Last Post

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.

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.

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!

One Month

One Month and counting until basketball season opens. As it is right now, we are doing conditioning works with thsoe who would like to play this year. We ahve around 30 boys coming out three days a week to participate in workouts that include running, stadiums, and some strenght exercises. Several of the players who played with us in the summer are out, but many are still playing football. There have also been a couple of move ins this year that could be a pleasant surprise to the team. We still are not going to be rerally big, but we will be athletic. I hope everyone's summer went well and are looking forward to another season of Raider Basketball.

UT Chattanooga Team Camp

My First team camp as head coach started out with a little anxiety. I was nervous getting there because three of my starters and another support player were at football camp, and I did not know what time they were going to arrive. Well they did not get there for the first game and we went with 6 players. I'll tell you it is hard to play an up tempo game with only six players. Also, of the 6 players I had, only 2 had varsity experience. We did the best we could, and I was surprised at a few of the players who I knew nothing about, but we got blown out by a team that we should have beaten. We had a few hours before our next game, so we went back to the dorm and waited. I received a call telling me that the players I was waiting on were on there way and would be there for the next game.

The next game I did not start the football players because I was told they had some bruises from football camp and it may not be a good idea to push them. Well, they pushed me to play and I gave a little time. The moment they were inserted into the line up the game changed. They went in and were behind by a few points, but by the end of the first half we were leading. We went on to win the game by a good margin, maybe 10 points. The next game was the next morning. The ones I think that will be our regular starters began the game. We started off slow, but got in gear and ran away from the team. We won this game by a good a margin as well.

We played at 4pm next. We came up against a team from Georgia. This team was a little bigger than us, but I did not think it was as good as us. We started slow, continued to play slow and could never pick up the pace. We did not hit jump shots and we were even missing lay ups. We lost this game by a pretty good margin against a team, I think we should have beaten. I let the guys know I was unhappy with the effort and that we needed to do better next game, because the next team was better than the one we lost too.

The late game on Saturday, was against a darn good team from Tennessee. This team was talented, and athletic, and not too mention they played very well together. We played up to the competion and even though we lost the game, I was happy with the effort. We wound up losing the game by just 7 points, but we played better than we had the game before. We were done for the night and played again at noon on Sunday, Father's Day.

After getting the guys up to eat breakfast and call their fathers. We went off to the main Gymnasium to play another good team from Tennesssee. This team was very athletic, but not nearly as talented as the last. We once again started off slow. After watching the starters fumble through playing defense and not run the offense, I pulled all five of them and inserted the subs. I let the starters know they needed to wake and play basketball. The subs played well but were outclassed on the court. We got down by about 15 points at one time. I then put the starters back in the game. Once again, the momentum changed. The starters got us back to a 5 point game by halftime. In the second half, I platooned the starters and the subs to give them some rest. We were in the game with the starters and the subs gave us a deficeit. The fourth quarter was all about winning the game. The starters had it with one or two subs. We wound up being down by 3 with 1:30 minutes to play. We got into a situation where we had to foul to stay in the game. The other team converted on their free throws and kept ahead of us. We lost the game by 6 points. I told the guys a I was happy we came back, and it just seemed we ran out of steam. It helped us learn that we have to come to play from the very start of the game.

The next game was a local high school in the area, at 3pm. We were going to play a team that was no where near as talented as we were. I started the regular starters, but it was my plan to have the subs play most of the game. The starters clearly outclassed the other team and got a significant lead. The subs got in the game and played well, keeping the lead and stretching it out some. We won the game going away, by about 20 points. The next game that day at 6pm was very similar. A very under talented team. We won this game with the subs once again playing most of the minutes. We now had the rest of the night off. I took the players, both Varsity and JV, to Mellow Mushroom in downtown Chattanooga. It was a fun night had by all.

On Monday we had two games to play before we left for home. The first was played at noon with the second one right after it. The first game was once again against a very talented and disciplined team. We play terribly and lost by 30. I was upset that this was the way these guys wanted to end the weekend. I let them have it between games and ask them to think about how they wanted to end the weekend. I also saw that we were fatigued, so I told them to give me 4 hard minutes and I would get them a rest. We did this for the first 3 quarters. Again it was the starters getting a lead or holding a slim margin and the subs trying to hold on. The fourth quarter the starters wanted to finish the game and I let them. They came with in 3 points and lost the game by that margin. Even though they did not win, I told the guys to be proud of the effort and the weekend. They played together and learned about how to play with each other. It was a good weekend.

Even thoug I started out nervous, the weekend went well with no problems at all. In a year of firsts, it was good to get my first summer team camp over with with out a glitch. We play in our team camp on the 23rd, which was actually last night. I will post on that on thursday when we are all done. This team is exciting to watch though. I am very happy to hav this team.

First Summer Game

Last night the Raiders took the floor in two informal scrimmages. It was the first competition for the New look Raiders. After last season, the Raiders graduated 70% of their team. Leaving only 4 players with varsity experience. Although they are young, this Raider team will prove to be more talented and more athletic.
The Raiders first played the Raiders from North Forsyth. The NF Raiders are always known as a scrappy and physical team. They were that and they could shoot the ball. Our Raiders came out a bit slow. Allowing several easy basket and not getting hands up in shooters faces. The AHS Raiders fought from behind most of the first half. By the end of the half though, the AHS Raiders had clawed back to take a 6 point lead. The lead was gained through good defense and great team play on offense.
Once again this year, the focus of our offense will be to get out and run, and in the second half run we did. With some great boxing out and rebounding the AHS Raiders (thats my team in case you don't have the program) started to get out, run and get easy baskets. The AHS Raiders took a commanding lead and never relinquished it. The AHS Raiders won their first summer scrimmage by 9 points.
The second scrimmage was against North Fulton rival Chattahoochee High School. The Cougars last year were also a very scrappy team. One that came to play hard every night. Tonight was again no exception. The Cougars tried to press the Raiders early on. Though we did not convert on shots we did manage to get the Cougars out of their press. With tired legs and weary minds the young Raiders took poor shots and did not play good defense in the first half. The Raiders got down 25 to 8 at one point. The Raiders fought back to close the with in 9 at half time. IN the beginning of the second the Raiders came out with some energy and closed the gap to 4. In probably some bad coaching, the Head Coach put the subs in who allowed the Cougars to increase their lead to 12. With the running clock, it was hard to get the starters back in the game, before the Cougars had built their lead to 20. Once the Starters got back the Cougars were holding the ball and the Raiders could only get back to a 16 point game which is where the game ended.
I was pleased with the overall effort and with some of the things I saw. I think if the fatigue factor had not hit us so hard, we may have been able to over come the Cougars lead and defeat them. It is summer and this is the time to find out who are the solid players and who are the role players. I have to say I was pretty hyped up after the scrimmage and had to go home and do some Wii Yoga to calm down and get some sleep.
Our next games will be at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga on June 13th. I will blog about the whole camp when we get back.

Summer Basketball is Here!

Summer Basketball is here! Tonight we will select two summer teams to compete in team camps and to work with through out the summer. These two teams will be the core of the program. These are kids we know of who will be either varsity or junior varsity players next year. We will work with these players on skills so they become better players. Players become better in the summer, not during the year, so this is a perfect time to break down and work on skills and team chemistry. It is also a perfect time to teach something new, although the focus will be on the player instead of the team. I look forward to summer basketball because it is more relaxed. There is no pressure to win, just to get better.
It has been a long time since I posted. I have had a lot of work going on. We finalized the schedule for next year. We had open gyms so the players could work on skills on their own. Seniors have now graduated and moved on. Most all of them are going to college and a few of them are going to try to play in college. I believe there may be one or two that do get ot play in college. The future of this program is bright. The Varsity will be mostly Juniors next year. I will only have 2 seniors at the most in the program. These players will play together for two years. That only can translate into good things. Check back during June and I will update how we are doing and the progress we are making. Have a great summer!

Raiders lose in first round

The Raiders ended their season on Saturday night at home losing to the Pope Greyhounds, whom they had lost to four days before. The Raiders tried to employ a zone defense against the Greyhounds to prevent their post game from dominating the game as it had on Tuesday. The zone definately kept the big man out of it, only allowing 3 points in the paint. The problem was the off guard came up big with 14 of Pope's 23 points in the first half. The Raiders went into half time down one point 23-22. In the second half, the Raiders came out hot. They attacked the Greyhounds man defense and started to find wide open lay ups. The problem was the Raiders could not cover all of the shooters the Greyhounds had, and wound up going down by 5 by the end of the third quarter,42-37. The 4th was more of the same. The Raiders playing well offensively, but not being able to find the wide open shooter. As the end neared, the Raiders tried to foul to keep the game close, but just like on Tuesday, the Greyhounds hit their free throws, and walked a way with a ten point win, 60-50. The Raiders seaon ended with a 7-19 record. One win shy of last year, but the Raiders did some things this that they had not done in previous years. Such as, win three games in January, the month when most of the region schedule is played; be seeded fourth in the subregion, the Raiders have been the bottom seed every year, and because of the 4th seed the Raiders hosted a playoff game. All in all, the Seniors who have played for four years, have built a foundation for which the program can take off and be successful. The younger players on the team have good talent and have learned how to play hard night in and night out. I hope you have enjoyed the blog this season. I will give updates in the off season so keep checking back. Thank you for reading.

Raiders end regular season on down note

The good play of the Raiders continued some what on tuesday night. The Raiders had another Tuesday let down against Pope High School. The Raiders played very well in the first half, but seemed to fade in the second as Pope got stronger. The Raiders lead at halftime 33-29, but allowed the Greyhounds a 10- 0 run to start the 2nd half. The Raiders fought hard hard but wound up falling short and lost 58- 46. The Greyhounds hit 16 of 18 free throws in the game to seal the win. The Raiders will start the Region Playoffs at home versus...Pope High School. The Raiders will get a chance at revenge for their first tournament win ever. The Raiders are looking to put a positive end to a good season. The Raiders will take on Pope on Saturday at 7pm.

Raiders have a good but heartbreaking weekend

The Raiders went into the final weekend of the regular season looking to bounce back from their tuesday night loss. The Raiders went to Roswell on Friday, being the opponent for the second game on Senior Night. The Raiders were ready to play as a team this night. The Raiders ran out to a 20-12 lead in the first quarter. Ten players played in the first half, to keep the legs fresh and ready to finish the game. The Raiders entered the Half time up by 10 points. In the Second half the Hornents came out in a 1-3-1 zone. The Raiders showed some patience and some Senior experience by slowing down the game and making the Hornets come out after them. As the Raiders drew the Hornets out, the pasing lanes opened up. The Raiders showed great maturity and tore the zone apart. The Hornets continued in the zone and tried to pick up the pressure. The Hornets made a come back and closed the score down to four at one point. But as the time ran out, the Hornets had to foul. The Raiders stepped up, knocked down their free throws and held on for the win, 62-55.
On Saturday, the Raiders played their last home game of the season. The Raiders took on the Lassiter Trojans, a team with a winning record and a team the Raiders matched up with well. The Radiers once again ran out to an early lead, surprising the Trojans by getting a 9-2 lead. The Trojans made a run but the Raiders survived and kept the lead going into the haltime. At times, the Raiders were up by as much as 8 points in the second half. But the Trojans made a come back and slowly chipped away at the lead. With 7 secondsd left, the Raiders lead 44 - 39. The Trojans knocked down a three pointer to cut the lead to 44-42. All the Raiders would have to do is hit their free throws and the game would be done. With four seconds left our senior captain stepped to the line, and missed the front end of a one and one. The Trojans quickly passed the ball up the court, and let one fly from about 30 feet. As the buzzer sounded the ball went through the hoop for a three point shot and a one point win. The Senior Raiders were shocked and almost inconsolable. It was a tough loss for such a hard fought game.
The Raiders now stand at 7 - 17 on the year, 4 - 11 in the region, a 3 win improvement in the region last year. The Raiders occupy the 4th seed in the Sub Region and will more than likely host their next opponent on Saturday Feb. 9th. The Raiders play Pope High School on Tuesday. Pope is the fifth seed on the other side of the region and would be the Raiders first round opponent in the playoffs. Tomorrow will be a weird game. Both teams will try to win with out giving away any kind of secrets. If the Raiders win Tuesday and win on Saturday, it will be the first time the Raiders win a playoff game and it will be the first time the Raiders reach the 9 win mark in a season. Another accomplishment on a year full of accomplishments.

Raiders have a really bad night

The Raiders had a very frustratingly bad night last night. The Raiders came across Milton who is playing very well lately, and the Raiders had a poor night shooting and a poor night playing defense. The Raiders were down three at the end of the 1st, 12 at the end of the half, and 30 by the end of the 3rd. In the Fourth quarter, the Raiders were mercy ruled, which means we only played a 6 minute quarter as opposed to an 8 minute quarter. The Raiders will try to rebound on Friday against Roswell who put a hurting on the Raiders two weeks ago. There are three games left in the season before the Region tournament. The Raiders will ahve to pick it up if they want to compete in the tournament.

Raiders play tough, lose big in the end

The Raiders played the Centennial Knights again on Friday night. The Knights being one of the best teams in the region, the Raiders knew they had a tough night ahead of them. With Friday night also being Senior Night, the Raiders had some emotion to play with. The Raiders came out fired up and ready to play. The Knights were not going to get anything easy. The Raiders played the tough defense they have been known for all season long. The shots were not falling for the Raiders which made it tough to score, considering we were out sized and out athleted on the boards. Centennial relys mainly on their athleticism to get points, but the Raiders worked their butts off trying not to give up anything. By the end of the half, the Radiers were down only 10 points.
In the second half, the Raiders once again came out fired up, but with Knights jumping around and putting pressure on the Raiders, the Knights slowly stretched their lead. By the end of the third, the Raiders were down 15. Fatigue from the fight finally wore the Raiders out and the Knights contiued to put pressure and ran their lead up to 30 points. The Raiders finally lost 82-53 ruining the Raider's Senior Night. The Raiders play three times this week, with games against Milton, Roswell and Lassiter. The Raiders have a chance to win three of their last four, and hopefully improve their standing in the region, which would help them with their path to the State Playoffs.

Raiders take on #2 team in sub-region

On Tuesday night, the Raiders took on the Northview Titans again, at Alpharetta. The last time these two teams met, the Titans crushed the Raiders by 27 points. That was then, Tuesday night was different. Coming off the win over North Fulton foe, Chattahoochee on Friday night, the Raiders had some confidence that anything is possible. The Titans have a 6'11" center named Ralph. The Raiders game plan was to see if Ralph could beat them all by himself. The Raiders came out playing great defense, keeping the Titans with in reach. The lead was never more than 6 points. In the first quarter, the Raiders tried man to man defense, but 6'11" is tought to match up against. The Raiders switched to a zone defense. The zone proved to baffle the Titans offense and made it difficult for the Titans to get the ball inside. Ralph still had several dunks, but the Titans took some bad shots and the Raiders controlled the defensive boards. By halftime, the Raiders were only down four points to the Titans, 25 -21.
In the second half, the Raiders who have been plagued by slow starts in the third quarter, came out hot and ready to play. The Titans, who played a zone of their own, were getting beaten inside by the undersized Raiders. The Raiders played without fear and as the quarter wore on, began to build confidence that they could win the game. In the fourth quarter, the Radiers continued to run up and down the floor on the Titans. The Raiders also began to shoot the ball well. The Raiders were helped by some clutch three point shooting, and with 1:57 left, the Raiders led 42-41. In the last 2 minutes the Raiders were outscored 9-0 and lost the game as the Titans knocked down their free throws to seal the win. The Raiders were upset that they let such a big win get through their fingers, but are confident that they are playing well as the Region tournament approaches. The Raiders have 5 games left, 4 of them are definately winable(yes Clare that is a word). If the Raiders can win 4 of their last five, they can move up to 3rd in their sub region, giving them a good path towards the state playoffs. The Raiders take the court on Friday night against the top team in the sub-region, Centennial. It is also senior night, so emotions will be high.

Raiders make up for earlier loss

The Raiders hit the court Friday night, traveling to Chattahoochee High School. Chattahoochee had earlier beaten the Raiders back in December, 47-43. The Raiders knew they had let one get away back in December and were ready to let the Cougars know it.
The Raiders came out firing, but not hitting right away. The Raiders went down early. But the Raider defense fought back to bring the game to a two point deficit by the end of the first quarter, 13-11. In the second quarter the Raider defense picked up even further only allowing 4 points for the Cougars while scoring 12. The Raiders went in to halftime leading 23 -17. Interestingly, that was the half time score the last time we played the Cougars. The Raiders were given a challenge in the beginning of the third, dominate the first 4 possessions. The Raiders came out and scored on their first three possessions while only giving up one score for the Cougars first four possessions, for a 10 point Raiders' lead. The Raiders kept that lead most of the way in the third, but allowed a short run by the Cougars to end the third quarter bringing the lead to 6, 41- 35. In the fourth the Raiders played with confidence, all the while shutting down the Cougars outside shooters and controlling the defensive boards. As time wound down the experience of having seniors on the court took over as the Raiders were able to run more than one minute off the clock as Chattahoochee tried to foul, in the end, the Raiders got an uncontested lay up to help seal the win. The Raiders ran away from the Cougars to a 53- 46 win. The Raiders celebrated their 6th win of the season and their 3rd in the Region, tripling last year's region total. The Raiders have a tough week coming up where both Northview and Centennial come to the Raider's Cove. Both of these schools stand at the top of the sub-region and both beat the Raiders by 20 points. It will be a tough week. Hopefully the cold weather can help the Raiders shut down these two high scoring opponents.

Raiders have big let down

The Raiders experienced a big let down two nights in a row. On Tuesday night, the Raiders took on North Fulton foe, Roswell High School. The Hornets sported the worst record in the region coming into Tuesday night. The Raiders failed to capitalize on the momentum gained on Saturday when they beat one of the better teams in Walton High. The Raiders were beaten on the the boards as Roswell grabbed more offensive rebounds than any other team had against the Raiders. The lack of boxing out lead to a 12 point loss to the Hornents, 68-56. The Raiders returned to practice the next night with the promise of snow in the Alpharetta area. The Raiders were not disappointed as it started to snow before practice began. By the end, about 7pm it was snowing pretty well and the Raiders celebrated believing that school would be canceled. Yet the Raiders were disappointed yet again when the snow turned to rain and the roads did not freeze, and the Raiders had to come to school today. The Raiders take the court again Friday night against Chattahoochee, whom we owe for a heartbreaking loss back in December. Hopefully we will rebound from Tuesday nights disappointing play.

Good Weekend for the Raiders

The Raiders played two games this weekend. On Friday, the Raiders took on the Milton Eagles. This was a big game for two reasons, one the Eagles are a cross town rival. Some of our players would have gone to Milton and two it was Teacher Appreciation Night, so many of the players' teachers were in attendance to watch the Raiders play. This was a game I thought the Raiders could win. The Eagles have a Freshman who stands 6'7" tall and has a great touch around the basket. This showed in the first half, as this player did not miss a shot on his way to 12 first half points. On Thursday, the Riaders received a detailed scouting report of the Eagles to give them some confidence against the size of the Eagles. It looks like this scouting report only gave the Raiders too much to think about. The Raiders came out flat against the Eagles and allowed a 7 nothing run to end the first half and give the Eagles a 41 -26 lead at half time. In the second half, the Raiders came out to play. The big guy for the Eagles only scored 2 points in the second half, but the Eagles got some clutch shooting form some of their other players. The Raiders cut the lead to 6 with less than 2 minutes left in the game but could not close closer than that. The Raiders wound up losing 69-59. It was a disappointing loss for the Raiders but we had no time to "cry in our beer" so to speak, we had to play the next day.
On Saturday, the Raiders played their namesake in the Walton Raiders, confusing the cheerleaders to no end. Walton has two players whose father played in the NBA. These players are pretty good and AHS has had trouble stopping good players. This night I told the players to just go out and play good hard, Raider basketball. AHS came out ready to play. In a effort to switch things up on Walton, we played a zone to start with, this was not a great idea. Walton has a player who can shoot lights out and this player knocked down 3 3pointers in a row to give Walton a 9-1 lead. AHS switched back to man to man defense and started to deny this shooter the ball. AHS fought back to a 9 - 9 tie. The game went back and forth, remaining tied at the end of the first quarter and tied at 27 to end the half.
AHS came out with the same intensity, but the 3rd quarter bug bit us again. In the third we kept up the intesity on defense but the offense failed us a little. By the end of the 3rd, we were down by 3 points. The fourth quarter we came out fired up. We were in this game and we were not supposed to be in it. AHS took control of the game. Walton had its best player in foul trouble, so with him on the bench, AHS ran out to a 5 point lead. We continued to play tough half court defense, and control the tempo of the game. With Walton's best shooter not able to catch the ball, he could not shoot the ball, thus Walton had a problem coming back. Walton tried to put pressure on AHS, but we took those opportunities to run out and get easy baskets. Walton tried to rely on their best player to bring them back, but our best defender shut him down. In the end the Raiders came out with their biggest win in their short history, 61-53. The Raiders take the court on Tuesday against another North Fulton foe, Roswell High comes to the Raiders Cove. The Raiders will be ready to squash the Hornets for a two game winning streak.

Raiders throw a scare at Centennial

The Raiders went into the tuesday nights game expecting a tough outing. Wha tthey did not expect was to be disappointd that they los to the #6 team in the state.
The Raiders traveled to Centennial's gym on Tuesday night, ready to play. The thought was that Centennial was not ready to play the Raiders, considering the Raiders lost by 40 there last year. The thought looked to be true in the first few minutes of the game. The Raiders took the lead early and held on for most of the first half, before falling behind.
The first quarter moved at the Raiders pace instead of the very talented, and very athletic Knights team. The Raiders took a 10 to 4 lead at one point and held on for a 16-10 lead at the end of the first quarter. In the Second, the Raiders continued to control the tempo, and held on the lead for the first 4 minutes. The Knights pressure and athleticism began to catch up with the Raiders and they took the lead and led at halftime 39-32.
In the second half, the Knights talent took control. The sprinted out to a 20 point lead by the end of the third. The Raiders played their hearts out, but finally lost to a very talented team, 81-61. the Raiders take the court on Friday against Milton, another North Fulton rival.

Four Games in two weeks

The Alpharetta High School went on Christmas break on Dec. 19th, but that does not mean that Raider Basketball was on break. On Dec. 26th, the Raiders traveled to Disney World in Orlando, FL, to play in the KSA Holiday Classsic Tournament. Also on that day, the Raiders played their first game in that tournament. After an 8 hours drive the Raiders had one hour to put their stuff down, change into their uniforms and play Egg Harbor Township High School from New Jersey. The game started at 8pm at night. The Raiders came out hot and fired up, streaking out to an 13 -2 lead. The Raiders kept up the pressure in the first half, and extended the lead to 20 points. But the ride down from Atlanta started to catch up with the Raiders as the allowed Egg Harbor to work back to 15 point defecit at half time. In the second half Egg Harbor came out fired up and the Raiders came out flat. The Raiders allowed Egg Harbor back in the game and only had a 5 point lead going into the 4th quarter. The Raiders were not able to hold off Egg Harbor and by the end of regulation, the game was tied. The first overtime started out well for the Raiders, but by the end of the 4 minutes, we were still tied. The Raiders finally lost the game after the third overtime. The final score was 83-77. Luckily we had the next day off.
In the second game of the tournment, the Raiders played Leon High School from Tallahassee, FL. The Raiders were still a little bruised from losing in three overtimes two days before and were none to happy about playing at 8:30 in the morning. Leon High took the full brunt of the Raider emotion. The Raiders lead by 16 at half time and extended the lead to more than 20 in the second half. The Raiders wound up winning 83 -69, for the Raiders 4th win of the year. The Raiders celebrated by spending the rest of the day in the Magic Kingdom. Also, important was the fact that my Parents got to see me coach my first game as a High School head coach, and it was a win.
The next day, the Raiders took on the Eagles of Casa Roble High School from Casa Roble, CA. This team lost to Egg Harbor by 24 points, and the Raiders came in confident that we could win. The Raiders may have over estimated Casa Roble, and we had a fight on our hands. The lead for either team was never more that 5 points. The lead switched many times during the course of the game. In the end, the Raiders lost by 4, 55-51. The Raiders played hard and had fun in the KSA Tournament, coming in 3rd in their bracket. The Raiders did get to see an Orlando Magic game while we were down in Florida.
The Raiders returned to Alpharetta for the new year. The first game back, last Saturday, was against Forest Park High School, who we had lost to back in early December. The Raiders felt they owed one to the Panthers, because the feeling was the Raiders should have won this game. On Saturday, in front of a home crowd, the Raiders were up for the task. The game was not easy, with the lead going back and forth, once again the lead was no more than 10 at any one point. The Raiders had a balanced attack with 6 players scoring in double figures. The Raiders futured looked good because two sophomores on the varsity team lead the team to the win. The Raiders avenged the earlier loss with a 55 - 47 win. The Raiders start a very tough region schedule Tuesday against last year's State Runner up, Centennial High School. The Raiders follow that up with Milton High School on Friday. The games come fast and furious now in the last month of the season. Nothing will be easy the rest of the season.