WYC 024 Youth Basketball – Randy Montgomery talks High School Basketball and shares stories from John Wooden

What does it take to be a winning youth coach? Listen in as Randy Montgomery shares coaching stories and discusses his journey to becoming a successful youth coach.

Randy has been a high school basketball coach in Northeast Ohio for the past 31 years and coached over 700 games. He coached under Bob Huggins at Walsh College in Canton for 3 years. He then coached varsity basketball at Triway High School in Wooster for 19 years and North Canton Hoover High School for 12 years. Randy also became friends with John Wooden and got to learn and share stories with Coach. Randy is married and has 3 grown daughters.

Twitter: @coachmont73

Website: beyondthehardwood.com

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Coaching/Leadership Quote

‘You don’t handle people, you work with people’

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Coaching your own Kid

Make sure you take into consideration the age and make-up of the teams you are coaching

My ‘Cringe’ Moment

Coming from an era of Bobby Knight, Coach Montgomery shares being really intense and focusing on winning

My ‘Ah-Ha Moment’

Know that if you set an aggressive goal like making it to the State championships – it is grueling on the coaches, players, families, and fans.

Teaching Children & Keeping it Fun

In 31 years – they never scrimmaged in practice – they spent practice time doing drills that were applicable to the game

HUGE IDEA #1 - Whole-part-whole teaching method – Show it all, then drill it, then run it in full. Start it at 2-0, then 3-0, then 4-0, then 5-0. Then add in a defense.

Dribble tag – put it to music and do it for 5 to 7 minutes to keep it fun

Best Stolen Idea

Figure out what your team needs to work on – then seek out 1 or 2 drills to focus on that

Discipline

It’s a team sport – Coach Montgomery would end every practice with a 90% drill – he picks 5 different players to shoot 2 free throws, if they don’t collectively make 9 out of 10 – the whole team runs

Use the Bench – One of the most effective discipline tools is to use playing time/the bench

Reward and Recognition

HUGE IDEA #2

3 Huge awards at end of season:

1 – Most charges

2 – Best free-throw shooter

3 – Leading rebounder

Parent Involvement

Coach would never talk to parents about playing time

Inspiring Story

A lot of kids don’t appreciate what you are investing in them at the time – but come back years later and thank you

Winning

Winning should be one of the goals, but not the goal. Coach Wooden never talked about winning, but rather about playing your best

Kids need to learn to win, and more importantly need to learn how to lose

The One that Got Away

Coach Montgomery has no regrets on his preparation for each game – but certainly there are games that hurt

Spending time with Coach – Randy talks about spending time with Coach John Wooden

‘You don’t handle people, you work with people’

Awesome story about how he ended up at UCLA instead of Minnesota

Parting Advice

Write down 2 or 3 things you want to accomplish, then set up your plan accordingly – don’t overcomplicate things

The Best-Laid Plans of a High School Basketball CEO

This book has a unique perspective in each chapter – From the perspective of a 100-win coach(Coach Matt Kramer), and from the perspective of a 500-win coach (Coach Randy Montgomery)

Find it here: beyondthehardwood.com