I never wanted to be a coach. That is one thing. But when it was posed to me as a challenge, I am drawn to challenges. I’ve been that way my whole life. Relationships are probably the key aspect to my success as a coach, and it goes back to my experience as a collegiate…
Genuine relationship building takes time. More than ever before, coaches have to really make a conscience decision to develop genuine relationships with their players. The ability to communicate with your players is an invaluable skill. These relationships allow coaches to earn the respect and trust of their players. Once these genuine relationships have been built…
Learning to serve should be one of our biggest strengths. Most conversations regarding the importance of an assistant coach starts with how well of a recruiter he is. It’s understood by most in our profession that recruiting is the lifeblood of a program. In today’s game with the constant grind of the AAU circuit, rules…
I recently lost my grandfather at the young age of 96, like most grandfathers he was a role model, mentor, and great story teller. My grandfather, affectionally known as “Pop”, leaves behind a legacy: Army Veteran, former Negro League Baseball player and Enshrined in the Harrisburg Bowling Hall of Fame; he bowled a 299 game…
Dear Coach, I’m almost 39 years old. I’ve been coaching high school basketball for exactly one-third of my life. According to Webster’s, I’m 6 years away from being considered “Middle Aged”. But that’s in human years, not coaches’ years. I’m exhausted. I don’t have the patience that I once had for you…the energetic, hardworking recruiter,…
In 2016 I spoke to a group of 200 coaches at “A Step Up Assistant Coaching Symposium” and received so much positive feedback that I thought I would share it with you on Coach-Speak.net. The topic given to me by Felicia Hall Allen was “The Art of Extending Your Career.” I open with this: ”While I am assigned…
Here at NC Central, we have established 10 Standards of Excellence that we hold as our Core Beliefs in our Day to Day Operations. The Championship runs that the Boston Celtics had were predicated on very similar beliefs, so we just adopted it here at NC Central. 10 Commandments of Excellence: 1. Truth– WE WILL…
It’s ironic that I’m writing this post on exactly my 90th day on the job here at UMass. The speed at which time goes when your fortunate enough to become a head Coach is amazing! It is a complete whirlwind and there will be plenty of times where you need to stop…and take a deep…
I want to start this post by stating how excited I am about the Coach-Speak concept. With the recent and explosive success of ‘The Players Tribune’ and how much that site has evolved my perspective, I’m confident this platform can serve a similar function. A few weeks ago, two of our assistant coaches had job…
As I travel to recruit players during their “open ” gym workouts, many of these “open” gyms turn into pick up games. So as I watch these pick up games I started to think of different ways to make the games better, more competitive and more game like. Here are some ideas that I think…
