Coaching JV Basketball

As I mentioned previously and as you can see in "My Teams" section, I have been a basketball coach at some level for 7 seasons, all of which at varying levels of high school.  I first began coaching as a senior in college when I was offered the 7th and 8th grade girls job at a small high school in Virginia.  It was a nice way to get my feet wet.  I was also the assistant on the varsity program so I was able to learn the coaching ropes as an assistant while still calling the shots at a low pressure level.  I can't remember much about how I coached that season, other than the fact that I had some pretty decent athletes and we went on to compile a 9-8 record that season.

I look upset.  Probably over a lack of hustle.

After being hired as a teacher, I was given the JV boys position at the high school I was employed at.  I knew how I wanted to coach.  I wanted to coach basketball the same way that I was coached, which was very authoritative.  My high school coach was a former West Point graduate who played under the system led by Bobby Knight.  And thus, I wanted my coaching style to the be the same.  My feelings were that hard work, discipline, and hustle would win out in games more times than good play that was lazy.  So the first time I met with the boys was the first day of summer camp.  I informed that if at any point during camp we didn't play hard, I would call time out and we would run.  I explained I wasn't concerned about how well they played or if they messed up, I was only concerned with playing hard.

We lost that first game of camp but then on day 2, we started off slow.  A kid turned the ball over at half court and everyone watched the opponent go in for a layup.  No one made it to half court to even contest the layup.  So, holding up to my promise, I called timeout and we ran a suicide.  Reality set in for the kids.  They realized I meant what I said.  We came back to win that game and have a successful camp and season.  We went 13-6 on the year and was 1 win away from playing in the championship game.  The games we lost in our conference were close games against two schools who were considerably larger in student size than the one I was coaching.

During a timeout.  You can't see me, which either means
I'm chewing them out or diagramming something

This "hard work" philosophy continued on throughout my next 2 years of being JV coach.  We weren't as successful in the wins and losses column as we were in year one, but we were extremely competitive in games.  We had a far inferior team to many of the teams we played, but the boys worked their butts off.  We played decent fundamentally, but we weren't afraid to take a charge, boxout, or dive on the floor.  Those hustling traits allowed for us to win and compete in many games we had no business competing in.  On numerous occasions parents, fans, and opposing coaches would acknowledge just how hard the kids worked.  It was always my greatest feeling as a coach during those years to hear people praise my kids for how hard they worked and played.

Not all of those seasons were easy.  My last team lost every game over summer camp and was getting beat rather soundly in many of those games. But I continued to stress the "play hard" mentality.  We didn't have a great regular season record wise, but again, we played hard and that went a long way in making the season feel successful.  These would all be traits I would carry over into my varsity coaching tenure.  They were the same traits I tried using in baseball, though coaching baseball was a different challenge.  Playing hard and hustling don't get it done as easily in baseball as they do in basketball.  And that was evident by my poor coaching record.

The little manager.