At the 4A level and below, I believe having an off-season basketball program is crucial to having success.  I know this is a battle at some schools for various reasons and I’ve already discussed the criteria for making the case for having offseason basketball.  If this is not part of the program at your school, I believe it is worth the fight to change it.  As the head basketball coach, it was my job to fight for my sport to have an equal opportunity for success….not an advantage, just an equal chance.  In this installment of Building A Small School Program, I will discuss the significance of having offseason basketball.

If you look back over the history of Class 3A (formerly 2A) basketball in Texas, I believe you will see a pattern over the past 25 years.  Historically, the State Champion in this classification has most often either been a straight basketball school (usually from Region 1 or 2) such as Krum, Peaster, Brock, or Ponder or a school with superior athleticism (usually from Region 3) such as Kountze, Arp, Troup, and Brownfield.  Though all of those straight basketball schools mentioned have either added football over the past few years or are in the process of doing so, the majority of their basketball championships were won prior to football being offered.  Accordingly, those schools with tremendous athleticism also had a very high skill level as well.

For schools, such as White Oak, that don’t fit into either of these categories, I believe offseason basketball is necessary to give your program a fighting chance. For any program to succeed, you must have a nucleus of players who are willing to invest wholeheartedly in your program.  It may not be the only sport they play, but it is their first love and the one they will put priority on.  At White Oak, most of the time, it is this type of player who was in our offseason basketball program.  As I’ve stated in other entries, we only got the players in offseason who loved the game and were willing to make a substantial investment in our program.  

In the fall, I broke our offseason into 3 phases. Phase 1 was a 3 week period of strength and conditioning which consisted of a mile run on the track, bleachers, sprints, and weights.  We charted our results in the weight room and on the track.  At the conclusion of Phase 1, we would evaluate how each player had performed that year and compared their results to previous years.  We kept offseason records by individual and by each year to use as a comparison as well as for goal setting. We also used a formula to create a SAC (Strength & Conditioning) score for each player.  We post such records as The Best of the Best (top 10 all time avg. mile time) and the Elite 8 (top 8 all time SAC scores) in order to challenge our players to compete with the best that had come through our program.  Numbers and times don’t always tell the entire story, but numbers don’t lie.  Phase 1 set the tone for our entire offseason program.  It built mental toughness and pushed our players to their limit along with creating the attitude which drove the culture of our program.  

In phase 2, we spent 4 days per week in the gym, normally splitting the court with our HS girls offseason.  All of our gym days were in our old middle school gym which has no air conditioning.  In August, September, and October, you go outside to cool off…it’s known as the Hot Box for a reason! Phase 2 was a 2 week period in which we spent our time on offensive and defensive fundamentals 4 days per week while lifting on Fridays which were Pep Rally days.  Our kids were encouraged to lift 2 days per week on their own during Phase 2 and we had open gym 1 day per week along with beginning our fall league schedule which was 1 day per week.  Our football players did not participate in fall league.

In phase 3, which was a 4 week period, we started to incorporate our offensive concepts 2 days per week and defensive concepts 2 days per week along with weights on Friday.  We continued to have fall league 1 night per week, open gym 1 day per week, and encouraged them to lift on 2 other days.  By the time we begin after school practice, we had introduced all of our base offensive and defensive concepts along with the drills to break down these concepts.  We wanted to be able to move at a fast tempo once after school practice began, so most of our teaching was done during offseason.  

One of the major challenges of fall offseason was incorporating our freshmen into the mix, since I had 9-12 in the same athletic period and I was the only coach.  The gap between our freshman and 10-12 graders was normally substantial, and rightfully so because of our junior high philosophy.  So, the following were some of the methods I used to help bridge this gap without slowing down the upper classmen.  1)For players that were not up to par on fundamentals, they would do an individual workout on the side under the watchful eye of one of my managers.  Most of the time, if I had an upperclassman manager who had heard me teach the skills before, they would take great pride in being my “assistant” and do a great job keeping the freshmen on task.  2) Instead of me teaching new drills to the freshmen, I would have the upperclassmen do it then hold them accountable if the freshmen screwed up the drill.  You quickly find out who your leaders are, how much they actually understand, and they gain more respect for being able to teach.  3)  The upperclassmen always knew part of their job was to train the freshman on the White Oak Way.  If freshmen screwed up, the upperclassmen always answered for it first then we all payed the consequences.  I believe this enhanced our leadership and the freshmen learned the valuable trait of being a good follower.

Spring offseason, consisted of mainly strength training until after the district track meet.  At this time, we would continue to strength train 3 days per week but also begin doing individual skill development during athletic period 2 days per week.  Each player had a specific workout tailored to improving various parts of their offensive game and they would normally work in partners during these workouts.  We also began our open gym sessions 4 days per week after the district track meet.  

During spring offseason, I believe it is crucial to respect the sports that are in season.  Since the spring has 4 male sports in season, these sports are all after school sports because of the number of players that participate in multiple spring sports.  It’s important to adjust these players strength workouts during athletic period to allow them to perform their best and to work around their schedules. Communication between coaches and players is crucial during this time of the year as well as supporting the players and teams that are in season.  

I will conclude with 2 general thoughts concerning offseason.  First of all in the fall, if the majority of your players are in offseason, be cautious not to peak too early.  It’s a long season and you want your team to be playing its best during district and the playoffs, not necessarily during tournament season. Finally, be aware of cliques developing between offseason players and the players that come from football.  I always assigned lockers in order to intermingle the 2 groups and I always assigned partners for drill work for the same reason.  The coach must always feel the pulse of the team and avoiding cliques is an important part of building team chemistry.

In summary, I believe offseason basketball is crucial to success in the small school setting but, like any offseason in the small schools, it must be conducted in a manner in which it does not cut the legs out from under other programs and always keeps the overall success of all programs in mind.  

Thanks for reading and Coach With A Purpose!

As I have mentioned a couple of times in previous entries of Building A Small School Program, the mutli-sport athlete is crucial in many schools and requires cooperation between coaches and players to maximize the experience for all involved.  In these situations, there will always be differing opinions on the amount of time needed for skill development and overall athletic development.  These differing opinions have pitted coaches against coaches, players against players, and players/parents against coaches.  It can be a nightmare or it can be a great opportunity for an athlete at a small school and most of that, in my opinion,  is determined by the coaches…we set the standard.  In part 4 of Building A Small School Program, I will address coaching the multi-sport athlete.

As a coach, it’s never hard for players to figure out our priorities.  If your program counts on mutli-sport players, they can quickly determine if you care about them or if you care about what they can do for you.  At White Oak, about 50% of our basketball players also played football, and most of them played a spring sport as well. To eventually play varsity basketball at White Oak, I believed players had to fit into 1 of 2 categories, you either had to love basketball or love to compete.  Either way would work, and obviously in our best years many were both, but you had to understand…you win with lovers, not likers!  In many cases, our multi-sport athletes were those kids that loved to compete. Basketball may or may not have been their favorite sport, but they loved to compete and they loved to win.  For this kid, he was going to find out a lot more about how I truly felt about him during the fall and spring then he would in the winter.

Because of our situation, our multi-sport players had to understand how important the months of May, June, and July were to our success.  From a coach’s perspective, I had to understand the demands that were placed on our multi-sport athletes and respect the fact that their time was spread thin.  

For us to be successful, our multi-sport players had understand time management.  They had to be willing to WORK at multiple sports, not just participate.  So, they may stay after school to lift and play 7 on 7 during May then come for the last hour of open gym. During summer 7 on 7 they may need to work 30 minutes in the gym then jump in the car to go play 7 on 7 or a baseball game.  Throw in strength and conditioning workouts, summer leagues, camps, and tournaments, and our multi-sport athletes had quite a few demands on their time.  Fortunately, at White Oak, many of our kids embraced the opportunity to compete in various sports.

On my end, as the head basketball coach, I had to understand the demand on kids’ time.  I had to understand they wouldn’t be able to do the same things as my players who only played basketball. This was one of the opportunities for me to show my multi-sport players that I cared about them and that I wasn’t selfish.  I had to understand he might be late to open gym, he may not be able to stay the entire time because of 7 on 7, and that he needed to concentrate on football as we get closer to August.  So how do you let them know you understand and that you care?  You don’t hassle them when they say they have a conflict, you encourage them to do their best at baseball or 7 on 7, and you show up at some of their 7 on 7 games or baseball games.  It’s during these times, that they will find out how much you care, and you can’t fake it….they know.

During the fall, I did my best to respect the time that my players are in football.  I didn’t talk basketball with them, we talked football.  I would send them encouragement during the season via text or in the halls, our off-season basketball players would lead the student section, I would be at their games, and they would see me coaching my butt off for my 7th grade team…I’d be All In.  I owed them that. Consequently, when it was basketball season, I’d expect them to be All In and they would be. Furthermore, I expected our football coaches and spring coaches to respect the time that they were in basketball.  It was my job to set the example and for them to know that the person was always more important to me than the player.

As a coach, I believe it was my responsibility to set the example for how I would treat players who decided not to play my sport.  Every year, just like football and baseball, I would have kids not play basketball in order to put more time into another sport.  This was always a tough situation and can be very frustrating as a coach, especially if you believed the player was being influenced by someone with selfish motives or missing an opportunity to be successful.   However, I believe this was another opportunity to show the player that I cared more about him than I did about what he could do for me. Almost every year, around graduation time, I would have a senior approach me and say, “Coach, I wish now I had stuck with basketball.  However, I appreciate you never treating me differently even though I did not play.”  You don’t ever fool kids.

Finally, in order for multi-sport players to succeed, there must be cooperation between the coaches on the staff and each coach must see the big picture.  As I’ve stated a couple of times, the real challenge at small schools is to be successful in your own program without cutting the legs from under someone else’s program.  So how is this done?

First of all, as coaches, we must respect the sports that are in season.  In basketball, we wanted our football teammates to know we supported them.  As I said, my offseason players would lead the student section during football and consequently, our football team would be there for us come basketball season. When basketball practice began in November, we would be excited but we didn’t talk up basketball in the halls during football season…we would wait our turn and not try to steal their thunder.  Once we started playing games, we would always adjust our schedule in order to not conflict with football and volleyball playoff games.  We had supported them all year, it made no sense to me to abandon them during the most important part of their seasons…the playoffs!  Next, if we had enough players, we would play our scheduled games during the football playoffs but we didn’t wear the varsity uniforms.  We wouldn’t have a varsity until football season was over and we had our complete team.  This was a little thing but I think it kept us humble while we waited our turn and I believe it was respectful to the players/coaches who were in season.  

In return, I believe that it is important for the sport in season to respect the sports that follow them. One way is to only keep as many sub-varsity players as necessary for practice once the playoffs start and let the remainder go to their next sport.  As coaches, with 4 teams in each sport going to the playoffs, I believe we must try to make sure our success does not hinder the sport that follows us to the best of our ability.  Simply put, we can’t be selfish.

In summation, as a player, being a multi-sport athlete is one of the main advantages that a small school setting offers…play the sport or support the one’s who do.  As a coach, sharing athletes can be one of the most challenging aspects of the small school setting…support your multi-sport athletes and never attempt to benefit yourself at someone else’s expense.

Thanks for reading and Coach With A Purpose!

If you want your program to be exceptional, then everyone involved must be willing to be the exception….they must be willing to do what others won’t do.  In some schools, the goal may be to make basketball relevant in comparison to football and baseball. In other schools, it may be to raise the level of expectation within your district, region, or classification.  Whatever your situation, I believe the role of the head coach is to set the standard for how hard you are willing to compete along with establishing the ethics by which your program will compete.  The goal should be to build your program without cutting the legs out from under other programs.  In the small school setting, where sharing athletes is instrumental to everyone’s success, this can be a major challenge amongst people who are naturally competitive.   

The following are concepts and ideas that I used at White Oak in order to attempt to set our program apart from other programs. First of all, for 22 of my 25 years, I ran the Little Dribbler program for our 3rd-6th grade.  It was during this phase of our program that we began to introduce our “I Believe” philosophy and to ingrain the fundamentals of dribbling, passing, and shooting into our players. Because of the dedication of our parents, players, and coaches, this program set the foundation for skill development within our program especially in regards to shooting technique.  When our players entered the 7th grade, I believe they were as prepared as any from a fundamental standpoint.  Of course, over the years, many of the kids who had come through Little Dribblers would eventually decide to pursue other things, but I would always get a bit of a laugh when I would walk through our high school PE classes and see kids shooting the ball with solid technique.  I could always tell who had been a Little Dribbler!  I’ll go into the details of our Little Dribbler program in a later entry.

Another crucial component of our program was our summer basketball camp.  We wanted our camp to be fun but we also saw it as another opportunity to get a jump on our competition.  First of all, we only allowed kids from WOISD to attend.  We weren’t trying to get rich, we wanted to keep our player to coach ratio around 6 to 1, and we saw it as a part of our program so we only wanted to coach our kids.  Secondly, we tried to make it a cut above…multi-colored t-shirt with front/back logo instead of 1 color shirt, camp basketballs, medals for competition winners, post camp awards, certificate of completion, parent day on the last day of camp, camp picture and award winners in the local paper. We wanted our camp to be the best in the area and do so at an affordable cost.  

Like any other part of our program, basketball camp had its role in the grand scheme of things.  Our morning session was 5th/6th grade from 8:00-11:00 with 2 hours of fundamentals and an hour of competition.  Our afternoon session was 7th/8th grade from 1:00-4:00 with an emphasis on developing a 4 dimensional offensive player (dribble drive, mid range, post up, 3 pt. shot) for 2 hours per day and an hour of competition.  During most years, I worked with our 9th graders separately during a different week of summer in order to introduce them to our transition offense and other offenses we used in our high school program.  Since many of our freshmen basketball players also played football, this camp helped to speed up the teaching process once basketball season arrived. Basketball camp was never glorified baby sitting to supplement our income, it was an integral part of our program.

I believe one of our most productive parts of our program was our open gym sessions.  We would normally start open gym after the district track meet in the spring since most of our players were in a spring sport.  The gym would be open after school for 2 hours, 4 days per week until the end of school. There were several things that I believe separated our open gym sessions from others.

First of all, the first 30 minutes was for skill development work….no games were played until this time expired. Each player had an individual workout that we used during off-season so most used this as a guide during this 30 minutes.  Now, before you jump to conclusions, I’m not coaching them during this time and attendance was not required.  However, our players knew what was expected and I was always in the gym observing.  Though I rarely said a word, I was always present and this did make a difference in the level of intensity.

Secondly, we always had a large number of our Alumni at open gym, especially once the college kids got home.  This did a couple of things.  One, they helped the younger kids with their skill development and secondly, it made our games very competitive.  I also opened the gym 4 days per week in June and 3 days per week in July.  I will cover the in/outs of our summer program in a later entry.

Finally, at the end of June, I would send a letter to all our players who participated in our summer league. Though there are several more advanced methods of communicating with kids these days, I still preferred to send a letter for a couple of reasons.  For one, a letter was something you can hold in your hand, hang on the wall, or put in scrap book.  It’s something you could read over and over again. Second, I believe the written word can be very powerful and inspiring.  None of our players ever got the same letter, anyone can send a stock letter to everyone…that’s not exceptional.  Depending on whether or not a player was projected as a JV player, varsity complimentary role player, varsity primary role player, or senior, the letter would have different components directed to that specific individual.  This could be a time consuming process but I believed it was worth it and I believe our players, especially as a senior, looked forward to receiving this letter each summer.

In summary, these are a few areas of our program that I believe made a difference for us and helped to make us competitive on a yearly basis.  Like most things, it’s not what you do but how you do it that makes the difference. As the head coach, part of my job was to set the example for how hard we would work to be successful.  Never expect anyone associated with your program to work harder than you are willing to work.

Thanks for reading and Coach With A Purpose!

In Part 2 of Building A Small School Program, I want to address the elephant in the room at many small schools…the relationship between the head basketball coach and the head football coach.  Basketball coaches get together and bash the “pecanheads”.  Football coaches thrash the evil “thump thump” coaches…it’s all too common.  Who gets hurt the most?  The kids who get caught in the middle.  For players, if a coach ever tries to convince you not to play another sport, or pesters you about their sport while you’re playing another, please understand what that means…he doesn’t care about you, he cares about what you can do for him.  Winning is tough enough without having to worry about coaches at the same school cutting the legs out from under other programs to benefit themselves.  It doesn’t have to be that way and there is only 1 absolute: Coaches don’t ever fool kids…they know if there is division on the coaching staff.  That’s the kiss of death for small schools that rely on multi-sport athletes.

If you coach basketball in Texas, particularly East Texas (or bEASTtexas as we prefer to call it in this neck of the woods!), then whether we like it or not, we have the burden of proof…we must prove to the AD/HFC that we can be trusted.  At many small schools the success of the football and basketball programs can be influenced greatly by the head coach of the other sport.  As the 7th grade football offensive coordinator at White Oak, I may not have had a huge impact on the overall success of our football program, but as the head basketball coach, I could have a huge impact on the demise of our football program.  The same is true for the AD/HFC, or in some cases HFC/AD, he may not do a lot to help the basketball program but he can sure do a lot to hurt it.  The “thump thumpers” and “pecanheads” all have their arguments but to me the bottom line comes down to 2 things….the character of the coaches and whether or not they want kids to succeed or use kids to help themselves succeed.  

Most small school (4A & below) basketball programs count on multi-sport athletes, especially those that play football (ours was about 50% at White Oak), and most of the time the basketball coach will also coach football.  That’s life in Texas and life in a small school. When I first became the Head Coach at White Oak, I had to convince my AD, Coach Andy Griffin, one of the best high school football coaches in Texas, to let me have all of the basketball players during athletic period during basketball season.  In order for this to happen, I had to convince him he could trust me.  So, first of all, I worked my butt off when I coached football for him.  Fortunately for me, I like football, I want to do well at whatever I do, and I want to see kids succeed, so that part was easy.  

Secondly, I had to prove to him that basketball would not be a bail out for getting out of football offseason and that it would actually be a benefit.  At White Oak, we normally had around 30 kids in our HS basketball program…we didn’t have a lot of extras hanging around.  The reason for this was simple….basketball was demanding.  I wanted the kids who wanted to work, the kids who were tough, and the kids who wanted to win.  I believe this helped our basketball program be successful and I believe it helped our football program as well….we only got the kids that truly wanted to play.  As far as conditioning, footwork, developing mental/physical toughness, agility, discipline, work ethic, and character development, there was not a better off-season football program than White Oak basketball.  I believe our football coaches knew this and they respected it.  

Finally, I was fortunate enough to have a basketball off-season.  In some small schools, this is a football coach’s worst nightmare.  At White Oak, it was an attribute to our football program.  The first 3 weeks of fall basketball offseason was strength and conditioning, with 3 goals in mind…develop mental toughness, physical conditioning, and teamwork.  It was the equivalent of basketball boot camp and I believe it was the most demanding 3 week period in White Oak athletics and our kids took pride in the fact that they could excel at something that was extremely demanding…it created attitude!

Our off-season kids started training for this 3 week period on the first day of 2-A-Days on their own. Football starts training, basketball starts training….that’s how we did it.  During our days on the track and in the bleachers, it was common to hear our football kids yelling encouragement to our off-season guys as they ran because they knew it was tough, they respected them, and they knew those guys running would also be leading the student section under the Friday Night Lights. You only came to offseason basketball if you loved the game and you were willing to work.  That’s the way I wanted it and that’s the way our football coaches wanted it.     

As I stated at the beginning, as the basketball coach, I believed I had the burden of proof….prove I could be trusted.  I coached under 5 athletic directors and I was fortunate to have a great relationship with all of them and they were fair with me in return.  I was passionate about fair and I would fight for fair but I always made sure I’d done my part first.

In summary, the basketball coach and the football coach will probably always have their guard up to a certain degree.  It’s the nature of being competitive and it’s the nature of having to share, but it comes down to those same 2 things….character and caring more about kids than you do yourself.  

I’ll close with this.  On our way to Austin in 2012, I received a text from a local AD/HFC that said “Every football coach in East Texas is pulling for you.”  That meant a lot to me because we were about to accomplish something that very few ever get to experience, a State Championship, and most importantly, we had done it the right way.

Thanks for reading and Coach With A Purpose!  

As far as on the court success, I believe the greatest measuring stick for any program is to maximize its talent.  All programs are not created equally, so don’t waste time comparing your program to another program that may have a totally different set of circumstances.  What I was most proud of on the court at White Oak was our level of consistency.  I believe it was on rare occasions that we lost to teams less talented than us and we consistently competed with teams more physically talented than we were.  When I evaluated our success on the court, I tried to objectively use the following parameters.  1) When our talent level was below average for our school, we expected to compete for a playoff spot and possibly a district championship.  Optimistically, we could possibly squeeze out a win or two in the playoffs. 2) When our talent level was on par for us, we expected to compete for the district championship, advance at least 2 rounds in the playoffs, and make a run at the regional tournament.  3) In years that we had a talent level above our average, we expected to win the district championship, and compete with the best teams in the state for the state championship. 

To get our program to this point it took a major investment on the part of a lot of people, particularly our players.  As the Head Coach, it was my job to set the standard for our program and create the culture necessary to win at White Oak.  I was very blessed to have some very loyal assistants over the years to help me, an administration (particularly High School principal Dan Noll) that supported basketball, a community and parents who trusted our program, and 111 kids on our Wall of Honor who bought into the process.  In this series of entries entitled “Building A Small School Program”, I would like to share with you the White Oak Way.

First of all, take a look at the big picture and evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the type of players you will have most often and the circumstances that you deal with at your school.  Pick a style of play that fits the type of players that you have most often then tweak it from year to year to fit the specific group that you have each season.  At White Oak, I believe our main strength was that our kids would play with a maximum amount of effort…they would work hard and get after your butt!  We would play as hard as any team and harder than most. Consequently, our concept of pressure offense and pressure defense was based on this criteria.  We would always make effort a factor! Secondly, we believed that skill was the equalizer to superior athleticism, particularly shooting.  “Playin’ D & Killin’ The 3” put it in a nutshell for the most part for us, so this would be the 2 major staples of our style of play.

Next, make on honest determination of how much court time you get with your players.  At White Oak, on average, about half of our team would be made of players that also played football.  So, I believed it was very difficult to make major changes in style of play from year to year.  I believed there had to be carryover from year to year so we prescribed to the “simplicity and execution” formula.  Our program was set up for the Junior High to send us kids who could primarily do 3 things…dribble, pass, and shoot.  These fundamentals were also enhanced by our Little Dribblers program which I’ll expound upon in a later entry.  We would also introduce our transition offense as well as base offenses in Junior High.  Our 9th grade coach had the responsibility for teaching our defensive system, transition offense, and base offenses.  For this reason, I normally put my strongest assistant with our 9th grade since they were usually in a gym by themselves. Fortunately, I often had 2 qualified assistants, and I am well aware that not everyone at a small school is this fortunate.  Our JV should simulate the varsity as much as possible and they normally practiced with the varsity.  For us, this model was successful because each step of the process had a specific area of accountability and could be evaluated.  When everyone involved knows their role is valuable and they value their role in the grand scheme of things, success will start to follow.

So, to summarize Part 1 of “Building A Small School Program”: (1) Identify the strengths and weaknesses of your situation and use this to determine your basic style of play. (2) Determine the overall makeup of your program from the perspective of shared athletes. (3) Establish clear and precise objectives for each level of your program.

Thanks for reading and Coach With A Purpose!

Why step down now?  I’ve been asked this question a lot over the past few days.  If you read the article in the Longview paper on Thursday, Feb. 25 then you know some of the details.  Consequently, I guess “When is it time to step down?” is as good of a topic as any in which to begin the Coach With A Purpose blog.

When I was a junior in high school, I knew I wanted to be a head basketball coach, but not just any head basketball coach.  I had only one school in mind, my alma mater, White Oak High School.  Fortunately, God had the same plan as I did and I will be forever grateful for this.  For 25 years, He allowed me to live my dream and I poured my heart and soul into it from the first day until the last day.

When I took the head coaching job at White Oak at the age of 25, I made two promises.  The first promise was to God.  My promise was that I would do my best to make it about more than just basketball.  That my competitive drive to win would never cloud my judgement or tempt me to lower our standards for short term success.  One of the things that I did to make me keep things in perspective was to never keep up with my career record.  When the newspaper or magazines would ask for career record, I would always leave it blank…I didn’t know what it was.  Now, let me interject here, this in no way is a criticism of coaches who keep up with their record.  This was just an accountability point for me as far as priorities.  I encourage each of you to come up with your own accountability points to keep your priorities in line.  This worked for me.  On Wednesday, Feb. 24, 2016, I calculated the won/loss record over my tenure at White Oak for the first time and I am proud of our success.  However, the number that I will always be most proud of is 111.  That’s the number of players who graduated from our program and it’s the number that God will hold me accountable for, not my won/loss record.  I feel secure in knowing that I gave everyone of those kids my best effort and that they would leave our program with a philosophy for their life.  They would leave knowing how to work hard, be self-discplined, understand the value of teamwork, and how to respond to adversity.  I did my best to honor the promise I made to God.

The second promise I made was to myself.  My goal each day, as far as basketball went, was to outwork every basketball coach in our classification….every single day!  I would do things (things I will discuss in later blog entries) that not everyone was willing to do to give us the greatest chance to win.  I would bring it every day!  However, I told myself when  the day came that I did not want to approach my job with this same passion, that I would step aside….for my sake and our kids sake.  It’s not easy to win anywhere and White Oak is no exception.  When the day came that I no longer looked forward to doing basketball camp, 4 nights of open gym during the off-season, 4 hours of Little Dribblers on Saturdays in Jan/Feb, team camps, hosting summer league games and tournaments, endless hours of scouting and workout preparation, and all the rest that I felt was necessary to win at White Oak, then I would step down.  That day has come and that’s why I’m stepping down.  I still have a burning desire to coach and to impact young lives….I just want to lighten the load a bit.  There’s no other reason.

I look forward to coaching in our Junior High this next year and I know God can still use me in His grand scheme of things.  So, to answer the question, when is it time to step down?  For me, it was when I knew I couldn’t give our program all that I think it deserved and I didn’t want to just hang on.  I hope my story gives each of you something to think about for yourself when it comes time for you to answer that question.  There’s not a blanket answer for everyone.  For me, it was being accountable to God, accountable to my players, and accountable to myself.

In the next blog entry, I will start a series of entries entitled “Building A Small School Program”….thanks for reading.

I believe coaching is a calling and it provides a unique set of circumstances in which to positively impact the lives of young people.  I believe the best coaches seek out opportunities to teach life through the game because the game is real…and life is real.

The game has no bias, offers no entitlement, and knows no color.  The game rewards hard work, discipline, and teamwork.  But most of all, the game teaches and I believe it’s our job as coaches to pass on these lessons to our players.

The purpose of this blog is to give back.  The coaching profession has and continues to be a blessing to my life and it’s my goal to attempt to share some of my beliefs, philosophies, and thoughts that have been cornerstones during my 25 year tenure as the Head Boys Basketball coach at White Oak High School.

It’s my prayer that you will find something here that will contribute to helping you to be the best coach you can be.

Ron Boyett

Boys Basketball Coach

White Oak High School (1992-2016)