Coaching Youth Basketball (2 Viewers)

[Chadstroma]

17-6-1


We played a team today that we should have destroyed. My two better players had just come directly from their club bball game earlier and kids getting over being sick. No energy and we played down to them. Ended up losing by 7 with about 1:30 left. Two defensive stops with fast breaks to pull it to 3 with 24 left. I set up a play stupidly not expecting press as they didn't press the previous 1:30 in the game. I shout some adjustments but my boys were lost... totally on me but they still executed the jist of what I outlined for the play and got it to my best three shooter and he sunk it. No OT in the league. Tie game.

Opposing coach was a younger kid... starting yelling that his foot was on the line. It looked like he was fine to me but I didn't pay extra attention to be sure either way. I ignored it but then he got colorful with his language in yelling at the refs... first one I ignored but the second one I just calming said to him "Ok, ok.... but no swearing with the kids around." and that seemed to calm him down.

 

[Chadstroma]

18-6-2

Two more games in the development league that doesn't hold standings etc.

We got the playoff schedule. Seeded #3. 9-2 record in league play.

Our first game is this Friday at home. We previously played against this team and comfortably defeated them. 5-6 record as the 14th seed. We should have a high probability of winning the game.

Assuming we win against them again, we will play again at home again on March 3rd and if seeding strengths follows through our opponent would be a team we have not yet played and are seeded 5th with a 8-3 record. I did not get a chance to see this team play but I did see their team as they were playing on another court during one of our games. It looked like they had some good height on a few players. Being that we have not played them and they have a pretty good record, this is the biggest unknown for me looking at the bracket.

If we win that game, the next would be at a Catholic High School March 5th, and if seeding follows through would be against the 2nd seed with a 9-2 record whom we played and lost to previously. It was a game we played very off on with our shots just not going in that normally do and were missing one of our top 4 players. They are a better team but when we played them, I really did feel like we beat ourselves more than they beat us. I would feel confident we have a good shot of getting revenge on this game.

If we win that game then the championship game will be at the same Catholic High School on March 11th and if seeding follows it would be against the team whom we played recently and defeated handing them their only loss of the season 10-1. They are a good team and we played a very good game against them so if it is a match again- it should be a heck of a game.

My boys have shown that they can beat any team in the league. They have also shown that we can also get beat by inferior teams. However, on all of losses and the two ties... only two losses happened when we had our top 4 players. We should have a pretty good chance of taking this all the way. It is really nice being the 3rd seed and having the first two games at home (assuming we win the first game).

 

[Chadstroma]

The team we were to play Friday forfeited.

Then the 11th seed beat the 6th seed. We played the 11th seed previously and easily defeated them. I went back and rewatched the game. They only had 6 players when they played us. Since they beat the 6th seed, which I thought was highly improbable, I suspected that they had another player that wasn't there and maybe didn't play much this season.

One of the mothers on the team reached out to me tonight and confirmed my suspicion. Apparently they have a player that missed a lot of time this season because he is on a travel team but he will play during the playoffs.

It will be interesting to see how this game goes.

 

[nirad3]

Sigh. Held a gigantic team to 0 points in 1st quarter on Saturday. Up by 4 at half, then just got obliterated in the 2nd half. Can't teach height. I feel bad for my boys, and it looks like at least one family has dropped off (one of my better/quicker guards) as they were no-call-no-show at the game Saturday and again for practice yesterday.

One regular season game left, and this team has ONE kid that can score (and he's tall). Gonna have two of my quick guards just pester the absolute crap out of him all over the court. Hopefully we can get at least one win.... playoffs start next week and if we win on Friday 3/10 then I unfortunately have to skip the 3/11 game(s) due to a family event.

Glad to get a break from coaching and just WATCH my kid practice/play flag football which kicks off this week.

 

[Chadstroma]

Sigh. Held a gigantic team to 0 points in 1st quarter on Saturday. Up by 4 at half, then just got obliterated in the 2nd half. Can't teach height. I feel bad for my boys, and it looks like at least one family has dropped off (one of my better/quicker guards) as they were no-call-no-show at the game Saturday and again for practice yesterday.

One regular season game left, and this team has ONE kid that can score (and he's tall). Gonna have two of my quick guards just pester the absolute crap out of him all over the court. Hopefully we can get at least one win.... playoffs start next week and if we win on Friday 3/10 then I unfortunately have to skip the 3/11 game(s) due to a family event.

Glad to get a break from coaching and just WATCH my kid practice/play flag football which kicks off this week.

I am really interested to see how we do Friday with the other team having that ringer in.

Everyone on the team has scored... more than once.... except my two boys that have trouble catching a pass and have to be pretty much right under the basket to make it. After our playoff on Friday we have one more game in the developmental league. I told my boys today that our goal for that game would be to get those two boys a basket. I set up a specific play for them where hopefully they can get open under the basket and then catch the ball cleanly and get the ball up.... it is nearly a mission impossible. I am hoping that opposing team leaves them alone as has happened before when they realize that they are not much of a threat.... that and some luck.... and hopefully they score.

I do plenty of watching with football, soccer, swim, my girls basketball and volleyball.... I am going to miss coaching my boys when this season is done. I will see pretty much all of them at various school events and some will be doing soccer this season but it isn't the same as being with them as a team. I will look forward to next year.

 

[Chadstroma]

Need feedback...

Tonight was supposed to be our playoff game. Game is 5:30 at our home court as the high seed. We start warming up a little after 5 and there is no one from the other team. 5:15 rolls around and still nothing which is the point where it gets to be very noticeable. We wait.... 5:30 and nothing. Per league rules, we waited for another 10 minutes. Still nothing. My AD sent another email out around the 5:20 mark. No response on anything. Officially it was a forfeit.

Now, leading up to today there was a big to do about a huge storm coming through. Everything from 3-10 inches was said to be coming. Our school even decided Thursday night to do an early dismissal. Emails went out on Thursday from the league saying the following in bold (Mike's is out school):
Here is the schedule for Mike’s on Friday.

The main goal is to play the games as scheduled.

If Mike’s has to close their gym, we will reschedule on Saturday afternoon.

We will send an update as soon as we have one.

Follow up emails went out and said that a final determination would be made at 3pm today. And then around 3pm, emails went out that the games were on as there was basically no snow (none that stuck) and the roads were normal.

Since we had the court, I decided to do a Fathers vs sons "game". Basically we all jumped on the court and played 'basketball'. The kids had a blast, none of the Dads got hurt (though most are sore now). It was fun but I expected that they would say that there was some mistake made and then ask to reschedule.

Sure enough, I get a text from our AD. Saying the other team thought that all games were canceled. The league said that we could play tomorrow at 1:30pm at their court. The first thing is that I hate 'winning' by forfeit and I feel bad for the boys on the other team as it is not their fault. I know if I messed up in similar fashion, I would hope the other team would reschedule.
On the other hand, I really do not like the idea of going from our home court to go to their court and playing. We also have a game later a 4:15pm though it is just our last game in the development league but still. Finally, I have a full day tomorrow as is. My daughter has volleyball all morning. Then we have a family gathering. My youngest has a little basketball clinic and then the 4:15 game which I will sneak off with the boys and come back during. We will basically miss the entire time with family to make this make up game.

One more thing....the conspiracy side of me is wondering this: We played this team earlier in the year and it was a complete blow out. 23-12 and it wasn't that close. Mercy rule was enforced where defense had to stay in the paint and I pulled my better players and let the lesser players get more playing time. They are the 11th seed and we are the 3rd seed. They beat the 6th seed to move on. I found that very interesting and odd- very surprising and was suspicious that they had a player that didn't play against us and must not have played much this season as their record was not very good. I found out that I was right, apparently they had a very good player (exactly how good no one knows but obviously a difference maker to beat the 6th seed) that didn't play most of their season due to whatever conflicts but then he played. I was thinking.... they would know that they had no chance against us without this player. What if he couldn't make today? You could say that you made a mistake because of the expected snow storm and then ask for a reschedule. If you are denied the reschedule, then you don't really lose out on anything as you would most likely lose anyways. If you do get the reschedule, then you have a chance. I have NO reason to suspect this but it did cross my mind.

I sent a message to my team explaining this and asking for availability. All my players were here tonight- if one of them is not available, then I will decline because that puts us at a disadvantage. A few have responded but waiting on several more. So far, everyone can make it. If everyone can make it, then I have to decide. My AD gave me full permission to decline. One more note... the first game of our playoffs, the team forfeited straight out.

Selfishly, I don't want to do it. My back is already sore and in pain from playing with the boys tonight and I will be worn out with more volleyball in the morning and running around. Can I do it? Yes. But I really, really, really don't want to.

But again, I keep thinking of the boys on the other team. They don't deserve not having a shot.

Thoughts? What would you do? What do you think I should do?

 

[Instinctive]

Need feedback...

Tonight was supposed to be our playoff game. Game is 5:30 at our home court as the high seed. We start warming up a little after 5 and there is no one from the other team. 5:15 rolls around and still nothing which is the point where it gets to be very noticeable. We wait.... 5:30 and nothing. Per league rules, we waited for another 10 minutes. Still nothing. My AD sent another email out around the 5:20 mark. No response on anything. Officially it was a forfeit.

Now, leading up to today there was a big to do about a huge storm coming through. Everything from 3-10 inches was said to be coming. Our school even decided Thursday night to do an early dismissal. Emails went out on Thursday from the league saying the following in bold (Mike's is out school):
Here is the schedule for Mike’s on Friday.

The main goal is to play the games as scheduled.

If Mike’s has to close their gym, we will reschedule on Saturday afternoon.

We will send an update as soon as we have one.

Follow up emails went out and said that a final determination would be made at 3pm today. And then around 3pm, emails went out that the games were on as there was basically no snow (none that stuck) and the roads were normal.

Since we had the court, I decided to do a Fathers vs sons "game". Basically we all jumped on the court and played 'basketball'. The kids had a blast, none of the Dads got hurt (though most are sore now). It was fun but I expected that they would say that there was some mistake made and then ask to reschedule.

Sure enough, I get a text from our AD. Saying the other team thought that all games were canceled. The league said that we could play tomorrow at 1:30pm at their court. The first thing is that I hate 'winning' by forfeit and I feel bad for the boys on the other team as it is not their fault. I know if I messed up in similar fashion, I would hope the other team would reschedule.
On the other hand, I really do not like the idea of going from our home court to go to their court and playing. We also have a game later a 4:15pm though it is just our last game in the development league but still. Finally, I have a full day tomorrow as is. My daughter has volleyball all morning. Then we have a family gathering. My youngest has a little basketball clinic and then the 4:15 game which I will sneak off with the boys and come back during. We will basically miss the entire time with family to make this make up game.

One more thing....the conspiracy side of me is wondering this: We played this team earlier in the year and it was a complete blow out. 23-12 and it wasn't that close. Mercy rule was enforced where defense had to stay in the paint and I pulled my better players and let the lesser players get more playing time. They are the 11th seed and we are the 3rd seed. They beat the 6th seed to move on. I found that very interesting and odd- very surprising and was suspicious that they had a player that didn't play against us and must not have played much this season as their record was not very good. I found out that I was right, apparently they had a very good player (exactly how good no one knows but obviously a difference maker to beat the 6th seed) that didn't play most of their season due to whatever conflicts but then he played. I was thinking.... they would know that they had no chance against us without this player. What if he couldn't make today? You could say that you made a mistake because of the expected snow storm and then ask for a reschedule. If you are denied the reschedule, then you don't really lose out on anything as you would most likely lose anyways. If you do get the reschedule, then you have a chance. I have NO reason to suspect this but it did cross my mind.

I sent a message to my team explaining this and asking for availability. All my players were here tonight- if one of them is not available, then I will decline because that puts us at a disadvantage. A few have responded but waiting on several more. So far, everyone can make it. If everyone can make it, then I have to decide. My AD gave me full permission to decline. One more note... the first game of our playoffs, the team forfeited straight out.

Selfishly, I don't want to do it. My back is already sore and in pain from playing with the boys tonight and I will be worn out with more volleyball in the morning and running around. Can I do it? Yes. But I really, really, really don't want to.

But again, I keep thinking of the boys on the other team. They don't deserve not having a shot.

Thoughts? What would you do? What do you think I should do?

Seems like A) shenanigans and B) no upside

I'd easily tell them tough cookies (perhaps more politely).

 

[Chadstroma]

Need feedback...

Tonight was supposed to be our playoff game. Game is 5:30 at our home court as the high seed. We start warming up a little after 5 and there is no one from the other team. 5:15 rolls around and still nothing which is the point where it gets to be very noticeable. We wait.... 5:30 and nothing. Per league rules, we waited for another 10 minutes. Still nothing. My AD sent another email out around the 5:20 mark. No response on anything. Officially it was a forfeit.

Now, leading up to today there was a big to do about a huge storm coming through. Everything from 3-10 inches was said to be coming. Our school even decided Thursday night to do an early dismissal. Emails went out on Thursday from the league saying the following in bold (Mike's is out school):
Here is the schedule for Mike’s on Friday.

The main goal is to play the games as scheduled.

If Mike’s has to close their gym, we will reschedule on Saturday afternoon.

We will send an update as soon as we have one.

Follow up emails went out and said that a final determination would be made at 3pm today. And then around 3pm, emails went out that the games were on as there was basically no snow (none that stuck) and the roads were normal.

Since we had the court, I decided to do a Fathers vs sons "game". Basically we all jumped on the court and played 'basketball'. The kids had a blast, none of the Dads got hurt (though most are sore now). It was fun but I expected that they would say that there was some mistake made and then ask to reschedule.

Sure enough, I get a text from our AD. Saying the other team thought that all games were canceled. The league said that we could play tomorrow at 1:30pm at their court. The first thing is that I hate 'winning' by forfeit and I feel bad for the boys on the other team as it is not their fault. I know if I messed up in similar fashion, I would hope the other team would reschedule.
On the other hand, I really do not like the idea of going from our home court to go to their court and playing. We also have a game later a 4:15pm though it is just our last game in the development league but still. Finally, I have a full day tomorrow as is. My daughter has volleyball all morning. Then we have a family gathering. My youngest has a little basketball clinic and then the 4:15 game which I will sneak off with the boys and come back during. We will basically miss the entire time with family to make this make up game.

One more thing....the conspiracy side of me is wondering this: We played this team earlier in the year and it was a complete blow out. 23-12 and it wasn't that close. Mercy rule was enforced where defense had to stay in the paint and I pulled my better players and let the lesser players get more playing time. They are the 11th seed and we are the 3rd seed. They beat the 6th seed to move on. I found that very interesting and odd- very surprising and was suspicious that they had a player that didn't play against us and must not have played much this season as their record was not very good. I found out that I was right, apparently they had a very good player (exactly how good no one knows but obviously a difference maker to beat the 6th seed) that didn't play most of their season due to whatever conflicts but then he played. I was thinking.... they would know that they had no chance against us without this player. What if he couldn't make today? You could say that you made a mistake because of the expected snow storm and then ask for a reschedule. If you are denied the reschedule, then you don't really lose out on anything as you would most likely lose anyways. If you do get the reschedule, then you have a chance. I have NO reason to suspect this but it did cross my mind.

I sent a message to my team explaining this and asking for availability. All my players were here tonight- if one of them is not available, then I will decline because that puts us at a disadvantage. A few have responded but waiting on several more. So far, everyone can make it. If everyone can make it, then I have to decide. My AD gave me full permission to decline. One more note... the first game of our playoffs, the team forfeited straight out.

Selfishly, I don't want to do it. My back is already sore and in pain from playing with the boys tonight and I will be worn out with more volleyball in the morning and running around. Can I do it? Yes. But I really, really, really don't want to.

But again, I keep thinking of the boys on the other team. They don't deserve not having a shot.

Thoughts? What would you do? What do you think I should do?

Seems like A) shenanigans and B) no upside

I'd easily tell them tough cookies (perhaps more politely).

I am 95% sure I will decline.

I am already worn and right now at my daughter's vball which will be until about noon. Then drive do extra driving and take my son away from a family party. Then a little later go to another game. Can I do it? Sure but I am low om energy and sore as is. I would be much more inclined at home court.

 

[Chadstroma]

I declined to reschedule. It was just too much for me to add that in and I am good with the decision because I was exhausted as was by the day and my son was able to be at his cousins birthday party.

We had our last game in the development league. We had two boys that had not scored at all for the entire season. I told the boys that our goal was not to win the game but that it would be to get those two boys baskets. The team we played we actually pretty good. It would have been a good battle if we were playing to win. However, I started both of those boys and earlier in the week put together a special play for them.

It quickly went south. On defense, it was like we were playing 5 on 3 and offense was rough as it went through those two boys. Finally, we got to the mercy rule were the other team has to stay in the paint.... finally, after numerous attempts... we finally got each of them to score. By that time it was 6-24 but half way through the second half. It would have been an amazing come back and I think we stunned them with the level of play we can do when I shifted gears and put my top lineup in and had them go at it. It ended 16-28 and just ran out of time to make a good run out of it to come back.

Today was the semi-final. We played one of the teams that beat us earlier in the season, only two teams did so in this league. The refs were tight on the travel, double dribble, etc calls but let them play when it came to fouls. They did so fairly and evenly. The first time we played them, it was 17-21 and we were behind the whole time. This was a defensive battle ending at 9-7 (but we had pulled away towards the end and it was 9-4 but they hit a 3 with about 10 seconds left). It was a good ole' 80's/90's Bad Boys vs. Knicks near brawl... not a now NBA shooting range with no defense.

They were certainly prepared for us. One good/bad thing about our school is that all of our home games are on the school's athletic Youtube channel. There is no doubt in my mind that they did a good amount of scouting and prepared well for what we do. I had to adjust how we executed our offense to take advantage of them pressuring us up at half court and our out of bounds play (we have only had one all season long as I have focused on keeping things simple and focused on development and executing basic basketball concepts). It was still hard sledding but we got some good looks out of it. I adjusted our in bounds play with a little success and then I just drew up a simple play at the blocks and elbows, with the blocks moving up to the elbows and setting screens and then the elbows both cutting to the basket.... it worked beautifully and we got a basket out of it. It just showed that they were really focused on what we did and were not ready for us to change things up,

A big thing for us to keep on top was composure. Two of my top four players can lose it when they don't get calls their way or they make mistakes etc. It is my son and another boy- whom are very alike in many ways. Both started getting frustrated but kept it together. If they didn't... we would have been in trouble.

Looking ahead, the 5 seed beat the 1st seed in a game before ours. We played this 5th seed in our first game of the season and beat them 10-4. I watched most of the game and the top seed had one player that really was the offense and they did a very good job in shutting him down, just as we did when we played the top seed previously. Once the top seeds best player was not effective, they didn't really have much. The 5th seed doesn't have a clear start player. They have a couple of boys that are pretty good. I think they beat top seed mostly on their success of shutting their top guy down. Our team has three players who can score effectively (my son is not as much of a scoring threat but is an effective defender and rebounder... he has the ability to shoot better than he does in games but gets too excited on his shots and either will knock it down or miss wildly and has issues with layups.... once he gets his layups in order he can be a top scorer as well). I feel like we have the advantage on this and should pull off the win but you can't take that for granted. Wish us luck for next Sat.

 

[nirad3]

Finally won a game. LOL

We played a team that we'd played before, and they had ONE real, real talented kid. Probably the most talented kid in the league. He dropped like 20 on us last time we met. I knew going in that I was going to have one of my quick, scrappy kids AND one of my taller/more talented kids double-team him no matter where he was on the court.

Well.....

Kid didn't show up for our game Saturday. The rest of his team - including 2 of the handful of girls in the league - was simply not very good... so we won 13-3. This team did have a couple of giants and we were able to still outrebound them, something we couldn't do against bigger players the week prior.

Glad we finally got a win since we also had a pizza party with the kids/parents after the game.... everyone was in a good mood.

On to the playoffs where we'll probably lose.... which is fine, cuz I'm kinda burnt out and my kid is starting flag football (which he has taken to much better than hoops).

 

[Gally]

Thoughts? What would you do? What do you think I should do?

At that age group I would have rescheduled if possible. Sounds like the options didn't fit into your schedule to do the game but playing is much better than not.....even if you were to lose.

 

[Chadstroma]

Thoughts? What would you do? What do you think I should do?

At that age group I would have rescheduled if possible. Sounds like the options didn't fit into your schedule to do the game but playing is much better than not.....even if you were to lose.

I generally agree.... but I am comfortable with my decision in this case. When I presented it to the team, everyone made themselves available but several, including my son, would be missing other commitments/family events to do so. One boy would be coming from another event (thus tired) and then we would have to travel to their court (when it was supposed to be played on our court) and then travel to our regular schedule game pretty much right after. For me, it would have made a long and busy day even that more so. I was exhausted as it was. Finally, I really don't understand how there was any 'miscommunication'. We all got the emails and they were all clear that the game was still possible and would be called at 3pm.... and the entire area had no snow at all. I very highly suspect that their star player who apparently had not played almost any of the regular season games (if any) was again not available for that Friday night and this was their trying to make it that they could fit it into their schedule. Without that star player, they had really no chance to beat us. With the star player, I think that they would have had to been extremely lucky with all the breaks their way to beat us. I have heard of some funny business done previous. They even kicked a school out of the league before for violations. I obviously have no proof, but if I had to put a bet on it, I would say that they were trying to play games on this.

My daughter had a very similar situation this year during her playoffs. The other team was a no show. They said it was miscommunication (with absolutely no reason for there to be one) and asked to reschedule. I felt, as long as it didn't put us at a disadvantage or any of the girls were unable to make it. I made that argument as a parent. We hosted the game and played it. Our girls won and moved on.

In this situation, after thinking about it, I felt it was putting too much of a burden on our players which was unfair to them. If we could have played at home, didn't have another game scheduled and it didn't seem to be burden our payers or put is in a disadvantage, then I would have accepted.

 

[Chadstroma]

Big game tomorrow. Championship.

We had 4 practices this week where we normally have 1 or 2. We had the court time as almost all the school teams are done for the season and I really wanted to add some things to our offense, in bounds and then press break.

The last game- they were prepared for our 1 in bound play we have and they attacked our offense. It was clear from scouting. We were able to adjust on the fly and won but I wanted to add some things. Also, we never put in a press break or the season as you can only do so in the last 2 minutes of the game and my PG is a pretty good ball handler with speed to beat it on his own mostly. I wanted to add those in and then as it looks like they go with a 1-3-1 zone. So, put in a 4 out 1 high post from our normal 5 out and used the concepts we talked about all season in keeping gaps, using passing to open the court and attacking the basket to help them work through how to use that against a 1-3-1 as our "fortnite" formation (yes, I let them name it).

We have more than a couple "I am not going to be at practice coach" which a couple were understandable "I am going to the Dentist" but a few made me a little perturbed... like "I have a piano lesson".... WTF.... one week? Just one week before the championship? You can't skip the piano lesson?! But whatever.... the biggest concern though is that my second best ball handler and normally second best scorer was not at school or practice on Thursday. Friday was a half day and a lot of kids apparently take those days off so I have no idea what his status is.... and of course, it is the one family that basically never communicates. So, I will find out tomorrow if we have him and we should win or we don't and it will be a game up for grabs.

One cool thing was that that last weekend, I added a few parents from school on my FB. One happened to be one of the boys we helped get the score for. She had made a post after the game (before we connected as friends) with a video of her son making the basket. On it, she wrote "There are moments you live for as a parent and your kid making his first basket during a game is one of them!! Will did it and had great coaches and teammates supporting him to make it happen. Go Wildcats!!!" It was really cool to see how it meant to the parents. I really didn't even think about that. I knew it meant something to boys which is why we did it but it gave extra warm and fuzzies reading that.

Here is hoping to a post about a Championship soon!!!

 

[Deamon]

Big game tomorrow. Championship.

We had 4 practices this week where we normally have 1 or 2. We had the court time as almost all the school teams are done for the season and I really wanted to add some things to our offense, in bounds and then press break.

The last game- they were prepared for our 1 in bound play we have and they attacked our offense. It was clear from scouting. We were able to adjust on the fly and won but I wanted to add some things. Also, we never put in a press break or the season as you can only do so in the last 2 minutes of the game and my PG is a pretty good ball handler with speed to beat it on his own mostly. I wanted to add those in and then as it looks like they go with a 1-3-1 zone. So, put in a 4 out 1 high post from our normal 5 out and used the concepts we talked about all season in keeping gaps, using passing to open the court and attacking the basket to help them work through how to use that against a 1-3-1 as our "fortnite" formation (yes, I let them name it).

We have more than a couple "I am not going to be at practice coach" which a couple were understandable "I am going to the Dentist" but a few made me a little perturbed... like "I have a piano lesson".... WTF.... one week? Just one week before the championship? You can't skip the piano lesson?! But whatever.... the biggest concern though is that my second best ball handler and normally second best scorer was not at school or practice on Thursday. Friday was a half day and a lot of kids apparently take those days off so I have no idea what his status is.... and of course, it is the one family that basically never communicates. So, I will find out tomorrow if we have him and we should win or we don't and it will be a game up for grabs.

One cool thing was that that last weekend, I added a few parents from school on my FB. One happened to be one of the boys we helped get the score for. She had made a post after the game (before we connected as friends) with a video of her son making the basket. On it, she wrote "There are moments you live for as a parent and your kid making his first basket during a game is one of them!! Will did it and had great coaches and teammates supporting him to make it happen. Go Wildcats!!!" It was really cool to see how it meant to the parents. I really didn't even think about that. I knew it meant something to boys which is why we did it but it gave extra warm and fuzzies reading that.

Here is hoping to a post about a Championship soon!!!

Damn. I've coached at lots of levels but this stuff seems really intense for 8-9 year olds, isn't it? 1-3-1's and press breaks seem crazy to me when there's full games where teams only score 4 points!!!

 

[Chadstroma]

Big game tomorrow. Championship.

We had 4 practices this week where we normally have 1 or 2. We had the court time as almost all the school teams are done for the season and I really wanted to add some things to our offense, in bounds and then press break.

The last game- they were prepared for our 1 in bound play we have and they attacked our offense. It was clear from scouting. We were able to adjust on the fly and won but I wanted to add some things. Also, we never put in a press break or the season as you can only do so in the last 2 minutes of the game and my PG is a pretty good ball handler with speed to beat it on his own mostly. I wanted to add those in and then as it looks like they go with a 1-3-1 zone. So, put in a 4 out 1 high post from our normal 5 out and used the concepts we talked about all season in keeping gaps, using passing to open the court and attacking the basket to help them work through how to use that against a 1-3-1 as our "fortnite" formation (yes, I let them name it).

We have more than a couple "I am not going to be at practice coach" which a couple were understandable "I am going to the Dentist" but a few made me a little perturbed... like "I have a piano lesson".... WTF.... one week? Just one week before the championship? You can't skip the piano lesson?! But whatever.... the biggest concern though is that my second best ball handler and normally second best scorer was not at school or practice on Thursday. Friday was a half day and a lot of kids apparently take those days off so I have no idea what his status is.... and of course, it is the one family that basically never communicates. So, I will find out tomorrow if we have him and we should win or we don't and it will be a game up for grabs.

One cool thing was that that last weekend, I added a few parents from school on my FB. One happened to be one of the boys we helped get the score for. She had made a post after the game (before we connected as friends) with a video of her son making the basket. On it, she wrote "There are moments you live for as a parent and your kid making his first basket during a game is one of them!! Will did it and had great coaches and teammates supporting him to make it happen. Go Wildcats!!!" It was really cool to see how it meant to the parents. I really didn't even think about that. I knew it meant something to boys which is why we did it but it gave extra warm and fuzzies reading that.

Here is hoping to a post about a Championship soon!!!

Damn. I've coached at lots of levels but this stuff seems really intense for 8-9 year olds, isn't it? 1-3-1's and press breaks seem crazy to me when there's full games where teams only score 4 points!!!

Most teams we have played run a zone defense, almost all really. My team has done man to man because I feel like that is best for their long term development even though the zone defenses tend to be generally more effective at this level. Though the fact that we zigged when most zagged actually has end up helping us on defense as teams we play are more accustomed to playing against a zone defense.

Most of our games have been in the high teen's and twenties for us with running clocks and 10 min halfs. Our last game was a brutal defensive battle. The refs let them play and both teams were playing good, hard defense and taking advantage of the loose foul call interpretations. On top of that, it took us some time to adjust to them having prepped so well for what we like to do on offense and completely shutting down our one in bound play.

Last year our team lost in the end of year tournament (they don't have playoffs) to a team that clearly spent a lot of time practicing a couple of offensive plays that were 'advanced' for the age. Versus our team that really didn't have any offensive plays because we focused on skill development and understanding the game versus memorizing/practicing set plays. On offense, we have had a very basic offense. For most of the year that really was a screen or give and go or pick and roll. My focus was on getting them to be able to execute the basics well and then teaching them concepts such as off ball movement, gaps, passing lanes, attacking the basket, etc. We have not had any press break set ups all year long. I really just relied on my PG to break them himself which he has been able to do because most full court presses were man to man and he is capable of beating most kids one on one. However, I watching the other semi-final game, they did a full court zone press at the end of the game. So, I wanted to be prepared. Because of focusing on their understanding of the game adding some new things to prep for this game went smoothly for the most part. How effective... well, I guess I will see in a couple of hours.

I would put the play level of this school league well above a rec league and just a bit under club. I think the better teams in the league would be able to compete against club teams.

Overall, I have kept it pretty basic this year which has paid off in being able to adjust and add things in like a different offensive set up, a press break play and a couple of new in bounds plays. I am just coaching with what I got and what I am dealing with. The boys are doing a great job.

 

[Chadstroma]

Champions.

Overall record 21-7-2 (2 ties in a development league that didn't have OT).

The game was a great one. 21-17 in OT.

We had a full team which was good because if we were missing one of our top 4 players then we would likely not have won. Each one of them delivered some great plays and even my rotation of our next 3 players contributed. Both teams were playing hard and well. The defense was phenomenal for both sides. The refs were calling a tight game.

They had two very good players that did not play when we played them in our first game of the season. I suspect that they were also doing club and missed much of the season judging by their record. They beat the top seeded team who previously only lost to us. That was a good game as well.

I put my son on the taller slower of the two and my best defender on the quicker of those two. I debated going with my PG, who is a good defender as well, on him but he would give up some height on him while my best defender is quick enough to keep up with him, taller and can be physical.

We started out a little slow going down 5-1. Then my son hit a 16 footer was fouled and dropped in his free throw for a 3 point play to get us going. We battled through and my PG hit a 3. We went ahead and were up by 4 which was the biggest difference in the game. About mid way through the second half, my best defender picked up his 4th foul. I took him out for a bit but then my son picked up his 4th and without my top 4 guys in, they other team was breaking us down on defense getting their other players involved. I had to roll the dice. Told both of them that they had to not foul but still play good defense. The game went down to the end and was tied- 17 all.

A 3 minute OT. The first minute was some back and forth with great swarming defense on both sides. Neither team could really get an open look. Under two minutes they hit us with a zone press. My son, pressured by their press, threw a long pass to my best defender of which both him and his defender jumped up to get it. They collided and the whistle blew. I felt it was a foul on the other team but if it went the other way it would have been horrible as my best defender would have been ejected and they would have had their bonus shots. We got the call, my boy goes to the line and drops both. We go up by two. Close to a minute left, one of my non-top 4 players, got his hand on the ball when their guy was driving with his help defense. If he didn't, he would have blow by my kid and there would have been no one else and then an easy lay up for him. That play may have saved us as they could have tied us and then we would have been down one very important player. Then next play, my second best scorer drove and took a little float with three of their defenders coming over (there is a great picture of this from a professional sports photographer that was there) and sunk it. Almost all my boys went back down the court with their arms up celebrating, the gym is going crazy and I am screaming for press. They kind of realized themselves and go to press. My boys were juiced and they were all over their two best players- not giving them any chance of a look at the basket. They go their ball to a taller kid on their team who backed up to take a three but you could tell he wasn't comfortable with that and tried to get it over to one of their stars. There was no passing lane so he launched it and it didn't come close. My boys played keep away and time ran out.

A very exciting and good game to end a great season with a wonderful group of boys.

 

[Chadstroma]

Ok... why the thinking emoji to that post @Deamon

 

[Chadstroma]

Ok... why the thinking emoji to that post @Deamon

Whatever

 

[Gally]

Most teams we have played run a zone defense, almost all really. My team has done man to man because I feel like that is best for their long term development even though the zone defenses tend to be generally more effective at this level. Though the fact that we zigged when most zagged actually has end up helping us on defense as teams we play are more accustomed to playing against a zone defense.

In our league they required this age group to play man to man. The problem is they didn't enforce it so there was one coach that went zone all the time. I tried talking to the officials a few times about this and the other coach tried to play it off as he was playing "man" but it was more of matchup zone (which is what he called it once when discussing it with the officials and then quickly retracted). I didn't really care too much as I thought that requirement was dumb but it was the principle of the thing. If the rules stated no zone then a team shouldn't be able to run a zone.

At that age the biggest obstacle to an offense is pressure. Typically there is only 1 or 1-1/2 players that can actually handle some pressure per team. So man to man with pressure usually disrupts any offense unless the PG is good enough (or the defender is lacking) to break down the defender and get by him. Then "help" defense is usually not the greatest and you get easy buckets. I tried to stress defense in all my practices as that is the key to the game IMO. We were able to be fairly successful with that approach over the years. Unfortunately my son decided to focus on baseball once he got to HS instead of playing both. Can't blame him too much because he got zapped of a lot of his quickness in 8th/9th grade as he was having significant ankle/knee pains from growing. Once the spurt happened he was fine but basically having two years off due to not being able to move easily put him behind the curve.

 

[Chadstroma]

Most teams we have played run a zone defense, almost all really. My team has done man to man because I feel like that is best for their long term development even though the zone defenses tend to be generally more effective at this level. Though the fact that we zigged when most zagged actually has end up helping us on defense as teams we play are more accustomed to playing against a zone defense.

In our league they required this age group to play man to man. The problem is they didn't enforce it so there was one coach that went zone all the time. I tried talking to the officials a few times about this and the other coach tried to play it off as he was playing "man" but it was more of matchup zone (which is what he called it once when discussing it with the officials and then quickly retracted). I didn't really care too much as I thought that requirement was dumb but it was the principle of the thing. If the rules stated no zone then a team shouldn't be able to run a zone.

At that age the biggest obstacle to an offense is pressure. Typically there is only 1 or 1-1/2 players that can actually handle some pressure per team. So man to man with pressure usually disrupts any offense unless the PG is good enough (or the defender is lacking) to break down the defender and get by him. Then "help" defense is usually not the greatest and you get easy buckets. I tried to stress defense in all my practices as that is the key to the game IMO. We were able to be fairly successful with that approach over the years. Unfortunately my son decided to focus on baseball once he got to HS instead of playing both. Can't blame him too much because he got zapped of a lot of his quickness in 8th/9th grade as he was having significant ankle/knee pains from growing. Once the spurt happened he was fine but basically having two years off due to not being able to move easily put him behind the curve.

I told our parents to start the season. I am playing man to man defense not because I think it is best to win now but because I believe it is best for long term development of the kids. Same with offense, that we would start with a very basic and simple offense which was literally running a screen, a give and go or a pick and roll. Again, for me it was about long term development.

For the other teams, the default was a zone.... it was just a question of what zone that they ran. One of our sister teams ran a 1-2-2. A 3-2 was the most popular. The last two teams we played ran a 1-3-1. I think out of the two leagues, a couple of exhibition games and the tournament that we came across only one team running a man to man defense.

The decision to go man to man and focus on basics on offense, though made with a now be damned my focus is on the future attitude, ended up giving us an advantage in our games a lot of times. Teams were not use to playing against man to man as all the other teams played zone. I spent a lot of time coaching help defense. At times, the boys did awesome with it and at other times they basically watched the kid on the other time go to the hoop like "not my job!" Even in the Championship game, the points that were no from free throws mostly came from poor help defense. When we played decent help defense they could not do anything against us. It got better as the season went on but it was still not 'perfect' even to the end.

If the other teams played more man to man, we would have feasted even more. My PG could consistently beat most defenders on the dribble but with the zones he would run right into the other defenders and I had to coach him more on using that against them to pass out of it and create the opening for a team mate as the zone shifted over to him. He improved over the season on that a lot.

I should have done this at the start of the season but about half way, I drilled into my boys "Defense, Rebounding and Passing" that is how we win. As 4th graders will do... they would get lazy on their defensive posture here and there and would have to remind them but it was really awesome seeing them after a season of my drilling it that when they were locked in, they were down and dirty with knees bent, backs up, gliding side to side with their hips facing their man as I went over and over and over with them in the Championship game. I didn't have to say anything all game long about it other than "you guys are playing great defense, just keep aware and help defense if we get beat"

My son has never done baseball. It was never a conscious decision, just never worked out. Soccer and Swim during spring/summer make it hard. Saturday, as he is playing a baseball game on his mothers phone, says to me "Daddy, I want to try playing baseball." Oh good grief. I don't know if I can add that in. I really don't want him to give up swim, which I know he would agree to try baseball because just like you said... if he takes a season off, he will lose the advantage he has over most of the kids his age.

I asked the boys on the last practice what level of basketball they hoped to play. Next year. All hands go up. Jr High? All nine hands go up. HS? All but one went up which was one of our better players... all the other boys were shocked and his closest friend, our PG basically yelled at him and everyone asked why and he said he wanted to play baseball. I thought the other boys were going take him outside and stone him to death.

 

[Gally]

I asked the boys on the last practice what level of basketball they hoped to play. Next year. All hands go up. Jr High? All nine hands go up. HS? All but one went up which was one of our better players... all the other boys were shocked and his closest friend, our PG basically yelled at him and everyone asked why and he said he wanted to play baseball. I thought the other boys were going take him outside and stone him to death.

Basketball is a "winter" sport and baseball is a "spring" sport in high school. He should be able to play both if he wants to. Unfortunately, specialization early is really killing the multi-sport athlete which is a real shame.

My son planned to play basketball and baseball all the way through high school but his body wouldn't cooperate in 7th and 8th grade as he had tremendous ankle (Sievers disease) and knee (Osgood-slaughters) pain and the pounding on the court really was too much. He played for the school teams in those years and did fine but not up to his standards since he couldn't really move like he wanted to. Because of that he switched to full time baseball beginning in HS. It's worked out well for him as he has really excelled in baseball but I think he kind of misses playing basketball to some degree now that he is pain free.

 

[nirad3]

Welp, we ended the season on a high note. We played the team that we previously beat a week back (only because their best player didn't show up). The incredibly skilled kid was there this time (playoffs) and I instructed one of my more aggressive defenders and one of my scrappy little guards to double-team this kid all over the court. They totally flustered him all game.... and to boot my shooters were ON FIRE. We were up by 20 in the 1st half and the refs made us pull back on our full-court press since we were up 20. The kid ended up with 10 points or so and we won by 15 I think.

I wasn't able to coach the 2nd round of the playoffs (Saturday) cuz it was my Dad's Celebration of Life, but I received word that we lost by 6 or so but fought hard.

Real proud of my kids for not giving up and coming together at the end to go out with a bang. Friday night's game was awesome.

 

[Chadstroma]

I asked the boys on the last practice what level of basketball they hoped to play. Next year. All hands go up. Jr High? All nine hands go up. HS? All but one went up which was one of our better players... all the other boys were shocked and his closest friend, our PG basically yelled at him and everyone asked why and he said he wanted to play baseball. I thought the other boys were going take him outside and stone him to death.

Basketball is a "winter" sport and baseball is a "spring" sport in high school. He should be able to play both if he wants to. Unfortunately, specialization early is really killing the multi-sport athlete which is a real shame.

My son planned to play basketball and baseball all the way through high school but his body wouldn't cooperate in 7th and 8th grade as he had tremendous ankle (Sievers disease) and knee (Osgood-slaughters) pain and the pounding on the court really was too much. He played for the school teams in those years and did fine but not up to his standards since he couldn't really move like he wanted to. Because of that he switched to full time baseball beginning in HS. It's worked out well for him as he has really excelled in baseball but I think he kind of misses playing basketball to some degree now that he is pain free.

He was convinced that you could only do two sports in HS. It became a huge argument amongst the boys and I did not know if the particular Catholic HS he intends to go to had any special rules so I didn't say one way or another. Football and then baseball come before basketball for him. My nephew in 9th grade is doing Football and Basketball and that is a full plate for him. He is a smart kid and athletic.

The one sport vs multi sport is interesting to me.

In his second season of swim, my son made the conference and then regional team after making conference in his first season. He has excelled in swim. Though he made regionals this season it was on the relay but he just missed making the cuts for regionals in 50 Free and 50 Fly. He missed a TON of practice time for swim for football and basketball. There is no doubt in my mind that if he was just a swimmer, he would not have just made regionals but would have been had a good showing. Nationals would prob still be out of grasp this last season but within his ability in a couple of seasons. Now, there is NO way he would drop any of his other sports for swim. He loves football too much and also soccer and basketball above swim. But much like baseball, swim demands so much specialized training to get better at... where as there is a lot you can gain from the other sports to improve in football or soccer or basketball.

He is young so it will be interesting to see how things go. I don't know how him wanting to try baseball will work out though. I am hoping he doesn't bring it up again.

 

[dino259]

Welp, we ended the season on a high note. We played the team that we previously beat a week back (only because their best player didn't show up). The incredibly skilled kid was there this time (playoffs) and I instructed one of my more aggressive defenders and one of my scrappy little guards to double-team this kid all over the court. They totally flustered him all game.... and to boot my shooters were ON FIRE. We were up by 20 in the 1st half and the refs made us pull back on our full-court press since we were up 20. The kid ended up with 10 points or so and we won by 15 I think.

I wasn't able to coach the 2nd round of the playoffs (Saturday) cuz it was my Dad's Celebration of Life, but I received word that we lost by 6 or so but fought hard.

Real proud of my kids for not giving up and coming together at the end to go out with a bang. Friday night's game was awesome.

For anything below High school varsity, the refs should not have had to make you pull back on pressing.

 

[nirad3]

Welp, we ended the season on a high note. We played the team that we previously beat a week back (only because their best player didn't show up). The incredibly skilled kid was there this time (playoffs) and I instructed one of my more aggressive defenders and one of my scrappy little guards to double-team this kid all over the court. They totally flustered him all game.... and to boot my shooters were ON FIRE. We were up by 20 in the 1st half and the refs made us pull back on our full-court press since we were up 20. The kid ended up with 10 points or so and we won by 15 I think.

I wasn't able to coach the 2nd round of the playoffs (Saturday) cuz it was my Dad's Celebration of Life, but I received word that we lost by 6 or so but fought hard.

Real proud of my kids for not giving up and coming together at the end to go out with a bang. Friday night's game was awesome.

For anything below High school varsity, the refs should not have had to make you pull back on pressing.

Are you saying I, as the coach, should have instructed my kids to pull back?

Honestly, I gave it some thought.

But ya know what? We had won exactly ONE game all season (against this same teams sans their best player... best player in the league BY FAR). Maybe I just felt I needed to keep the foot on the gas to ensure we won this game.

 

[Chadstroma]

Welp, we ended the season on a high note. We played the team that we previously beat a week back (only because their best player didn't show up). The incredibly skilled kid was there this time (playoffs) and I instructed one of my more aggressive defenders and one of my scrappy little guards to double-team this kid all over the court. They totally flustered him all game.... and to boot my shooters were ON FIRE. We were up by 20 in the 1st half and the refs made us pull back on our full-court press since we were up 20. The kid ended up with 10 points or so and we won by 15 I think.

I wasn't able to coach the 2nd round of the playoffs (Saturday) cuz it was my Dad's Celebration of Life, but I received word that we lost by 6 or so but fought hard.

Real proud of my kids for not giving up and coming together at the end to go out with a bang. Friday night's game was awesome.

For anything below High school varsity, the refs should not have had to make you pull back on pressing.

Are you saying I, as the coach, should have instructed my kids to pull back?

Honestly, I gave it some thought.

But ya know what? We had won exactly ONE game all season (against this same teams sans their best player... best player in the league BY FAR). Maybe I just felt I needed to keep the foot on the gas to ensure we won this game.

I wouldn't worry about it much.
When we got up a lot, I just put in my weakest lineup and then let them play. Also, our leagues had a mercy rule kick in over 10 point leads so that would put a break on things a lot.
In the game that our goal was to get our two guys who had not scored all season baskets, we hit the mercy rule. They were down 6-22 when they finally both scored and I put in my top lineup. We battled back and they pressed as much as they could. We ended 16-28. I have no issues with the other team playing by the rules even when we were down. As long the intent isn't anything that is nasty- I am fine with it. On our side, putting in my weak lineup usually did the trick of letting the other team be competitive.

 

[Gally]

He was convinced that you could only do two sports in HS. It became a huge argument amongst the boys and I did not know if the particular Catholic HS he intends to go to had any special rules so I didn't say one way or another. Football and then baseball come before basketball for him. My nephew in 9th grade is doing Football and Basketball and that is a full plate for him. He is a smart kid and athletic.

For our school you can play one sport a "season". There are three seasons (fall, winter, spring). He could play all three sports as Football is fall, basketball is winter, and baseball is spring. There are no rules against doing that however different coaches may have different rules and can pressure kids to specialize by threatening playing time if they miss too many off season practices/workouts. It is a shame that coaches can't work together to benefit a well rounded athlete but too many (coaches) are selfish and only care about their sport. I understand wanting players to show up as much as possible but if I had an athlete playing another sport I wouldn't penalize them for doing that. Now a kid that blows it off to go the beach in the summer instead of a team workout is a different story.

 

[Chadstroma]

He was convinced that you could only do two sports in HS. It became a huge argument amongst the boys and I did not know if the particular Catholic HS he intends to go to had any special rules so I didn't say one way or another. Football and then baseball come before basketball for him. My nephew in 9th grade is doing Football and Basketball and that is a full plate for him. He is a smart kid and athletic.

For our school you can play one sport a "season". There are three seasons (fall, winter, spring). He could play all three sports as Football is fall, basketball is winter, and baseball is spring. There are no rules against doing that however different coaches may have different rules and can pressure kids to specialize by threatening playing time if they miss too many off season practices/workouts. It is a shame that coaches can't work together to benefit a well rounded athlete but too many (coaches) are selfish and only care about their sport. I understand wanting players to show up as much as possible but if I had an athlete playing another sport I wouldn't penalize them for doing that. Now a kid that blows it off to go the beach in the summer instead of a team workout is a different story.

It was much easier to be a multi-sport athlete back when I was a kid. The sports had seasons. You played that sport during the season. The season ended and you played another sport. Maybe there was a little overlap. Now almost every sport has year round seasons. Kids that pick one sport and focus on it obviously gain an advantage over multi sport athletes... at least in the short term. However, I think the majority of these kids will end up flaring out. No matter how much you love a sport, at some point the enjoyment of it gets sucked out and then there are only a few that can push through on that. Having another sport to take a break from but still keep up the athletic engagement can help from getting burnt out. Also, there is a lot to be said about higher risk of injuries from repetitive motions from playing the same sport over and over and over with little rest. My son is getting a couple weeks of a break right now which he hasn't had since he had a little time in the summer after the spring/summer swim season ended and football started. Football season went on and the fall/winter swim season overlapped at the end of football. Then basketball started and he was doing both. Swim ended a little bit ago and now we are done with basketball. Soccer and the spring/summer swim season start in about a month give or take. I am happy he gets some down time as long as it isn't 100% spent on video games and his energy levels don't end up driving me up the wall since he isn't exercising it out.

For the basketball team, we had several players that had other sports. Soccer, baseball, a club basketball team, etc. I didn't worry about it over the season and to the credit of the parents, they did a pretty good job of not missing games and for the most part practices. The only gripe I had was last week when we had 4 practices preparing for the Championship game. I had several boys miss practices and when asked it was "well, I have piano lessons" or "soccer practice" and I kind of bit my lip. I clearly communicated that I really wanted them to make this one week a priority. I think a couple of the parents though "well, they normally have 1 or 2 practices so if he just misses one practice out of the 4 this week, it will be ok." which it wasn't really as I was trying to get the boys to learn a few wrinkles to our offense, a press break and new out of bounds plays. But in the end, it all worked out.

 

[nirad3]

Welp, we ended the season on a high note. We played the team that we previously beat a week back (only because their best player didn't show up). The incredibly skilled kid was there this time (playoffs) and I instructed one of my more aggressive defenders and one of my scrappy little guards to double-team this kid all over the court. They totally flustered him all game.... and to boot my shooters were ON FIRE. We were up by 20 in the 1st half and the refs made us pull back on our full-court press since we were up 20. The kid ended up with 10 points or so and we won by 15 I think.

I wasn't able to coach the 2nd round of the playoffs (Saturday) cuz it was my Dad's Celebration of Life, but I received word that we lost by 6 or so but fought hard.

Real proud of my kids for not giving up and coming together at the end to go out with a bang. Friday night's game was awesome.

For anything below High school varsity, the refs should not have had to make you pull back on pressing.

Are you saying I, as the coach, should have instructed my kids to pull back?

Honestly, I gave it some thought.

But ya know what? We had won exactly ONE game all season (against this same teams sans their best player... best player in the league BY FAR). Maybe I just felt I needed to keep the foot on the gas to ensure we won this game.

I wouldn't worry about it much.
When we got up a lot, I just put in my weakest lineup and then let them play. Also, our leagues had a mercy rule kick in over 10 point leads so that would put a break on things a lot.
In the game that our goal was to get our two guys who had not scored all season baskets, we hit the mercy rule. They were down 6-22 when they finally both scored and I put in my top lineup. We battled back and they pressed as much as they could. We ended 16-28. I have no issues with the other team playing by the rules even when we were down. As long the intent isn't anything that is nasty- I am fine with it. On our side, putting in my weak lineup usually did the trick of letting the other team be competitive.

I only had 5 kids Friday night so I definitely didn't have the option to put weaker kids in

I'm bummed it took us all season to really get our gears moving. We could have probably won a few more games if we employed this strategy against other teams.

 

[Chadstroma]

I only had 5 kids Friday night so I definitely didn't have the option to put weaker kids in

I'm bummed it took us all season to really get our gears moving. We could have probably won a few more games if we employed this strategy against other teams.

The big question at this age is did they get better. It sounds like they did so you did your job as a coach. Winning is fun and losing sucks but at the end of the season, I think at this age group you judge how you did as a coach on whether or not they got better in the sport and their development as kids growing towards adulthood.

I signed my youngest (7 yr old) for a local church development league. They were asking for coaches and I decided to skip it. I have done a few 'clinic' events for this age group and it can be really rough depending on the kids you get. They formed the teams and sent out an email last night then asked again because they didn't have a coach for this team yet. Soooooo... I am going to 'coach' this team. Coaching this level is more like herding cats and in the meantime trying to get them use to the basketball. I think my son will do well in the league as he was keeping up fairly well with his brothers team at practices (he was the "assistant coach" and would run when they would run and take part in some drills and things like dribble knockout)

 

[Gally]

The big question at this age is did they get better. It sounds like they did so you did your job as a coach. Winning is fun and losing sucks but at the end of the season, I think at this age group you judge how you did as a coach on whether or not they got better in the sport and their development as kids growing towards adulthood.

I think that is the goal as a coach no matter what age of kids you are coaching. This should be the goal all the way through high school for all coaches.

 

[Chadstroma]

The big question at this age is did they get better. It sounds like they did so you did your job as a coach. Winning is fun and losing sucks but at the end of the season, I think at this age group you judge how you did as a coach on whether or not they got better in the sport and their development as kids growing towards adulthood.

I think that is the goal as a coach no matter what age of kids you are coaching. This should be the goal all the way through high school for all coaches.

True, what I was thinking in my head is that at this age it is the most basic of basic- did they improve in playing the sport and did you teach something about hard work, teamwork, etc. As the kids get older, the core same thing is there but it gets more in depth and layered. As part of that, as they get older, W-L's mean more and are more a part of that equation.

 

[Gally]

True, what I was thinking in my head is that at this age it is the most basic of basic- did they improve in playing the sport and did you teach something about hard work, teamwork, etc. As the kids get older, the core same thing is there but it gets more in depth and layered. As part of that, as they get older, W-L's mean more and are more a part of that equation.

W-L's should be the focus of the players as they get older but as a coach player development/improvement/character is still my #1 goal through high school. In my view, if you develop the players the wins will be a byproduct of that development. That will take care of itself and doesn't need to be a coaching "goal". It's a minor distinction but if you get too win focused as a coach you can hinder the development of players.

 

[Chadstroma]

True, what I was thinking in my head is that at this age it is the most basic of basic- did they improve in playing the sport and did you teach something about hard work, teamwork, etc. As the kids get older, the core same thing is there but it gets more in depth and layered. As part of that, as they get older, W-L's mean more and are more a part of that equation.

W-L's should be the focus of the players as they get older but as a coach player development/improvement/character is still my #1 goal through high school. In my view, if you develop the players the wins will be a byproduct of that development. That will take care of itself and doesn't need to be a coaching "goal". It's a minor distinction but if you get too win focused as a coach you can hinder the development of players.

For the most part, I agree and I am with you on the frame of mind. However, the coaching DOES change when they get older for wins/losses and not by just focusing on the things that lead to winning. The more glaring example of this is playing time. At these ages, everyone should be playing regardless of earning the time. As they get older, not so much. Playing time is earned and decisions are made on not "is putting him in now going to help the Jimmy get better" but "is putting Jimmy in now going to help us win". As a coach, your driving force must be about making the kids better in both sport and life but as they get older, the W-L record does make more of an impact on how you approach things.

 

[Gally]

For the most part, I agree and I am with you on the frame of mind. However, the coaching DOES change when they get older for wins/losses and not by just focusing on the things that lead to winning. The more glaring example of this is playing time. At these ages, everyone should be playing regardless of earning the time. As they get older, not so much. Playing time is earned and decisions are made on not "is putting him in now going to help the Jimmy get better" but "is putting Jimmy in now going to help us win". As a coach, your driving force must be about making the kids better in both sport and life but as they get older, the W-L record does make more of an impact on how you approach things.

That is part of the development of a player and focusing on that development. Earning playing time is part of the overall development of a player as they have to understand the expectations of the coach to earn that play time. That can be as simple as showing up on time and working 100% in practice to knowing your role on a team based on your skill set. That reality is what changes with age as you (as a coach) can explain that concept of team roles and practice expectations and how all of that goes into playing time decisions. That being said if a "better" player isn't following team rules or performing with 100% effort at practice then his playing time should diminish giving way to the "lesser" player that is doing those things. That is where winning isn't the goal of the coach even at high school age. Teaching the players to responsible and team oriented is more important than winning. That goes into character building and having a well rounded athlete.

Winning is the byproduct and you can use that as a motivating factor to that "better" player that isn't putting in the effort at practice or not following team rules. Explaining that his talent should put him in the game to help the team win but because he didn't meet team expectations it was hurtful and it can show by causing the team to lose. If you just always play that better player because "winning is the important thing" then you do a disservice to that player as well as the overall team as it can cause other teammates to see that following the rules doesn't matter as long as you are "good". As a coach that is a terrible precedent to set at the high school level.

 

[Chadstroma]

For the most part, I agree and I am with you on the frame of mind. However, the coaching DOES change when they get older for wins/losses and not by just focusing on the things that lead to winning. The more glaring example of this is playing time. At these ages, everyone should be playing regardless of earning the time. As they get older, not so much. Playing time is earned and decisions are made on not "is putting him in now going to help the Jimmy get better" but "is putting Jimmy in now going to help us win". As a coach, your driving force must be about making the kids better in both sport and life but as they get older, the W-L record does make more of an impact on how you approach things.

That is part of the development of a player and focusing on that development. Earning playing time is part of the overall development of a player as they have to understand the expectations of the coach to earn that play time. That can be as simple as showing up on time and working 100% in practice to knowing your role on a team based on your skill set. That reality is what changes with age as you (as a coach) can explain that concept of team roles and practice expectations and how all of that goes into playing time decisions. That being said if a "better" player isn't following team rules or performing with 100% effort at practice then his playing time should diminish giving way to the "lesser" player that is doing those things. That is where winning isn't the goal of the coach even at high school age. Teaching the players to responsible and team oriented is more important than winning. That goes into character building and having a well rounded athlete.

Winning is the byproduct and you can use that as a motivating factor to that "better" player that isn't putting in the effort at practice or not following team rules. Explaining that his talent should put him in the game to help the team win but because he didn't meet team expectations it was hurtful and it can show by causing the team to lose. If you just always play that better player because "winning is the important thing" then you do a disservice to that player as well as the overall team as it can cause other teammates to see that following the rules doesn't matter as long as you are "good". As a coach that is a terrible precedent to set at the high school level.

We have the same point of reference but the angle is different basically.

The issue with you example is the assumption that you are putting winning ahead of the players and that even doing so would mean winning. I see it more about relationships being first priority and relationships must have trust. If you played the better player breaking rules over the lesser player playing by the rules then you are breaking the trust and ruining relationships. You do that and you fail in developing the individuals, the team and will ultimately not win either.

I am not saying winning replaces development or even is the higher priority. I am saying that as the kids get older- you do make coaching decisions that are directly related to winning or losing, assuming that they do not conflict with development such as your example above. Again, it will not help Jimmy's development to get nearly no playing time as he rides the bench but since Jimmy is not very good, he won't play much. As a coach, you make that decision on who starts and how much playing time based on how it helps the team win or lose. Younger ages, the playing time is giving out much more to help develop. That is a real difference that changes as they kids age. That is an indication that winning becomes more a part of the direct decision making of coaching.

 

[Gally]

I am not saying winning replaces development or even is the higher priority. I am saying that as the kids get older- you do make coaching decisions that are directly related to winning or losing, assuming that they do not conflict with development such as your example above. Again, it will not help Jimmy's development to get nearly no playing time as he rides the bench but since Jimmy is not very good, he won't play much. As a coach, you make that decision on who starts and how much playing time based on how it helps the team win or lose. Younger ages, the playing time is giving out much more to help develop. That is a real difference that changes as they kids age. That is an indication that winning becomes more a part of the direct decision making of coaching.

Of course as a coach you make decisions based on winning and losing. You do that all levels......even the younger levels with mandatory play times. You would put your best players in at crunch time and play time the weaker players get are at times that are less crucial in the game. That is a decision that factors in winning or losing. It's just not the ultimate goal.

I think we are into semantics now. As usual we are basically on the same page with a slightly different way of saying it. Hahaha.

 

[Chadstroma]

So..... my 1st grader starts a development league Thursday.
I signed him up and skipped being a coach. Partly because I just came off of coaching my other son, partly because of all the other stuff going on in our lives and then largely because 1st graders are like cat's on speed when it comes to trying to get them to focus on basketball.
But then they sent out an email saying no one was coaching and they needed a coach, so I said I would.

Pray for me.

On the bright side, when I told my son, he got super excited about it.

 

[Chadstroma]

We had our second practice/game yesterday. The set up is pretty simple. We show up at the same place and time every Thursday (except last Thursday was skipped for spring break) and there is an hour allotted. Each team has a half court to practice and then roughly mid way through, you play a full court game with the other team on the other side. There are no scores kept or standings or anything, the coaches act as the refs during play. This is for 5-7 year olds. It is purely development.

Last night, we get there. I was about 5 or so minutes early and most of my team beat me there. My co-coach had them warming up with shooting around. None of the other team was there. About 10 minutes goes by and then they start to show up. Most of the team was about 10 minutes late.

We had already begun out practice and at this level, it is really about trying to get them to get some exposure to basics. This day, we had them doing this dribble, jump stop, pivot and pass back to your team mate drill which for me was like pushing the boundaries of being too much for them. I look over and the other coach has them doing some sort of pick and roll drill. I kind of laughed to myself and was thinking 'ok'.

More than mid way through the session I could hear the other side already playing a game. I walked over to the other coach. He clearly can see me but does not turn to me or acknowledge me at all and keeps coaching his kids through whatever drill he had them doing (which again, looked to me to be a bit more advanced than appropriate for the age group and setting). I say "About ready to play?" Still not looking at me he says "phhhhhh, not even close." and continues to run the drill. Not sure what to do with that, I said "Soooooo, do you not want to play the game today?" and irritated he snapped back "Give me three minutes." I turn around and walk back laughing in my head again. I told my coach "He needs more time" laughed. She responded "Well, it isn't our fault he was late." and I just laughed again.

Well more than 3 minutes later.... my co-coach looked at me and I shrugged. She walked over to him and they they talked.... way longer than a "Hey, ready to get the game going?" conversation should take but then she comes back and says that they are ready. We get our team huddled up and count out the starters and get them ready to play.... and he is still doing some drill. My co-coach and I look at each other and she says "Well.... he said he was ready?" and I laughed.

Finally, he gives them the ball and tells them to go on offense. We normally do a jump ball but it is also like 'whatever' so the game begins. The opposing coach remains on the sideline like he is coaching a game and begins to basically coach while my co-coach and I are being the refs (again, it is basically like all the coaches are on the court and ref and coach together kind of thing). It is more of reminding the kids to dribble and an occasional outright foul that we call because again... 5-7 year olds.

So the other coach on more than one occasion is yelling at one of the kids to pass or shoot or whatever and not in the 'coaching 5-7 year olds to help them develop' sense but more of a 'trying to win a game' sense. At one point, my son stole the ball after he told the girl to pass and this dude literally turns around, makes a loud exasperated sound and threw down a basketball in disgust to bounce it way high. Again... 5-7 year olds in a league with no standings or keeping score.

So... you don't keep score but of course the kids do . It ended 12-2. My son had 6 points and another kid had 4 and then one other one had a basket. Basically the game would go they would have the ball, go back and forth running the ball with double dribbles and travels until finally one of my kids would steal it. We had agreed to have them set up instead of fast breaks but the other coach was not helping with that and kept having his kids go on fast break so we stopped pulling out kids back and let them go. We would get it, and when the kids actually decided to pass would get a decent look and they could score.... then rinse and repeat. 75% of the game was on their side of the basket with them running back and forth on the perimeter.

Anyways, I could not get over this guy and how he approached this 5-7 year old developmental league where you really are hoping to get the kids exposed to basketball and have fun with it and gain some very basic skills.... you know, like not running with the ball and attempting to dribble with it.... kind of basic. This dude was prepping them for an HS championship game.

 

[Gally]

Anyways, I could not get over this guy and how he approached this 5-7 year old developmental league where you really are hoping to get the kids exposed to basketball and have fun with it and gain some very basic skills.... you know, like not running with the ball and attempting to dribble with it.... kind of basic. This dude was prepping them for an HS championship game.

When my son was that age he was in a similar league where the coaches on the court were also the refs. Game to game was very different in the way things would get called. In one game a kid on the larger side compared to the other kids came down with a defensive rebound. Tucked the ball like a football and proceeded to run down to the other end while stiff arming other kids along the way. The parents in the crowd started cheering and laughing and thinking it was the greatest thing. The coaches let it happen and go through and now the kid is energized because everyone was cheering him on. It happened two or three more times with no stoppage. At this point my kid was getting furious because he could dribble and new the rules and is extremely competitive so this just didn't fly for him. I though he was going to go tackle the guy at one point but order was restored when they subbed that kid out of the game and they got back to playing.

I totally understand at that age you need to have leeway to some degree on the fine points of the game but allowing a kid to play like it was football was a bit much and the parents cheering it on were not helpful. That was the last year my kid played in that league because he was so frustrated with the way the games were allowed to be played.

Its so hard at that age for sports (especially thinks like dribbling or pitching for baseball) and when you have coaches that are on totally different wavelengths it can get super frustrating.

 

[Chadstroma]

Anyways, I could not get over this guy and how he approached this 5-7 year old developmental league where you really are hoping to get the kids exposed to basketball and have fun with it and gain some very basic skills.... you know, like not running with the ball and attempting to dribble with it.... kind of basic. This dude was prepping them for an HS championship game.

When my son was that age he was in a similar league where the coaches on the court were also the refs. Game to game was very different in the way things would get called. In one game a kid on the larger side compared to the other kids came down with a defensive rebound. Tucked the ball like a football and proceeded to run down to the other end while stiff arming other kids along the way. The parents in the crowd started cheering and laughing and thinking it was the greatest thing. The coaches let it happen and go through and now the kid is energized because everyone was cheering him on. It happened two or three more times with no stoppage. At this point my kid was getting furious because he could dribble and new the rules and is extremely competitive so this just didn't fly for him. I though he was going to go tackle the guy at one point but order was restored when they subbed that kid out of the game and they got back to playing.

I totally understand at that age you need to have leeway to some degree on the fine points of the game but allowing a kid to play like it was football was a bit much and the parents cheering it on were not helpful. That was the last year my kid played in that league because he was so frustrated with the way the games were allowed to be played.

Its so hard at that age for sports (especially thinks like dribbling or pitching for baseball) and when you have coaches that are on totally different wavelengths it can get super frustrating.

Oh yea, I would not have allowed that. That would be ridiculous and does no one any good.

You basically have to let double dribble, travel, walking calls be ignored like they don't exist.... kind of like the NBA. But then tell the kids "dribble!" over and over and over again. I am much harder on my kid than the others because A) He is my kid. B) His skillset is more advanced than most of the kids C) I have to rein him in on defense or he will hack a shaq the other kids into submission. But in general, these are 5-7 year olds. You can't expect them to play basketball anywhere near how it is supposed to be played. This other dude was on a silly like SNL skit level. The last thing I am going to do is get mad when one someone on my team or my own kid mess up.... they are 5, 6 and 7 years old. The whole game is them messing up and us trying to get them the basics a little bit and them have fun.

 

[Chadstroma]

So, the 5th grade year is about to get going.

The AE emailed the three head coaches and provided the AC's and the rosters as he constructed them trying to keep them somewhat close to last year, change some players around to give me some AC's since a few more Dads said they would help AC. and then try to balance out the players. I also made a request to separate two kids on my team as they were constantly bickering/fighting and it was just annoying as heck.

He basically opened the door for us to make adjustments if both coaches agreed.

From last years championship game, I kept 3 of my 4 really good players but gained two good players in return, one of which gives height. Previous year he likely was the tallest in the league so he adds a lot. I had 3 boys that would as some depth and then one kid that is not so good. One of the coaches asked to switch out one of my depth kids with one of his not so good kids and then the other coach asked to just grab one of my other depth kids because he had 8 and I was at 9 with my starting 5 being better than his. I am not going to fight back on it so I just agreed.

So, I have a good starting 5.... last years, I had a good starting 4 and then about three kids I could plug in as 5th with little change but they were not liabilities. I had two kids last year that were not very good (least skilled kids in the entire league likely). I lost the least skilled one but then gained another kid that is supposedly not very skilled (and apparently doesn't like basketball).

My one concern on this is that my big guy is not very well conditioned. So I will have to rest him but then I don't have much on the bench to replace him out of.... with two kids that struggle to keep up.

My normal style is to pressure D and have them run and gun at all times when possible. I might need to have them not push the ball up the court as much so my big guy doesn't crap out on me. I plan on installing a DDM this season. Mostly M2M but will add in a junk D to change things up a little once in a while and then also to prepare for a couple really good players from other teams. I was planning on putting in a zone press along with our M2M press but maybe skip that now as I prob will not press as much to again, keep my big guy fresh.

We will be good and win games. I think we will have a chance to win the championship again this year.

Next year is tryouts and A and B teams. I would expect my kid and one of the HC kids to make A team for sure next year. The third HC kid may or may not make the team. After 5 or 6 kids, it gets real tough to figure out who will or will not make A team next year. We will have a dang good B team for sure and there will be kids on our B that really could play A and might be all about who is better on tryouts day. I am not sure if I will be HC next year or not with that.... my feeling is that I will get the nod but it hasn't been anything discussed.... if not, then I will HC my younger son's 3rd grade team for his first year. If I get the HC nod for 6th next year then I will AC my little guys team (at least that is my thinking now).

 

[Chadstroma]

I don't coach the team but my daughter's 7th grade team is playing for the championship in one of their leagues a little later today.

It is against the same team that they lost a close game with last season. They best them handedly a couple of times this season and coming off a 23-10 win in semifinal and even bigger win the game before.

 

[Chadstroma]

I don't coach the team but my daughter's 7th grade team is playing for the championship in one of their leagues a little later today.

It is against the same team that they lost a close game with last season. They best them handedly a couple of times this season and coming off a 23-10 win in semifinal and even bigger win the game before.

They won!

I had a little drama in the game.

I am loud and I cheer boisterously. Never will I make comments about the players... they are 7th grade girls for crying out loud. I will call out violations or fouls (though I am trying to stop that but it is very reactional).

A mother from the other team was right behind me (I was in the front row). Apparently she didn't like that I was so loud so very early one she starts making nasty little comments here and there. It is obvious that they are directed at me and I ignore them... if anything, it made me cheer even louder. As the game goes on (and they start losing) she gets nastier and nastier. At one point, my daughter goes to ground for a loose ball and at one point, her leg kicks out. It didn't look like she was trying to get anyone but this lady behind me starts going on and on about playing dirty. I later found out from my daughter that one of the girls like grabbed her rear end and so she was kind of reacting to that as she was surprised. Also, not to mention, that one of the other team girls had a knee in her chest. I still ignore her. It keeps getting more and more and nastier and nastier.... she finally yells to the other girls as they were inbounding on our side "I know it is hard, keep going! It is like wrestling and boxing out there! They are playing so dirty! They should be ashamed of themselves!" Now, I had enough as this was directed at our girls AND last year in the championship, one of their girls actually took a full swing at one of our girls... luckily she did not land it but it was an obvious swing. So, I turned around and said "Like last season when one of your girls swung on one of ours? If you are going to say something, don't say hypocritical crap!" and that set her off... plus, a couple of big tough guys from the other team started yelling down at me. I turned around and was set on ignoring her and them again but this chick just keeps going and right after that she starts in on one of the 7th grade boys from our school that came to watch and I was not going to let her start in on a kid.... so, I turned back around and said "Are you going to shut up any time soon? Don't talk to kids that way!" Again, these tough guys start yelling at me and start making their way down the stands which I said a couple of times "I'm not going to let her start in on kids!" and then gave them a look like "What... you are coming down to fight me? GIve me a break" and turned back around. She finally shut up from there... our girls won.

We play the same team tomorrow.

Unfortunately, their best ball handler, probably their best player seemed to hurt her wrist after tripping over herself and landing extremely awkwardly. I though she broke some teeth or hurt her jaw. On the way out I saw her and told her "I hope you feel better" and her Dad told me it was a wrist injury. Without her, they don't have a chance against us. We beat them several times convincingly during the season with her and they don't have anyone who can hold up under pressure. Another of their girls rolled an ankle at the end (no one was around her)... I am not sure if it was a joke or not but one of the other coaches said they will probably forfeit the game.

Besides the drama in the stands... it was a pretty good game at least until the half. 11-11 and then we dominated the game from there on and ended 24-14. The score would have been more but they were running out the clock and the coaches told them "no less than five passes" and one, literally our girl is in the restricted area with no one around her and she turned around and passed it out. We were like... well.... she takes coaching well!

 

[Chadstroma]

Our first two games are the 25th and 26th. Two of my starters are out of town and then one of my bench guys is also not available. So, we will have 5 players. One of our 5 is well below the skill level of others his age so it will really be like playing 4 on 5 the whole game.

I saw one of the boys that was on our team last season. If there was one kid that I could see not wanting to be back on the team, it would have been him. I made this kid run a ton. I mean, he likely ran more than the kids in cross country ran. I felt bad at times because I know he has a pretty severe case of ADHD. But honestly, after he would take a lap, he would actually focus for a bit much better than if not. I also decided not to treat him any different than the other boys. But the kid ran a ton. When I saw him, I asked him how things were going on the other team. To my shock, his reply was something along the lines "I don't like it. I wish I was still on your team." I was not prepared for that kind of reply at all. I kind of felt good about that afterwards. Like I wasn't too hard on him even though I was making him run a 100 miles during the season.

 

[Chadstroma]

Our first two games are the 25th and 26th. Two of my starters are out of town and then one of my bench guys is also not available. So, we will have 5 players. One of our 5 is well below the skill level of others his age so it will really be like playing 4 on 5 the whole game.

I saw one of the boys that was on our team last season. If there was one kid that I could see not wanting to be back on the team, it would have been him. I made this kid run a ton. I mean, he likely ran more than the kids in cross country ran. I felt bad at times because I know he has a pretty severe case of ADHD. But honestly, after he would take a lap, he would actually focus for a bit much better than if not. I also decided not to treat him any different than the other boys. But the kid ran a ton. When I saw him, I asked him how things were going on the other team. To my shock, his reply was something along the lines "I don't like it. I wish I was still on your team." I was not prepared for that kind of reply at all. I kind of felt good about that afterwards. Like I wasn't too hard on him even though I was making him run a 100 miles during the season.

I was able to borrow one player from each of our other two teams. Both are starting quality players. I will start my team's five but bring them in for a good amount of minutes. Keeping my five fresh for Sun as well as the added bonus that they are good players.

Both came in on our practice on Monday. I gave both a crash course on our offense (a form of DDM) and our in bounds play (just one play, will add more later). This year, we play both of the other teams once in regular season (last year we didn't play either of them). I guess technically it will give them an advantage as they know what we are doing but I am not worried about it.

The first game against our school team is Dec 2nd. The other coach and I have talked a little bit and we are going to go to a local restaurant afterwards together and then we also will come together before the game and break out with both teams in one big break out. I love the community this school had with the kids.

 

[Chadstroma]

0-1 start.

Just a bad game. Two of my best players both just had really horrible offensive days. 0-8 and 2-12. They were mostly good looks too, just wouldn't drop for us.

A little disjointed in having two players from the other teams from our school to help us out plus the expected nerves and sloppiness from the first game. And I feel like I didn't help them in the coaching.

Tomorrow, we have one player helping but he is a 4th grader moving up to help out. It will be interesting to see how this goes....

 

[Chadstroma]

Sunday was a win. The team we played wasn't very good and my top two scorers instead of going 2-20 actually were making the shots they typically make. We went into mercy rule after getting a 15 point lead about mid third quarter.

The 4th grader came in and played well. He actually had a couple of really nice passes. I was sure to give him extra praise on that.

What I learned was that even though we have been working on the offense every practice, that there are certainly some gaps of understanding. I am going to have to approach how I am teaching the offense in a different way, try to give them a different perspective on how it works and flows.

One cool thing is that I challenged my son before the game for him to go get those rebounds. He ended with 11. I need to work with him on going back up with the ball.... he tends to either throw it back up out of control or retreats instead of collecting himself, doing a little head fake or pivot or something and going up again but you can't be mad about 11 rebounds.

 

[Chadstroma]

Wow... what a game.

My starting five outclassed the other team in athleticism but they were fundamentally solid and played well as a unit being very well coached. We ended up in the hole all game long. Down by 13 at the high point.

Our defense was mostly good with a lot of steals. All of their points came off of a lack of coming over on help defense and they worked for each of those, once the door opened they took it and were not missing many. I don't know how many steals we made, went down on a fast break and then laid up a brick.

Our shooting and free throws were just bad today.

But my guys kept at it... kept fighting. One of, if not, their best player got into foul trouble. In the 4th, they brought him back in and I called a timeout soon after. I directed my guys to take the ball to him. Attack him. Since they were running a zone, it was easy to just attack the side he was on. One missed call but then a couple of plays later, he fouled out.

We finally took the lead with just about a minute left. Up by 2. We fouled and they made one and missed the other. 1 point lead with about 17 seconds left and they had the ball in bounds. I told my guard to pull off of him and get deeper on their PG and obvious go to guy with the other kid out. I don't think he understood what I meant, got caught behind and then my big guy came over to help caused a really hard look as he drove to the basket. Barely... I mean, barely missed.... rebound which quickly got poked out in the scrum and the ball went out of bounds as time expired. Win by 1.

That takes us to an overall record of 4-2. The other loss 3-0 in one league and 1-2 in the other. We lost a 2 point game against one of our sister teams from the same school. We had a chance as time was expiring but my player who stole the ball is also my weakest dribbler and shooter from my starting five and he is also very non-aggressive. With the ball stolen near half court, he had a look for a layup.... but instead passed the ball to absolutely no one. Nearest player was the opposing team.

 

[Chadstroma]

We are now 9-2. Our last two games we have been playing 6 players with my PG and my 6th man out on vacation. We won both pretty easily. 31-14 and 37-10.

The last game, my son started it off getting the tip off, driving and getting a three point play off the and 1. My big guy scored 30 points and had 12 rebounds. I had moved my player who is usually my top 3 scorer from his normal small forward spot to PG as he is my best ball handler with my PG out. He did a great job making some great passes and just kept feeding our big guy. When our big guy scored the 30, he was just as excited as the big guy was looking over to the bench yelling 3-0!!!

I am seeing tons of improvement among most of the boys which is super exciting.

Last nights game was in a tournament. I got a peek at the two teams playing before us which we play the winner of and I think we have a very good chances of coming out with a win again and heading into the Championship game for the tournament. We play Sat morning to see.

One cool thing is that the team we beat yesterday is a public school team from an entire District versus our small Catholic school. Both their District and our school have three teams for that age group that we try to evenly distribute the talent. I try to impress against my boys that even if they end up the big fish, they need to realize that they are swimming in a small pond with our Catholic school leagues we are in. It was pretty cool to see us do so well in a bit of a bigger pond.