Not only was it a time to share our ideas and basketball philosophy, but it was a time to re-new several great friendships and create new ones. I am truly blessed to be back home in the Mountain State, where I have so many life-long friends, especially in this great profession. In some ways, it was like a class reunion, I guess that’s what 30 years in coaching creates, it was awesome!
As well, our recruiting will be an inside-out approach, as we are going to recruit West Virginia High Schools kids first and foremost. The opportunity to share a Saturday afternoon with our state’s best coaches, priceless!
To touch on recruiting, like most college coaches, we will only recruit young men who have a desire to earn a degree, are great teammates, and have a positive attitude, along with great character. But, we are a little different than a lot of programs, that focus primarily on athleticism and ability. Not that these attributes are not important, they are – but we will delve deeper and look for kids that truly fit who we are and our mission.
We search for attributes such as toughness (both physical and mental), competitiveness (We want the “Have Too” guys, not the “Want Too” guys), leadership, a hard work ethic (it’s demanded here and you cannot survive without it), and an a strong passion, an ardent desire to be a great player (yes, a gym rat!). I believe these attributes are also skills, just like athleticism and ability, and they are skills that will be enhanced and illuminated in our program.
Again, the opportunity to share a Saturday with 45-50 head high school coaches in our state, our primary focus in recruiting – there is no singular activity that I could do to replace this opportunity to build relationships with this most important group of people to Bobcat Basketball!
A brief overview of the Clinic: First, the Clinic organizers, Mick Price of Ravenswood HS and Rick Greene of George Washington HS were phenomenal – a first class, well organized, tremendous event. Furthermore, the facilities and hospitality of Charleston Catholic HS, along with their Coach Bill McClanahan and Athletic Director Bill Gillespie were off the charts!
The day’s first speaker was Bryan Poore, who has done an incredible job at West Virginia State University in reviving their great tradition in basketball (not only is WVSU my Alma Mater, but Bryan and I went to HS together at Winfield). Coach Poore spoke on the WVSU Press, which has become one of the most feared defenses in the WVIAC (I took great notes).
Next-up was Mark Cline, another great friend. Coach Cline was a great HS player in the state, who went on to play at Wake Forest, and has become a very successful and respected college coach. Mark is currently the assistant coach at Marshall University, and he shared MU’s Post Play philosophy and development – outstanding! To quote Mark, “I’m not a coach, I’m a teacher, and this is my class room!”
I followed Mark, and spoke on our Pressure Pack Line Defense. WV Tech supplied their players as demonstrators – they did a great job with my presentation, and throughout the entire day.
After lunch, Randy Anderson – another great friend and an outstanding HS coach at Boyd County HS in Kentucky – Randy, was also a tremendous HS player in WV and had a stellar career at Glenville State College. Randy’s presentation was outstanding and he left me with this quote: “Do you Influence your kids, or do you Impact your kids?” Awesome!
Bob Williams, head coach at WV Tech and his assistant coach, Adam Williams (son of a great, great coach and a legend in WV as both a player and coach, Tex Williams) ended up the on-court work. Bob did an outstanding job of walking the coaches through the Tech “Swing Offense”. Coach Williams credited his former assistant, and another legendary WV HS Coach, Jim Fout as doing the research into Bo Ryan’s Swing and developing it for the Tech program. Adam, was superb taking us through the Tech philosophy and several drills regarding Skill Development.
But, that was not the end – for those who chose to stay, Coach Price headed up a Coaches Round Table. He supplied several questions for coaches to help each other with that were outside the realm of X’s & Os’ - ranging from fund raising, to discipline, to creating opportunities for your players to be recruited, and much, much more.
An absolutely incredible day – finally to quote Coach Randy Anderson, at the end of the day, we do this for the “Relationships & Memories”, it’s what makes this profession of coaching the best in the world.
I am truly blessed to have re-kindled many great relationships, to have created several new ones, and to have made memories on Saturday, that will last a life-time!
