A Pen And A Napkin

We're all coming up on a nice holiday break, and there are numerous ways to make your team better, depending on your circumstances. This week, Tony and I discuss two quite different circumstances that we are under over the holiday break and how we play to navigate them. Of course, we will have our trivia, our sporting events to look forward to and a thank you from APAAN!

DeMarcus James, the highly successful boys HC at Fort Worth OD Wyatt HS (TX) comes on the podcast to discuss a variety of topics, from marketing your program to the growth in Texas basketball to playing a challenging schedule. Along with that, we discuss transition offense, SLOB's and off-season development. Great discussion with a terrific coach from the Lone Star State!

Scouting is both an art and a science . . . what makes a good scouting report? How much is too much? When do we simplify too much? What should we be worried about? What should we NOT worry about? Tony and I tackle these questions and much more, including a round of "History 101" by Coach Vis; enjoy!

This week we are excited to talk to Tim Sandquist, the highly successful Men's HC at Kirkwood CC (IA)! Coach Sandquist touches on a wide variety of topics, including his basketball journey, hiring of assistant coaches, the stresses of being a head coach as opposed to an assistant, practice execution, half court defense and more! Terrific conversation with one of the best JuCo coaches in the country!

As games begin and the results starts to get real, there's a process that almost all of us go through; what to change and when to change it. This week, Tony and I talk about all of the things that may bring about those changes and our advice for making changes. We also to through our usual trivia and we end up talking a little World Cup!

Our newest episode features Justin Bowen, a terrific up and coming coach from Southside (AL). Coach Bowen has coached numerous sports and has already made a big difference in his first season as GBB HC at Southside. We chat about his influences, coaching multiple sports, things he felt like he was and wasn't prepared for, the "Champ Chain", defense and much more! Great conversation with a young, rising star in the profession!

Every coach wants to be prepared and have enough of their scheme in to function early in the season, but we also only have so much practice time available and we have alot of things to focus on. In this episode, Tony and I break down what we have implemented on offense, defense and special teams, and what are the things that we consider as we implement those schemes in our first couple of weeks of practice.

When we put together our thoughts and plans for our seasons, we tend to error on the side of the most optimistic outcomes. Realistically, there are going to be things that go wrong; injuries, bad practices, underperformance, etc . . . This week, Tony and I discuss these very scenarios and more and what you can do to work through the situations when things go wrong . . .

Ras Vanderloo, the highly successful boys head coach at Sioux City East (IA) comes on this week and we have a great conversation! We talk about coming from a coaching family, being involved with USA Basketball, aspects of youth sports and coaching that should be emphasized, delegating responsibilities to your assistants, and much more! A really fun conversation with one of Iowa's best!

In order to build a quality program, we have to have special nights to create traditions and honors for people in the past, present and future. Some of these nights have direct ties to our current programs, while other nights can serve our community at large. In this week's "Coaching Staff", Tony and I go through some special nights that we've put together in the past and things we're thinking about in the future.