"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

“He carried himself like a military man. They walk a little bit differently than the average person. They walk with their shoulders back, and with a swagger. That's the way he walked, and he walked with confidence, like any good veteran does.” - Lee Totora

A lot of time has passed since the most recent update. It’s amazing how time can pass someone by and yet move so slowly at the same time. I’m sitting in my little office typing this waiting on a recruit. It’s the only free time I have right now, and not so much that there aren’t other things I need to be doing, but that recruits and campus visitors are never exact when it comes to time. I’ve had them show up twenty minutes early, thirty minutes late, even not at all, so I better sit here so that I don’t miss her. There’s quite the aura of winning flowing down my little hallway right now. I share an office with the two men’s assistant soccer coaches, and the women’s assistant is right next door. They are both preparing to head to the exotic resort located in Mobile, Alabama to compete in the national tournament. Our men, the number 1 overall seed, have lost one match in the last two years and are the defending national champs. Coach Kranjc along with his assistants, Cory and Bones, are meticulous with details. There has been an increase in the shouting matches and curse words flying across the hall at each other since tournament time began, but no detail is missed. I’ve learned a lot just by listening in on the conversations that the champions have had in their pursuit of another title (as well as some new words I probably shouldn’t ever repeat). They are still working tirelessly to recruit for next year to continually make themselves better, but at the same time there is such diligence in their preparation for their national championship run. It is interesting how coaches approach tournaments and title runs. I look back at our preparation as a high school team, both as a player and when I coached, and compare them to the national title scale. The comparisons are very similar, which bodes well for the notion that we were doing things right, but the way that Kranjc approaches each game and day so precisely, never looking  beyond the moment, much less the next round is impressive. It’s difficult not to project the next round in your mind: who are you going to play if you win? If Kranjc does that at all he certainly doesn’t share it. Every detail is vital. Hours and hours of film of the same team have been scrutinized to the point where Kranjc and Bones probably know more about the other team than the other team knows about themselves. Details about what foods they’ll pack, what places they’ll stop and when, the extra jerseys Kranjc ripped into Bones about to ensure that they boarded the bus; nothing is left unaccounted for. Bobby Knight, who was just passed by Coach K for the most wins in NCAA DI history, may have said it best, “Most people have the will to win, few have the will to prepare to win.” Hopefully we’ll be in that same mindset come late February.

                There has been a seemingly large amount of preparation done for our Hastings College Lady Broncos basketball team. That might be because since August 25 we have done nothing but practice, condition, and lift. Coming from coaching high school there is a nearly incomprehensible stretch at the college level between first day of work and first game. Games begin for most high schools December 1. We usually waited till that weekend for a tournament, but because we started November 12 (or whatever date the second Wednesday of November fell on), we always felt behind in terms of putting in offenses, defenses, inbounds, and even getting into shape. At the college level there is certainly no lack of time in terms of preparation. Having spent all of September in the weight room and on the track for preseason conditioning, when the girls finally got to put on their uniforms and I finally got feel the silk of my tie, it had seemed like an eternity had passed. Having not known anything about our conference much less our division I was at a loss whenever anyone asked me how we were going to be this year. A team that spent least year wallowing in narrow defeats didn’t set the tone well for this year in the eyes of our conference foes. Picked to finish 8^th in our conference and not even a sniff of a vote into the top 25 the outlook didn’t seem very glamorous. Our rivals in the GPAC got plenty of respect though as two-time defending national champions Northwestern garnered #1 in the nation, followed by Morningside at #2, Briar Cliff at #5, and Concordia at #22. Mount Marty and Dordt fell into the receiving votes category to even out things a little (4 nationally ranked teams, 4 unranked teams, and the 2 receiving votes). We opened the season with inaugural “cupcake” game at York. To be honest the lopsided win didn’t show much in terms of prowess on our end, more inability on York’s end. We didn’t shoot the ball well in the slightest (1-15 3pt), but our All-American post, and a small forward that came out of nowhere, Frankie Peterson, carried us to a 30 point romp. Despite the lopsided win, there were still a lot of questions that had to be answered on the court with a short turnaround to host the #12 team in the nation, Southwestern out of Kansas. The game itself had strange feel to it as while it was very nip/tuck throughout I felt as if we were very much in control. Courtney Spawn came out of her slump to knock down three triples to force Southwestern out of the paint defensively, and incredible defensive pressure from little sophomore Erin Vanderpool, allowed us to maintain control to the buzzer and walk away with not only a 10 point win and a win over a nationally ranked team, but most importantly with a slew of confidence.

Alicia Statler

One thing I noticed early in the season was a general lack of swagger. Now swagger seems to be a newer colloquialism that represents something much deeper than confidence. To have swagger is not only to have confidence, but to carried oneself with this “I’m untouchable” clout. The closest on our team is Alicia Statler, our All-American post, who I’ve found to be one of the most intriguing members of our squad, and have had a very solid player/coach connection with. I truly feel like she trusts me and even garners me as a confidant at times. She’s very even tempered at all times. Regardless of whether you see her walking to class on a sunny day, or it’s late in the second half of a one point game, Alicia is just Alicia. She’s good. Very good. And she knows it. The only way I can describe Stat is to say that she just shows up and wins. It’s as simple as that. But even within that it’s too matter of fact to be considered “swag.” She’s just done it for so long that she just knows she’s going to play well, but she doesn’t show any kind of inclination emotionally with that. I really feel like each team needs a player that harbors some attitude, and demands greatness out of his or her teammates. I often think back to when I was in middle school watching a CSU-Pueblo basketball game. The Thunderwolves were loaded that year with point guard Mario Sanchez, a 6’8” shooter in Brian Vecchio, and then a 6’10” transfer from Baylor Steve Raquet. He was a monster inside. While his raw power as a post player was impressive enough, it was his attitude that made him so notable. This ended up being one of the Thunderwolves best seasons, but in one game, while the details I don’t recall specifically, Pueblo was down and needed a bucket. They had gone three straight possessions settling for jumpers and missing. Raquet had been working his butt off inside posting up, but got no love from the guards. After a dead ball he walked up to his point guard and shoving his finger in his chest you could hear him demand the ball inside (there were expletives used). What do you suppose happened the next time down the floor offensively? Post entry pass and a score. Every team needs that guy (or girl). The athlete who demands the ball when things are tight. The person who not only is willing to put everyone on his shoulders, but knows that he’s going to carry them all the way.  Through our six games thus far we have yet to have one person emerge as the leader. Stat is undoubtedly the anchor, but we still need that swagger person. The person who is going to demand success, demand the ball, demand perfection from her teammates. From the outside looking in it seems like we are exactly where we want to be: we are 6-0, plus an exhibition win over DII UN-Kearney, a win against #2 Morningside at their place, wins against 3 nationally ranked opponents. Nevertheless, I worry that if that true leader doesn’t emerge, and if we are always waiting to see from game to game who will step up, that a longer road than we’re prepared for is ahead of us. Only time will tell I suppose.

Till Next time, hopefully sooner than later,

-          Coach Kyle

"Energy and persistence conquer all things." - Benjamin Franklin

Here is part two. If you missed part one and the introduction to this mess, it is the post below this one.

Part II

There have been many coaches in my life that have influenced me and taught me many things. I will forever state that my coaching staff as a high school player was the best in the state in any classification. I also feel like that staff could make a college program a national contender if they ever chose to. As a young coach you take every ounce of information given to you. You beg, borrow, and even steal ideas, quotes, concepts, philosophies, and plays. Amongst the jewels that I have accrued one that came from a high school volleyball coach stands towards the top. Now I know that half of you reading this are going to be indignant when I say that but let me elaborate before you judge too harshly. For those of you who don’t know, I spent two years coaching freshman volleyball. There was a lot of growth within that time and I did learn a lot about kids and about different coaching styles, but I’ll forever recall a moment at the Lamar Community Center in Lamar, CO. This was the first time I’d been back to Lamar since I was a freshman playing high school ball. The gym has an old feel, but a storied feel, and the house is always packed with a bunch of savage fans (Lamar’s mascot is the savages). Lamar had a very talented volleyball team and was ranked in the top ten at the time. There aren’t a lot of scenes from the game I can replay to be honest. If I remember we lost in a tough 4, but even that is unclear. The moment that keeps coming back to me though came after Lamar’s middle hitter received a beautiful set but terribly botched the hit. What should’ve been a powerful swing to the back line ended up blooping weakly to the middle of the floor.  The intriguing part of it all was that the ball hit the floor and still scored the point. And while most teams would be raving and cheering about the point scored, I looked over to the bench and Lamar’s coach was all over that middle hitter about hitting technique and perfection. Despite the score, it wasn't good enough because it wasn't done right. From then on I knew that simply getting the job done wasn’t near enough, it truly was all about perfection, or at least doing things right every time.

One of the more intriguing parts about coaching college was learning a system offense. Coach Dittman is very committed to his offensive and defensive systems, and rightfully so looking at his track record. The beauty of the college set up is that you can literally spend all of practice perfecting the system. With the ability to have individual workouts each week, players can learn fundamental skills during those times, so team offense and defense can be the focus throughout practice. So much of coaching high school was spent coaching fundamental skills that full court offense was, at least for me, kept secondary.

Now the beauty of coaching so many fundamentals in high school is that it prepared me for coaching our JV program here at Hastings. Hastings offers a developmental, or a jv program that gives players the opportunity to actually play games while practicing day in and day out as opposed to redshirting. It also allows those kids who are on the brink, or who have a high ceiling but need work to develop. We have 21 players on our jv, so we split them up into two separate teams, one being coached by me, and the other coached by the other assistant, Carrie Larson. Now understand the reasoning behind so many athletes on the jv. The president of the university mandated to all coaches that if an athlete is interested in competing we have to give them the opportunity; all of our athletic programs offer a jv because of this. I have mixed feelings about the developmental program. It definitely makes for a long day as we have 6 am practice Monday/Tues/Fri, and 6 pm practice Tues/Thurs. This lends to a 12 hour day when you tack on individual workouts, classes, office work, and of course varsity practice. The plus side of coaching is that I get my fix of being a head coach, I learn the system, and I get to run my own individual workouts. This also allows me to learn every aspect of the college coaching world. Yet I am concerned about how it affects the culture of the program. With so many players, does it turn off some talented recruits? Also, if any of those jv kids are receiving scholarship money, even in the slightest amounts, is it taking away from money that could sway potential recruits? I’m also curious to find out how many of our jv kids do truly develop into varsity caliber players. With that do we really have a competitive culture of winning? I'll find out in time I'm sure. Either way I’m investing everything I have into both teams. We are going to have to be a very defensive minded team at both levels, which has been a trademark of my Rye teams so I feel well equipped for that. We have a scrimmage for the varsity this Friday against some top junior college teams, and then a tournament in Midland at the beginning of November for our jv so we’ll find out where we really stand after that!

Till Next Time,

-         Coach Kyle

"Be not afraid of growing slowly; be afraid only of standing still." - Chinese Proverb

So it’s been over a month since my last post. I know because I was reminded by a friend who is constantly keeping tabs on me (thanks Wolfie). Going through my days there are moments all the time that I feel worthy of cataloguing in what has become my online journal of thoughts (I feel like blog is too simplistic of a term). Of course as the day winds down I’ve either forgotten those moments or am simply too overcome with exhaustion to put my fingers to the keys and create something worth reading. Nevertheless, amidst the lost memories there is still much to discuss. The issue comes now is where to start and what to direction to go. I have always been divided it seems. I suppose it’s that way with everyone though. Our lives are so divided amongst the things we involve ourselves in. For me the most obvious are college student and college coach. Filtered in amongst those are son, friend, brother, writer, and Christian. Often times those all run together, but often I find myself as separate people with separate minds and desires all fighting for control over a single body rather than a whole person working all of those attributes seamlessly. It makes for a lot of wandering thoughts and late nights. With that this post is developed into a two part post. The first a more personal post while the second is a strictly basketball post. That being said depending on where your interests lay you can direct yourself to either or both accordingly.

Part. I

I’ve realized that there has actually been very little written about my personal dealings and feelings outside of basketball thus far. A large part of that is because that initially this journal was put together for the purpose of tracking my basketball ventures, but as I fairly warned with my initial post it is sometimes difficult for me to write without integrating at least some other feeling. This is the first time I’ve lived outside of Colorado, outside of Pueblo County for that matter. The town of Hastings shares great similarity with the typical small town. There is a quant downtown area with mom and pop type shops, there is a smattering of both fast food restaurants to go along with the local favorites, the biggest staples are the college and Wal-Mart, and the majority of students drive the 30 minutes to Grand Island or out to Omaha or Lincoln for entertainment.  For those who have lived in a small town know how wonderful the simplicity of a place like this is. The green grass that is everywhere and the familiar faces lend you to feel at home upon first glance. Of course for those of you have lived in small towns also know that integrating yourself is easier said than done. With the schedule I have, accompanied with the fact that my interactions are almost solely with my basketball players, I’ve found myself relenting my free time to the solitude of the weight room in the evenings, and on the weekends to running errands, harassing the Walgreens Redbox for movies, and church on Sunday morning. I know on the surface I came here to coach basketball and get an education. I know on a deeper level I came here to impact the kids that are playing for me and to build my skills as a teacher and coach. To this point I do feel like I’m doing all of those things, but during my times at home I have a strange sense that there’s more for me. There’s more out there than sitting at home in the evenings and weekends.

My Sunday mornings have one of the most blessed parts of the weekend (the other being deep conversations with an old friend). A few weeks ago I found myself in the parking lot of the church I assumed I’d avoid while here in Hastings. I’m not pulled in by large churches. I have strong feelings about how a church should run and have seen too many poorly managed mega-churches to be optimistic. When you first pull into Hastings and drive down Burlington Avenue you’ll see an overbearing sign “North Shore Church” with service times flashing above. Coincidentally it sits juxtaposed to a Chevy dealer sign equal in gaudiness. Hastings literally has a church on every street corner, and then a few more in the middle of the streets which allow for any belief system to find a home. I did some internet research hoping to find a good jumping off point for my “Church Search: Hastings Edition” and on Saturday night about four weeks ago find where I would visit first. The service time was 10:30 so I got myself ready accordingly on Sunday morning and put the address into my GPS (if any of my basketball girls are reading this they understand how important me having my GPS is). Arriving at the said address there was no church to be found. U-turns abounded (again, I know my basketball girls are laughing at that) and I found a church nearby, but the start time was 11:00, and I didn’t feel compelled to wait half an hour in the parking lot. Remembering that awful sign I couldn’t forget the service time that it displayed every time I drove passed it: 10:45. By the time I got over there, got parked, and walked in the door the timing would be perfect. Not wanting to miss another Sunday of church I swallowed my pride and walked into what would end up being a church that I connected with instantly. The welcome at the front door to start the service, and the kindly gentleman that took my name, number and address after the service because he knew he hadn’t seen me before were clinchers to the content that fell between. That morning’s service hit me in the heart. I’m waiting for the effect of the message to come to fruition in me before I delve too deeply in the content, but I’ve emailed the pastor and offered myself as a volunteer to help within the church in whatever way I can. It’ll be interesting to see where, if anywhere, I get directed, but I feel like the church is the perfect place to start when searching for substance. I’m excited for all that North Shore can be for me.