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Message: [QUOTE="M.S.G., post: 4814450, member: 10660"] I wanted to share here, I'll try to keep it brief but I'm coaching hoops again, middle school in my district. Background, my 3rd district in 4 years - through no fault of my own. Amongst 35 laid off in a CT district budget disaster, did a year in an urban school in MA and with my resume became a free agent and became able to choose my destination essentially at that point. I picked a nice small district in MA, 20 minute commute - I drive around a lake at sunrise every day. So, I finally found my spot there. I hadn't coached hoops in the past 2 years, and in doing that my name is cold and especially out here in MA no one knows who I am. The varsity coach @ the high school where I work who I've become friendly with asked me if I'd coach the middle school team. He was super respectful like, I know you've coached high school before and some guys could care less about middle school, but if you're interested I'll get it for you. I figured if I ever really want to coach at the varsity level again, really make another 10-15 year run somewhere. I'm gonna have to prove it doing something like that, because no one cares if you're an AAU coach. I have coached for 15 years. Mostly high school, varsity, varsity assistant, and a unique co-coaching situation with my mentor after he had stroke. Coached a kid 15 years ago who ended up going D-1 and plays in Europe. Through the 15 years probably had double digit kids who played D-3. Coached a group from 6th - 12th grade who had more State tournament success than any group in school history. Coached a game @ Mohegan Sun. Two straight conference championship games (lost both unfortunately) since Covid. I understand, this is the equivalent of saying that I had a hot girlfriend at camp last summer. I am proud of those things. They're cool, they're not amazing, I've done some cool stuff but I do not think I'm Coach K or anything. I am just one of a million basketball coaches who thinks he teaches it the right way (we all do don't we?) My point with that is, I don't think I'm cocky I just think I am super confident with how I approach teaching the game. I am content in my professional situation, home life is great, my wife is all for this. I'm just gonna go absolutely 150% all in to this middle school thing. Gonna teach Pack Line defense 70% of the practice, 10% dribbling drills, 10% shooting - they need to shoot every day, focused shooting, and teach them either a simple Flex or a motion the other 10%. Part of my philosophy is that Shell Drill literally teaches you the game of basketball. Following those rules, and creating those defensive instincts day in and day out, almost making it muscle memory or rote memory leads to a confident approach - often easy layups, fast breaks and open shots. Once those shots start to go in, and the offense seems "easy" - you have the confidence to use those skills you've been working on. You start to see that 10-12 foot jumper go through, a few layups.. Now you're moving off the ball, got a little extra burst because the blood is flowing. It all connects. I'm curious to see what others think about that 70/10/10/10 percentage split I mentioned. So yeah, in short, there's four 7th graders who could be DAMN good high school players, a few 8th graders who might have something, so why the hell not. I'm not gonna half ass this, I'm just gonna teach teach teach teach, not fall into the trap of trying to be the smartest guy in the roon with 20 plays that the kids don't even understand. I haven't cared about coaching in a while, I really thought I was done. This could easily blow up in my face by game 4 if some parent doesn't think their kid is playing enough and that crap takes over. I am just praying for a chance to do this and keep that messy crap to a minimum. Thank you for reading my rant, I apologize. [/QUOTE]

Verification: First name of men's bb coach