30 DAYS TO A CHAMPIONSHIP: A PLAYER'S PERSPECTIVE

Coach Jim Boone: As we wind down the 30 Days to a Championship BLOG, one of our players, Colby Wohlleb, will share with you, his prospective on our first 30 days.

It is our hope, that the ideals and philosophy that we are teaching are being heard, understood, and accepted by your players – the absolute most important group of people in your program.

Colby Wohlleb: Since Coach Jim Boone has arrived, we, as a family, have been working hard to build off of last year’s amazing turnaround in our program, and to learn a new way of doing so. The core statistical producers are gone, but we return a great group of guys and have added some terrific talent to our program. Coach Boone’s positive approach, his enthusiasm, and his energy have all of us excited as we begin a new journey.

Most recently, we have been working on the details of our offense, grinding in the weight room, building up our cardio, and toughening our minds. We have a goal to be the toughest most physical team in the conference. I am confident we are achieving this goal.

There is a lot to learn with a new Head Coach and staff, however, Coach Boone has done a great job of giving us positive feedback in his approach to teaching. We are working extremely hard to absorb it all. I believe every player is truly grateful for the amount of time and energy this staff puts in.

Many of the players on this team played for Jeff Price last year, and returned to Wesleyan for the opportunity to play for Coach Boone. While playing for a new coach can have its downsides, there is always uncertainty of the unknown. Coach Price and Coach Boone are both basketball genius’s, and we have realized how fortunate we are to learn the game from them. The two regime’s have their differences, none of which are negative. I believe that there is always a positive side to everything. For instance, there are new off the court rules. No excessive facial hair, presentable haircuts, presentable attire, no hats in class, sit in the front two rows of class, no earrings around the gym, 8-10 hours of sleep, ten minutes early everywhere (Coach calls this, “Lombardi Time”), etc. While it would be easy for us to look at Coach Boone like he’s crazy, he is just so passionate in what he does and how he approaches everything, you can’t say no to anything. Coach was quick to point out, “This is your Team, but it’s my Program”, in addition, why not practice being ready for the real world? One of the many expressions I learned from playing for Charlton Young at Georgia Southern University, was “Prepare yourself for the Real/Business world”. Look at everything as a job interview, would you show up to an interview 5 minutes late, shirt untucked, unkempt hair, earrings in, on 3 and half hours of sleep? Absolutely not, so why show up like that anywhere else. These rules were not in place last year, and that is not a knock on Coach Price, a mentor of mine. It is simply different styles. Another difference is our offense. Not wanting to give anything away, I’ll just say that this year is much more intricate, while last year there was less structure, Coach Boone has already begun defining roles for each player.

Moving on, our weight training has changed dramatically. One would think not having an official weight coach would hurt productivity, but it couldn’t be any different. Having our staff in the weight room holds everybody accountable, and pushes us much harder. Our weight lifting sessions are shorter, but much more intense, and again the energy and enthusiasm by this staff is non-stop.

Lastly, on the court, and most importantly, there is a major focus on our defense. Everywhere you turn, there is something about our Defense. From our lockers, to our bulletin board, to signs in our Team Room (Coach calls our locker room, our Team Room, I love this!) it is clear that our goal is to have “The Nation’s #1 Defense”.

One last thing, we have four morning sessions that Coach has named, “Boot Camp”. It’s been really challenging, very demanding physically and mentally – it’s been tough. But, through it I feel that we are boding as a team, that we are working harder than we have ever worked, and that we are getting tougher! I won’t lie, it’s been very challenging, but I know it’s going to help us achieve our goals.

We take pride to being Bobcats, and we hope to make our coaches, our school, our fans, and our town proud. I think Coach would agree that he inherited a group of good guys, and we look forward to building upon that in the near and distant future. GO BOBCATS!