The First Day of Practice… Memories Relived & Lessons Learned
The first day of basketball practice. It’s a day filled with excitement and energy, but also nervousness and some mistakes. Today I thought about some of the lessons learned from those first practices both as a coach and as a player.
Memory 1. I remember my first days of varsity practice as opposed to my first practice because I had a sprained ankle that forced me into missing my first several practices at Austin High School.
Our first game was about 2.5 weeks after our first practice and I recall the first time Coach Bill Lloyd separated into the “red” and “white” teams I was on the white team (second group) and absolutely enraged. Nevermind that I had barely practiced yet or that that I was young, I didn’t have the patience in me, and in the first game of the year against Waseca I didn’t play.
So here I am taking off my ankle tape ripping at it like a fool with a blade and assistant Dan Ball in his reassuring but annoyed voice says “calm down you will have your time”. I played the next game but the patience wasn’t in me to wait, nor to look at it from a coach’s point of view.
Bill Lloyd was our high school coach and one of the nicest people I’ve ever met. I wasn’t thankful at a young age but I am so thankful now for his loyalty and the time he put in as a teacher and coach. You too Coach Ball!
Memory 2. Senior Year. I’m a captain and all I am worried about is how much time I am going to get as a starter, what my numbers were going to look like, and how we were going to take down top teams Rochester JM and Faribault. It was going to be a double figure averaging, conference leading rebounding year, and forget the average teams, we were going to beat everybody!
Lost in all of this is that cuts had to be made and long time friends were not going to be on the team, but this blew right over my head because I was concerned about myself. I recall not even looking at the roster posted, just walking to get my stuff (like an arrogant person would do).
Here I am in the gym and what followed are memories I will never forget. First out of the locker room with tears in his eyes came an undersized post I had played on the b-team with in middle school. I remember him saying “I worked all of my life to get cut by a terrible junior just because they have an extra year?” I honestly don’t know that I have ever talked to this person again since that day (school of 1,100 kids and we hung out with different social crowds).
Then followed another good friend, a person I had Calculus with meaning we worked extremely hard in math together. This was a guy that had little support from home and was totally self made, a guy that I always respected. I will never forget seeing the anger in his face as he threw his bag of clothes at the wall.
Finally, one of my better friends in high school and middle school over the years playing basketball at the YMCA and tournaments together (Star of the North, Gus Macker, Rochester summer league, local summer league, etc). All these memories and he walks out of the locker room forcing a smile saying “I guess I will need a new winter hobby”. With him no longer on the basketball team and it being senior year I don’t know that I have talked to him five times since. The cut made sense, the best player on our team was our point guard, we had just got another point guard in a transfer from Pacelli, and another top player on the team was a junior point guard. Keeping this other player around made no sense but I was so self involved I didn’t notice.
I was so worried about myself and the team winning (I think we went 9-14 or something like that) it never dawned on me what cuts would do to the others both basketball wise and socially.
Memory 3. My first year coaching at Simley High School. I was a B-squad coach and it was a good practice but man I look back and all I can think about was being a 24 year old that had zero idea of what I was doing. I think I have said sorry to Ben Bushaw for being so clueless about 3-4 times over the years. I thought I knew everything and I didn’t accept help. At all.
The mistakes I made included: not taking the time to truly understand the offenses that were being run so I could help at the varsity level, being so scared of talking to the team as a varsity assistant (because of a stupid thing I said after the first varsity loss) that I would look for ways to not go into the locker room, and promising these B-squads kids the moon but not putting the effort in to follow through with what I said.
I recall being totally embarrassed when the varsity coaches came to my B-squad practice to fix the mess this 24 year old had made teaching defense. Instead of learning I was internally angry. Unfortunately for Simley it took me three years to really understand the concepts needed to actually coach a basketball team.
Biggest mistakes I made? Not paying enough attention at the University of Minnesota when I had great coaches to learn from (the basketball stuff, I picked up on the life stuff from Coach Clem Haskins in a big way) and not being honest with myself when I started coaching at Simley. I should have been asking questions and learning, not being to embarrassed to ask questions and learn.
Memory 4. First day of practice at Henry Sibley High School. I was now helping at an actual varsity practice. And those first days of Sibley (open gyms and a practice) I was a fan more than a coach. Watching Trevor Mbakwe dunk was ridiculous. Being cool and funny at the age of 27 (yeah, how embarrassing is that?) was more important to me at first, I wanted to be liked in this new place. That went away quickly thanks to Tom Dasovich telling “Brock stop giggling to Coach James and do what you are supposed to”. That was massive for me as it was time to stop acting like a fool, be a leader not a clown.
Memory 5. At the end of September that same year Logan Barrett of Inver Grove Heights died in a tragic accident. Logan played basketball at Simley and I coached him the year before. I was totally stunned. I was a substitute teacher that day and I recall just crying at somebody else’s desk. Logan worked harder than anybody I’ve ever met just to be a starter on that B-Team. He listened to everything and worked so hard, I was definitely proud of what he had become. I will never forget going to his wake, seeing Logan there, seeing all the kids, and most importantly talking to his parents. What Logan’s parents said to me is private, but that’s the day I learned to take coaching and teaching more seriously than ever before. That is when I knew the impact you can have on a person. That day changed my life for so many reasons, I just wish Logan was still here and I was changed by something else.
Final Thoughts. Basketball has changed so much since I played and since I first started coaching. I don’t know that teams have to make cuts like they used to, and I don’t know how many people were late to maturity like I was. It’s crazy how much I have learned in life through basketball, I just gave you five items and that’s just from the first day!
Coaches please know that you are making a tremendous impact on these kids and please get informed, you are doing the student athletes a disservice if you are being too proud.
Players, cherish your opportunities and your time. Some of you are very fortunate to be in the position you are but know that it goes quickly. Enjoy every moment and soak up everything you can.
Good luck this year to everybody.