New Season

Wow! It has been a year since my last post to this blog. Well, a new season is upon us and I am excited at what is in store for us in the next few months. This year I will be the full time head coach for the 8th grade boys. I think I have an assistant coach lined up, but I won't know for sure till the end of the week.

This season will be an extention of last season. My expectations are high and I fully expect the team's expectations to match mine. I will continue to expect hard work, discipline, good listening skills, good sportsmanship and having the ability to have a little bit of fun! We will be a team that pushes the ball, runs motion offense, uses trapping defenses, plays good man to man, and plays the entire length of the court. I want to sub players in because everyone on the court is tired from working hard. I will however sub players for those who do not work hard or play with a great attitude.

We will run several offenses and defenses. I will expect contributions from everyone on the court and on the bench; and that doesn't mean you have to score a lot of points. We'll have set plays and we will mix up our defenses on the run. My goal is to prepare you for next year and for the years after that.

I hope everyone is in good shape, because we will do a lot of running, both in drills and in running the offense. Players will play based on effort, attitude, and ability. Playing time will not be based on how many minutes each person has played. Some may play more, some may play less. Some are good starters, and some are more important coming off the bench. Situations, momentum, fouls, opponents all come into play when deciding who is on the court. Bottom line is; give me a reason to put you on the court.

Practices will begin the first Tuesday of October. We will practice Tues/Thurs. at 7:30 pm in the activity gym at the high school. Practice will end at 9:00 pm. Parents are welcome to attend. Please come to practice ready to go. I don't want to wait for kids to put on shoes at 7:35 pm. If you are going to be late or have to miss practice, please try to contact me ahead of time to let me know. I will do my best to let you know if practice is cancelled. I do know that sometimes activities are moved into the activity gym without notice. So please understand if your son calls you to come get him after you just dropped him off. I will always stay until the last player is picked up. I will not drive a player home from practice. I hope you understand.

I really do look forward to this year. It should be fun. I haven't grown over the summer, but I sure hope your boys have.

8th Grade Boys Predator Schedule

Here is the schedule for the 8th grade boys fall Predator league. All games will be played at Papillion Lavista High School-Practice Gym-South Entrance.

October 29th
4:00 pm vs Wildcats

November 5th
4:00 pm Silver Force

November 12th
5:00 pm vs Omaha Huskies

November 19th
4:00 pm vs St james

November 26th
6:00 pm vs PL Monarchs

December 3rd
5:00 pm vs West "O" Wolfpack

December 10th
4:00 pm vs Bellevue Heat

7th Grade Fall Predator League Schedule

Here is the schedule for the 7th Grade Boys fall Predator league. All games will be played at Lavista South High School 10799 Hwy 370--Main Gym Court #2

October 29th
12:00 pm vs Rebels

November 5th
1:00 pm vs Bellevue Heat

November 12th
12:00 pm vs Patriots #1

November 19th
11:00 am vs Cardinals

November 26th
11:00 am vs St James

December 3rd
2:00 pm vs Cats

December 10th
11:00 am vs Jayhawks

Dec 15, 16, 17 TBD Tournament

6th Grade Fall Schedule-Predator

Here is the schedule for the 6th Grade fall Predator league. All GAMES PLAYED AT PAPILLION/LAVISTA SOUTH HIGH SCHOOL
10799 Hwy 370, Papillion, NE 68046
Main Gym, Court #1

10/29/06
2:00 p.m vs Titans

11/5/06
1:00 p.m. vs Bellevue West

11/12/06
1:00 p.m vs Skyhawks

11/19/06
12:00 noon vs Fremont

11/26/06
12:00 noon vs Bankers Life

12/3/06
2:00 p.m vs St James

12/10/06
11:00 a.m vs Bennington

12/15, 16, 17
Season-End
Tournament.
Schedule to be
determined.

5th Grade Boys Fall Schedule

Here is the schedule for the upcoming fall Predator league. All games @ LaVista Jr High-7900 Edgewood Blvd. Court #1

October 29th
2:00pm vs Bellevue Heat

November 5th
3:00 pm vs Bellevue West

November 12th
4:00 pm vs Bluejays

November 19th
4:00 pm vs XEMT Heat

November 26th
1:00 pm vs Tagge Rutherford

December 3rd
1:00 pm vs Falcons

December 10th
3:00 pm vs Mustangs

Dec 15,16,17-TBD Tournament

Some Follow-Up-Parents/Coaches Meeting

Hello to all. I wanted to touch upon a couple of things that I forgot to talk about while at our coaches/parents meetings a couple of weeks ago. The first is the issue of other sports and activities. We understand that this is football season and many of the kids are on teams that play into late October. We ask that the kids do come to practice still so that they can learn what offenses and defenses are being presented. Some teams practice under the lights and will have conflicts with Basketball. Please be considerate of the coaches time and commitment. I know that the 8th graders will be involved in the school basketball team coming up in November. We understand that and believe school activities come first--including homework (get it done when you get home helps). Band concerts etc. will sometimes conflict with practices. Please let the coaches know ahead so that arrangements can be made---I have moved practice back a 1/2 hour so the kids could make it. Now in regards to other select sports. I played every sport possible growing up, I however did not live in a time where every "select" coach felt they could bully the kids to making a major decision on what one sport they wanted to play. And they shouldn't. My belief is as follows: basketball is a Fall/Winter sport and should be played in that time frame. Soccer is a spring or fall sport not a year round sport..no sport is, not even volleyball. Indoor soccer is not a recognized sanctioned sport in high school. Baseball is a spring/summer sport. Throwing or playing catch in February in a gym that is built for basketball is not a reason to miss practice or a game. If your coach wants you to be at practice in February and you have to miss basketball practice to do so, then I will, in April, May or June ask you to come to the gym instead of baseball practice to shoot free throws. I think that is only fair. Bottom line is basketball is a fall sport and should be the first priority when it comes to deciding which practice to go to. Your coach has a decision every game or every practice on whether he wants to teach your child the game of basketball or go out with or stay home with his family or friends. I am sure we would all want the coach to make the right decision.

Second thing. Coach Fleming and I implemented the following rule many years ago and have always followed it. If any player should get a technical, he will sit the entire rest of the game. If it happens at the end of the game he will sit the entire next game. We don't care if he is 6' 5" and scores 25 a game, he will sit. The reason we put this rule in? One game many years ago, we were up 7 points with about 3 minutes left and 4 technicals later (all by players) the game was over and we lost.

I hope you understand these two points and the reasons we believe in them.

Winter Basketball-Different But The Same

This winter basketball season has been very different than the fall season, but in many ways it has been the same and even better than the fall. Statements that come out of my mouth can often be confusing. Let me explain. In the fall, we competed in the Silver division at Predator, and played in a couple of tournaments. Our record was a little over five hundred heading into the season ending tournament and we had competed very well. We beat, both the number 1 and 2 seeds, to win the Silver Division. As you know, we played extremely well and improved every game. Winter came and we moved to the Gold Division and started in the Kellom league. So far we are winless in Predator and 3 and 2 in the Kellom league. We have lost 2 players to injury and picked up a nice addition in Phil. Quite a difference from December. But what is the same is, we are competing very well and working extremely hard at becoming better each and every day. Although we have been short handed at practice and have had gym/school conflicts etc., we have worked hard at becoming better players and a better team. The level of competition has improved, but so have we. I am a broken record (or CD for the players who have never even heard of a record or even seen one one) when I say, Mike and I look at how we are progressing and looking at what kind of team we will be in the future--March. We are not the same team as when we started in October- literally and figuratively. We are extremely happy with our progress and we will continue to work hard and improve.
One other thing that is different, I didn't have any technicals in the Fall. I'll work on that!

New Year Update and Future Schedule

Happy New Year to all and I hope everyone had a great holiday season. Before I lay out the new schedules, I would like to talk about the success we had at the Predator Tournament. As Mike and I have always said, "What we really care about, is how the team performs at the end of the year." Well, we certainly are on track to what we want to accomplish. Our effort and team play during that tournament was outstanding. We shut down the #1 and #2 seeds in our division and played extremely well. In fact, the coach from CB Titans told me that we beat them in every aspect of the game and on every play. That is a nice compliment for the kids and their effort. We still have work to do but Mike and I are very pleased with our progress.

Now comes the fun part; the second half of the season. We are in the Predator Gold division and in the Kellom League. We need to step up our effort and production on the court if we plan on competing with some of these teams. But I am confidant we will do very well. We are also looking at year end tournaments. In the past we have gone to Lincoln for the MIT and have played in the Millard West Tournament. It has been a few years since we have traveled to Kearney for the Midwest Blowout Tournament. We are discussing this, and would like to know your thoughts about going there or maybe to Kansas City for a tournament. Both are about 3 hours away and it might be easier to convince my wife to go if we head to KC. I personally prefer the Kearney Mall, but she likes the Plaza.

Here are the schedules for both leagues:
Kellom:
Jan 7th: 2:00pm vs Cardinal-Win
Jan 14th: 3:00pm vs Premiere
Jan 23rd-Monday: 8:00pm vs Warriors
Jan 30th -Monday: 6:00pm vs Trailblazers
Feb 4th: 4:00pm vs Unity
Feb 13th-Monday: 8:00pm vs Hustlers
Feb 27th-Monday: 6:00pm vs Midwest Custom
March 4th: 2:00pm vs St Benedict
March 6th-Monday: 6:00pm vs Premiere 7th
March 11th: 3:00pm vs Rockets
Monday March 20th-Playoffs

Predator:
1/15/06 2:00 p.m. 1 vs. 9
1/22/06 11:00 a.m. 2 vs. 9
2/5/06 1:00 p.m. 4 vs. 9
2/12/06 12:00 noon 9 vs 8
2/19/06 12:00 noon 3 vs. 9
2/26/06 1:00 pm 5 vs 9
March 2, 3 4-Tournament

Predator Tournament

I apologize for not updating more, but I have been busy at work and haven't had much to say. But this weekend is the Tournament for the Predator league. We are the 4th seed and we play our first game on Saturday December 17th at 5:00pm at PLHS in the South Gym (same place we have played our league games). We play the Wildcats. When we win that game, we move on to the semi finals against Titans. That game will be at 1:00pm Sunday the 18th. When we win that game, we will play at 6:00pm Sunday for the Championship!

Coach Mike and Mike have been thinking about moving into the Gold division next session. We should have a decision by next week. We need to see if there is even an opening for us to move into. But we will keep you posted.

Finally, we will not practice till after Christmas, probably the 29th of December. We are looking at a tournament at UNO in early January, but that too is up in the air.

Take care and Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Kwanzaa, or Happy Festivus (for you Seinfeld fans)

Mike

Week 4 and Our First Tournament

Well, we are into our 4th week of Westside Select basketball and as coaches, we could not be more pleased with our progress. Although many of these kids have played together for quite a while, we have really started a new team this year with the addition of Josh Hackett, Joe Trouba and Joey Greco. With the addition of those three, having to learn new offenses and defenses and learning the style and techniques of new coaches, we could very well have started out dazed and confused. But we didn't, and I see nothing but great things in our future.

This team has a great base to start from. That is, the want and desire to work hard and learn how to be better players and teammates. Fleming and I have coached about 15 years now and we always agree that the one thing we look for in a team is the ability to work hard. In the past we have had very talented teams that just ran through the motions, we have had teams that worked hard, but just didn't have the talent, but this year we have been fortunate enough to put together a team that not only has a great amount of talent, but is willing to work very hard each and every game and practice. Because of those 2 things, we are expecting a very successful season.

Now onto this weekend! We have 3 games slated for the Broz Tourney at Westside and of course our game on Sunday in the Predator League.

Friday Night we play at 8:00PM in the Main Gym versus the MAGIC??-don't know them
Saturday Morning we play at 10:00am in the Main Gym versus Lincoln Crusaders
Saturday Afternoon, we play at 3:00PM..Gym and Opponent TBD

Lots of basketball this weekend!! Thank you to all the parents who have volunteered to help with the Tournament. This is very important to the basketball program and your time is greatly appreciated.