“A competitor will find a way to win. Competitors take bad breaks and use them to drive themselves just that much harder. Quitters take bad breaks and use them as reasons to give up. It's all a matter of pride.” - Nancy Lopez

I suppose you could consider this a post-apocalyptic update, or perhaps with the end of the world being staved off for at least one more day it’s inspired me to invest some time in one of the things I’ve neglected for far too long. It’s amazing how full a day gets and how certain aspects of life get pushed to the wayside, even though some of those seemingly inconsequential activities are important releases that keep a person from losing whatever amount of sanity they have left. Thankfully for me I caught myself in time before I was void of all sane notions and got back to my roots of writing.

Never have I experienced such fluctuation between confidence and uncertainty than I have with coaching. It’s such an interesting notion to coach a game on a Friday night and leave the gym with an aura of arrogance thinking to yourself, “I’m pretty good at this. I could see myself doing this for the rest of my life,” only for Saturday night to come, and after you break a clipboard against your office wall you bury your head on your desk and say out loud, “I can’t do this. I’m not cut out for this job.”

The broken clipboard came after our first home game as we dropped Adams State JV. Quite simply we weren’t prepared mentally, and I didn’t make the right decisions both before and during the game. It’s still hard for me to swallow that I’m not the best coach in the country. People give me a hard time about how much of my life I’ve invested in this game and I always respond in a joking manner, “Basketball is all I know,” but in reality that isn’t much of a hyperbole. Learning about this game and perfecting it like a craft or an art brings great joy, but it’s filled with hard moments when I screw up. Much as a painter must be disgruntled when none of her pieces sell, but when there is that one monumental breakthrough it makes every let down seem purposeful.

My favorite clipboard

The season, as early as it is, has been a battle in many ways, but all towards a greater purpose. It’s hard for me to put myself in the shoes of my athletes as they have been forced to respond to a coach they didn’t plan on playing for, especially when the one that I’m replacing is a coach of both phenomenal character and skill. I wish Coach Wagner nothing but the best at Mesa State, where he is currently undefeated and ranked 13^th in the country, and I am blessed by the legacy he left behind here at Otero, but to earn the trust and commitment of these young fiery kids has been a struggle. Only in the last couple weeks have we truly started to come together. We have developed the moniker of “Shared Sacrifice.” Simply put they are not typical, but meant for something special, yet to reach greatness in anything sacrifices must be made: a sacrifice of time with family, friends, boyfriends, sleep, a sacrifice of the body and the mind, and to reach greatness as a team we must sacrifice together which may mean sacrificing playing time for another, sacrificing taking more shots, or even sacrificing the comfort of taking less shots and stepping up. It comes down to simply what is a person willing to sacrifice/risk for the potential of greatness. I feel though that in the minds of many, regardless of whether they are an athlete or not, is that few want to sacrifice if there is only the POTENTIAL for greatness. In everything we do there will always be that chance that regardless of how hard we work, how much we invest, things might not work out the way we want. That is of course where our trust in God’s grand design comes into play, but nevertheless it is a risk, it’s faith. Many are not willing to put themselves on the line without the certainty of success or individual glory. The question that plagues the conscience is, “If I might fail, why should I do this?” We have become a culture of guarantees, and if there is no guarantee we are less likely to not only commit to something , but to give in to something with a burning passion.

The "Shared Sacrifice" Workout

Sitting at a record of 8-4 after the break, there’s no thought that the season is lost or that we are even lost. Based on what I’ve written thus far I may have given that impression. The truth is that we are a young and talented group that I intend on taking into the regional tournament prepared to win it. While I made poor decisions that directly related to all four of those early losses, of which I will carry the burden, my growth through them, the growth of my girls through them wouldn’t have come any other way. As much as I hate losing growth and direction comes from each one. Even some wins feel like losses, but the urgency rarely shows itself like it does with losses.

One thing that is seemingly unrelated to x’s and o’s but in reality is directly related to them is the coaching of the mental aspect of the game. I’ve heard many different splits, 70% mental 30% physical, 90/10, 80/20, 60/40, and while the numbers are all different the consensus is that the mental is the most important, and yet as coaches we rarely invest time in it. I’ve tried to make a concerted effort to teach the mental side this year by taking practice time and going into a classroom to discuss mental aspects of the game. We talked early in the year about the opportunities that we have as people and athletes, and especially that my girls have. We watched part of the opening scene of Saving Private Ryan, one of the most intense, and intensely accurate WWII films of all time. We talked about sacrifice, leadership, unity, and humility. The sacrifices that were made for us as American’s are still too far underrated. If it weren’t for those that gave their lives for us I wouldn’t have the opportunity have a career coaching basketball. I wouldn’t have the opportunity to profess my faith, give my opinions, and not live in fear. For my girls there is even more to be thankful for as in many countries girls are still not allowed to show their faces or go out in public without a male escort. After lengthy discussions about the gifts we’ve been given and how we can choose to take those gifts and use them or squander them, we concluded the session with the Foxhole Test. The foxhole test is a loyalty and commitment test to see who are the most trusted, the best teammates, and the toughest. Each athlete draws a circle and puts themselves at the front of the foxhole. They then have to pick three teammates that they would trust and want in their foxhole with them, with the most trusted and the toughest being at the rear. It was very eye opening for them and for us as coaches to wade beyond the idea of friendship and dig into toughness and loyalty.

The second mental coaching classroom session was on competitiveness, something we talk about daily. I gave them a fill in the blank worksheet that we went through together. The worksheet revolved around two basic concepts: we live in an entitled culture, and that there are four critical intangibles to be a competitor. There is this belief in our society that we, and athletes especially, deserve things without having to work (no risk or potential failure). All of my players and both of us coaches have been part of a winning team at some time, but we can’t forget what made those teams great. Again, there was a common denominator -- it was the shared sacrifice, the mutual desire to be great. How then do you achieve greatness? In our line of business it’s not handed to you; enter the four critical intangibles. Commitment, confidence, competitiveness, and character are the four pieces that an individual must possess to consider themselves a true competitor. For us it is a matter of finding out if we are willing to make the risks and sacrifices to reach the status of a team, coaches included, which is filled with competitors.

The Big Four Critical Intangibles

Taken from the book "How to Develop Relentless Competitors"

By Jeff Jansen, M.S.

My kids return from Christmas break a week from tomorrow. Our last game was bitter tasting and didn’t set the stage well for our region play as we dropped McCook at home. Nevertheless we have the opportunity to reset the stage and reopen the curtain with us at the forefront of the region by making a big statement with three road region games in the first three weeks of January. I’m anticipating a fire and new found resolve upon the girls’ return to campus. I know our team isn’t perfect, but the beauty is that we are dangerous and still far from fulfilling our potential as a team. Growth is inevitable for us which makes the second part of the season reek of possibility.

Till next time,

-          Coach Kyle

One's philosophy is not best expressed in words; it is expressed in the choices one makes... and the choices we make are ultimately our responsibility. - Eleanor Roosevelt

In my mind’s eye I’ve been a head college coach for a long time. I’ve been making practice plans, learning/designing offenses, putting together preseason and post season workouts all long before there was even a hint of me reaching this pinnacle. I’ve envisioned the intensity, the sweat, the blood, the late nights, early mornings, the burden of despair, and the emotions of victory all without ever having put the whistle on my neck. The common misconception of any of life’s grand dreams or simple schemes is that things actually work out the way we plan them to. I envisioned a practice equitable only to war. I wanted a program where only the strong survived, where the environment we competed in everyday was cutthroat, intense, blood and sweat driven, where friendship was built through being soldiers in battle, where there was a price for perfection that was willing to be paid. That’s the place I wanted to create, that was the place I was going to create. Then I realized that not only am I coaching 18 year old girls, but more importantly, I’m not that coach. Every coach has their own style, and it’s a reflection of their personality. There’s something innate inside of me, an uncontrollable passion that burns and can’t be stopped. My heart is driven to win, driven to teach, and driven to help people grow. On the opposite it’s not in my innate nature to be totalitarian type of coach. As silly as it might sound, I can’t help but have fun. Not to discredit those who coach as dictators, for many have and many have been exceptionally successful; it’s simply not who I am. You really can’t coach like anyone but yourself. As many books as you may read or seminars you may attend, you are always going to be you (a novel concept I know). While philosophies and strategies can be taken from other coaches, and styles replicated to some extent, it still won’t change the person employing those philosophies and styles. In a well penned article ESPN’s Dana O’Neil writes of the stoic personality of Syracuse’s head coach Jim Boeheim who was quoted saying, "I have never had fun coaching…I hope that a doctor who operates on me in the operating room, if it's a serious operation, isn't there to have fun."

 Early Settlers Parade 2012

"I don't want to make light of what a doctor does, but what we do to us is very serious," he said. "It's what we do and we want to do it right, be able to get it right. If I want to have fun, I play golf. This is not fun. If I wasn't getting paid, I wouldn't be doing this. You get satisfaction out of doing something right, just like everybody else does, and I get a lot of satisfaction when we do things right and play right. I think that's the way it should be."

http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/tournament/2012/story/_/id/7720387/syracuse-orange-coach-jim-boeheim-leads-tumultuous-successful-season-ncaa-tournament

I had an exceptionally stimulating conversation with the women’s soccer coaches as we ate dinner a few weeks ago. While the discussion initially came about regarding one of their athletes who is an intense competitor, but is often shunned by the team as she pushes them towards perfection and tells them how to become better athletes, an action which some of the other athletes view as insulting. I was able to sympathize with their situation as I am dealing with a similar one, but as the conversation turned we entered into a philosophical exchange about female athletes, their competitive nature vs. their sensitivity, as well as how that can and should be stimulated to create a competitive environment and killer instincts within them all without trouncing the emotions of the athletes and keeping them from standing against each other because of it. 

Jim Beoheim is a future hall of famer. You cannot argue that he produces results at a rate the majority of coaches only dare dream about. But with our soccer team, the coaches hold athlete emotion in high regard. Our women’s soccer team is undefeated and sits at #8 in the country. As much as I feel that creating the Beoheim mentality in me would transition into a consistent winning program, I physically and mentally can’t do it. My coaching style and personality, as intense as it is, still laughs when I hear one of my athletes murmur, “that’s what she said” while I’m describing a lift in the weightroom. It keeps me from running a kid after she passes gas during our ab routine. It lets me tell a professor, without hesitation, to not let a kid use basketball as an excuse for academics and to do whatever it takes to get her grades handled. It lets me joke and laugh at the ridiculous colloquialisms that I learn from my young girls; “Coach, you outta pocket!” (I used it once and they laughed so I guess I still haven’t figured out what it means). It compels me to let kids cry in my office about family problems and boy problems and try to give them words of wisdom. Those examples aren’t to say that I can’t drive discipline into the hearts of my athletes when their performance is unacceptable, or words aren’t spoken to push them beyond their limits, they are to say that there exists the ability to work and love, to have passion and compassion, to invest in people and invest in winning.

Having Fun

The question now must be asked if my style can lead to results at this level. While at Hastings I was in charge of working with the post players and after one workout my head coach told me that while my style was good for high school it wasn’t hard enough for college. Sometimes I want to change my coaching style, I still can’t. I believe with every ounce of me that my style will equate to winning, but evidence proving or disproving that can only be produced in time.

We sit four days away from our first scrimmage; the first opportunity to play someone besides ourselves. After we travel Tuesday to Colby Community College we will trek to Frisco, TX to Fieldhouse USA to play in one of the largest Junior College Jamboree’s in the country. Hundreds of coaches from four year schools will be in attendance looking at recruits. Initially I was focused on simply beating some of the top JUCO teams in the country while giving the girls an opportunity to get noticed, but now I just want to play. I want to know where we stand compared to the country. As much as I want to travel the 12 hours down, win three games by 30+, and drive home, I just want to know if we are on the right track. The teams we will be playing in Texas will be upper echelon competition and it may result in an eye opening situation. After which we will only have a week before we turn around to play three teams in Garden City the following Saturday, Adams State University the next weekend, and then take a quick breath before the regular season starts. The days go tick, tick, tick as November 2, the date of our first regular season game, no longer looms in the distance but is chasing us down at Olympic speed.

In the coming weeks we will witness together if the evidence that is produced will prove me style or not.

Till Next time,

-          Coach Kyle

"If you look for truth, you may find comfort in the end; if you look for comfort you will not get either comfort or truth only soft soap and wishful thinking to begin, and in the end, despair." - C.S. Lewis

My intention was never to take such an extended hiatus from chronicling my story. Following the season at Hastings I knew I would be leaving and had every intention to near seamlessly transition into the next chapter of my life and begin logging under a new title. Inevitably, whenever I try to make plans for my own life and future, God reminds me that He runs the show, not me. To be blunt, I argue with God often. It seems that we rarely see eye to eye on much, especially when it comes to my life’s plan and direction. When the dust settles though it is always unmistakably clear who is in charge, and most importantly why. 

My coaching beginnings were meek to say the least. Having turned down a walk on offer to play at CSU-Pueblo, I began looking for jobs to fill my bank account. Alongside working retail at the now ceased Steve & Berry’s, I was enticed into coaching middle school basketball at my alma mater, Craver Middle School. Having initially been commissioned to coach the boys jv alongside Jim Klipfel, my schedule forced me into coaching girls. I wasn’t exceptionally excited about 7^th and 8^th grade jv girls, but working alongside one of the greatest motivators I’ve ever met, and a man truly passionate about kids and helping them reach their full potential, Gunny Pagnotta, was going to make the experience invaluable and would in turn help blossom in me a love for coaching girls.

Prior to the first practice I went over all the drills, schemes, plays, and sets that we had run when I played, and prepared myself to win the elusive district championship that I wasn’t able to get when I was in middle school. When I arrived I found out that the majority of my team had never played basketball before. Day one went from fundamental instruction to rules of the game. Rule 1: You can’t run with ball unless you dribble. Rule 2: Once you pick up your dribble you can’t dribble again. Rule 3: Don’t go insane. That one was a personal rule. The greatest coaching advice I ever gave those girls was “if you’re open; shoot!” That alone led us to the district semifinal where we lost by 8 to eventual district champion Skyview. I think what grinds me the most about that loss was the fact that their head coach was also the head cheerleading coach.

"Strategizing"

I learned a lot that year. I learned more about girls, coaching, motivating, and how much fun it is than I ever dreamed I would. I also learned you don’t let middle school girls name their own plays otherwise you’ll be running “Skittles” all year long. I saw potential in kids. I saw joy and excitement. I saw camaraderie. I laughed, got embarrassed, heard silly jokes, made silly jokes, and experienced an excitement and love for the game and the team that I hadn’t really expected from girls. I also got to work with the varsity groups and the 8^th grade varsity team won the district tournament in exciting fashion against Pueblo West Middle. That team had three players that I would have the privilege to coach my next three years at Rye High, and two that I have the opportunity to work with every day here at my new job.

8^th Grade District Champs

After my year of coaching middle school I found a renewed love for the game. After the season I went out to Phoenix, AZ to Southwestern College, now Arizona Christian University, for a try-out where I was immediately offered a roster spot for the coming year. My bags were all but packed when I got several phone calls and emails from parents and athletes at Rye High School wanting me to apply for the head girls’ coaching job. To be perfectly honest I originally applied more for the resume and interview experience than anything, feeling in the back of my mind that I was going to be lucky to pull off an interview much less the job. It wasn’t long before I received a phone call for the interview and whisperings that I had an exceptional shot at getting the job. The day before my interview, I spent the day looking at my options: Play in Arizona, or become a 20 year old head coach. I fasted and prayed that day and the morning of my interview I was very blunt with God. I told him on my drive to the school, “If you give me the job I’ll stay, but if not I’m gone.” Needless to say, I got the job.

January of this year the pastor of my church in Hastings implored us as a church to fast together. A week long fast that was meant to be personal and specific. There were many different forms of fasting that people took part in, but being the person I am I went all out; no food, just water, for a week. Again I was very blunt with God about what I wanted for myself and my family and the church. My prayers were specific, bold, and maybe even gutsy. Throughout the week I never got an answer to any of them. What I did get was a calm. A peace I’d never felt before. I sat in our church on a Thursday afternoon and made the self-proclamation that I was ok with wherever God sent me and whatever he asked me to do. I’ve often told people in a jesting manner, but with personal seriousness that basketball is all I really know. I had always revolved my life around it and defined myself by it, and for the first time I was ok with not having it in my life. From there I started exploring avenues that I had never considered. The path that I ended up on took me to the last place I ever expected, but one I had dreamed of for some time.

Pastor Chris of North Shore Assembly of God, Hastings, NE

During spring break I returned to Colorado and took a visit to Denver Theological Seminary. I felt like a masters in apologetics and ethics in route to ministry was where I was supposed to be. To reiterate, it was where I thought I should be (emphasis on the “I”). The application was lengthy and arduous. My essay hit the thousand word mark before I had even answered half the questions. I thought I was going to find a job in Denver, go to school, get my degree and move on. Plans changed fast. It got to the end of June, and after being accepted I was without a job and without any substantial prospects. No money means no school. I did have an offer though to be the assistant boys basketball coach at Pueblo South and had an in as a language arts teacher at Roncalli MS (South’s feeder school). My Plan B (emphasize the word “my”) was to take those jobs and do my seminary degree online. After accepting the offers the undreamable happened (for the record undreamable isn't a word). I received a phone call from Houston Reed, the head men’s basketball coach at Otero Junior College. The head women’s coaching position at OJC had opened and in his quest for potential applicants my name came up. Encouraging me to apply, I decided the resume and interview process would be good experience despite thinking I ever had a real shot (sound familiar?). From there it was a flurry. Application turned into interview, interview turned into unofficial offer, unofficial offer (which took the longest to change) turned into official offer all in less than a month. As I write this I'm occasionally peering out the window in my office that overlooks the arena at the campus of Otero Junior College. The list of people that have helped me get here and who have encouraged me and prayed for me throughout my life and continue to do so is a list that is longer than this blog. It brings me to my knees to think about all the help I’ve had and I can only hope one day I can repay all of you somehow. Four years ago when I was standing on the sideline yelling, “Skittles! Run Skittles!!” I never would’ve dreamed that I would be a head college coach. As I prepare for the season there are many unknowns and so much I still have to learn, but I do know one thing, I’m not running “Skittles.”

The Rattler in OJC's Gym

Till next time,

-          Coach Kyle - Head Women's Basketball Coach, Otero Junior College

"Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power." - Abraham Lincoln

Buried in a box I still have Coach Hale’s pre-season rules and policies sheet from high school. The words he emphasized heavily stated that, “Basketball is a microcosm of life.” While I know his focus was on the development of young men through basketball into citizens of the world, it’s hard not to consider that philosophy and then deviate to the black and white parts. In life, much like basketball, sometimes you win. Other times you lose. Sometimes you have no control over the fact that you’ve lost. Other times it’s no one’s fault but your own. Having been an assistant this year, the first time since I was coaching 7^th and 8^th graders, it’s been exceptionally easy for me to judge the structure and execution of the program. Basing things on a numbers game I had great success as a head coach. While I stepped on the toes of many, and crossed the line with others, there’s no denying that we were a successful program. Because of that I felt like I had a right to judge. It’s amazing how arrogant one can become with just a few drops of success. Success is something that must be controlled and constantly managed as for it not to consume you. I entered my college experience with a lot of, to keep consistent with previous language, swagger. While I will walk away from here with more knowledge and skill as a coach, it will be with a confidence not doused in arrogance, but reborn in earnestness and an understanding about what this game really means in life.

Every individual finds a benchmark for themselves to reach in their profession, and often that comes in the form of a person to emulate. Athletes strive to be like certain athletes, coaches strive to be like certain coaches. Success has been bred by countless styles. There’s the military, dictatorship of Bobby Knight, the calm intensity of John Wooden, the business man/car salesmen approach of John Calipari, and the leadership building, leading with the heart mentality of Coach K. All successful. All champions. All worthy of emulation in their own right. My basketball library is littered with many different coaches, and I’ve been influenced in many facets by coaches of all backgrounds while trying to enhance my own skills. Even as much as I despise his arrogance, I’m looking forward to spending time this summer learning about Calipari and his businessman approach to the game. And yet while I have learned from all of these coaches I have found a distant kinship to two coaches that are often overlooked in today’s age as far as teachers of the game. One was recently the great underdog in the Final Four, the other hasn’t seen a college job in years. Both were the wiz kids of their era, the kid genius’ of the game; highly touted from the start. Rick Riley wrote an article before the Final Four matchup between Louisville and Kentucky entitled “Pitino’s New Perspective” (http://espn.go.com/espn/story/_/id/7740206/pitino-new-perspective). In it he describes the rise and fall of Pitino’s career and the resurrection not only as a coach, but as a man. Riley opens his article by saying: Rick Pitino is not walking through that door. Not the Rick Pitino you knew. Not the bug-eyed screamer, the arrogant New York know-it-all. He has swallowed too much heartache to be that man anymore.

No, the 59-year-old Rick Pitino who walks through that door at this Final Four, the one who leads these Louisville Harry Potters into their fight with the Kentucky Voldemorts this Saturday, this Pitino is changed. He's grayer and softer and happier. He laughs. He indulges. He forgives.

Known for his designer suits and Italian dress shoes (his white suit was always my favorite) Pitino is a winner, there is no denying it; one of the game’s best. Despite his success Pitino has been ridiculed for many things in his tenure, most recently his tryst with a woman he was not married to. Before the final four game this year Coach Dittman told us he wished both Kentucky and Louisville could lose, because he couldn’t cheer for a liar or a cheater. Both titles would be fitting for both coaches in many people’s minds. I then began to consider how both the media and society would portray my life if it were under the microscope as much as these high profile coach’s. Some good some bad, I can envision the top headlines on SportCenter, “Head Coach Kyle Spencer…(fill in the blank).” But while I can see how my life could easily be looked at with disdain by the country had it been portrayed by today’s media on a grandiose scale, much like Pitino’s, the lines at the end of the article were the most powerful for me:

These are days of acceptance for Pitino. Acceptance that you're Louisville, not Kentucky. That life is cruel, and then it's sweet. That basketball is part of life, not life itself.

To be honest basketball has been life for me for a very long time. I’ve often joked with people that I don’t know anything but basketball, and in reality it’s always been more truth than jest. I’ve catered my life to be successful in basketball ever since the summer before my 8^th grade year when I decided I was tired of being a jv kid. That dream manifested itself into winning a state championship, then into being a college basketball player, and then coaching a state championship, and finally becoming a college head coach and winning a national championship (I've only accomplished one of the things on that list). But as I reflect on the things I’ve learned through my girls, especially those at Rye, through fellow coaches and mentors who care deeply about me, and through a select number of friends and family members I’ve learned that there is more to life than winning. That it’s about relationships and about building people. I know it's cliché  for every coach in America, and a line that is spouted in every interview, press conference, and newspaper article when a coach is asked why he or she coaches, but there is a hard line between being a coach who truly believes that and one that is bent on winning. 

Pitino said something vulnerable the other night, at the very end. He said, "My biggest disappointment isn't that I didn't put somebody on the passer in that [1992 Duke] game. It's that I didn't live humbly all those years. I try to now."

Acceptance. Living humbly. Forgiving yourself and others. Coaching for the love of the game and the love of people. The other coach that I’ve felt a kindred spirit with is Quinn Snyder. If you don’t follow college basketball with much diligence then you probably have no idea who Quinn Snyder is. Today he sits on the bench as an assistant for the Los Angeles Lakers, but in 1999 at 32 years old when he got hired by the University of Missouri he was a prodigy. In an article in the Seattle Times columnist Steve Kelley wrote of Snyder's time at Missouri. "[He was] College basketball’s next big thing. Telegenic, charismatic, he was a natural. He was a tireless worker, with a Duke pedigree, and hiring him to his first head-coaching job at Missouri, passing on Bill Self and John Calipari, seemed like a bold and brilliant move. Snyder was smart and slick in a good way. He had a law degree, an MBA. He knew how to work a room. And Snyder wore his passion on his sweats. He believed in basketball. He was most comfortable in the gym. He loved coaching. He loved counseling. He loved winning. And, on some level, he even enjoyed the agony of defeat” (http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2010/jul/03/former-missouri-basketball-coach-quin-snyder-finds/). Those words resonated with me. Snyder though, in the midst of 126 wins and 7 post season appearances was fired after 17 NCAA violations as well as poor off the court decisions that he couldn’t keep out of the spotlight. After spending 16 months practically underground Snyder reemerged with an NBA D-league team and eventually as an assistant with the 76ers before coming to LA. Whether Snyder has found the same acceptance and forgiveness of himself as Pitino has we don’t know; humility is a hard lesson to learn.

It’s difficult to keep from considering the things that drive a person. Everyone must decide what risks, if any, are too great to take in an attempt to achieve ones dreams. Lines are often drawn in the sand defining what our convictions won’t allow us to cross, but it only takes one storm to wipe them away and push us to places we never thought we’d let ourselves go. So how then do we control our success and how do we control ourselves from risking everything to achieve it and maintain it? I suppose that’s for each individual to decide, but it seems to me it’s all a matter of who you surround yourself with; who is keeping you accountable and who is pushing you in the right direction. In an article on espn.com by Ivan Maisel regarding Oklahoma State football coach Mike Gundy and his non-traditional coaching strategies, Gundy talks briefly about his hiring process for assistants:

Gundy tried hiring assistant coaches in the conventional manner. Needed a recruiter? He hired a guy known for recruiting. Needed a position coach? He hired a guy for that position. “But they weren't great hires for me,” Gundy said. Gundy decided to focus on intelligence and loyalty. He figured the rest would work itself out. When he needed an offensive coordinator after last season to replace Dana Holgorsen, who went to West Virginia, Gundy hired Jacksonville Jaguars wide receivers coach Todd Monken, a former Oklahoma State assistant who had never been a coordinator. The Cowboys averaged 49 points and 557 yards per game this season. When Gundy needed a running backs coach this year, he hired Air Force assistant Jemal Singleton. Air Force? It runs the option. Oklahoma State runs a spread. "Because he's smart," Gundy explained. "He's got a good demeanor. ... He had to understand loyalty, structure and discipline, because you don't graduate from the Academy without all those things. He's been tremendous for us." Gundy is through with Coaching 101. He swears he will err toward character over talent in recruiting” (http://espn.go.com/college-football/bowls11/story/_/id/7394688/oklahoma-state-cowboys-coach-mike-gundy-learns-mistakes).

Err towards character? Where has that been in our society? Where has that been in our businesses, schools, coaching staffs, government? Where has that been in our day to day interaction with people? I know I haven’t always erred towards character in my personal decisions, but like Pitino, it’s time for acceptance and forgiveness of yourself.

Till Next Time,

-          Coach Kyle

“My attitude is that if you push me towards something that you think is a weakness, then I will turn that perceived weakness into a strength.” - Michael Jordan

I’ve been kindly harassed by two people now in regards to updating my blog. As I read over my previous entry it’s amazing how long ago the date was, but how fast the days have gone by. I warned you that there was the potential that I might not make an update till playoffs, and here I am, typing away following our trip to the national tournament in Sioux City, Iowa. Before I regale you with the most recent events I will connect the dots from where I left you to where we are now.

The corn palace of Dakota Wesleyan was a remarkable sight. The entire building was plastered with portraits fashioned by, well, corn. Each year a new theme is decided upon and new corn masterpieces are created along the outsides of this palace. As you stand and admire the creations you can’t help but have butter on the brain and crave popcorn as that is all you can smell. Dakota Wesleyan nearly took a win away from us in our previous meeting, and despite their barely respectable record their strengths were our greatest weaknesses. They were exceptionally aggressive on the glass, and shot the ball without fear. Having the ability to slow us down and milk the clock before firing an outrageously deep shot that inevitably would go in, our momentum coming back from California was quickly shattered. Up 2 in the waning seconds we stayed in our matchup zone having held them to minimal scoring overall. Wesleyan needed a 3 to win and that’s exactly what they got. A quick entry into the high post following a kick-out to the left wing, their best shooter buried a dagger in our metaphorical hearts as she drained a three just before time expired.  This added to the already long drive home from South Dakota and set up a potentially devastating week. Though I don’t claim to be a prophet I knew that despite the seemingly back breaking loss in South Dakota, the real swing game would be Doane. Despite giving the Tigers every opportunity to beat us on our home floor and send us into a two game skid and plummeting us to the depths of the GPAC we snuck away with a win which all but clinched our fifth place spot. All that was left was to win the games we were supposed to win and hopefully pick up one or two along the way for seeding purposes and find ourselves packing our bags for Sioux City.

The Corn Palace

Having made what I felt to be the key turn, our players didn’t feel the same effects. We struggled through our next 5 games, losing the ones everyone assumed we would lose and only hanging on to win the ones we were supposed to win. There was much uncertainty going into our showdown with Mt. Marty on the road as we were one game ahead of them in conference standings and facing another precarious point. For all intents and purposes a win would all but officially clinch a bid into the national tournament unless of course a ton of highly improbable upsets occurred in the conference tournaments. The game was back and forth from the beginning, but it ended as the Courtney Spawn show. A senior who had been demoted to the depths of the bench had been earning her way back into the rotation. That night she proved her worth. Always a consistent player, she rarely made mistakes. Solid is the best way to describe Court. The difference against Mt. Marty was she showed why she was once known as a three point specialist. Hitting three’s that sent us both into overtime and eventually won the game for us she permanently earned herself a starting position for the remainder of the season. In reality the stress of hoping for a tournament berth was over, but now we would enter the brutal conference tournament.

To keep from babbling as there are more important matters to discuss I will be brief regarding the conference tournament. Our swagger hit an all-time high only to come crashing down in a matter of days. Having to play at #12 Briar Cliff to open our conference tournament we shocked the country by rallying from a double digit deficit to a monumental victory (a feeling we’d be on the other side of in the coming weeks). The momentum swing that we were feeling though was soon short lived. The semifinal round of the conference tournament pitted us against #2 Concordia, a team that had beaten us handily only a few weeks prior. The ego was high though for in our last meeting our two stars, Stat and Brittney, were far under the weather so that, coupled with our premier win at Briar, accounted for a lot in the probability of us winning. That hope was not only dashed, but buried within the first 2 minutes.

A good coach always has a solid understanding of his or her team’s strengths and weaknesses. While the top level teams are able to minimize their weaknesses or at the least mask them by their strengths inevitably they are always there. Good coaches are also able to find their opponents weaknesses and take advantage of them. My senior year of high school we were loaded. We had the best coaching staff in the state in any classification, and we had 5 senior starters that had committed everything to winning a state title. We were 25-0 going into the final four against Del Norte and many people in the state thought we had no weakness. We had two, we couldn’t play well slow, and our three point shot was our difference maker scoring. The day after the game the article in the local paper would read the following: “Del Norte Stuns Rye.” Coach King from Del Norte would be quoted saying, “I told my guys before the game that if this game was ugly it would be in our favor...I am just speechless. I have a bunch of guys in that locker room in there who just refuse to lose. What a great feeling this is.” I hate that article. It burns me to this day, but I understand now that a person’s weaknesses are exceptionally scary when someone else knows them.

A bronze plaque that should be a gold ball

Our weaknesses all year have been the handling the press and scoring in the half court. With our inability to manage the shot clock against the press or to break it cleanly plagued us against Concordia, and from the tip off they simply owned us. It was ugly ball, but only on one end. While the loss would neither keep us out of the tournament nor would it destroy our seeding, it left a plaguing feeling my mind and I’m sure everyone else’s. 86-48 final.

Nevertheless we were off to the national tournament. For the first round of play we were to face off against the southern drawl of the Tennessee Wesleyan Bulldogs. An athletic team who lived and died by the three, quite simply died by the three in the first round. The grotesque half time score of 21-15 simply made me as a coach and I’m sure all of the spectators sick to their stomachs. Last year coaching high school my assistant coach began swaying my coaching integrity that had always pushed defense, defense, and more defense into the world of offense. While I’m still a student of the game, learning everything I can from anyone I can, the concept of whoever scores the most wins seems to be overlooked all too often. Coaches spend hours building the defensive prowess of their teams so that they can ensure their opponents don’t score. But high powered offenses, even if limited, can still stagger a defensive power. Connecticut’s 53-41 victory in the NCAA finals last year was the first time since 1983 that a team had scored under 60 points in the finals to win the title. It was also only the 5^th game in that same span that a team had scored under 70 points in the championship game and won. In terms of the women’s game only 3 times ever has a team scored less than 60 points in the championship game and won. But with the Bulldogs shooting pitiful percentages (24% FG for the game, 14% 3-pt, and 52% FT) our 57 point outing was more than enough to carry us to the next round against C of O, the College of the Ozarks.

The Parade of Champions: Each team at the tournament is announced and escorted to the floor at the end of the first day to form the name NAIA on the court and exchange t-shirts with their first round opponents.

Last night the team sat at Bullseye’s, a sports bar here in town to watch the national championship game: Northwestern, a team from our conference who we lost by 12 to early in the year, was playing the team who we gave our season to. I intend to be very specific using the word “gave.” If you read any articles or ask any of the Hastings faithful the will all say that is was just that our shooting went cold in the second half. After having extending a 10 point half time lead to 14 early in the second half, it would be easy to equate our 1-14 three-point performance in the second half as the only justification for our loss, but we also allowed them to shoot 60% from the floor to our 28%, 80% (20/25) from the free throw line to our 50% (6/12), and their bench to outscore ours 15-4. My first year coaching at Rye I listened to Mark Kellogg of Ft. Lewis, one of the premier NCAA DII teams in the country, talk about how important shot selection is. Ozarks knew what they wanted to get, and they made sure they got it, as opposed to our take the first open opportunity regardless of who it is or where it is on the floor or what the time situation looks like. Believe what you will, but we gifted a talented team with every opportunity to beat us, and they took it. I equate it to our lack of offense, and their overpowerment of it. So as we sat, knowing that we should’ve at the least joined our three conference brethren in the final four (Northwestern ousted Briar Cliff, and Ozarks upset Concordia), we went on to witness two beatable teams vie for the title.  

Courtney Spawn making a leaping pass to Kayli Rageth in our first round game at nationals

As we sat and watched two things struck me. Major revelations: one being exceptionally intriguing, and the other equally disturbing. The first was the talent level of the Northwestern team that would down Ozarks to three-peat as NAIA National Champions. They were not very good. While I know that’s an overstatement, what I mean to say is that they are not what I would describe as championship caliber talent for the college level. Northwestern has one very athletic, hard-nosed 3-guard/forward in GPAC MVP Kendra Da Jong. They have a talented guard who can shoot the lights out and handle the ball very well in the open court in Kendra Kuhlmann. After that they have a team full of role players. They have kids who have a job, know their job, and do that job well. They know both their skills and their limitations. They understand their part on the team be it a starter, a bench player, a 25 minute a game kid, or a 5 minute a game kid. They are also exceptionally disciplined. They ran the floor with purpose and understanding, they ran their offense until they found the shot they wanted, and they moved better without the ball than any team in the NAIA. Having watched the 4A Great Eight in Colorado the weekend before I would contend easily that Air Academy, Pueblo South, and even perhaps Pueblo West has more overall talent, and could’ve contended for a final four spot as is, nevertheless it is more apparent than ever that the most talented team does not always win: it’s the most hard-nosed, the most consistent, the most disciplined, and the team that works the best as a single unit knowing and excelling at their roles that wins. Every piece of the puzzle is different. With all the right pieces, put together in the right order, a masterpiece can be made. The other revelation that was the disturbing of the two was when our junior (soon to be senior) power forward made a quiet comment in the closing minutes of the game. Staring in what seemed like awe and wonderment at the screen she quietly said “How do we get there?” As one of the now senior leaders of the team, having finished 3 years here at Hastings, and just removed from the National Tournament, the question in my mind that responded to hers was “How do you not know!” It haunts me to think that our new leader, after all this time, still doesn’t know what it takes to win it all. Is that a fault of hers? (maybe) A fault of ours as coaches? (most likely How many on our team don’t know what it takes to win it all?  (more than I’d like to guess) I don’t think I can convey the severity of this enough, but it’s haunting. If our team doesn’t truly know in their hearts what it takes to win at that level, if we as coaches haven’t pressed that in their minds, I don’t know if they’ll ever know. It’s sickening to me to think we may have ultimately failed our players. It does mean one thing for certain though: on the night of the championship game you’ll find them sitting in Bullseye’s watching.

Till Next Time

-          Coach Kyle

"You become strong by defying defeat and by turning loss into gain and failure to success." - Napoleon

It still astonishes me how quickly time goes. At the same token some days drag on and in the midst of some months life could be labeled as never ending drudgery, and yet when you stop and reflect upon the past it’s often a shock that it has gone by so furiously. I find myself regularly considering thoughts and details that I should add into to my not-so-regular postings whether it is on bus trips, after games, driving to go watch potential recruits, or just lying in bed. Of course by the time I have time to sit in front of a computer and technologically “pen” my thoughts I’m usually on the downward slope of my mental capacity and motivation. As I sit here in my office trying to reflect on all the time that has passed I struggle to consolidate my thoughts into something coherent. For the sake of structure I’ll simply work chronologically and fill in with insight as it comes.

With my last posting we sat at 6-0 and I was quietly looking to see who would emerge as our leader, our “swagger” player. In just over a month we are 14-5 and sitting at 13^th in the country. By simply looking at record you might assume that we are peaking and playing quality ball coming into the start of the second half of conference play; while at times we have looked that exceptional, those times have been few and far between. Too often our wins have come simply because we’ve “out athleted” teams. Of our 5 losses, 4 have come at the hands of conference foes which means despite our national ranking we are wallowing in 5^th place in the conference with only have a one game lead over the 6^th and 7^th place teams. It’s funny how losses stick out so poignantly in my mind. Dating back to my sophomore year of high school I can recall every single in-season loss I’ve suffered whether they were as a player or coach. Some of the most painful include the 10 point loss my sophomore year to ECA in the regional tournament, the overtime loss to ECA and 3 point loss to Jefferson Academy in the Final Four my junior year, the 8 point loss to Del Norte in the Final Four my senior year, our loss to St. Mary’s at home to clinch the league title my first year as head coach, our drubbing at Bayfield in our first regional tournament, the loss my second year to Dolores Huerta at Hoehne, the loss at Ellicott that same year just before the season ended, and of course the 4 point loss to Buena Vista in that years regional, my 3^rd year coaching the loss to Trinidad in OT actually stands out the most despite the two State Tournament losses (should’ve fouled being up three). While that is just a brief list, as to my count I’ve accumulated 35 losses from my sophomore year playing through now (excluding my middle school coaching year, and my jv coaching here), I’ve learned a lot of hard lessons as a teacher and a coach throughout those. Whether it be x’s and o’s, preparation, team philosophies, the handling of situations and people, and lots of lessens regarding life values such as honesty, integrity, and pride. The overarching lesson though is that competition and leadership roles expose our greatest weaknesses, and often times we are not simply exposed within ourselves, but to the world. With that it is not a matter of hiding, covering, or brushing over those weaknesses, it’s how we react to them, and if we are willing to embrace them so that from them we can grow. Perhaps one day I’ll blog about the details of some of the lessons along that hard road. I do thank the Lord for the great support throughout it all, and for the many of you who helped me learn in times of my greatest hardships.

To keep this from turning into a depressing, philosophical rant, I'll transition to one of the greatest delights of the season, which came just after Christmas as we traveled to California to play in a tournament at Biola University in Anaheim, CA. I’m going to briefly allow the child in me to run rampant as I say that Disneyland was the coolest thing ever! This was my, as well as many of the athlete’s, first experience there. We made that the priority stop on our first full day (and only day without games). A group of our varsity kids and one of my jv kids let me tag along with them all day. At times my role definitely transitioned from coach and person in charge, to friend having a great time, and even onto, as much as I don’t want to admit it, the annoying brother.  Three experiences stand out above the rest, the first coming in the seat of one of the large roller coasters that was in Adventureland. One of our group members, Courtney, has an unexplainable fear of roller coasters to the most immense degree. She refused to ride anything more extreme than the kiddy coaster in Toon Town (which for the record was still fun!). Along with her, Josey and Taz both had the fear, but wanted to prove to themselves they could do it. Because an odd number of people were going on the coaster I sat by myself in my coaster car right behind Josey and Taz trying to calm their shakes. Before the coaster took off, a little 12 year old girl plopped herself next to me in the car. She very excitedly informed me that this was her 5^th time that day on the coaster and she was by herself because her parents didn’t want to go on it. Her unwavering confidence made Josey and Taz look like the 12 year olds (the braces the little girl still smiled with was the clincher). After that my two girls had little trouble riding the coasters!

The day we were at Disneyland was exactly one week before the Rose Bowl, so as we walked the Disney streets, we saw the football teams of Wisconsin and Oregon throughout. All were sporting official Rose Bowl gear and the girls were rather enamored with the new “site seeing” that became available. We were headed out of the park to go get some dinner when Alicia ran into a family member, so the rest of us waited while the two of them caught up. As we stood nearby, Frankie and Cami, two of our forwards, caught the eye of a couple of Oregon players. As I reread this I don’t know if it was the girls who caught the guy’s eyes or the other way around (of course Frankie tells it as though her and Cami were getting checked out by these DI football studs), but Frankie asked if they could take a picture with them. The Ducks obliged, and there was no need for me to tell them, “Say Cheese!” because the cheesed faces the girls showed for the rest of the night was more than enough! Of course the final scene of the story came after we got back when Frankie came to practice the day after the Rose Bowl absolutley excited because she actually watched the two guys play in the on television. Girls….I’ll never understand.

The last part was the most amazing. Now, if you’ve never been to Disneyland then you won’t be able to grasp the full extravagance of this final tale. Because it was still the Christmas season, once darkness fell on the park, the land of Disney responded with some of the most indescribable Christmas lights to brighten the paths. At the entrance of the park stood a tree like none that I had ever seen, christened with more lights than Clark Griswold could dream of; it was epic. But as captivated as I was with the tree and the little city that was fully lit up, it was what the streets led up too, the essence of Disneyland: The castle. Standing in front of the castle, gazing at its wonder, a voice came over the P.A. announcing that the lighting of the castle was about to begin. It seemed as the though entire park began to slow as all the lights dimmed around us. The masses ceased to move as the whites of every eye stared in awe at the white lights that begat the castle walls. Time had stopped and the entire world had become frozen in time except for the living being that was the castle itself: The essence of purity, beauty, and holiness all wrapped up in one. After witnessing such an event I couldn’t help but consider the Kingdom of Heaven and think that despite the glory of Walt’s Kingdom one day we’ll see how it pales in comparison to God’s Kingdom.

I always seem to get carried away with my blogs. Maybe if I actually wrote with any consistency in regards to time I wouldn’t have to make you suffer through pages and pages of text all at once. If you’ve stayed with me thus far I will quickly elaborate on our current basketball situation. Following our return from California we have pushed nonstop. Today marked the 12^th day in a row of practice or games, and with a game on Sunday in the Corn Palace at Dakota Wesleyan, it could easily turn into 20 in a row. We suffered a tough loss at home against Concordia on Wednesday and despite being 14-5 I feel we are on the precipice of greatness or demise. Physical fatigue has started to show as we are in the longest stretch of the season. While I have no doubts we can overcome that, our mental toughness may be shaken. Yesterday at practice I could hear nitpicking on the court between players, something I haven’t seen all year. While we have a very winnable game at Dakota Wesleyan, it’s on the road against a team that has some game changing three point shooters which could make it a battle to the wire. Regardless of Sunday’s outcome though I truly feel that Wednesday’s game against Doane is our big swing game. Doane handed us our first loss of the year, by one point at their place, and that game was the only game I felt like we allowed the other team to really get into our heads. For whatever reason they made us play into their style of ball and we appeared to doubt ourselves. We have yet to have that happen since, so it is my hope that our loss will turn into our growth and that will be a thing of the past. Because Doane is a game behind us tied for 6^th, and they already own the tiebreaker, it could make or break our momentum going into our games against #2 Briar Cliff and #10 Northwestern (the top 5 teams in our conference also happen to be in the top 15 in the nation), two teams that have already dealt us losses. We have the talent and capability to set the course Sunday and by Wednesday right the ship so we can go out with a full head of steam and drive to take 1^st place in the conference by sheer force and will.

If my awful trend continues we may be getting ready for playoffs by the time I write again. If that ends up being the case I intend to be telling you of our standing as the top seed going into the conference tournament and the plans we are making for the National Tournament in Sioux City, Iowa!

Till Then,

-          Coach Kyle