11/28/07 #21 Pikeview Scrimmage

Had our first JV scrimmage. Our JV consists of 6 sophomores and 8 freshmen. The teams they will be competing against will be primarily juniors and sophomores. They are a very scrappy bunch with a lot of heart and desire. They try to do everything we teach them to the best of their ability. However, they are limited in that ability for right now. The biggest problem they face is the higher intensity level of high school practices. For now they practice with the varsity so that they can get some idea of how to do our drills and to see how hard our varsity practices. Theoretically anyway. They are very aggressive and are on the floor after the ball at every opportunity. They still got beat by 8 but never gave up. They are a good bunch.
Saw some more positives against Pikeview varsity. They should contend for the AA championship and gave us more than we wanted. They have an excellent point guard and 2 post players that were taller and better than anything we had. PG play has improved somewhat. SG play good. Post play not any worse than Monday. Our post players are weak defensively but are improving. They beat us by 2, 73-71 in 4 quarters but we spent most of our time working on our new defense and looking at different combinations and how well those combinations work. Even then we held the ball for 25 seconds, made the play we wanted, took the shot, it just missed. Things will get better.

11/28/07 #20

Despite distractions(see previous blog) everybody has responded well to changes in our game plans and was very focused during today's practice. Put in a zone defense and the girls seem to love it. The varsity is stepping up in practice and need leaders are starting to make themselves known. Working with the JV and they are getting better.

11/27/07 #19 Everything Changes

Still reeling from PG-point guard- knee injury, so as a staff we have had to come up with some major strategic adjustments for our team. We now have to replace about 15 points, 7+ assists, and 5+steals per game. We also now have no backup PG. Some of our offenses can be run by any of our guards and that helps. We were exclusively a man to man defensive squad but now some zone defenses are a possibility. Our D1-Division 1- SG (Shooting Guard) will now see more double teams and junk defenses and will be expected to contribute more. We will be pressed a lot more and in general should get every team's best effort every night. Overall, everybody will have to step up including the coaching staff. While we prepared for these possibilities it's like starting all over. However I'm confident the entire team will be up to the task. Also found out that 1 of my assistants will be suspended for 5 days so we'll be short handed til next Wednesday.

11/26/07 #18 Devastating News

Scrimmaged Winfield tonight. Played 6 quarters, won the 1st 4 by 16. Lost the last 2 by 2. They didn't have a JV so we played all of of our players all 6 quarters. They played their 8 best the last 2 quarters. We looked pretty good at times but had trouble occasionally with some 3/4 court traps.
Pluses: offense looked good, defense looked good at times, sophomore post player looked really good, senior post player looked really good, good effort from everybody.
Minuses: Junior guard and post players seemed dazed and confused. Sophomore guard played below expectations and starting junior guard was very disappointing.
Devastating- We lost our potential All-State, Division 1, Best point guard in the state to her recurring knee injury for the season. We go from a top 3 team in the state and very possibly a state championship to maybe a top 15 team or worse. She was being recruited heavily by 4 Division 1 teams- Big East and ACC. Her surgery is in 2 weeks and she should be ready by next August. We're trying to keep her involved as much as we can just to keep her spirits up.

11/26/07 #18

11/26/07 #18

11/24/07 #17

Had a varsity-only practice today. All but 3 players here and we knew where they were. Worked on fast break and spent a lot of time on our defense. We won't have any trouble scoring this year-maybe less trouble than last year. Our defense has always been suspect and we are doing everything we can to improve on it. We'll see Monday when we scrimmage Winfield, last year's runner-up in AA and a Top 10 team in the state. They have an excellent scoring guard and some decent post players.

11/23/07 Practice 23

Another lousy practice with only about 1/2 the team there. Concentrated on defense and shooting. Those that were there worked hard picked up the nuances of our defense well. Sophomore post player dominated or senior post Wednesday but was back to normal today. Still the potential is there. My other sophomore - a guard- is going to be hard to keep out of the starting line-up but should see plenty of time.

11/21/07 Practice 15

Only had 1/2 of our team due to Thanksgiving break and the split families, extended families, the blended families and any other kind. Did a lot of shooting and ball handling. Disappointed in turnout but just something to deal with. Tomorrow is an off day. Hope they don't eat too much or we'll see it Friday morning.

11/20/07 Practice 14 "Head Hurt"

As good as yesterday's practice was, today's was terrible. I don't know if everybody was looking ahead to being off Thursday, or if it was the wrong time of the month (not a problem with boys) or I wasn't explaining things right. But it was a terrible practice. 1 of my assistants had told me that watching the freshmen would make my "head hurt". It was everybody. We just had to struggle through it and try to keep the yelling to a minimum.

11/19/07 Practice 13

First practice over Thanksgiving holidays. No school. Morning practices. 1st full practice for my point guard who is rehabbing her knee. She looked good, all guards looked good but post play will be a question. 5 girls out for family reasons. Otherwise a good solid practice with a emphasis on offense.

11/17/2007 Practice 12

As good as yesterday's practice was, this was one was as bad. But not for the usual reasons. We had a fund raiser that ended today. All but 3 girls participated. As this is supposed to be a team sport I had a real problem with those girls who chose to put themselves above the team. We had a conditioning practice-we ran for almost the entire practice. Everything was timed and had a purpose. Probably the best things to come out of this practice- the girls saw that they are in better shape than we thought and hopefully that I stress a lot of importance on the team concept. Sometimes I have a hard time letting go of this type of thing. Hopefully I won't let this cloud my judgment when dealing with those 3 players. For 2 of those girls, though their actions were not surprising.
Next week, we need to start on our offense because we'll only be a week away from our 1st scrimmage.

11/16/2007 Practice 11

Very intense practice. Everybody working hard. I spent a large part of practice working with the JV. Felt like I needed to get to know them and while not overly athletic they are very smart. The best part of the day was the 1st signing of a Division 1 player by our team in 15 years. She's going to Youngstown State and makes us 3 scholarship players since the end of last season. Not bad for a program that was 1 of the worst AAA teams in the state 4 years ago.

11/15/07 Practice 10

Practice started off slow. I had a dentist appointment and didn't get there until they had already started stretching. My assistants are great in that they just start and go until I get there. After a while you can get a feel for a practice and how it will progress. After 10 practices, the girls might have been getting a little stale, so we kept to our basic drills and gradually introduced some new material. Then a controlled scrimmage at the end seemed to pick everybody up and we ended on a good note.

11/14 Practice 9

Not much to report. Girls are improving aerobically. We can tell because we time all conditioning drills and overall their times are coming down. We also weigh and measure per cent body fat several times throughout the season. It appears that girls are getting fatter, or have been over the 28+ years that I've been coaching- but they are still much fitter than the general student population. Anyway, 1 of our offenses are in, 2 more should be in by the beginning of next week, and our press is coming along. Can't say too much about these things, some opponent might actually be reading this. I seriously doubt it though!

11/13/07 - 8th Practice

Good practice, of course everybody practices hard until they figure out how much playing time they'll get. There is always a few though that will practice hard everyday and those are the ones that end up getting your respect. My 6' 2" girl showed up as if nothing happened. I'll speak to her about her actions and if they showed senior leadership, how did the other girls feel about her actions, and if she lost credibility as a leader. Other than that, the girl we thought might have to quit because of her job was here 2 days straight and looks like we can work with her work schedule. If she works out she could be a force in the middle-plus she's mean and that's alway good.

11/12/07-When it Rains....

Although Monday's practice itself was good, like so many other times in basketball, what happened off the court actually had a greater impact.Our 5'10" junior center- possibly the best athlete in the school has decided not to play after jerking us around all summer. She is so high maintenance that her potential only slightly outweighs her upkeep. Man, but when her head is on right, nobody can stop her. She pulled this last season, then played some with us over the summer then last week swore to me she was playing. She would have started and would have made all-state. It was not unexpected. My 6'2'' senior center has pulled the same stunt. We called her yesterday, said she didn't know about practice, said she was on her way but never showed up. Must have gotten lost. She would have been good for about 2 minutes or more each quarter-maybe more. She may show up for our next practice who knows. Probably the worst was that a new assistant is not going to be able to help us. He had played for me, helped me coach in junior high, worked with the varsity boys, and was working with me. However, his wife is expecting in March-their second- and needs him at home. I thought I had negotiated with her to use him for 1 hour 15 minutes a day but he would have eventually spent more time here and we all knew it. We'll see how it goes. God doesn't give you anything you can't deal with so we'll deal with it. But it would be nice if we didn't have to.

Saturday Practice

Good practice Saturday. Had 3 on college visits, 1 at a church function, 3 playing in our state volleyball tournament, and 1 at work-more on her later. So we structured the practice towards our new players and went over the expectations we have for them, the drills we use everyday, how they are to act during practice and the classroom, and some general housekeeping matters. We have decided to split our JV and Varsity practices because the JV are fundamentally weak although their attitudes will soon make up for it.
I had argued with 1 of my assistants over keeping the girl who had to work on Saturday. She had played for us last year as a freshman, quit over Christmas break, and never paid for any of her equipment. What I didn't know was just how bad her home life is. With no one in her family to support her-financially or emotionally-she was lucky to get to practice at all and eventually suffered severe emotional problems. As for her job now, it's because she is the primary caregiver for her younger brothers and sisters. She's 15. I will talk to her and tell her we feel that right now anything she can do for her family is much more important than anything she can do for us. Some kids will never know how well off they are.

Cuts

Finally cut today. After 5 days, everybody on the court pretty much knows who's on and who's not. The ones who didn't make it seemed so take it well and I explained to 3 of them what it would take for them to make the team next year. I also read the riot act to 3 of the players we kept- they are expected to play AAU and summer league ball or they won't be good enough to make the team next year. Nearly every one of our Varsity players played ball year round. The ones that didn't played another sport. So everybody's busy. And that translates into success.

4th Day of Tryouts

Thursday came and went with few surprises. We actually saw some talent lurking just under the surface of some scared 14 year old girls. We started working with our varsity and felt really good about what we saw. The girls are all working hard and the coaching staff is starting to mesh. We'll have to cut tomorrow.

3rd Day of Tryouts

Still have 29 out but need 24 or less. If we split quarters with 3 of our varsity players and use them in the JV game we are looking at an even smaller number. We will have 12 Varsity players and 12-14 JV players. The problem is that there is not much difference between the last 5 players. We would like to keep as many 9th graders as possible but there are are other considerations as well. Sometimes personality conflicts can cause major problems in the form of team chemistry. Or there are some kids that are just hard to get along with. Our season is 4 1/2 months long and what starts as a minor irritation could end up a major problem. Better to get rid of the problem early than deal with it during the season.
By the way, we're still looking for that radio contract.

2nd Day of Tryouts

We had 3 more girls come out today, but lost at least 4. Or the girls that didn't come back today got lost. We only want to keep 24 at most so we'll have to cut around 6-7 girls. 5 will be easy to pick but the last 2 to 3 are always tough and usually a gut call. We are also having problems with a local radio station who doesn't want to broadcast our games but doesn't want another station to broadcast them either. Supposedly they have the "rights"to our broadcasts. I get the feeling that I'm rocking the boat and that everybody was happier when the girl's team was sorry.

1st Day of Tryouts

We had 30 girls trying out today. 10 of these are 9th graders, 18 sophomores and juniors. We are returning 3 starters and have 10 girls returning from last year's varsity team. Our record last year was 20-3 and we lost in overtime in the first round of the state tournament. We will probably keep around 24- that would give us a complete Varsity and a complete JV team. At least 22-23 can play. We'll lose 1 to 2 girls to grades so keeping an extra girl or 2 won't hurt. If we keep too many, everybody ends up standing around or taking reps from the Varsity. I guess we'll see how it all shakes out.

Pre-season

Since school has started we've had 10 to 20 girls lifting weights and running 2 days a week. Our first practice is Monday, Nov. 5. We're anticipating 25 to 30 girls trying out. Guess we'll see.