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!