Old School Coaches- What's A Good Practice Look Like?

I am hoping to do this segment- "Old School Coaches" on a regular basis. I have put together a crew of retired coaches, who were highly successful in their high school coaching career. My hope is to post one question to them every two weeks. 

Bob Anderson- Williamsfield HS

Bob is retired as boys basketball coach at Williamsfield. At a school of only 89 students, in 45 years, his teams won 732 games along with numerous tourney and conference championships. His 1997 team made it to the Elite 8. 

Mike Cooper- Ottawa HS

Mike is the retired Athletic Director at Ottawa HS. He was varsity girls basketball coach for 22 years, as well as sophomore football coach for many years. He was inducted in the the IBCA HOF.

Tim Engebretson- United HS

He was varsity head football coach for many years at United HS. He also has coached basketball at different levels. His 2005 team won the Illinois State Title, and Tim is in the Illinois Football Coaches' HOF as well as the United HOF.

Greg King- Sterling HS

In his head coaching career at Sterling, his football teams went 78-28, and had 10 straight play-off appearances and 5 conference titles. In addition to his success as a football coach, he was inducted in the Illinois Athletic Director's Association HOF. 

Mark Massey- Clinton HS

Mark was the head volleyball coach at Clinton for 38 years. His teams won 818 games, and twice took second in State. He is in the Iowa Volleyball HOF and Clinton HS HOF.

Thom Sigel- Rock Falls/Rock Island HS

Thom coached basketball for 32 years. His teams won 502 games, and he has the distinction of winning the State Title at both Rock Falls and Rock Island. Thom is in the IBCA HOF.

Mike Tracey- Alleman, UTHS, Moline HS

Mike coached football at Alleman, UT, and Moline for over 20 years. By most, he is considered the premier football coach in WB6 history. His teams won 140 games, and twice finished second in State. Mike is in the Alleman HS HOF and the Illinois Football HOF. He was also selected Illinois AD of the Year. 

Greg Bennett- Lewistown

Greg coached many sports at Lewistown. He had teams go to State in girls basketball and football. He is in the Illinois Football HOF as well as being in the Illinois Basketball Hall of Fame. He is know for his commitment as a coach and his high energy level. 

My Question

If you had a chance to watch another coach's practice, what things would make you feel they ran a good practice? In other words, what are the characteristics of a good practice?

Nikola Jokic’s Lesson For Parent

Basketball season is about to tip-off. It will be exciting whether we are fans, parents, coaches, or players. It really works best if all of us “stay in our lane.” Fans cheer, coaches coach, and players play. 

There is a book that is coming out in December about the NBA MVP, Nikola Jokic. The book is “Why So Serious?” By Mike Singer. It is on my Christmas wish list. 

I heard a preview that shared a story about him as a youth playing basketball. He did something to send a message to his father. 

History 101- Basketball Quiz

It is basketball season. There are a lot of "experts" out there who know everything there is to know about basketball. This quiz is designed to determine how much you actually know about basketball. Some of us have a big advantage because we helped pump up the ball for that first game.

Don’t cheat- get a pad of paper out, answer the test questions, then grade your answers. After you score your test, put your number correct in the comments and also type in your name at the end of your comment.

1- When was basketball invented:

A- 1848 when Lincoln posted up Douglas at Knox College.

B- 1891

C- 1906

D- 1932

2- Where was basketball invented?

A- Springfield Massachusetts

B- Lexington Kentucky

C- Lawrence Kansas

D- Cooperstown New York

Hey Coaches & AD’s- Learn From The Best

Congratulations to Lena-Winslow, Camp Point Central, and Farmington! Their football teams have won and are going to be playing this weekend in the IHSA Semi-Finals. Anyone who follows high sports in this area of the state knows that these three schools seem to always be good in football, and most of their sports teams are good. They are winners. 

Coaching 101- Becoming More Physical

Lots of players think they are physical but it turns out they really either don’t like contact or don’t understand the level of physicalness that is needed in certain situations. 

Whether it is posting up or defending in the post, or if it is blocking out to rebound, players need to be willing to make contact. Obviously they need to learn to make the contact in such away that they don’t get called for a foul. 

This rebounding drill is one that many of you have probably done before, but it with three wrinkles that are valuable in teaching the defenders to be physical when they block out.

Alyssa Carl- Coaching 4th in State Flag Football Team

It appears in Illinois HS's that the hottest sport is Girls Flag Football. There are some major concerns of administrators about adding the sport, while the schools struggle to get enough athletes in the sports that are already offered. A real question is whether adding another sport will mean dropping some existing sports. And there certainly would be a nightmare figuring out which sport or sports to drop.

Some critics say,"If you add another girls sport, you have to add a boys sport because of Title IX." This is absolutely, positively a false statement. Schools do NOT have to offer the same number of girls and boys sports, it is about the total opportunities for males and females.

Every school who has started Girls Flag Football this Fall raves about interest level and enthusiasm for the students, the parents, and the fans. Different people have different thoughts on why the sport seems.

To find out what is going on, I reached out to Galesburg HS grad, Alyssa Carl. Alyssa was a flag football coach at Bradley-Bourbonnais HS. First year football coach and first year team. It sounds like they had a LOT of fun on their way to finishing 4th in State.

Streaks Scrapbook- 1999 Girls 2nd in State- Part II

1999 Girls 2nd in State

33-2

(State Rank- #2)

The 1998 Streaks had lost to Loyola 59-43 in the State Elite 8. The reality was that the game was not as close as the score appeared- the Streaks were dominated. Loyola went onto win their second straight State Championship. The Ramblers returned 4 of 5 starters for 1999. They had three All-State players, who were all headed off to D1 scholarships- Laura Sobieszczyk (5’8” Loyola), Olga Gvozdenovic (6’2” Duke), and Elizabeth Fletcher (6’2” UW-Milwaukee). 

Friday Fotos- 1999 The Stork Delivered

 Register-Mail’s Prophecy- In 1998, the Streaks had no seniors. They had everyone coming back from a team that made it to the Elite 8. At the end of the 1998 season, the Register-Mail ran this story predicting the Streaks could be going back to State again soon. They were right.

Strategy- 1999- GHS’s All-Time Best Play- “Help”

 

This simple play that we ran in 1998 and 1999 produced more points and more free throws than any other play we ran in my 46 years of coaching. It was a simple action but created some nice options for some pretty good players. The play was called, “Help.” The point guard could call the play at any time by just raising her fist. 

So in the State Tourney game vs. Loyola, when we had the ball in a tie game, we ran “Help.” We hit Megan Pacheco coming off the screen. She missed the shot but scored on the rebound. 

The next day when we played Lincoln in the semi-finals, in a tie game, we ran “Help” again. This time we got the ball to Sarah Larson. She drove baseline and was fouled with five seconds to go. She made both free throws to give us a two point win. 

Strategy- 1999 Triangle Delay (vs Loyola)

Triangle Delay- The basic concept of this delay is to have the three players at the top exchange and pass back and forth to each other. 

This delay concept was good for us because we were putting three players in the “triangle” and three players who could all shoot free throws when the other team decided to foul. Jaque Howard (81%), Sarah Larson (78%), Megan Pacheco (75%)

Also, it was effective because the three players in the delay were not all guards. As a result, the defenders were less likely to want to switch and if they did, it would mean that a post defender might be on a guard. 

Another advantage of this delay system is whether the opponent plays man to man or goes into some trapping defenses- we are in a good alignment. We would want to go 2-1-2 vs 1-3-1 trapping defense.

1= Jaque Howard (Point Guard)

2= Michelle Flaar (Shooting Guard)

3= Megan Pacheco (Small Forward)

4= Jenny Zolper (Power Forward)

5= Sarah Larson (Post)

Coaching 101- 4 Spots Team Shooting

 

This is a simple shooting drill to provide some competition for the team. The team is divided into two “teams”- one team at one end and the other teams at the other end. Each team will have 3 basketball balls.

The ball starts in one corner. 

First ball is passed around the horn to #1 to shoot the ball.

Second ball is passed around the horn to #2 to shoot the ball.

Third ball is passed to #3 to shoot. 

Parents & Coaches- Capture & Preserve Memories

Any of you have followed my blog, realize I have been doing research on past boys and past girls basketball teams. To do the research, I have go to our wonderful public library to look at old newspaper articles. It is an amazing experience to sit down and go through an entire season at one sitting. 

Several weeks ago when I was doing research on the 1960 team, it struck me how much I could find in the paper. There were box scores with points, free throws, rebound leaders, and fouls. While they were blurry, there pictures and I got a sense the size of Bob Coe and Bumpy Nixon. There was an article describing players being disciplined and players being injured. For people from that era- tons of memories. 

Coaching 101- Daily Dozen

Years and years ago, I attended a clinic where Sam Alford (Steve Alford’s father) of New Castle, Ind gave a talk on developing a program. One of the concepts he talked about was giving his JH coaches a set of 5 drills to do each day in practice. The idea was that the first 30-45 minutes of each JH practice “belonged” to him as the Varsity coach. 

I thought it seemed like a great concept. The person who we hired to coach any of our lower level programs (JH thru FS), they were often inexperienced in coaching and often limited in their basketball knowledge. 

Coaching 101- Practice Scrimmage Game

 

Scrimmage Game

1- 5 on 5 playing to 11 points. 

2- +3= 3 pointer, +2= 2 pointer, +1= offensive or defensive rebound

3- Defense gets steal or rebound, they break the other way.

4- Offense scores, play stops, it is make it/take it with offense going in half- court 5 vs 5 again.

5- If a team turns it over twice, game over, they lose.

6- First team to 11 points wins. 

Maine West Summer Tourneys

 The Illinois Basketball Coaches Association had been organization for boys basketball only. At the end of the 1984 season, the IBCA took in girls basketball and girls coaches. I had the opportunity to be on the first All-State Board that met at the end of the season. That meeting was the first real chance to network with coaches from the suburbs and southern Illinois. 

At that first meeting, Derril Kipp of Maine West told me that he hosted summer tourney and would like to get some downstate teams involved. We went for the first time then in the summer of 1984. That first trip, we had no school transportation and we had to get someone else to coach the team according to IHSA rules. Cessy Burga’s parents offered their station wagon and a coaching friend, Mike Jaskoski offered to coach.