This will be my last post on this blog site. This past Tuesday, I was called into the Principal's Office and told I would not be the Head Basketball Coach this year. This was less than a week before our first game. The reason behind the dismissal was that an audit of school finances showed that the school loaned the basketball program some money and that it was too big an issue to leave the head coach in place.
Personally, I think this was not as big a deal as it was made out. I don't believe this was the only issue that lead to my removal, but the rest have nothing to do with my talent as a coach. I believe this dismissal was more personal. I believe that the new principal had a different aganda than I did concerning the basketball program. I happened to be in the way of that agenda.
I do not have any evidence of this new agenda, but it does not feel right the way things went down. Things were not handled very well and it makes it a bitter pill to swallow. Coaching High School basketball was a dream I have had since I was in high school myself. This dream for now has come to an end, but I will find another job and I will do whatever it is I did wrong better and hold on to that job much longer. Thank you for all of you who read my blog. THank you for your kind words of support and wish me luck in my future endeavors, because this show isn't over, its just on hiatus.
Monday, November 17, 2008
Monday, November 10, 2008
Up and Running
Two weeks down, so many more to go. Tonight the football players come out to practice for the first time. The Raiders are looking forward to them because they will just added to the athletes we have out there now. Truth be told, three of the football players are projected starters.
Practice has been going well, we have had some players who have been designated as JV step up and fill in, the only problem we have is size. Even with our football players out, we will still be undersized in our region. Our tallest player will be 6'5" tall but in our region that is not very tall at all. I know when I was in high school we would have loved to have a 6'5" player, but now, I would not mind having a few players who are a little taller. Although, our tallest player is also one of our best athletes, so he plays a little bigger than he is. With this lack of size we are going to look to run teams off the court. It is one of the advantages of having exceptional athletes on the court. We will be in shape, play aggressive defense and run the floor. I think we will be able to play 8 or 9 players per game, giving our starters much needed rest. I am not sure how many teams will be able to say that.
We have been working on a new offense in the past two weeks. It is more along the lines of what colleges and pros run. Instead of a continuity style, where the offense flips over every time we reverse the ball, this offense is more about the players and what they see on the court. It is more of a read and react offense than, follow this pattern and hope we get a shot. The players have been picking up the concept well and have started to read each other in the offense. Some players can almost think what the other is and beat the defense with eye contact. It is difficult to explain with out showing you, but I also don't want to give too much away.
Our defense needs some work. In the past, we have not been very aggressive because we really have not had the players to be aggressive. This year I think we will be very good at pressuring the opposing team into turn overs and quick shots. We will need to work on boxing out, again because of the lack of size we are going to have to be good at the fundamentals. We will play man to man defense with a few adjustments thrown in. We will try to disguise the defense and hope we can catch opposing teams in confusion to take advantage.
I am looking forward to tonight. It will be good to see this group of young men on the floor. We will play a scimmage game one week from today and our first regular season game a week from Saturday. I am ready for the season to begin already, but we have some work before we are ready as a team.
Practice has been going well, we have had some players who have been designated as JV step up and fill in, the only problem we have is size. Even with our football players out, we will still be undersized in our region. Our tallest player will be 6'5" tall but in our region that is not very tall at all. I know when I was in high school we would have loved to have a 6'5" player, but now, I would not mind having a few players who are a little taller. Although, our tallest player is also one of our best athletes, so he plays a little bigger than he is. With this lack of size we are going to look to run teams off the court. It is one of the advantages of having exceptional athletes on the court. We will be in shape, play aggressive defense and run the floor. I think we will be able to play 8 or 9 players per game, giving our starters much needed rest. I am not sure how many teams will be able to say that.
We have been working on a new offense in the past two weeks. It is more along the lines of what colleges and pros run. Instead of a continuity style, where the offense flips over every time we reverse the ball, this offense is more about the players and what they see on the court. It is more of a read and react offense than, follow this pattern and hope we get a shot. The players have been picking up the concept well and have started to read each other in the offense. Some players can almost think what the other is and beat the defense with eye contact. It is difficult to explain with out showing you, but I also don't want to give too much away.
Our defense needs some work. In the past, we have not been very aggressive because we really have not had the players to be aggressive. This year I think we will be very good at pressuring the opposing team into turn overs and quick shots. We will need to work on boxing out, again because of the lack of size we are going to have to be good at the fundamentals. We will play man to man defense with a few adjustments thrown in. We will try to disguise the defense and hope we can catch opposing teams in confusion to take advantage.
I am looking forward to tonight. It will be good to see this group of young men on the floor. We will play a scimmage game one week from today and our first regular season game a week from Saturday. I am ready for the season to begin already, but we have some work before we are ready as a team.
Friday, October 24, 2008
Tryouts are Here!
Wow! The time has come, basketball season is here. On Monday, we will start to choose our three basketball teams here at Alpharetta High School. It has been a long 3 months since the beginning of school and we have had to wade through a rough football season, but now basketball is here. I am beginning my second season as the Head Coach of the Boys' Basketball program, a job I have wanted since I graduated from High School.
I still remember trying out as a sophomore at Bishop Verot High School in Fort Myers, FL. That year we had a change in coaches. Coach Parks stepped down and Coach O'Brien stepped in. I had played JV as a freshman and was actually looking forward to another good year on JV. After the tryout, Coach O'B told me he wanted me to dress Varsity until the Football players came out. I believe I practiced with the Varisty for 3 weeks until the football teams season came to an end. I played in one game and was thinking I would be sent back down. But Coach O'B called me to talk to me and what he told me was that I had to change numbers because one of the football players wore 25. I choose 24, a number I kept all three years. I know this was the beginning of the journey that I have now taken to another level. I am no where near complete with this journey but I think it started that day in Coach O'B's office.
On Monday, we will have our Freshman tryouts at 6 AM. Why do you ask so early? Well, we do not have the gym space to accommodate 5 basketball teams, so someone has to take the early slot, the 9th graders are the bottom of the totem poll. The whole coaching staff will be there to help choose the futute of the program. It is a good way to get to get to know these kids. The JV and varsity will tryout at 6pm. It will be one long day in a series of long days for the coaching staff.
I am truly looking forward to this tryout and this season. I believe we will have a very talented group of basketball players out this year. From what I understand there have been one or two move ins that may very well help us. Our biggest weakness will be our youth. We will only have 4 returning players from a varsity team that had 10 seniors on it last year. I did this to keep this young group together and keep them positve about basketball. This group has won in the last two years. They we 14 - 4 as freshman and they were 16-2 last year. The bad thing, is now they have to play varsity basketball. I believe we are in the toughest region in the state. There are 4 teams in our region that have players who are ranked in the top 100 in high school seniors coming out this year. The one thing that I think might be to our advantage is our team will have played together for 3 years when we hit the floor. I can not say the same for the other teams in our region.
Check back starting next Friday and see how our seasaon is going. Next week I will have a fraction of our team because the football players do not finish until, the earliest Nov. 7th. We starting playing games on the 21st of Nov. and play pretty much every Tuesday, Friday and Saturday until the end of February. We host the semi- finals and finals of the region tournament this year, so we are hoping we can compete for a state playoff spot and do it on our home floor. Wish us Luck and Go Raiders!
I still remember trying out as a sophomore at Bishop Verot High School in Fort Myers, FL. That year we had a change in coaches. Coach Parks stepped down and Coach O'Brien stepped in. I had played JV as a freshman and was actually looking forward to another good year on JV. After the tryout, Coach O'B told me he wanted me to dress Varsity until the Football players came out. I believe I practiced with the Varisty for 3 weeks until the football teams season came to an end. I played in one game and was thinking I would be sent back down. But Coach O'B called me to talk to me and what he told me was that I had to change numbers because one of the football players wore 25. I choose 24, a number I kept all three years. I know this was the beginning of the journey that I have now taken to another level. I am no where near complete with this journey but I think it started that day in Coach O'B's office.
On Monday, we will have our Freshman tryouts at 6 AM. Why do you ask so early? Well, we do not have the gym space to accommodate 5 basketball teams, so someone has to take the early slot, the 9th graders are the bottom of the totem poll. The whole coaching staff will be there to help choose the futute of the program. It is a good way to get to get to know these kids. The JV and varsity will tryout at 6pm. It will be one long day in a series of long days for the coaching staff.
I am truly looking forward to this tryout and this season. I believe we will have a very talented group of basketball players out this year. From what I understand there have been one or two move ins that may very well help us. Our biggest weakness will be our youth. We will only have 4 returning players from a varsity team that had 10 seniors on it last year. I did this to keep this young group together and keep them positve about basketball. This group has won in the last two years. They we 14 - 4 as freshman and they were 16-2 last year. The bad thing, is now they have to play varsity basketball. I believe we are in the toughest region in the state. There are 4 teams in our region that have players who are ranked in the top 100 in high school seniors coming out this year. The one thing that I think might be to our advantage is our team will have played together for 3 years when we hit the floor. I can not say the same for the other teams in our region.
Check back starting next Friday and see how our seasaon is going. Next week I will have a fraction of our team because the football players do not finish until, the earliest Nov. 7th. We starting playing games on the 21st of Nov. and play pretty much every Tuesday, Friday and Saturday until the end of February. We host the semi- finals and finals of the region tournament this year, so we are hoping we can compete for a state playoff spot and do it on our home floor. Wish us Luck and Go Raiders!
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