For the past several years I have had the grandiose idea of journaling during the season of basketball. I am a JV head coach and Varsity assistant at Trask High School in Rocky Point, and I thought the idea of putting down on paper what was going on during the season would be fun, if but to no one but myself. However, as good as my intentions were, I never seemed to get around to writing one word.
Then I started blogging, and I thought to myself, “Why don’t you just blog about the team and that way you’ll have a bit of a journal for the season?” Sounded good to me, so here I am.
This is my 6th year as a head coach. I had one year as a middle school coach and this is year five for me as a JV head coach. I know it’s not the same as being a Varsity head coach, but not working at the high school severely dampens my chances to be one. Nevertheless I love the kids, basketball and coaching and am grateful for the oppotunity that I have.
This is my second stint at Trask working with the Junior Varsity. This will be the third year of the second stint, and I am extremely excited about this year. Rewind a bit to my first year (second stint) at Trask. Before the season ever began I was diagnosed with kidney stones, and the season got off to a rocky start. During one stretch I missed 5 games and I don’t know how many practices. Tons. More than I ever had in all of my previous years combined. Our team struggled because of it. We finished 3-16 that year, not exactly an accomplishment to hang your hat on. I will say that after Christmas and the removal of the stones we improved vastly. The following year we had almost all of our players back, I was healthy, the kids had grown physically and fundamentally, and we were poised to make some noise. We did pretty well, going 14-8 overall, and 8-4 in our conference, good enough for a second place finish. We dropped some games we shouldn’t have, and played in some games we had no business playing in. All in all it was a successful year, but all of last year’s players save one are gone now, headed up to the big Varsity.
So, that’s where we are. During the summer workouts, I really worried that this year was going to be a difficult year. I had no idea if there’d be any talent, or even enough players to fill a roster. I can say emphatically that I am blown away by this group of 14 players right now. There is so much more talent than I ever, ever thought we’d have. Overall we have good work ethic and the kids are excited about playing basketball.
Our first game is December 3rd at home against Topsail. Nothing like starting your season with a county rival, and a good one at that. It will be a good test for us to see where we’re at right now. As I told the kids at practice Saturday, we’re not going to focus on wins and losses. We’re going to focus on playing good, hard, fundamental basketball and doing things the right way. If we play hard, smart and together then the wins will take care of themself. There’s still a tremendous amount of work to do. More defenses to put in, inbounds plays to put in, offensive sets to run through a thousand more times. Despite this, I have a bounce in my step and an excitedness about this season. If we focus on getting better, staying together as a team and working hard this should be a great ride. I can’t wait to see where we’ll go!
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