Joey Range- Great Story About A Father Going Into H of F

Joey Range was selected to the Illinois Basketball Hall of Fame in Pickneyville, Illinois. As a basketball player, Joey is very, very deserving. I am biased but I would argue he is the most dominant player GHS has ever had, certainly the most dominant of the last 50 years.

I had Joey in class his senior year. While Joey may not have always been "into the classroom" in high school, he was a good student in my classroom. Joey was someone I enjoyed having in class, and someone who was always respectful to me in the classroom and in the hallway.

Joey's son, JJ is the same age as my son Allen. They have played on youth basketball teams together since 4th grade, and were on the freshmen team together this year. I have both JJ and Allen in my advocacy class this year. I have had many opportunities to watch Joey as a father. I wondered how Joey would be as a "basketball parent." The answer is he is a great "basketball parent." For all the times we have stood together during a game, interacted before or after a game-- I have never heard Joey say anything negative about other players, the coaches, or his son.

Bob Belf- Selling Your Program & Making Adjustments

The following was sent to a coach contemplating going to the "System". This is from veteran coach, Bob Belf. I would argue his analysis of "adjustments' that have to made apply to all coaching. It may be his list is unique to the "sytem" but every coach in every style must have the ability to anticipate adjustments and then make adjustments.

Quickness, Strength, Balance

Some of the basics got from yesterdays coaching clinic by 1440:

1- You don't need to be lifting large amounts of weight to get stronger.

2- Emphasis should always be on proper technique- that is how you isolate muscle groups.

3- Body weight can be used to build muscle.

Coach- Why Don't You?

For years our staple was to play half court man to man defense. People, my brother mainly, would say, "Why don't you play a little zone to throw people off." My stock answer was, "Because we can't play zone."

You are what you are as a team. Our teams were man to man teams. Our counter to half court mm defense was to do some run and jump in the half court, and to do a lot of full court pressing. But the bottom line is you can only do so many things in basketball. I found the more defenses we tried to play, the worse our mm defense got.

Coach- Why Didn't You?

Numerous times in my career, I have made a choice in a game which has not turned out well. Often those bad choices you make as a coach in the second quarter are forgotten by most fans, but remembered by you as coach. But the wrong choice made at the end of a game is remembered by the fans and by the coach. 

State- "We haven't decided what this one is going to say yet"

Sometimes the coach is the teacher and the players are the students. Sometime the players are the teachers and the coach is the student. I felt like during our 1996 State Tourney run I was definitely the student.

For years girls had played at GHS and looked up at all the banners representing the boys basketball teams successes. But there were no banners for the girls until the 1995 team made it to the Sweet Sixteen. Quite honestly, I was not sure there would be any other banners during my coaching career. With our wins over Freeport and Moline in the Ottawa Sectional, we were headed to another Supersectional. With the Sectional Championship, we were going to put up another banner. It was such a thrill.

State #1-"No School Friday"

Part of the fun of going to the State Tourney is it triggers different memories from our trips to State. There are a lot of good memories.

I can remember when I first went to the State tourney, I would take note cards with me. I would write down anything I thought could help me. After all, the teams I was watching must have had something going for them. I would jot down warmup drills, out of bounds plays, etc.

Girls State Tourney- What's Happened?

Lower bowl for Edwardsville vs. Loyola. 

I went to the girls IHSA State Tourney again this year. I have been to every tourney since 1979. They started in Champaign and moved to Bloomington. In 1997, Galesburg vs. Taylorville set an attendance record. The crowds were so big, the tickets were reserved seats. For the 1997 game, both schools filled their main floor allotment, and had half the upper deck filled to the ceiling. In 1999, when we defeated Loyola in the quarterfinals, the main floor was filled and the upper deck was about half filled.

The last couple years attendance has gone down and down. This year was at an all time low. My job at church for a couple years was to count attendance, so I thought I would do the same this year.