“Not all those who wander are lost.” - J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring

Since I graduated high school, only once have I lived in the same residence for longer than a year. While I rarely changed zip codes I’ve always been on the move; a journeyman’s mentality, a traveler at heart. Not the traveler that traverses the globe like that of my brother, but a restless spirit. Two months ago I began year two of my time at Otero Junior College. While I again changed the home of my futon and bed, the office chair in McDivitt 201 remains warm. The investment that Otero Junior College has made in me has allowed me to continue my tenure here, and my investment in coaching and in young people remains here at Otero as well. To say that last year as a team we faced our share of trials would be an understatement. It seems that those closest to you try to make the most excuses for your trials, and while I could lay our struggles on not having kids I recruited, on replacing a beloved coach, on having a group with conflicting personalities, or any other excuse, the bottom line is that the successes or failures of any group begins with the person leading the charge, hoisting the sword, and yelling the commands. If there is a lack of trust or respect for the leader, or a lack of preparation by the leader, failure is likely. My biggest mistake came with the assumption that individuals who compete at this level automatically invest themselves fully in the cause. I have come to learn that the mentality that I possess is rare. If I choose to involve myself in something I take it to the limit. Not only is a highly competitive nature not common among athletes, concepts such as love, truth, responsibility, and unity are not as common as I would like to believe. Because of that I have learned that such things must be taught, not just spoken about. They must be emphasized daily, and most importantly, they must be shown. 

The Brand New Gym Floor at Otero

I began last year with six sophomores. By the end of the season I was down to four. Of the sixteen that sat in uniform for our first game a year ago, only six of those will don an Otero jersey this November. In our final meeting of the last season I told my returners that my job as a coach was to find athletes better than they are. I made it exceptionally clear that despite our 17-10 regular season record, it was not good enough. With that I spanned the globe for the best athletes for my first recruiting class. Recruiting is both exciting and unnerving. At the junior college level especially, your season’s success rests greatly on the athletes you bring in right away, whether they are transfers or freshmen. In the end, I brought in fourteen new athletes. Six of them are played in the Colorado All-State Games, two others traveled across the ocean to get here. 

I have a girl from Spain and another from Hungary. I hadn’t spoken with either of them verbally until they arrived on campus. One I had corresponded with via email, while the other I worked solely through her agent. The first words I heard Celia (pronounced Thalia), my young lady from Spain, say was, “You speak fast.” While this is my second season at the helm it is still a season of many firsts. As I sat in my office preparing for our first team meeting of the 2013-2014 year I felt I was much more anxious than I did last year. I didn’t need to reinvent myself, but I did need to establish my teaching philosophies with my first words. Minutes before I was to walk across the gym up to our meeting room I thumbed randomly through the Bible in hopes of an affirming word. While this is not the most ideal practice for gaining insight from God, the point of my finger landed on Judges 3 verses 25-28. Judges 3 tells the story of Ehud who was raised up to deliver the children of Israel from Eglon the king of Moab. Ehud thrust a dagger into Eglon which led to the Israelites overtaking Moab. The commentary by Jon Courson reads that, “If you aspire to any kind of leadership, be like Ehud. ‘Follow me,’ he said because he was a man who knew the power of the Sword and used it effectively.” I hold the sword of leadership. I have to yield it in a manner that will both strengthen us and empower us. Yield it in a manner that will unite us. Again, last year I left much to assumption. As to not fall into the same trap I created a specific team philosophy and directly relayed to my athletes my purpose of why I’m here and why I want to a part of their lives. In preparation for teaching the culture of our program and teaching how our program needs to be represented I created four laws for our team: Love, Truth, Responsibility, and Unity. 

The Four Laws of Otero Women's Basketball Team

We act in Love; We speak Truth; We possess Responsibility; We keep Unity. Within these concepts are the embodiments of everything I want from a team. As I detailed what these laws truly meant I recalled the time I spent over the summer with my brother, sister-in-law, and little niece. I haven’t seen them in three years as they’ve been living overseas in Taiwan. My baby niece is less than a year old, and despite the fact that it was only a matter of weeks ago that was able to see her baby blue eyes in person, I couldn’t help but feel a deep, and overwhelming love for her, that I would do anything to protect her, that I would invest everything I have in her if she needed it. When I invest myself in something I invest everything I am. With my athletes the sentiment is the same as with my niece. If I can help them, be there for them, mentor them, help them become better in any way, I want to be there. The first law is love and their charge is to love one other. The second law is that of truth. There was once a time when a man’s word was his bond. Where contracts were never signed, because if someone said they would do something it happened, if a question was asked the true answer was given. In a culture that lacks accountability, and in a society where an individual is advanced based on how well they can talk themselves in an out of situations the spoken truth is a foreign concept. Like love, the truth is sometimes hard to say and hard to face. Love isn’t always easy, and the truth is sometimes not what an individual wants to hear, but for success, for growth, and for unity truth must be the basis of all we do. To possess responsibility is rare. There are so many distractions that can overcome an individual. The constant stimulation from media and the constant expectations from everyone in their lives can be overwhelming. To be responsible embodies a lot of work for a young student-athlete. They have a responsibility to their professors to be in class on time, to be attentive, to turn in their homework on time and to do it to the best of their abilities; they have a responsibility to their coaches and teammates to be at practice on time, to be intense at all times, to learn and understand concepts and philosophies, to work to better their game; they have a responsibility to their families to call home and to maintain a relationship; they have a responsibility to their friends to stand by them and be accountable for them. All of these things can weigh heavy on a young person. There is so much going on in the life of an 18 year old that we as adults and mentors often forget the pressures that keep them up at night. We as coaches though can’t simply tell them to be responsible, we have to teach them how to be responsible and ways to maintain responsibility and be successful at what they do. Lastly, they have to live united. Unity is not a simple task. To find a way to unite individuals who have never met each other, to get them to live a cause and to rely on one another, to defend each other, to do what’s best for the whole not best for the part is a process and not an instantaneous lifestyle. Self-sacrifice and reliance on others are concepts that are very foreign to many individuals. Nevertheless when life is hard, which it often is, they need people to stand with them and care for them and lift them up. Too many people are alone in this world. One day there may come a time when you need to make a phone call at 3:00 am needing someone to come to your aid; do you have someone to call that you know will answer and be there at a moment’s notice? These are the laws of our program. With them success isn’t guaranteed, but without them it does guarantee failure. 

Teaching the team about time management

As I finish writing this entry we are only on the brink of getting started. Much like I entered my first meeting with an entirely new sense of direction and purpose I am doing the same with the season: a different preseason, a new offensive system, new defensive concepts, and a more precise philosophy. Week one of our preseason was four days long and resulted in four different piles of vomit from athletes. There has been a sprinkling here and there since then, but I feel that it is going to make us tougher, stronger, faster, and quicker. With 22 athletes still fighting for roster spots things will look drastically different by the time I write again. By then we will be in the midst of scrimmages and trying to figure out how good we are, and how far we have to go.

Until then,

-          Coach Kyle

"We cannot always build the future for our youth, but we can build our youth for the future." ~ Franklin Delano Roosevelt

There is long standing belief that coaching, like business, is a cutthroat profession; every coach looking out for him or herself and willing to go down any dark and narrow path to achieve their goal, staking anyone along the way. To be perfectly honest I’ve never felt that. I know every coach wants to win and will go to great lengths to place their feet upon the highest of pedestals, but I can’t attest to having been taken advantage of by anyone in their quest. Granted I am still exceptionally green, and perhaps no one has felt the threat of me yet, but to this current point in my career I have been overwhelmingly blessed by the coaches that I have come to know. I still harken back to a snowy evening in Scottsbluff, NE where I sat with two JUCO coaches sharing stories and trying to soak up any ounce of knowledge they breathed. I was an assistant at Hastings College still and had journeyed 300 miles from Hastings to Scottsbluff with my JV squid to, quite simply, play ragdoll to two JUCO teams. I don’t think I’ll ever forget driving the bronco bus in the midst of a terrible snow storm. I had to pull over multiple times and climb up on the bus to try and free the windshield of the ice that felt the need to accumulate and impede my vision. I maintained a calm face for the sake of my kids, but my knuckles turned whiter and whiter with every turned over semi I passed. In the end the 5 hour drive turned to 7, but we arrived safely at the Lamplighter Inn, Scottsbluff. Teams like Hastings JV get invited to JUCO Classics for JUCO teams to get extra games in and games they can use to boost their record. Schools like Hastings send their JV’s to get abused because the JUCO teams give guarantees such as stipends and hotels. It’s quite the ideal set up for everyone but the actual JV team. Nevertheless, my girls suited up day one to play the Trojans of Colby Community College. It was ugly early. It didn’t get better. Following the game Colby’s head coach offered me an invitation to meet up with him and Coach Harnish of Western Nebraska at the Applebee’s next to the Lamplighter later that evening. Appreciative of the offer despite still seething from the loss, I accepted. That evening while talking and watching Coach Harnish drink his tomato beers I sat thinking that the Junior College route was one that was very enticing: high level of athleticism mixed with the coaching challenges of recruiting a new team every year and trying to coach fresh faces all the time. Coach Harnish had been at Western Nebraska for nearly 30 years, and Coach Jasper at Colby for 3. They had the opportunity to coach athletes from all over the world, and Coach Harnish had been to a number of national tournaments. We talked through most of the night about recruiting, fundraising, the challenges of coaching girls, and where we saw ourselves in the future. Amidst it all I never imagined that in less than years’ time I would be in that same Applebee’s, but with my own Junior College team.

The team with Holly during her signing to play at Olivet Nazarene in Illinois.

In building one’s own team one of the most grueling, yet most important processes, one which I’m still learning, is the art of recruiting. Having not been hired till August of last year I was unable to recruit the athletes I was to be coaching my first year at Otero. This coming year will be the first time the athletes I invested in bringing to Otero will be on display. It is an interesting feeling to consider as the athletes I bring in could make or break our team for next year. As a Junior College, we have to recruit at minimum half a team every year. We have to bring in 17 and 18 year old kids and expect them to play at levels that they’ve never reached before, and in a year’s time they will be expected to lead an entire team. Such heavily weighted tasks make the process of selecting and obtaining athletes so important. Throughout the year I have been calling, texting, mailing, emailing, and watching athletes from all over the state, country, and world. I’ve always looked at recruiting from a coach’s perspective. Having only been actively recruited by one school during high school I had little experience as the recruited. I didn’t understand the process to any degree and didn’t even fathom the sheer number of schools and opportunities that could’ve been available for me. I had misconstrued notions regarding schools, higher education, and really life as a whole. Now that I am in the position I am, I have the opportunity to educate young athletes and their families on life beyond high school. Nevertheless, because I didn’t fully understand the player’s perspective I learned a great deal about what goes through the minds of the 18 year old girls that I’m investing my career in.

A note that two of my new recruits and one of my returners left on my door for me.
The things that go through the minds of 18 year old girls.
I am going to have a talk with them about their grammar.

Now that all my recruiting is said and done for this year I signed 5 new athletes to National Letters of Intent (i.e. athletic scholarships): Three Colorado athletes and two international athletes. Each will bring different strengths to our program, but above all I feel I recruited great individuals. My international players reign from Hungary and Spain. One is a 6’0 finesse post player that is the stereotypical European basketball player. She has great touch with the basketball, is fundamentally sound, and has a great feel for the game. My young girl from Spain is a 5’11 wing player who can shoot, handle, rebound, and drive. A very all-around player that I may have to teach how to defend, but will be an exceptional skill. My three Colorado girls are all guards and all went to small schools: Trinidad (3A), Las Animas (2A), and Vanguard Charter (2A). All of them earned All-State honors, and competed in at least the first round of their respective 32-team state tournaments, with two of them reaching the elite eight, and one winning the consolation championship. While they are all guards by nature I see them filling different roles and being exceptionally complimentary. During my time recruiting one of my Colorado girls I had many long conversations with her father about recruiting, about environment, and about the pros and cons of Junior College. During one of our talks he made an interesting comparison to what he perceived recruiting to be like. He likened it to dating a girl. He went on to explain that in his mind when a coach is recruiting a player he says all the right things, tells her how much he wants her, offers everything he has, until he comes across a better girl, where he then “breaks up” with the old one and moves on to the new one. I was slightly offended by the perception, but I could relate to it. I long compared recruiting to asking a girl to prom. You want to take the best girl (the best athlete), but so does every other guy (school). There is a long courtship from each school who wants the girl to come with them, but she can only choose one. Often the girl will listen to each coach, think about who she should go with, sometimes get approval from her parents, sometimes not, and then make a decision to go with one and leave the others in the dirt. Some of the factors include who has the nicest car (offers the most money), and who will take her to the nicest restaurant (who has the best facilities). To try and put yourself into the shoes of a young person making one of the biggest decisions of their life, you have to take a step back and truly consider all of the feelings and concerns they have. It’s easy to slip into selfish mode and think that you know what’s best for someone. Most of the time we don’t do what’s best for ourselves so how can we begin to think we know what is best for someone else? Even though this fall I will have a number of girls that I brought in, there really won’t be much difference from having girls I didn’t recruit; I have to teach, build, and grow the young ladies that I have been entrusted with. I have to live a culture that will make this team successful. I have to love and be loyal. Coach Reed said something profound to me during the heart of the recruiting season: “No matter who you have next year, it will be the team that God wants you to have.” That alone makes this recruiting season a success.

A note that one of my graduated sophomores left for me.
Making an impact on kids is our purpose.

Till next time,

- Coach Kyle

“The best thing for being sad," replied Merlin, beginning to puff and blow, "is to learn something. That's the only thing that never fails. You may grow old and trembling in your anatomies, you may lie awake at night listening to the disorder of your veins, you may miss your only love, you may see the world about you devastated by evil lunatics, or know your honour trampled in the sewers of baser minds. There is only one thing for it then — to learn" - T.H. White, The Once and Future King

I don’t even know if I can begin to list the things I’ve learned this year. To be sitting in my own office, the placard outside reading “Women’s Basketball,” and thinking about the fact that I am coaching my own college team is still such a shock to me. I know I don’t deserve such amazing blessings. Every time something happens that sends me into a state of immense stress and frustration I am reminded through some outside source that everything is ok, that I’m here for a greater purpose, and how much I love what I’m doing. There have been many nights this season where I neared the 12^th hour of having been in my office and the only thing I can do is bury my head in my hands and pray. There have been countless sleepless nights, and others where I fall asleep watching game film. My poor futon has been put to good use as I would sit in it with a notebook in hand watching clips of previous games and then it calls me to rest my eyes for a second which usually turns into a few hours and I wake up still in my Otero polo with my computer humming and the image of a title screen from game film glowing. The stress has been almost indescribable, and is beyond a state of understandable to anyone besides a teacher or coach. And yet while we all face high stakes situations that often seem to bury us alive, every day we find a reason to rise and when we actually take time to reflect we see why we do this, and remember that we wouldn’t trade it for anything in the world. 



I leave my office for 5 mintues and this is what I walk into....



The note that accompanied the chaos
(I don't like that!)



On our return trip from the Region IX tournament we stopped at a Wendy’s in Limon, CO. After eating I figured it would be smart to go to the bathroom before we boarded the bus to finish the last stretch of the journey home. An elderly man entered the restroom and jokingly said, "Has anyone ever asked you if were a basketball player?" In his defense my recent hair cut makes me look 18 years old (some even say 12). I told him I was a coach now and he responded, “Thank you for working with the next generation.” I smiled as I dried my hands and said thank you as I walked out. This gentleman knows nothing about me beyond the fact that I’m a coach, and yet his words made getting beat in the region tournament more than bearable. I’ve had many other people keep my work in perspective and my frustrations in check. Like I said earlier, the things I’ve learned this year near countless, but the lessons are unforgettable and bring a smile to my face whenever I think of them.



My birthday fell on the day of our return trip from the tournament. The girls made me birthday cake - Hostess cupcakes with gas station matches in them.



Some of the grander scale things I’ve learned are that you have to define your goals and compare them with your priorities, and if they don’t match, something has to change. I’ve learned that in the midst of drama sometimes it’s best not to do anything. I’ve learned that you need to ask yourself what kind of legacy you want to leave and see if you’re doing things that will leave that legacy. I’ve learned that I have no idea what is and what isn’t a foul, but I do know that officials have ruined girl's/women’s basketball. I’ve learned that you need to tell kids that you care about them and that you love them even if you’re showing it. I’ve learned that the process is more important than the prize, and you have to coach both basketball and life as a process. I’ve learned that sometimes you make shots and sometimes you just miss shots (In the region tournament we just missed shots. 19% from the field in the second half of our region tournament loss). I’ve learned that you can’t handle life much less excel at it without help and without friends. I’ve learned that in basketball making jump shots makes or breaks a team. I’ve learned that you have to teach kids how to love each other, and that the world’s perception of love is beyond skewed. And I’ve learned that when kids show heart, show love, show passion, it has a tendency to overwhelm me, and when there is any outpouring of it like there was on Monday afternoon in Scottsbluff, NE it brings me to tears of joy and pride.

When the Region IX tournament came upon us I was in shock with how quickly the season seemed to have gone. There had been nights, weeks, and seemingly months that I thought would never end, but even as I write this it feels almost like a dream with how quickly the season started and finished. Amidst the drama, the joy, the pain of loss, and the relief that was winning it’s hard to think that it’s over for now. My white board no longer has scout notes and team depth chart, it now has notes for next season and a recruiting chart. The recruiting season is almost as cutthroat as the regular season. It is so much more than selling your school, or your program, or even you as a coach. Long road trips, nights in hotels, fast food on the go (I’ve learned eating pizza and fried chicken while driving is more difficult than it sounds), and selling kids the world hoping they’ll sign with you. I have found it interesting that I haven’t run into any of my fellow JUCO coaches on my road trips, but I do keep seeing DII coaches everywhere I journey. I’m not sure if that means I’m on the right track looking at talent, or I’m in over my head.

New Mexico State Tournament

Bottom line though is that we have to get better. I love my girls. All of them. But I wouldn’t be a good coach if I didn’t try to find athletes that were better than they are. As coaches we strive all season long to make our athletes and teams better, and even if we are one of the lucky few to win a championship that team will have player turnover, and even if they don’t, other teams will be working to be better and beat us. Within a game you work to be better half to half, time-out to time-out, play to play. You look to be better one practice to the next. The hard part comes with how the players respond to that. As I bring in players that, I hope, are better than my current ones will my returners elevate their game or will they be satisfied with where they are and hope they don’t get passed? Satisfaction is a dangerous sensation. Today's culture is on the hunt for satisfaction. To be satisfied with their jobs, satisfied with their financial situations, satisfied in their relationships. Does being satisfied though mean that we have reached the pinnacle and there is no higher pursuit, or does it mean that we have decided to no longer pursue something great. As a coach, I hope I never become satisfied with where I am. If a season passes where I look back and can't find something that I've learned or have something I need to get better at, then I need to walk away from the profession forever. 



The gift from my girls for turning an ancient 25 years old.

Till Next Time

-          Coach Kyle

“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