use them again some day.
Now for our first word of 2009:
"SUCCEED"

The Challenge

A coach e-mailed a challenge to a few thousand fellow coaches earlier in the year. He asked if
you could have only three most important things on your coaching agenda, what would they be?
Wow, that would be easy and then I thought about it. It got kinda hard. I gave the idea some hard thought, slept on it and came up with my personal three.
REBOUNDS---DEFENSE---TEAMWORK
Those were my choices. To make a solid team work as a unit these meant the most to me.
Our defense was satisfactory and better than that at times during most of the season. Our
teamwork was excellent after only a few games. Only once in awhile an opponent would fluster our players into poor decisions causing turnovers. I was more than pleased with the effort.
Rebounds did not come as often as the opportunity presented itself. I did not introduce very aggressive rebound drills until later in the year. I can take part of the blame for that.
Rebounding is much more than just, bump, box-out and arms up. The position and foot work
involves athleticism and heart. Ya gotta really want the ball. We will turn our drills up another level in the spring.
I don't remember who sent this challenge. It helps focus on certain aspects of the game that needs to be addressed. Like the old saying "Jack of all trades, master of none" it would be nice
to fully demonstrate three things well and then perfect them. If we could accomplish that, move
on to other aspects of the game. I'm not saying don't teach the fundamentals of the other parts
of the game while learning the big three, I'm saying try to focus on a few things at a time.