My First Team

From 6-26-14

Today we'll go back in time to when my 50-yr. HS coaching career began. My 1st year at Newton Co. HS I was the "B-team" coach. It gave me a chance to sort out some things about coaching as we had a 21-3 record. But, more importantly, it gave me the opportunity to get to know the younger players & for them to learn my beliefs that fundamentals, discipline & desire were the keys to success. The school & community were hungry for a winner as they had never won a region championship. I had maybe the best group of pure athletes that I ever had in my entire career, and they were self-motivated to win. Prior to our 1st season we had 3 weeks of spring practice, and in the summer I gave each player a basketball & a key to the gym (that was long before liability suits were feared). I was influenced by one of the great HS coaches, Eric Staples of Perry, who one time stated he never locked his gym & left basketballs out on the floor for play. Our 6-week summer 1-on-1 program was highly competitive, with all the results being posted. This was a practice that I used with most all of my teams through the years, as it helped students to make up their mind if they really wanted to play. Of course, I had to continually adjust as the rules changed. In the fall we had 4 weeks of fundamentals & 4 weeks of team play instructions. I won't even go into our conditioning program which involved ankle weights, weighted "medicine" balls, ropes, and a lot of running. (Later in my career we had to change & adjust with new rules.). We probably lost a lot of talented players that were more interested in girls or cars, than playing sports. That is probably the reason I could say that I never "cut" a youngster who wanted to play. If they stayed with us through our program, they were a part of our team regardless of their ability. This story will be continued…