15
Feb, 2023
A word from coach
What I’m setting out to help you with as a player during the spring season:
- I’m not a guy who yells and screams' don’t humiliate players, other coaches, fans, or officials. I might occasionally disagree with a call, but one of my personal goals is to never dishonor Christ with my behavior as a coach. I will not be overly animated on the sidelines or at practice. It’s not only counter to my personality, but more importantly, I don’t feel that it’s the best way to communicate with people. Nine times out of ten, a player knows that she made a mistake, and needs help either moving past the mistake or she needs a clear explanation of how to not make that same mistake in the future. That’s what a coach is there for.
- Develop your fundamental basketball skills and IQ so you will be ready for your school’s summer program as well as next season. This includes:
- Ball handling;
- Shooting;
- Passing;
- Rebounding;
- Off-Ball positioning;
- Help defense;
- Breaking & setting presses;
- Court leadership
- I will not waste your time during practices .Everything we do at practice will be designed to help you develop and grow as a player. Practice will be rigorous. I don’t believe in a lot of standing around and long-drawn-out explanations. We will work hard every practice, work on the basketball fundamentals, and prepare ourselves to compete throughout the season.
- I plan on giving everyone on the team quality playing time each tournament in order to help you evaluate your growth, contribute to the team in a meaningful way, and justify the time and effort you are putting into spring basketball .This will not necessarily be seen in every single game, but throughout each tournament each player will get opportunities to play. The main exceptions to this will be if a girl misses multiple practices or does something that doesn’t reflect the Christ-like character we will set out to show to others.
- Every game will be recorded, and the videos will be made available to players and their families a couple days after the tournament. This will allow you to evaluate yourself after each game, determining what you did well and what you’ll need to work on for the next tournament .I will ask for you to share your personal evaluations with the coaches after each tournament; partly to make sure we are on the same page and partly so we can help you set your own goals and meet those goals.
- I’ve never coached a game I didn’t want to win. We will play our best in order to win every game we play, regardless of the skill level of our opponent. That being said, there are far more important goals when it comes to spring basketball, than winning all our games. If all of our players are growing and developing throughout the spring, I will see that as a greater victory than the wins and losses throughout the season. Additionally, we will never take part in humiliating other teams if we run into a situation where we are clearly better. We will always be respectful and Christ-like with our opponents, regardless of how they treat us. If you’ve never played tournament basketball, you’ll need to know that we will run into a few teams that will be really good and we will likely struggle .Instead of getting mad or embarrassed, set out to learn as much as possible. Those other teams didn’t get to that level overnight. They worked hard and learned along the way. Do that, and you will grow.
- I can’t tell you what our offense, defense, presses or anything else will look like at this point. I build around what we have when it comes to abilities and what the players enjoy doing. Additionally, once we determine what our offense, defense, presses, and other strategies will be, most of the “studying” of these will be done as homework through handouts and online videos. We will take a little time during practice to work on these items, but not a lot. We won’t run “plays” per se, instead we will have “sets” in which various different options will hopefully open up as each player does her job. In my opinion, sets offer players more opportunity for creativity and are less stressful.
- Communication is key for our team. We will need to learn to communicate on the court if we want to win as a team. We will need to communicate off the court, especially when something is bugging us. After games, feel free to come talk with me if you are confused about a decision I’ve made. I’d prefer it if you would come as a player first, but I also have no problem talking with your parents as well. However, let’s commit to talking to one another with respect, patience, and giving each other the benefit of the doubt.
Looking forward to the season!
Ben Trigsted
[email protected]