GHS After 41 Years

The Quad City Times ran an article about the WB6 where they mentioned in boys sports, GHS has not won a WB6 title in baseball, track, football, or basketball since 1998. It mentioned that was 54 total seasons without a championship. People are quick to come up with explanations for success and lack of success.

On the girls side, GHS has won only 1 WB6 title in the last 8 years in basketball, volleyball, track, and softball.

In these 8 "major" sports as determined by the QC Times, 50% of them have not won a single conference title in the last 20 years. Only one of the sports has won more than one conference title in the last twenty years.

Brother Mark With Friends

Mark with Bo Ryan

Mark with Jordan Taylor

Twitter- High School Athletes

The following recruiting tip was posted by an agency involved in helping high school players with the recruiting process--

"Every college coach I know say they've stopped recruiting a player based on their online updates w/ disrespectful language."

Some simple advice to high school athletes--

1- Don't use profanity on twitter.

Jason Shay- Thanks For Your Help

I found when I first starting coaching, the most effective way to learn was to talk to other coaches. Some coaches are very open and very sharing, other coaches can be very secretive. In coaching girls basketball, some coaches could be very condescending and would not give me the time of day. Fortunately I have had many coaches who have patiently listened to my questions.

I have really appreciated Jason Shay’s willingness to listen to my questions, and his willingness to share his expertise. Jason has been a tremendous resource to me. Not only is he willing to field my questions, he is one of the most knowledgeable basketball coaches I have been around. There are a lot of things pretty impressive about Jason as a coach.

Tiffany Sibley- Signing

Tiffany Sibley will be going into the Illinois Basketball Coaches Hall of Fame this spring. This is a picture from her signing to go to Northern Iowa. the picture is from 1991-2 season.

Jeff VanGundy Wisdom

Jeff VanGundy is someone I didn't like when he was coaching, now I love listening to him as he covers games. He falls in the category of Rick Majerus, Doug Collins, and Dan Dakich. When they cover a game, it is a coaching clinic.

Wisdom from last nights Bulls game--

"Good teams can adjust after wins. Bad teams only adjust after losses."

Exploring Our Limits

The following exerpt from Terry Orlick's book- "Exploring Our Limits" was part of todays Psych II lesson on humanist psychology and goal setting. I think it is a great exerpt which makes us think about how we can have the ability to open up our potential or the ability to limit our potential.

     My personal experiences as a competitive athlete have been rich ones. There have been some memorable highs which remain with me. Some involved achieving personal goals, others involved the sheer joy of being absorbed in the experience. One of my achievement highs was when I first did a quadruple twisting back sommersault on the trampoline. Some might say-- so what? Who cares if you can spin your body around in the air four times before coming down? What difference does it make?

Rainee Sibley- Back On Track

The Register-Mail ran an article on Rainee Sibley running track. We have several of our Streaks varsity players out for track this spring. Myra Diggins, Sharron Diggins, Rainee Sibley, Chloe Anderson, and Allison Mangieri. I am especially pleased several of them are running 400 & 800- I think that is great prep for basketball.

Sibley gets back on track with Silver Streaks

By Matthew Wheaton

The Register-Mail

Shaka Smart- Pressing

Coach Shaka Smart (Head Coach – VCU)
 
What are we trying to get out of the press?
 
·      Turnovers (Live Ball)
·      Quick / Bad Shots
·      Create Offensive Opportunities
·      Force Tempo / Disrupt Offensive Flow
·      Difficult to Prepare For
·      Make Opposing Players do things they aren’t comfortable doing
·      Create fatigue (Cumulative Effect)      
-       Who gets tired 1^st? Who recovers quickest?
·      Make depth a factor (Who’s 6-10 is better?)
·      Exciting style of play (Players/fans)
·      Identity/Brand
 

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.