30 DAYS TO A CHAMPIONSHIP: IMPORTANT FUTURE MEETING ALONG WITH AN EYE ON THE PAST

Jim Boone: Today we will spend entirely on campus.  It is the first day of classes for our student-athletes and we want to make sure we are on hand to trouble shoot in problems they may have with classes.  I also have some follow up meetings with the players on an individual basis to continue to get to know them and to allow them to get to know me as well.

I will spend a big part of my day (and evening) working on the details of our first team meeting tomorrow.  Not that all team meetings aren't important but the first one sets the tempo for the rest of the season.  It has long been a priority for me and I have been working on it for days.  Perfection is impossible to expect but I want to be as close as I can in the messages that I am delivering to my team.

I would like to take a moment and go back to our press conference that introduced me as the new head coach at West Virginia Wesleyan.  I can't begin to speak of the thrill I had to see Wesleyan's legendary coach Hank Ellis in the room.  His contributions to Bobcat athletics are endless as both a basketball coach and a baseball coach.  The baseball field is actually named after him.  He has won conference championships in both sports and continues to have a great passion for our future.  The day of the press conference was actually his 90th birthday!  What an honor to have him there to welcome me to the West Virginia Wesleyan family.

I realize there are several schools of thought in regard to how you handle the past when you take a new job.  I know of some coaches who ignore it or pretend their school had no past.  That has never been my philosophy.  It will be a big part of my staff to not only embrace the past but to reach out to all of our alumni and do everything we can to make them understand that they will always be a part of Bobcat Basketball!