Viking Coach

Well. . . it has been one week since a wrote to you and to tell you the truth, hoops has not gotten too much better.

After our loss to Frazee last Tuesday we did take Wednesday off. It was a pre-planned day off as we had late practice. I am a big believer in giving the team a day off whenever I can in late January and in February. I think it gives the players a nice mental break away from the game and feel they come back a little more rejuvenated at the next practice.

Thursday we laced them back up and talked about the reality of our situation. . . We were going into a game on Saturday against Crookston, the #1 ranked team in the state of Minnesota and because of our loss to Frazee we most likely would play Barnesville in the first round of the play-offs on Thursday, March 1st. (Barnesville, by the way, beat Crookston earlier in the year!!!)

The biggest thing for me to accomplish in our Thursday practice was to get the players to answer the following question:

Why are we going to practice when we know the opportunity for victory in the next two games is ever so slight?

Before I relayed my reasons for continued practice I allowed them to come up with a few reasons on their own. . . Most of the reasons centered around the desire to improve for “next year” as we only have one senior, Sarah Voigt, who is still healthy and playing.

Sarah Voigt is a great kid and she provides lots of “funny moments” with her uncanny ability to get confused. I guess the best way to describe it. . . using a term that may offend some people. . . is that Sarah, even though she is a brunette, occasionally has her “Blonde Moments”.

But in our discussion of reasons to practice Sarah didn’t miss the theme of most of the answers. She once again brought a smile to my face when she all of a sudden looked at me and said, “Well, why am I practicing?”

This is actually the question I was waiting for as it created an opportunity for me to explain to the girls the importance of the next few practices. In a nut shell, here is what I said.

#1 – We are practicing because we want to finish the season like we have practice and played all year long. . . and all year we have played with intensity and desire.

#2 - We owe it to ourselves and our competition to give the best we can give.

#3 – I reminded them of the story that was told to us earlier in the year at our workshop with “The One Man Volleyball Team” and how he thought players and teams who stop playing hard before the game is over are “PATHETIC” and I told them that they were too classy to be put into that group.

#4 – I explained to them that even though the loss to Frazee was frustrating and that it put us in a bad position in the tournaments, we had come a long way this year as a team.

This is the beauty of athletics. . . there are so many opportunities to test a person’s character and learn how to be a “winner” in life. For these girls to go out into the world knowing that even when the chips are down they still need to give their best, what an asset for them to have in their “tool box”.

So now you may be wondering about my initial statement. . . the one about “hoops has not gotten too much better”. . . Well Friday came and we were practicing, only for an hour mind you, and wouldn’t you know it. . . MAJOR INJURY #4 hits the team.

Chelsea Bjerke, sophomore point guard, severely sprains her ankle and will be out for at least two to three weeks! What the “heck” is going on here. . . we were now down to six players on varsity going into Saturday’s game against the #1 team in the state!!!!

I went home that night and cried. . . just kidding. But seriously, if you didn’t laugh at the situation we were in you pretty much would cry. I went home that night and called up the 9th and 8th graders to dress. We had to have more than six players warming up. . . it wouldn’t look too good to have three coaches and one player on the bench. The younger girls were actually excited about the opportunity to dress.

An added bonus was the fact that they would get to warm up at Concordia Field House. Concordia is the BIG TIME for Pelican Rapids’ hoops! Lots of great games and memories for players, fans and coaches.

We did catch a little break on Saturday. . . Game against Crookston was cancelled due to bad weather. . . Seriously. . . I was a happy coach!

Now we are back at it this week and we are excited to play Barnesville on Thursday. We will go into the game with hopes of being successful. We will work hard and give our very best. We will walk off the court a better team and with a feeling of satisfaction knowing that we gave our best to be our best.

Last night my team had its first “big game” in two years. A game that really meant something.

On the line was a possible 5th seed in the section tournament. This would mean that our team could avoid the “Big 3” (Hawley, DGF and Barnesville) in the first round of the tournament and instead travel to Pine River – Backus. Not that Pine River is a slouch but we just finished playing Barnesville and DGF and we lost by 35+ points to each.

So there we were. . . playing Frazee on Parent/Senior night. The band was rocking. We had a good crowd. There were “big game” nerves to deal with. It was exactly the type of game that you work so hard to have an opportunity to play in. We had even beaten Frazee earlier in the year and even though we were playing with-out senior Katie Mattern this time around our hopes were still high.

The result = a 48 to 61 loss. . .

Failure. . .

Ever since I have become a coach I have constantly preached that success is measured in the consistency of one's effort and not in the wins and losses. I use quotes like:

"Failure is an event, never a person".
~William D. Brown

"There is no failure except in no longer trying."
~Elbert Hubbard

"Never confuse a single defeat with a final defeat."
~F. Scott Fitzgerald

"The men who try to do something and fail are infinitely better than those who try to do nothing and succeed."
~Lloyd Jones

No matter how often I relay this message to my team there is always one person who has a hard time receiving the message. . . that one person is me.

Today is a great example. It’s really hard to explain how I am feeling. I have this emptiness like my best friend just moved away. . . or that feeling you get after you have graduated from high school and you are out on your own and you get sick for the first time. . . that “I want mom” feeling.

I’m afraid too. . . this is a fear that has always lurked in quiet corners through out my coaching career. . . the fear that maybe my critics are right. . . maybe I can’t coach.

When it comes down to my final analysis of a loss, I take the burden of a loss on my shoulders.

People can tell me that other teams are more talented, have better skills or are more athletic but my feelings are always. . .

“We should be able to compete at a higher level. . . somewhere along the line I am letting down the team. . . I’m not doing what needs to be done at the lower levels of our program. . . I should be doing more. . . I’m failing at some level and I can’t find the answer. . .”

Am I yelling too much?
Am I not positive enough?
Am I demanding enough?
Am I running the right offense?
am I helping the girls understand what is expected and how to be successful???

. . the list of things going through my mind seem endless.

It comes to a point where I get overwhelmed at the prospect of continuing to forge on as a coach. I feel so overwhelmed with the time commitment that must be made and the constant battle I wage with in myself. . ."if I don’t win I’m a failure". . . "There's more to it than wins and losses". . . "losing equals failing". . . "hard work equals success". . . and on it on it goes.

And then. . . time passes and begins its healing ways. . .

A conversation is held with a player and you remember why you do this crazy thing in the first place. . .

You walk into the gym and hear the bounce of a ball and it gives you that “this is where I belong feeling”. . .

You see a junior high player’s face and you see hope. . .

And then you start to remember that what is bringing you down is such a small part of the big picture. . . that the relationships built, the lessons taught, the leadership provided, and the experience that you give the kids under your watch are what really matter.

Although, I may stumble occasionally I am at peace with the fact that I care a great deal for the players I coach and with that I hope to find the strength and courage to strive on!

"Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm". Sir Winston Churchill (1874 - 1965)

A parent approached the coaching staff yesterday with disturbing news. . . her 7th grade daughter has become frustrated and disillusioned with basketball.

The frustration was in the lack of playing time the daughter was receiving on C-squad when she moved up after Christmas. This parent was correct in her evaluation that her daughter has not received equal playing time when compared to some of her classmates.

I knew when we asked the seventh and eighth graders to come back after Christmas that some of them would be able to handle playing 9th graders and some of them wouldn’t be ready and so I decided that it was going to be okay if some of the players didn’t get to see game time once they moved up.

Now, is this fair??? I don’t know?

Fair, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder. And when it comes to parents their view is “child focused”, as it should be.

PROOF OF POINT:
How many parents do you know feel their child is not very attractive and on the verge of ugly??? This rarely happens. A parent sees beyond the flaws and sees the beauty of the kid and thus they have average to above average looks.

I know my mom has a much higher opinion of me than the average bear. I like that fact. . . I like the feeling that it gives me to know that no matter what I do wrong that my mom thinks I am something soooooooooo special. I really believe that a parent needs to somehow get across to their kids that their love is totally unconditional. This fact alone will give the child the confidence they will need to face the challenges of life.

BACK TO THE ISSUE:

The reasoning behind wanting the 7th and 8th graders to move up and play a second season was to give them an opportunity to work on their skills. For a month and a half the girls have had the chance to improve on their basketball skills instead of going home after school and not doing anything athletic.

Because of our lack of numbers at the high school level the opportunity was there to allow them to come and practice. My feeling was that if we can get these girls to make this commitment they would come back next year being that much better than the players from other teams who are not getting this opportunity.

My “vision quest” was to make our program better and give the girls an opportunity to work to reach their dreams.

I did not want the players who chose to move up to become discouraged or frustrated. . . the daughter of the parent mentioned above happens to be a great athlete who has the potential to be a very good ball player. For a seventh grader she is definitely one of the better players. . . she plays very good defense and has something we can't coach: quickness.

Interesting point: I knew this girl was really thinking about not joining us for a second season. However, I thought enough of her potential that I made it a point to talk with her and encouraged her to come out even if she would have to miss a practice here or there. Why? Because I knew she had potential to one day be a good player and I knew that she would benefit from working on the skills that we stressed over the last month and a half.

For me to now find out that she is frustrated is really sad. I have been feeling so good about the effort and hard work these seventh graders have been putting in because it has been so impressive to watch. I truly believe this group of girls could be really good one day and the dedication they showed by coming out for c-squad just improved this chance.

Parents. . . you are not doing your daughter any favors by adding fuel to the fire of frustration. . . your job is to help your child understand situations that are taking place.(even if you may not agree totally with the situation) Be encouraging. . . if you frustrated that your child is thinking about quiting you need to keep encouraging them to work hard and fight through the frustration. . . I am not saying that your thoughts and feelings are not valid. I am just saying you have the responsiblity of helping your child be a problem solver. Would it be easier to just blame me? Of course, but that doesn't help solve our problem.

Try to understand that as a coach I do not want to discourage my junior high players. . . that would be seriously stupid. My total focus is on keeping the girls in the game. What we had to do this year can create a situation in which a girl gets down because some of her teammates are actually playing and they aren’t. I understand where these girls are coming from. I was in their shoes, back-in-the-day, but my situation was worse.

Here’s my story, sad but true. . .

I could have been called “two-minute bruggy” during my 7th, 8th & 9th grade years at Mahnomen.

You see, Mahnomen’s philosophy was to win games and equal playing time was not a mandate. I wasn’t one of the top players at this time so my playing time came when my team was way up or way down. I would get to play the last two minutes as it was a time I would do the least amount of harm. I’m sure I was frustrated at times and I know I thought I should play before this buddy or that one but that didn’t happen.

So I quit! Heck no. . .I kept with it. . . I kept practicing and working hard. . . By my sophomore year I passed my buddies up and was starting b-squad. . . and by my junior year I made the starting line up for the varsity team.

THE POINT - - - The players that play in junior high is not the future varsity team. Instead, it is the players that work hard, keep a good attitude and continually improves that increase their chance to play more as they grow older. The key is to fight through frustration and rise above the fray. . .

How does a junior high player do this. . . by having a parent that will help them! TRUE.

When we started the year we had:

3 seniors (4 with Sierra Nordick - 1st year out)
2 juniors
4 sophomores
4 freshmen (5 with Maria Diaz - 1st year out)
4 8th graders

THE INJURIES. . .

*Senior Kelcey Lass (varsity starter) went out in December with a season ending knee injury.
*One of the sophomore b-squad members(Emma Strand) went down in early February with a season ending knee injury
*Senior Katie Mattern (varsity starter) had season ending surgery on her foot on February 9th.

AS A RESULT. . .

--->These recent injuries have forced us to NOT allow two of the sophomores(Haley Hoyer & Chelsea Bjerke) to play on b-squad any more as they are now full time varsity and we only have 7 players to play at that level. Playing 3 halves is just not feasible as they get worn down playing a full varsity game.

--->We can no longer play the other sophomore(Ann Ouren) full time on b-squad as she now has become our second player off the bench and she needs to be eligible for both the first and second halves of the varsity game.

---> Kendra Coleman(9th Grader) is now our first player off the bench on varsity and so having her play a half of b-squad and then a full varsity game is asking too much so she can no longer play b-team ball.

AS A CONSEQUENCE OF THIS. . .

Our ninth graders had been playing up at the b-squad level all year so we would have enough to fill a team. Along with these 9th graders, we have had our 8th graders occassionally play up at the b-squad level. There are only a few 8th graders in our conference that have the strength and skill to play b-squad ball so having these four players play at this level wasn't exactly a desired situation.

After the junior high season we invited our 7th graders to join up with the 8th graders to play at the C-Squad level. This would hopefully give our 8th graders a better experience as they could at least go against 9th graders instead of sophomores and juniors. This means that the only players we have left to play b-squad were:

3 - Ninth graders (Michaela Gray - Abby Feist - Alejandra Sevedra)

So we are in a situation where we must play the 8th graders at the b-squad level again but this time with out the help of any sophomores.

SO WE DECIDED. . .

Because the players that now make up the b-squad now look more like a C-squad, I have done a little rescheduling. . .

**Breckenridge game we played a c-squad and no b-squad.
**Barnesville game we will play a c-squad and no b-squad.
**DGF game we will only play a varsity squad (They don't have a c-team)
**Frazee game we will play a c-squad and no b-squad.
**Crookston game is a varsity only event at Concordia.

So now you know. . . .THE REST OF THE STORY.

Good Day!

I’m going to encourage all of our players grades 6 through 11 to attend the camp at Northern State University in Aberdeen, South Dakota.

It is directed by Don Meyer who is one of the elite basketball minds in the United States. Over the past year we have started to implement many of the drills and skill development strategies that are done at Northern State so it would be a great boost to what we are trying to build with-in our program.

A number of players from the boys team attended a Northern State “mini – camp” that was held in Staples last summer and I got the chance to watch their workouts as my son Casey attended. We were all very impressed.

Brad Strand brought his daughters down to this camp and he plans to bring them back again this year. . . He noted that they work the kids hard and there is a ton of learning happening in the four days that they are there.

The camp session I am recommending:

SKILL DEVELOPMENT & COMPETITION CAMP
Girls' - June 10-13
$265 Full Payment (Boarding)

I added the web site for the forms to register for the camp in my contact list in the left border area. Hopefully there will be a number of players that will go down to this camp so that we can organize transportation for all. I would also be willing to drive a group down.

When it comes to the some basketball fans here is a coaching reality. . .When your team wins it is because you have "players making plays” and they are good enough to survive a coach who doesn't play the right players, run the right offense, play the right defense, etc. . . when your team loses its because. . .well. . its because the coach never could coach (or) the coach all of a sudden lost his coaching abilities.

I know this sounds like a “poor – poor me” type of statement but I’m not even talking about me. . .

Not that I couldn’t be!

Here is the REALITY. . .

Non Athletes + Poor Skills = Bad
Athletes + Poor Skills = Average
Athletes + Game Skills = Good
Athletes + Game Skills + Positive Attitude = Better
Athletes + Game Skills + Positive Attitude + Coaching = Best

Here is my varsity coaching career for Pelican Rapids:

1998-99= 15 & 9
1999-00= 20 & 4 - HOL CHAMPS
2000-01= 22 & 4 - SECTION 8AA CHAMPS
2001-02= 15 & 11
2002-03= 22 & 6 - Sect. 8AA Run-Up (loss to DGF)
2003-04= 24 & 4 - Sub-Sec 8AA Run-Up (loss to Hawley)
2004-05= 15 & 12

Wow! Not to brag too much but these were some great years! A conference championship, a section championship, a school record in wins in a season, four 20+ win seasons, a winning percentage of .700. . . Dang, I had some great teams who had some great players. . .

But then WHAM! 2005-06= 1 Win & 24 Losses. I couldn’t coach a bobcat out of a wet paper bag. . .

During years like the 2005 - 06 and the current season, a common fan might feel that a coach has, somehow, lost his ability to coach. . . or just stops coaching period. But perception is not reality.

You wouldn’t believe how hard a coach is coaching when the talent level dips and the talent on teams that you compete against stays the same or increases. I don’t know if you can put a multiplication figure on how much harder or creative a coach must be when they don’t have the “players”.

It is amazing how much I have learned in the last two years. I feel that I am teaching the game of basketball along with the fundamentals of the game better than I ever have. However, some will still see the losing records as proof of my inability to coach. I guess it is just easier to blame a coach when a team doesn’t perform to the expected level.

I, again, remind people that I am not looking for sympathy. . . that is not the point of this blog site. This blog is all about giving you a first hand look at a coaches thoughts. I decided to coach because I feel I have a lot to offer the players I coach. I understand that I will be second guessed and that there will always be people that feel I am a poor coach but that's just the way it is and somethings will never change.

To that end, I know that I am not perfect and I know I make mistakes and misjudgements along the way. All coaches do. But to soley blame a coach for the failure of a team is really unfair. Imagine if we blamed a dentist for the cavities we get and say if he was a better dentist he would get his patients to brush better and if he was really good they would be flossing after every meal!!!

I have an inner peace about what I do as a coach because at the end of the day I truly believe that I ultimately care about and love the players I coach. That is the only way in which a coach can survive the second guessing and the disbelief that parents, fans and sometimes players have in their ability to coach.

When you are in a “rebuilding” situation it is sometimes awkward to talk about the future of the program around the seniors. I would never want the seniors to feel that their last year of playing for PRHS wasn’t important so I make sure that the seniors understand the importance of their role in the whole process of “Dreaming Big and Working to WIN!”

Each senior class leaves a legacy and when it comes to judging how successful each graduating class is. . . one should first look at the example that they set for future players of the program.

After our game against Staples last week, I talked with my players about the future of girls’ basketball in Pelican Rapids. As I was explaining the importance of the effort that players like Sarah Voigt and Katie Mattern are giving our program night in and night out, I could just tell that the players were really skeptical of my words.

However, I was totally serious. Players generally know when you are giving them a “line” so I strive to be truthful with my players. Every once and a while you have to prove to them that you mean what you are saying. To assure the girls that I was being “true” to them, I talked to them about the boys’ program

The beginning of the success of the boys basketball team over the last few years (Conference and Section Championship type success) can be traced back to three young men who never were able to achieve a championship of their own.

Brady Tollerud, Joe Johnson and Jordan Otteson deserve a big “Hoo Hah!” for what they did for the boys’ program. These three young men were the first to understand that success doesn’t just come to a person but instead a person needs to pursue success.

QUICK HISTORY LESSON:

When Rex Haugen retired from coaching the boys program the proverbial cupboard was pretty bare. Coach Strand had a couple decent seasons to begin his career in Pelican Rapids but the talent pool was running low.

Coach Strand worked his tail off to convince potential players that they needed to follow the “Golden Rule” of sports:

- - - Being athletic isn’t enough. . . an athlete must work extremely hard to perfect the skills of the game if they want to achieve their dreams.---

Tollerud, Johnson and Otteson were Strands first “converts” and I was a first hand witness to the hours they spent pursuing the “dream”.

These three players did not finish with medals around their neck but they earned something more. Something much, much more. . . They earned the right to say that they led the way. . . They set the standard for future players follow. . .
I hope these three young men are proud of their high school careers. I think of them often and hope they know I, for one, am very proud of who they are and what they did.

My hope this year is that the efforts of players like Katie Matterna and Sarah Voigt will inspire future players to Dream Big. . . and Work to WIN! There is no doubt in my mind that they have set a great example and I am proud to be their coach.