A Good Win

OK, so it may not have been a work of art, but that doesn't mean it wasn't a work of genious. In our game Friday night, we made up for our lack of offensive explosiveness with the best three quarters of defense you can ask for against a quality opponent to come away with a win whose score was lower than many football playoff games played the same night around the state.

After trailing 3-10 in the first quarter, we begin covering the ballside elbow better as well as rebounding better. In the second quarter despite scoring only six points ourselves, we were still in the game due to the fact that we held Columbus to six points also.

In the second half, we begin to click a bit better as our defense continued to improve, holding Columbus to 5 and 4 point quaters while we scored double digits in both the third and fourth quarters.

If you like to watch defensive basketball, you would have seen a very good game Friday night. Now if our offense can start getting it into gear, we might end up being a force to be reckoned with by district time

Enjoy a brief highlight video below of Friday night's game

Columbus Lady Cardinals at Gonzales Lady Apaches

Game Night

Tonight we play our second home game of the year. Hopefully, we will have better results than our first home game where we just simply didn't show up to play winning basketball. However, since that time, I really believe the girls have become focused. I wrote the other day about how pleased I was with the discipline in our game Tuesday night. And I mentioned that Wednesday's practice was perhaps the best one we had all year. But yesterday's practice seemed to top that practice.

I am now seeing the girls working hard and showing enthusiam for what we are doing. Who knows if it will carry over to the game tonight, but I honestly expect it to. I know the team we are playing has more size across the board than any we have faced all year and rebounding has been our achilles heel. But if we come out and defend and rebound, then I am very confident from our last two practices that we will be fine tonight.

Coming Together

A couple of days ago, the Lady Apaches got their first victory of the season. It was game that quite honestly was never going to be in doubt as we far out classed our opponent. We literally could have scored as many points as we wanted. But I made it clear from the beginning that we were going to use this game to learn how to be patient and how to execute our half court offenses (one of the major weaknesses we have had). It would not help us learn anything if all we did was fastbreak to layups.

I am happy to report that we did an incredible job running our halfcourt offenses. I know that really anything would have worked. However, the girls actually ran the plays and we scored all our points coming in the flow of running one of our offenses. I was very pleased with our discipline.

We followed that victory with perhaps the best practice we had all year. The girls worked hard and were attentative. We ran the break well in our transition drills and executed well in our halfcourt game. Now we will see if that carries over to Friday night's home game against a team the girls barely beat last year.

A Rough First Week

To say that our first week of the regular season was a rough one may just be the biggest understatement of the year. We lost both our games by an average of 20 points and to be honest, we didn't look very good at all. I am very frustrated at our inability to pick up the defensive rotations and our inability to run any kind of offensive set. I will spare any youtube video of these two games on my blog.

I know I have my work cut out for me this year trying to get the girls to buy into this system that I know works. But they are so used to doing whatever they wanted and improvising however they wanted that they just don't see the need to do it my way. However, their way is working to the tune of giving up an average of 59 points a game while scoring only 40.

The season is not all lost, but things have to change pretty soon. Or it will be a very long season with very few things to be proud of. I know we are going to win our game this Tuesday, but that doesn't mean that all problems are fixed. I keep having to remind myself that these girls have been taught to behave this way and that perhaps they really don't know any better. No one has ever tried to enforce discipline in the program (those are words coming from others, not me)and they are simply used to literally doing whatever they wanted. If I can keep that in mind and approach them understanding that this is something brand new to them, then maybe it will be better. I can only hope.

20 Years ago

I was thinking last night as I was lying in bed trying to go to sleep the night before our first game of the season that it was 20 years ago that I had my first game as a head basketball coach. I will never forget those feelings and nerves before we lined up to play a team that we probably weren't going to beat. I just wanted to keep it respectable. I will also not forget the fact that just as I sent the team out on the floor for the pregame warmups, I suddenly took a sidetrip to the bathroom and threw up out of nerves. We didn't win that game, but we played really well. I was proud of their effort that night. Even though we lost, it was a springboard to the first winning season that school had in a long time.

Now 20 years later, I am about to coach my first varsity game in 4 years. Opening game jitters are normal for me (though I have not approached anything close to the bathroom run I made 20 years ago). Before we play our first game, I do not yet have a handle on what kind of team we are going to be. How will we react to pressure? Will we be able to execute? Have we really had enough practice in doing everything we are trying to do? I never know those answers until the ball is tossed at center court signifying the start of the season. Over the next hour and 15 minutes, I learn more about my team than I do in any one block of time.

Tonight will be a tough test for us. We are playing what is one of the top teams on our schedule and playing perhaps the best player we will play all year. Maybe it isn't the best way to start a season, but why not get an early test to see what we are going to be like.

I will be posting tomorrow about the game.

Defense Dominates Scrimmage

For those who know me as a basketball coach, you know that I am all about defensive basketball. Through the years I have developed a match up zone that I believe in so much that it has become the staple for any team I coach. I preach defense to my teams from day one in practice and it is not uncommon to see early in the season that my team's defense will be way ahead of its offense.

As we played in a scrimmage this weekend against Hondo and La Vernia, it was pretty evident to me that this year is no different for me. We won both scrimmages easily mainly because we could play shut out defense. The two teams simply had a hard time getting a good shot off against our half court defense.

However, as I look at our offensive game, I know we need a lot of work. One difference for me though this year is that I have spent the last three years working under some great coaches, Ron Rogers and Bill Avey, who have taught me a lot about the offensive game of basketball. Hopefully, I can translate some of that knowledge to my team this year.

Enjoy the youtube video of our scrimmage. But understand, that our offense will get better.

We Might Just Make It

The end of the first full week of practice is coming to a close as we prepare to have a couple of scrimmages tomorrow (Saturday) morning. This week’s practices have had its shares of ups and downs. Sometimes I think it is coming together and sometimes I wonder if it ever will. For the most part it was a frustrating week as we are not as far along into learning the system as I had hoped we would be. There is just so much they need to learn. And yet, sometimes I wonder if the girls even know they have a lot to learn.


But just when I needed it the most, I got a few positive words of affirmation that lifted my spirits. First, my athletic director stopped me and told me to tell me how well I am doing and how many good things he has heard about the way I am running my practices, etc. And according to him, he is hearing these things from the players themselves who “are so excited about what [I] am doing with the team.”

Later that afternoon, a told me that several of the basketball girls were talking in her class and she wanted to tell me how much they respect me and that they were talking about how much I know about basketball and what I was teaching them. She told me how excited they were for the season.

Those two words of encouragement were enough to make me realize that we are getting somewhere and the season might just be as exciting as I am hoping it will be. I guess we will see where we stand tomorrow at our scrimmage.

The Birth of a Season

Today a new basketball season is born. Up until now, the new life we are calling a season has been in gestation, slowly forming and developing into what is birthed today when we officially begin a new season. As with every new birth, this one is greeted with much excitement and anticipation. What will she be like as she grows up? How will her life be lived? What great things are in store for her? These are all questions we ask as we gaze into the eyes and right through to the heart of this new season. For right now, this new life, this season, is full of all kinds of potential.

As this life is born today, it is not only exciting to dream about the possibilities that are out there for her future, it is equally inspiring to bask in the presence of today. For today is when it all begins. Today is when we welcome the new life and are excited just to see her on the court.

But she will grow quickly. And before we know it, she will be forming into the shape and personality of the team we will see throughout her life. Those early days of practice will determine much of what she will become. What will her personality be like? What will she be naturally good at? What are areas she will struggle with all her life? Those early times of practice will largely shape those things.

And before long, she will be taking her first steps as the November games begin. Her childhood will go by quickly in those first few weeks of games. So much will be learned and shaped and developed. Habits will be formed and the ability to think on her own will become a part of her life. Hopefully, she will know how to make the right decisions.

Before we know it, she will enter those tough and sometimes heart-breaking adolescent years known as the tournament season when she plays a multitude of games in tense situations. This time allows her to experience success and failure and to hopefully learn some life lessons along the way that will benefit her later in life. We want very much to see her succeed during those adolescent years, but we also know that what she goes through then will help her succeed later in life.

Finally, she is ready to grow up and spread her wings and live her life. All the hard work in her adolescent years are about to pay off. District time will be here. What she did in her early life to prepare her for her adult years of district will either reward her or disappoint her. But this is the important time of her life. This is when she earns the right to later retire in comfort.

Finally, at the end of the regular season, she will face the time to retire. If she does what she needs to do during district time, she will retire into the playoffs and hopefully live a long successful life in retirement. Some seasons die before their time. Others live to be a ripe old age playing into Regionals or even State. How long will she live?

Then one day, as sad as this thought might be, the season will die. Even if the end result is playing for the State Championship, the lifetime we call a season will come to an end and this basketball team’s life will be over. How will she be remembered? Will she be remembered with joy as a team who met and exceeded all expectations and lived a full and wonderful life or will she be remembered as a team who died before her time with unfilled potential? That largely depends on how she lives, from the moment of birth until the end.

But today, we celebrate her birth. We do so knowing that the season is both long and the season is short. In the next five months, this season will live its life and will never come again. So as we celebrate this new life today, let’s not just be excited about this new life, let’s remember that it will go by so fast and we cannot waste a day of this short life. May each day of this life be all about getting better and getting closer to our potential.

Enjoy the birth today. It is exciting. But in the midst of the excitement, don’t forget that there is a life ahead to plan for and to live. The season is long and the season is short. Live each day of it to its fullest.

Real Competitors Do Not Accept Losing

I will admit right now that when it comes to basketball games, I am a competitor.  I hate to lose.  I honestly don't understand how some athletes can be a part of a team and just accept losing like it is as natural as eating or breathing.  But the high school athletic world is full of people just like that.   Yes, I understand that a team cannot win all the time and losing is a part of life and we have to learn to deal with it.  But do we have to accept it?

But when a coach and a group of athletes decide together that they are not going to accept losing and will do everything they can to change losing ways and turn them into winning ways, then the victories begin to follow.  But if there are no competitors and losing is an acceptable end to any game, then victories will never follow.

As I approach this new basketball season, I am hoping and praying that I find a team who will not accept losing.  Three times before I have taken over programs that had become accustomed to losing, but found some true competitors who just needed their competitive spirit channeled in the right direction to turn things around.  They hated to lose and would not accept losing.  Once they were shown how to win, the sky became the limit.  I hope I find the same thing this year with my new team.  Do they really want to win or do they view losing as an acceptable end.  I will be finding out in the next few months.

The Longest Two Weeks of the Year

There are 13 days left before basketball season begins.  Just less than two weeks before I get to spend several hours a day teaching, instructing, and coaching the game I love.  But I just know this is going to be the longest two weeks of the year.  I still have four volleyball games and five volleyball practices left before I can put on my basketball shoes, grab my whistle, and walk on to the gym floor with my practice plan in hand.

For a second sport, volleyball has not been too bad.  The hours are nothing compared to those that football players put in.  It is in the air-conditioned gym.  And being the freshmen coach, it is not high stress.  However, it is not basketball.  It doesn't even pretend to be basketball.   About the only similarities between volleyball and basketball is they are played in the same gym and they both have a round ball.  In volleyball there seems to be an emphasis on smiling on the court and then having many premeditated dances, chants, sayings, and celebrations every time you make a point.  In basketball, when we score, we simply get back on defense and focus on stopping our opponent.   There is no dance or celebration or chant.

But very soon for me (but not soon enough), the sounds of basketball practice will begin echoing through the gym and the rituals of volleyball will soon fade into the distance.  It is that time of year.  It is my time to step up and step out and lead a basketball program.  It is time to get a season underway.  It is time to begin the march towards a championship.

No, it is not time yet.  I still have two weeks.  The longest two weeks of the year.

October

As October emerges from out of the shadow of the hot summer months, there is a different feeling in the air.  The weather begins to have cooler days (if being in the 80s and 90s is considered cooler), the frantic panic of the hot summer drought is replaced by rainy days after rainy days.  Some years the rains even bring damaging floods to the area.   October means that high school football is in district play and the NFL season is in full swing.  For me personally, October is a pleasant reminder of the day I married my wife nine years ago.

October also marks the official start of basketball.  It begins the four and half month long journey that we know as a basketball season.   It is the time that I am in my element.   The long hours of practices, followed by the late nights of games and marathons  of weekend basketball tournaments are all part of what I love about the journey of the season.  

October is the time where I begin teaching the girls on my team what it means to not only play basketball, but how to become winners both on and off the court.  It is the time that a new life is born (the season) and a family (the team) is formed.  It is the beginning of an up and down journey that promises to have its share of both thrills and heartaches.  It will be a journey that will either bring a team together or split it apart.  October marks the start of something new, where old successes and old failures are put in the past and new goals are sought.    In October, we start the dream of a championship season.  In October, we hope and pray that the dream does not die before its time.  

October is many things to many people.  But for me, October is the beginning.

Being a Focused Competitor

One of the key buzz words I find myself using in coaching is "Focus."  I am forever encouraging my players to stay focused.  To me a real competitor is focused and does not let anything detract from that focus.  External things, such as relationships or even school work, does not detract from the focus the competitor has while in the court.

Have you ever watched a real competitor play ball?  Look at their eyes.  You can see the focus.  One of the greatest competitors I have every seen was Michael Jordan.  When the game was on the line, did you see frivolity in his eyes or did you see razor sharp focus?  I saw that focus in his eyes that usually followed by figurative daggers in the hearts of his opponent.

How many high school players are focused like that?  I've been fortunate to have a few in my coaching career.  Unfortunately, most high school players are not focused.  I am both amazed and distrought when I see teams who are not focused.  What is even worse, is when their coaches seem to promote a lack of focus by allowing frivolity to be the overwhelming attitude in tight situations.  In fact, I dare say that it is often even encouraged. 

For two years, I had the fortune of working with a truly great coach, Bill Avey of Southwest High School in San Antonio.   Bill would sometimes literally come unglued if he caught his girls even smiling on the court in a tense situation.  His message was that this is not a time to think anything is funny or make light of the situation at all.  It was a time to be focused.  Yes, you can smile out of confidence because you know you are about to remedy the situation or make the play.  But smiling in the way that means, "It's OK that I just screwed up" shows a total lack of focus. 

As the start of high school basketball in Texas is just around the corner, I am focusing on changing a mindset.  I am encouraging my players to be focused.  Yes, I want them to have fun on the court.  But it is a lot more fun to win.  I don't find losing fun.  I don't want them to either.  The time to celebrate is after the win.  Not during the game.  In a close game I never want to have a time out that is simply full of players cheering, dancing,  and jumping up and down.  I have seen that.  And what happened?  They weren't focused on the next play and they lost.   How fun was that?  Wouldn't it have been better to save the cheering, dancing,  and jumping up and down until the game was actually won?  I would even put my money on the fact that had they stayed focused in the timeout huddle, they would have won the game.  Instead, they lost focused and lost the game.

Being a Competitor

Over the years I have come to realize that there are really very few true competitors in the world of high school athletics.  Most athletes think they are competitors because they enjoy playing the game or they like to win.  But is that really what a competitor is?   Are these high school athletes who claim to be a competitor living up to the standards that their coaches and those greats who came before them hold true?  The great John Wooden once said, “If you have one competitor on your squad you will be successful. If you have two you will be competing for the conference title and with three a national title.” He had no idea what four or five competitors on a single team would be like since he had never witnessed it.

As the start of basketball season is just around the corner, I am watching my players to see if I have any true competitors on my team.  In the upcoming blogs, I will be breaking down and writing about what a true competitor looks like.  Hopefully, I will find one or more on my team this year.  I know we will have some talent.  But will we have competitors?  As Coach Wooden so aptly put it, if I can find one competitor then I believe we will be successful and make the playoffs.  If I have two solid competitors, we will go deeper in the playoffs then the program has seen.  If by some chance, I have three, I honestly believe Regionals (and perhaps beyond) is a reasonable goal.

But will we have any competitors?  Or will be a team that is full of those who think they are competitors, but are deceiving themselves?  I sure hope its the first one.  Time will tell.

Working Out

For the first four weeks of school, we have been lifting and doing core work twice a week.  As you can see on the pictures on the side of this page, the girls have been working hard (well most have).  As we are drawing closer and closer to the official start of the season, I am beginning to teach the offenses and defenses we will be using. So far I have given the basic set of the match up zone we will employ.  We have only scratched the surface of this defense, but I am already excited about seeing us play it in real action.  I am very excited about the season and can't wait to get it really going.  45 minutes of athletic period, being in the gym only two days a week with a ball is not near enough.   But our day is coming.   I just hope the girls are as eager as I am.

37 Days Until Basketball Practice Begins

Not that I am counting, but there are 37 days left until basketball practice officially begins.  The girls at Gonzales High School have been working out during the athletic period for the past few weeks and I think we probably have some good players that can turn this program back around.  Now the question is how bad do they want it?  Will they be satisfied with mediocrity or are they really wanting to shoot for the stars and see just how deep into the playoffs we might be able to go.  Only time will tell.

Its now time to start seeing them in more basketball related activities while on the court.  Today we worked on some shooting drills.  Tomorrow will be a weight and flexibility training day.  Then it might be time soon to see how well they pick up the defense.   I, for one, am ready to start teaching the ins and outs of the offenses and defenses we will be running.  I just don't want to leave behind those in volleyball and I also know that some of what I teach will be beyond some of the more inexperienced players.  But I know I have to start putting it in.  I think that will begin on Thursday