I always enjoyed “summer basketball” when I was coaching. It was a great chance to build team culture, work on individual skills, and experiment with team offenses and defenses. Summer basketball is a more relaxed atmosphere where the focus can be completely on the process not the outcomes.
I asked some of favorite high school coaches if they would share their approach to the summer.
Sean Taylor- Moline Boys Basketball
What are you major areas of focus in your summer program? Individual skills, team X/O's, team bonding, strength training, competitive play, etc..
The 2 areas we focus mostly on are skills and strength. If we can get our players better in those areas then we can make a plan for how to best utilize those skills.
On the varsity level, how are your summer camps/practices different and/or the same as your in season practices? Do you try to have the same structure/organization to help prepare them for the season? Or do you purposely try to take a different approach?
For lack of a better word, they are more relaxed. We try to teach a lot in the summer and experiment with new concepts that we might implement in the upcoming season.
On the varsity level, how do you approach games/tourneys you participate in? How important is winning/losing? How many players do you want to play in these games?
It depends on the night or the structure of the “tournament”. We want to focus on development in the summer but when they are keeping score we want our players to improve on making plays which will give us the best opportunity for success. In the summer, when we as a team do not execute as well as we can, it is a good opportunity to use it as a learning tool without the loss stinging as much as it would in January. Students are involved in many activities in the summer so we try to provide as many opportunities as we can for players to play. Examples of this would be: St. Ambrose League, Moline Sophomore League, Weekend Tournaments, One Day Shootouts, and our summer camp.
How would you respond to the parent/player who says that it doesn't matter what they do in the summer, the coach already knows who they are going to play?
I would hope that they have seen how certain players have gone from being on the fourth team in 7th grade to not playing much at the freshman level to starting on the varsity level. We have had so many players continue to work and improve that have made a significant impact on our program.
What do you feel the values are of having your varsity travel to tourneys in the summer? Do you prefer to play in bracketed tourneys that have a champion, or do you just like to be assigned games to play?
Going away to play in the summer provides a great opportunity to bond as a team. I try to stay in the background and watch to see how the players interact. Hopefully, it is an opportunity for them to have fun but I also think it plays a significant role in developing chemistry.
We used to play in more bracketed tournaments but most of the tournaments are now just giving each team four prearranged games and times. The positive part of this is that players and parents have a better idea of when they will be home.
I think a lot of people would be surprised that players have fun in most summer programs. What is something your players really enjoy in your summer program?
The best thing we get out of the summer is the opportunity for our guys to be around each other. We have really good guys and they push each other to get better individually and collectively. And most importantly, they make memories that hopefully they will share with their teammates the rest of their lives.
Kim Barth- Washington Girls Basketball
This year with our core group returning, we are working on Team play, integrating some new pieces into the mix and working to get our freshman to understand our system and the expectations of our program. We are also volunteering with Camp Hope and visiting the OSF Childrens hospital as bonding opportunities for our team.
We structure our summer practices very similar to our in season. We do have alot of fun in summer and season. The summer seems to be alittle more carefree with less pressure for us. I encourage kids to be in multiple sports and just communicate if they miss anything. Our camps are aimed at sharing drills with younger kids and having fun, while developing skills and bonding as a team.
Our kids help me work on our summer schedule. We always go to ICC and I like to incorporate a shootout for the kids during LIVE period to help with recruiting. I look as everyday as an opportunity to get better and I share that with the kids as well. We know summer wins and losses dont necessarily mean anything as everyone seems to be missing someone every week. WE use it as an opportunity to play as many kids as possible and try possible lineups to develop all our kids.
How would you respond to the parent/player who says that it doesn't matter what they do in the summer, the coach already knows who they are going to play?
That's not an accurate statement. Now there is probably a comparison to the kids that show up in the summer and the correlation of minutes played because of work ethic. But I would encourage them to attend a practice and the writing would be on the wall. Opportunities only are available for kids that put in the work.
We don't care what kind of tournament, we just want to play and continue to build chemistry.
I think our kids really enjoy the overnight trip we take to Batavia, the camps, and opportunities to get ice cream after fun wins.
Todd Borrison- Mediapolis Girls Basketball
First of us all we try to get some mild work in the Fall/Spring since summer -is about 6-7 weeks, we go 3 open gyms a week --so our schedule would look like 8:45-speed and agility, 9:00-weight room and 9:45-11:15 open gym-- we try to have about 3/4 of the open gym for actual drills and the rest for scrimmage or 3 on 3 games -if we have a Team camp coming up we will shift to more Team prep so that were prepared for games.. as far as team camps we try to play 20-30 games a summer, and we look for competition that pushes us to be better.
At team camps we want to win but our main objective is to get better and work at certain facets of the game---we have went into a one day shoot-out before and told our kids no set plays, everything needs to come out of our break or secondary, or we may press for a half every game or play a certain defense, when I was at Southeast Polk we had a lot of AAU kids so we were going to Team camps playing a lot of non starters and we always figured it's good for our depth
Our biggest difference is we really try to have fun, and be relaxed-play music during workouts and keep the mood light! We also try to have each kid do 1 individual workout a week, either by themselves or with a couple of teammates, we sell them on it's the best way to get high volume reps.
Again we want to win and winning in summer builds confidence and sells what we are trying to do, when I would take a new job, I knew I needed to make sure I won some games that summer, that first month is such a sell job!! but once established I really tried to load up our schedule. And we tell the kids all of these game situations we will be in, will help us, and cut the learning curve in half for next season and of course it gives us a blueprint of what works, what needs more work , and what kids can physically do and not do.
How would you respond to a player/parent who thinks it doesn’t matter that the coaches already have decided who plays?
Great question- I always tell my players and parents we are going to offer your daughter an opportunity to get better. What she takes from that is up to her! And I always tell the parents, I will coach your daughter as if they were my own child -there will be some tough love!!
We do some of both. We enjoy getting on the road and playing 3 day tournaments, great basketball, working on our game and also working on building good team chemistry is just as important. We will mix up room assignments, have mini golf tourneys, and try to make it about the journey as well! We also let the seniors help line up the summer.
We really stress having fun and getting better, we travel to team camps or tournaments, we hit water parks, try different restaurants, the girls will shop, we might bowl or play mini golf . I have sat down with state championship teams and each player got to talk about their favorite memory, and a lot of times they talk about summer basketball memories , and that always makes us feel good.
Ryan Brown- Taylorville Boys Basketball
Major areas of focus. Individual skill building and team bonding are our primary focus. For me as a coach and the lead evaluator, I'm really watching how the pieces of the puzzle will fit together prior to November, especially with having graduated a large senior class. I think everyone knows who your main players are already but there's a strong possibility that a role player on JV thrives better on varsity because of how they fit in with a couple of different players. Finding your own diamond in the rough within your own program is challenging and very rewarding as a coach.
We certainly practice with the same intensity in the summer as we do in the winter. But as far as practice structure goes, we spend much more time on individual development and 3v3 breakdowns than in the winter where we need to prepare for situations and opponents.
I definitely substitute more in the summer than I do in the winter. Summer is for growth and development and kids need those opportunities to shine. But I think 99% of us coaches still get that itch to win with 5:00 to play in a close game somewhere in an auxiliary gym that's probably not air conditioned.
I'd tell them summer workouts are never mandatory but neither is playing time in the winter. Fortunately, I've had pretty good attendance to summer workouts over the years.
Traveling in the summer has grown into a big deal at Taylorville. Getting away from distractions and focusing on the team brings us together. In the end, some of the best memories for our kids and staff have come from summer travel. As far as bracketed tourneys or set opponents, I prefer bracketed tournaments and a champion but unfortunately they are few and far between nowadays.
I think the number 1 thing our kids enjoy about summer is running our youth basketball camp. We host an annual 1st-8th grade camp that is 3 hours long every day for 4 days. Almost all of my high school players attended that camp for every single year when they were younger. Every one of them remembers when they were voted as a camp all-star, a camper of the day, or when their team won the 5v5 championship, etc. They really enjoy bonding with younger players and I think they better understand the challenges of coaching. Honestly, I think my high school guys love coaching in it just as much as the campers like participating in it!
Taylor Jackson- Sterling Girls Basketball
Our main focus of the summer is to give our girls ample opportunity to work on their own individual skills, play together in a group in a more relaxed setting with a variety of competition, try different defenses and offenses that we are considering for the upcoming year and give the girls the chance to bond as a group
At the varsity level, there is much more time for individual skills during our summer practice sessions. Focusing on our transition goals so that we can really focus on that during our summer games so that players can understand their role offensively.
We try to play a variety of competitions in the summer so that all girls will get opportunities to play in games. We also try to communicate with players about their role and where it fits into the team. The opportunity for our girls in the summer is to put in additional work if they are looking for additional minutes/fighting for a different role.
We often play in tournaments that have assigned games, our goal is to play a variety of competition so we don't seek out a championship bracketed tournament. We also believe that our girls really do enjoy the opportunity to play together in the summer and have found traveling to different tournaments & shootouts such as the ISU shootout has been a great summer bonding opportunity for our team. From bus rides to dinners out and even overnight stays, this sets a great tone for bonding in the summer that can carry on into the season.
Lexi Demott- Galesburg Girls Basketball
The major areas of focus for this Summer will be our fundamentals, implementing some new X/O's offensively, and becoming more disciplined defensively. Those are all things we are going to work to build during games and camp time that we have. Outside of that we are putting a big focus on being connected and creating leaders. These things will be done in camp, but also outside of camp in the bonding time we have together.
We work to make our Summer camp time structurally similar to what a practice would look like during the season. It gives the athletes a routine and makes things an easier transition come November.
We approach Summer games as a learning how to compete. We do the best we can to get everyone the opportunity to play. Winning and losing is not something we talk about. The word we always use is compete. No matter who we are playing or where we are at we are going to compete. The style that we play we are looking to rotate 8-10 kids in a game.
To a parent or player that thinks that what happens in the Summer doesn't matter my message would be that Summer absolutely matters. For our program specifically it is where we take a look at things that we think may be good for us next season. If you miss out on almost a whole month of team specific things it's hard to jump right in come season time. Summer is not just about the X/O's, it is also a time where a lot of team culture is built as well. The memories, the bus rides, the team meals, the games, and the opportunities can't exactly be replicated come November. The Summer is hopefully what gets an athlete excited about what the potential of their season can be, but also what needs to happen to get there.
The value of going to play in different Summer Shootouts is huge. Getting the athletes the opportunities to go out and play competition we more than likely won't see during the regular season, but more than anything the team bonding that happens. The memories that they make spending the weekend together and new experiences is what they remember. Yes, they remember the games, but they will always remember the moments they had with their team more.
One thing that our players really enjoy is the weekend trips that we take. Specifically the players really enjoy our 3 day trip to Purdue. We get there on a Friday afternoon and we stay until Sunday afternoon. The players get to stay on campus in the dorms for 2 nights, eat at the campus dining, and walk around campus to get to games. We take the players to the campus store to shop for different apparel, but they also receive a T-shirt for being at camp. The players really enjoy their time getting to stay on Campus and be together for a whole weekend. A quote from a player that will be a junior; "To be honest it's not the basketball that we like going for, it is getting to be together". As a coach knowing the weekend trips are bigger than just basketball let's me know they are something that our program will continue to do. When we have at team that connects with each other outside of the basketball court it makes everything else that much easier.
Brent Moore- Ottawa Girls Basketball
What are you major areas of focus in your summer program? Individual skills, team X/O's, team bonding, strength training, competitive play, etc..
The focus of summer basketball, for me, has been based on being together as a team and working on our offensive game. Building chemistry with a new team really starts in the month of June. A lot of questions are answered, which helps lead to preparation in November.
Kids are expected to do a lot these days. Here at Ottawa, we share athletes across different sports. I try the best I can to support these other programs along with servicing my own. Our athletic director does a great job working with the coaches and scheduling appropriately.
We start with team camp the first week of summer. This is a straight week of practice to get re-acclimated and get to work on offensive skill work and the offensive playbook. Skill work every day with things such as ball handling, form shooting, live shooting, and other drills. Then, the second half of practice, we move focus to X/O's. Learning the offense, new sets, and gelling together as a team. Once team camp is over, we cut back to 2 practices per week along with summer league games and a few shootouts for some competitive games. Defense is a staple of our program, but I try not doing a ton of that in the summer. That is really hammered out when we start in November.
On the varsity level, how are your summer camps/practices different and/or the same as your in season practices? Do you try to have the same structure/organization to help prepare them for the season? Or do you purposely try to take a different approach?
Consistency is extremely important to me as a coach. Whether we are practicing in June or November, my practice plan is typed and printed with minute-to-minute times. So, my answer is yes! I have the same structure and organization and that helps for expectations and accountability come November. However, my practices in the summer are not as intense as a practice plan in November. As I said above, we do a lot of skill work and offensive team play in the summer. Practices are longer in the season along with a lot of added conditioning.
On the varsity level, how do you approach games/tourneys you participate in? How important is winning/losing? How many players do you want to play in these games?
My honest opinion on this is that we play too many games in the summer. When I first started as coach at Ottawa, I quickly fell into the idea that playing more games was what we needed. It is easy to fall into that mindset due to the fact that this is what our society has become. Travel sports and playing games have leap frogged some of the other objectives of not only summer basketball but developing basketball players. There is a fine line we walk to satisfy the needs of players and families. I run a busy June schedule, but I have started taking a different approach. I do not have my teams play more than 2 games at a shootout, and I have gotten away from 2-day shootouts. I feel that play 6 games in a matter of 24 hours is not good for anyone. When scheduling my month of June, we participate in a summer league 2 nights a week and a total of 3-4 one day shootouts throughout the month. We never play more than 2 games (running clock summer games) in a day and never play back-to-back days.
Winning and losing is always important for the mindset but it's not the same standard as the regular season by any stretch. Summer is about developing. Everybody is going to get to play, and the minutes are distributed based on who we are playing. Staying competitive is important, but it is also important for everyone involved to see where they may fall in that rotation come November. Of course, though, if it is a 3-point game with 5 minutes to play, playing to win is good for development as well. It is a game by game decision by the coaching staff.
How would you respond to the parent/player who says that it doesn't matter what they do in the summer, the coach already knows who they are going to play?
This is a tough one, and fortunately I have not been in this spot all that much. When it has happened though, a sit-down conversation with the player and parent is what's needed. This gives the chance to put everything out there on the table for the family so they know the exact impact these decisions can have. Communication is something I preach in my program and usually having meetings like this take care of the small problems before they become big ones. Missing summer basketball puts a player completely behind the 8 ball. They not only lacked skill work but just think of how far that player is with team chemistry in terms of running an offense and/or different sets. They also need to understand the team concept. It is very difficult in all aspects to miss a majority of things while your teammates are working their tail off to get better. Coaches see that stuff. And it matters. There is no way around it.
What do you feel the values are of having your vastity travel to tourneys in the summer? Do you prefer to play in bracketed tourneys that have a champion, or do you just like to be assigned games to play?
As I stated above, my old thinking was to play in these multi day tournaments and move up in the bracket. However, my mindset has completely changed. Playing is still very important, but winning a championship in June means absolutely nothing. I would rather practice with my team, have some controlled scrimmages and schedule one day events with no more than 2 games in a day. And NEVER play back-to-back days. I know that is not a popular opinion, but that is how I feel, and I think my athletes appreciate it.
I think a lot of people would be surprised that players have fun in most summer programs. What is something your players really enjoy in your summer program?
I think my players enjoy the fact that we get to be together and that we own a positive mind set collectively as a unit. We have structure and organization, but also realize it is summer ball and there is low stress environment. We are simply there to get better and be together. It is an exciting way to see how the season may unfold.
Mike Menchaca- Fulton Girls Basketball
For Fulton, summer program wise it has changed quite a bit.
The past 3 seasons, we have struggled with numbers, one year vacating a season, the next playing a full varsity sched with 8 kids, and none with varsity experience, and this past season with 10 kids in the program and playing 5 freshman heavy minutes. So summer has been a lot more tailored to team chemistry, fundamentals and bonding.
While our practices during season are more xs/o’s, game situations, and up and down, summer is generally just getting in and playing. We will get a lot to shots up, lift, and take a team bonding/ competitive trip to the Dells, and more about building relationships to encourage kids to continue to play. It’s not secret a lot of schools are struggling with numbers and we have felt it a great deal, so summer has to be a bit more inviting if you will.
To answer the 3rd question, how we approach tourneys, leagues- we do want to win. And we do take the game seriously. I can remember back in HS playing at ILL camp and those games were and felt like state tourney games at times with the competitiveness. Today, for us the approach is more to play hard and have fun- not so much emphasis on the win- but more how well are we playing together. To me you can lose a game in the summer, but still play well together. Numbers wise - we have a small group so getting them all on he court is the goal. And moving some kids to different positions to see where we are at. But the approach overall is to gel and play together, not so much stress the win.
I would say as far as the parent / player question on the coach knowing who get will play, and the summer not being important, I do believe the offseason is where you get better and hone your skills. But it’s also a time to evaluate kids outside of your top players. We need everyone. In a small school, when injuries / numbers dip- we need to have players prepared to step up. To say it doesn’t matter what they do in the summer just means they maybe don’t believe in putting in the work. Every coach knows who they are going to play. But progression and growth is crucial for all.
I like playing in leagues, where we see some schools we will play, and I don’t mind playing in “non championship “ style tourneys. Getting in games is key. More to evaluate players may it be in assigned number of games or a bracket.
I think our team has a lot of fun in the summer. Team brunches, dinners, a trip to the Dells each year for 6 games, and all the moments they share together. A lot of the fun comes at my expense. I think a lot of parents would be shocked to see how fun it really is. I believe that for years hoops hasn't been thought of as being “fun”. I would challenge those to join us. Be a part of it. We have seen former players on staff. Former players come show support, reach out to talk to players, and come back year after year to check in. That’s another way to judge a program too and it has indicated for me the value those have gotten out of the summer program. One of the favorites is the waterparks at the dells and the team bonding nights we have in the summer. It truly is a time to get to know eachother and have fun!
Chris Olson- United Girls Basketball
We really try to focus on physical improvements with agility and weight room training, and skill development in our open gyms. We have all of our female athletes at agility and weight room training which creates a great environment for the athletes to support each other while working hard TOGETHER. This helps with team bonding as well. We have to count on multi-sport athletes, so this also allows us as coaches to be efficient with the athletes' time during the summer. I use the summer to really work on relationship building as well; getting to know the incoming freshmen better and continue growing with the returning players.
I would say there are some aspects to our summer open gyms that are similar to our in season practices, while there are many aspects that are very different as well. We try to have purpose and energy with everything we do, and we try to make sure that is present regardless of where we are on the calendar. We spend more time on skill development in the summer than we do in season due to the lack of game planning and bigger team concepts required in the summer time. With kids playing multiple sports and only having so much time available, we emphasize offensive skill development during summer time and not as much of an emphasis on defensive breakdown or scheme. In season, we place a heavy emphasis every practice on our defense. We normally don't place a heavy emphasis on Xs and Os, again due to most of our players pausing on basketball once volleyball gets going and the reality that some kids will be missing things in the summer. If we have a more veteran group we will spend a little more time on some Xs and Os. I have mentioned volleyball a few times. I'm a huge supporter of multi-sport athletes and I think my basketball program is better when my players are playing volleyball in the Fall.
We try to focus on a couple concepts during summer games. That might be something we want the players to refresh their brains on from the previous season, or something we are talking about doing more of in the upcoming season. The experience level of the team dictates a lot of that conversation. We want kids getting reps during that live play and hopefully getting excited about the upcoming season. Again, with multi-sport athletes, most of the players have put the ball down for a bit heading into the summer and will put the ball down again heading into fall season.
I would explain that the developmental process is definitely a constantly developing situation. We ask all of our players to put in the work to all be the best versions of themselves; whatever that may look like. If we can all be the best version of ourselves, then we are hopefully the best version as a team. Sometimes a player might just need a little longer to develop some of the skills or physical development that came quicker for other players. If that player continues to work then their opportunities will present themself. Everyone putting in the work also builds trust amongst the players that they are all willing to be that best version of themselves. I would then talk about the importance of all roles on the team; all roles are different, but they are all equally important.
Like with all summer activities, I am always trying to find balance. I try to talk to other coaches and pick their brains on this balance. To no surprise, those ideas range from doing barely anything in the summer to having extremely busy schedules. Most of the coaches also note that there might not really be a right or wrong answer when it comes to what a summer should look like. Regarding the idea of tournaments/games, I tend to look at my incoming team a little bit. Are we experienced and have some things in place to really go work on in some game time? Are we young and inexperienced and not had much time to talk a lot of install for the upcoming season? With the growing numbers problem in girls basketball, trying to ride that line of introducing them to the natural adversity basketball presents and ensuring the players don't feel overwhelmed and incapable is probably harder than it used to be. There are tons of good arguments to be made for a lot of different plans, and I'm going to keep seeking those out. Generally speaking I like to get games in a set number of games setting. I think this allows the players to focus on the concepts you have given them. Summer is a time for some trial and error, and if winning takes over their minds then they might be reluctant to try some of the new things you want them exploring. As any coach will say, letting the competitors compete is important too!
I think our athletes enjoy the environment and team bonding that comes with all of the female athletes in the gym/weight room together. There is more energy every day and that can pull you through some of those grinding days of summer workouts.
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