03/09/2023
One of my traditions at the end of every season is to post an end of season post so that my teams get some recognition beyond a banquet. I'm going to warn you that this is usually a pretty long post! So here is my post for the end of Season 1 at Gaston. For those of you who were at the banquet last night, you have heard most of this!
It’s amazing to think about how much things have changed in the course of a year. At about this time last year my twin boys (Kaiser & Pierce) had been in the NICU for about a month (and would spend another month) and I was going back and forth between the NICU, home with my other 3 kids and still coaching my team at Banks. We were coming off a league championship and a league playoff championship and just lost our state playoff game. About a week later I would be fired for “underachieving”. In that moment I was positive that I wouldn’t coach this year and possibly not ever. When you give your heart and soul to a program for over decade and then have it all end unexpectedly because you “weren’t winning enough”, it cuts you to the core. Coaching has never been about wins and losses for me. The wins and the trophies are icing on the cake. The cake for me is many things - relationships built, memories made, seeing skills and lessons you taught during basketball being used throughout the lives of your players. That's the cake. I never imagined being let go from a small school high school job because their wasn't enough icing on the cake, especially when you look at the results of my time there and the results spoke for themselves. My passion for coaching was taken away.
In the months after I was fired, I had several opportunities presented to me to continue coaching, but I turned them all down because I just didn't have that passion. Then the school year started and one random night I was in bed on my phone and came across the Gaston job. I looked to see how they did the previous year. Not well. I put my phone away and tried to go to sleep. I kept thinking about the job, so then I looked at their schedule to see how many games they were close in. Not many. I looked at their roster to see how many returning players they had. Quite a few. I put the phone away again. Still couldn’t sleep because the job was intriguing. I ended up watching three of their game films that night. I finally fell asleep thinking I would just forget about it and move on. I didn’t and I ended up applying, with the encouragement of my wife and oldest daughter. In the interview I was told what a great group of girls the program had. After talking with friends and family and coaching friends and being told multiple times I was a little crazy for thinking about taking over a program that had struggled so much, I decided I was ready to jump all in and accepted the job.
While I was watching the films I looked at 3 things - attitudes, work ethic, and what kind of teammates the players were. When a team is struggling those are the 3 areas that mean the most to me. Talent and skill we can develop - the other 3 things are harder to develop. The girls blew me away in all 3 areas. I came in with high expectations for each of the 3 areas. Like they did in so many areas this year, these girls blew away any expectations I had. They had incredible attitudes and were extremely coachable all year long. They had tremendous work ethics and wanted to get better, got out of their comfort zone and asked questions. Then this team was the closest team I’ve ever coached. I remember one of the first days of practice while they were doing circle stretches, Coach Maddy told them they didn’t have to be so close to each other and could make the circle bigger. If anything, these girls made it smaller. They enjoyed being around one another. They supported one another. It made coaching easy.
The first day of practice is when I met a large number of the girls for the first time. The first thing I told these girls was that we’re all kind of in the same situation. A lot of the girls had lost their passion for basketball because of negative experiences and some weren’t sure if they wanted to play. I lost my passion for coaching and wasn’t sure if I wanted to do it again. These girls were told they weren’t good enough, either by friends, family, coaches, themselves, or other teams. I was told I wasn’t good enough. I challenged the girls for all of us to work together and bring that passion back for one another and to get all of us believing we are all more than good enough.
Practice #1. After our team talk, we did a shooting drill that I had been doing for quite a while as coach. We did it for a few minutes and airballed every shot but one and had bad passes, were dropping passes, and the drill was a mess in so many ways. We decided to stop the drill right there and scrap the practice plan we had created and go to the basics because we realized we needed to start at the beginning. Fast forward to the last practice of the year. We did a 3 on 2 continuous drill and I just stood back for a minute in awe of how far the girls had come, as we looked like a really solid high school team now and were making plays that we couldn’t have even imagined on Day 1. That’s what this team was about all year long - changing the course of this program. 19 months since a win - ended by this team. More wins than the last 4 years combined - accomplished by this team. Best start in at least 10 years - accomplished by this team. 70+ game league losing streak - ended by this team. The second round of league this team showed they’re ready to compete at a higher level next year. We were in the games against Portland Christian, Vernonia and Faith Bible until the final minute of those games. We beat Mannahouse. We led the League Playoff champion Knappa at halftime. We led the regular season league champion Nestucca after the first quarter. This group took on a defense that is hard to learn and embraced it from the very beginning and got better and better at it as the year went along. So much of what we did this year are things that take time to learn. These girls came such a long way in less than three months under hard conditions, so we’re so incredibly excited to see what happens when they have a whole offseason to work on things that will help them improve in the things we did this year. The last game of the year we talked about how next year we will no longer be talking about losing streaks, but instead will be talking about winning streaks. We will do this by working hard during the offseason so that we are ready to take off when the season begins. I, for one, can’t wait!
I want to take time to thank so many people who have been instrumental in the program running smoothly this year. I want to thank Mr. Johnson and Ms. Fern for giving me this opportunity and for their support throughout the season. I want to thank Angela with For the Love of Hazel Photography for taking pictures for the team poster, banners and for our page throughout the season. I want to thank Becca Sheets who did our books for us several times throughout the year. I want to thank the janitors for everything they do. I want to thank Nick Krupke with Fox 12 for doing the story on these girls. I want to thank Coach Hardie and Coach Maddy. They have been incredible to have on staff and have made my job so much easier this year. They are tremendous people, which is the first thing I look for in coaches and they put in so much hard work throughout the year to help these girls grow as players and individuals, so thank you to both of them. Thank you to my family. Being a coach’s family is such a sacrifice, especially for my wife because coaching takes me away from them so much. My parents were also so incredibly helpful this year watching the kids often while I was at practice and games. I want to thank the parents in our program, who make a huge sacrifice as well, allowing your daughters to be a part of this program. I thank you for the support throughout the year and helping with rides and with team dinners. Your help and support is so appreciated. And finally I want to thank these players. You have given me the passion for coaching back. You made this year such an incredible year with your dedication, hard work and positive attitudes. The improvement you showed this year was beyond incredible. I appreciate your sense of humor and being able to balance the fun with the work. I look forward to getting back into the gym this year and I challenge each and everyone of you to come into next season in the best shape of your life and ready to continue changing the course of this program!
Go Hounds!!
