Friday, February 23, 2007
Thursday, February 22, 2007
What Are We Coaching?
For the past two days I have been taking in the Keswick Valley Coyotes Girls final tournament. They are an excellent team, losing only four games the whole season, who didn't really have a tournament that accurately reflects their play. Their proformance however, is not what I am talking about. I have been running the clock or score sheet. On many occasions students run it but not for final tournaments. The reason being that coaches will often give teens a harder time whereas they won't take the same liberty with adults.
Today as I ran the clock, I was disappointed with coach of a certain team in the finals. His girls played well, as did the other team and as KV was not in the final I objectively felt that the officiating was excellent and very fair. He made every call he could think of from the bench in their total absence, travel, foul and so on. He argued every call against his team and even argued when the call was in his favor. I was impressed with the patience of the officials who didn't even give the guy a technical foul.
I thought to myself about what this coach was teaching his team. Don't get me wrong, I don't know the guy from Adam, I don't even know his name, maybe he's a great guy, certainly a good coach, insofar he took his team to the finals... It makes me wonder what is being learned however. I think a coach should stand up for his team and his students but I also think a coach needs to be an example for his students. This isn't the NBA or the WNBA or anything like that. These are kids. This is communicating that this is an appropriate way to act. It makes me wonder what we are coaching. Basket-ball, yes. Something more, I hope so. I hope I don't miss out on that opportunity.
Today as I ran the clock, I was disappointed with coach of a certain team in the finals. His girls played well, as did the other team and as KV was not in the final I objectively felt that the officiating was excellent and very fair. He made every call he could think of from the bench in their total absence, travel, foul and so on. He argued every call against his team and even argued when the call was in his favor. I was impressed with the patience of the officials who didn't even give the guy a technical foul.
I thought to myself about what this coach was teaching his team. Don't get me wrong, I don't know the guy from Adam, I don't even know his name, maybe he's a great guy, certainly a good coach, insofar he took his team to the finals... It makes me wonder what is being learned however. I think a coach should stand up for his team and his students but I also think a coach needs to be an example for his students. This isn't the NBA or the WNBA or anything like that. These are kids. This is communicating that this is an appropriate way to act. It makes me wonder what we are coaching. Basket-ball, yes. Something more, I hope so. I hope I don't miss out on that opportunity.
Wednesday, February 21, 2007
2nd The Best
Wow, what a day it was yesterday! It was the finals of our basketball season. What the league had done was divide itself into two divisions. A for the top teams and B for the bottom teams. That put us in second place in division B, not bad for a school that hasn't had a program in 5 years! Either way all of the teams were pretty well evenly matched which makes a better tournament.
The way it was set up the fourth and fifth seed would play for a chance to play the first seed which would take either team to the finals. The second and third seed would play for a chance to go straight to the finals. The Keswick Valley Coyotes were the second seed playing the third place Nackawic Jay Hawks for our first game of the day. This was a crazy close game but our defense was lacking through the first half and we just were not making our layups or shots from in close. At the end of the first half we were lucky to be down just 31-30. We talked about what we needed to do in the second half but we didn't see immediate results. My team was getting frustrated and some of our key players were in foul trouble. Luckily so were theirs. With four minutes left we were down by twelve so I called a time out. I did my best to calm down and inspire the troops and sent them out telling them to bare down, play our game and have fun. We went on a rush with seven straight baskets! With thirty seconds left we were up by two! I called another time out and told them to play keep away and not to shoot or give up the ball. They ran it out perfectly and we won! I was ecstatic!
This took us to the final where we were to play the first seed Harvey Lakers. We kept good pace with them in the first half but fatigue set in and they pulled away in the second. Regardless, the boys were having a blast just being there in the finals. The final buzzer went and we were the silver medalist Keswick Valley Coyotes!
What a day!
The way it was set up the fourth and fifth seed would play for a chance to play the first seed which would take either team to the finals. The second and third seed would play for a chance to go straight to the finals. The Keswick Valley Coyotes were the second seed playing the third place Nackawic Jay Hawks for our first game of the day. This was a crazy close game but our defense was lacking through the first half and we just were not making our layups or shots from in close. At the end of the first half we were lucky to be down just 31-30. We talked about what we needed to do in the second half but we didn't see immediate results. My team was getting frustrated and some of our key players were in foul trouble. Luckily so were theirs. With four minutes left we were down by twelve so I called a time out. I did my best to calm down and inspire the troops and sent them out telling them to bare down, play our game and have fun. We went on a rush with seven straight baskets! With thirty seconds left we were up by two! I called another time out and told them to play keep away and not to shoot or give up the ball. They ran it out perfectly and we won! I was ecstatic!
This took us to the final where we were to play the first seed Harvey Lakers. We kept good pace with them in the first half but fatigue set in and they pulled away in the second. Regardless, the boys were having a blast just being there in the finals. The final buzzer went and we were the silver medalist Keswick Valley Coyotes!
What a day!
Saturday, February 17, 2007
Five Score And Seven Years Ago
Welly welly well, as per their last few albums I feel the need to plug the new Relient K album, Five Score And Seven Years Ago, that is coming out on March 6, 2007. I am so pumped for it and I cannot wait for it to come out. I absolutely love their music. I have said time and time again that God speaks to my heart so often through music in ways that other mediums just will not do. So many of their songs speak of things that I have felt in my heart or speak an old truth to me in a new and refreshing way.
They just seem like such stand up guys too, who just really love the Lord and enjoy so much what they do. Anyways, it is my absolute recommendation that you check out the album, you won't be disappointed. You can give a listen to some samples of the album here. Check out this video too of another song on the album starting off with Matt Thiessen's Beyonce impression!
They just seem like such stand up guys too, who just really love the Lord and enjoy so much what they do. Anyways, it is my absolute recommendation that you check out the album, you won't be disappointed. You can give a listen to some samples of the album here. Check out this video too of another song on the album starting off with Matt Thiessen's Beyonce impression!
Thursday, February 08, 2007
Major Happenings
Isn't it amazing how God will send something that really makes your day in a major way? Yesterday was a pretty normal day for the most part. I worked, coached a basket ball game and went to my Dad's for supper and planned to stay there the evening because I had hockey later on. While eating supper my cell rings and and it's Ben. This led me to believe that something major must be up because we don't regularly make long distance phone calls to cells, especially in the middle of the day. It was.
Those of you who read this thing might remember that on my birthday this past year Ben and I both posted the videos we had done as toasts to each other's weddings. Well Ben called to tell me that he had recieved a youtube message from none other than Charlie Major, the writer of the song my brother and me, to say what a great video Ben's was! I couldn't believe it!! After hockey I checked my email too and I also had recieved a message from him. It really made my day.
It is such an amazing thing to me that he actually saw the videos, contacted us and even added them to his favorites. Is that cool or what?
Those of you who read this thing might remember that on my birthday this past year Ben and I both posted the videos we had done as toasts to each other's weddings. Well Ben called to tell me that he had recieved a youtube message from none other than Charlie Major, the writer of the song my brother and me, to say what a great video Ben's was! I couldn't believe it!! After hockey I checked my email too and I also had recieved a message from him. It really made my day.
It is such an amazing thing to me that he actually saw the videos, contacted us and even added them to his favorites. Is that cool or what?
Wednesday, February 07, 2007
Monday, February 05, 2007
Saturday, February 03, 2007
McAdam Has Class
Well if I am going to blog and complain about unsportsmanlike conduct of certain teams, it is only fitting that when a team shows amazing sportsmanship I should blog about that too. On Thursday this past week our team , now 3-5 on the season, traveled to McAdam to play what we heard was the best team in the league. Previously after our win over Nackawic, a parent told me that there were three players on McAdam's team who were taller than I am. He also tole me that these players were in grade seven!
We arrived in McAdam to find the rumours were true. As we began our warm up the McAdam Warriors ran out to pumped up music and ran some impressive warm up drills. A large percentage of the town had shown up to support their team and I was pondering on the pounding we should soon encounter when the coach of the other team came over to introduce himself to me. We chatted about our teams and the kinds of seasons we were having and he seemed like a really nice guy.
Well the game began and McAdam jumped out to an early lead but pulled back after only leading by ten or so. They pulled their top line off and took most of their shots from outside. They applied zero pressure and their players even helped our our players with things like three in the key. My players raved about what nice guys were on the other team. They could have easily destroyed us but instead of running up the score they worked on weaker aspects of their game and helped our players out. I was really impressed.
McAdam has class.
We arrived in McAdam to find the rumours were true. As we began our warm up the McAdam Warriors ran out to pumped up music and ran some impressive warm up drills. A large percentage of the town had shown up to support their team and I was pondering on the pounding we should soon encounter when the coach of the other team came over to introduce himself to me. We chatted about our teams and the kinds of seasons we were having and he seemed like a really nice guy.
Well the game began and McAdam jumped out to an early lead but pulled back after only leading by ten or so. They pulled their top line off and took most of their shots from outside. They applied zero pressure and their players even helped our our players with things like three in the key. My players raved about what nice guys were on the other team. They could have easily destroyed us but instead of running up the score they worked on weaker aspects of their game and helped our players out. I was really impressed.
McAdam has class.
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