Building a Small Town Basketball Program

Five years ago I took the Head Basketball Coaching Position in my small hometown. I returned after coaching at a couple of different area high schools the previous ten years. When I returned home the boys' basketball program was in shambles. In fact the program had not had a winning season in thirteen years. My senior year was the last time the program had won more games then it had lost. During those thirteen years ten different head coaches came and went. Every year the players would here the same promise from their coach. "I will be back next year. I will rebuild this program." But at the start of the next season a new system would be introduced by a new coach.

During my time away from my hometown I paid close attention to the basketball program. The athletes always seemed to be there but the program never seemed to have success. Talking with officials and other area coaches I would hear stories of constant player and coach ejections on a regular basis. In fact several officials I spoke to hated to work games in which my home town was competing. When I would return to the gym to watch or scout a game I would often find myself embarrassed to admit that I was an alumnus of the program.

When I found myself in a position to return to my old high school I eagerly took the position as head coach. Over the past ten years I had the wonderful opportunity to work with several excellent student athletes. My teams won night in and night out. I had accumulated several league titles and numerous playoff victories. In fact over those ten years my assistant coaches and I felt so blessed by the success we had. Although I never took any of those teams to a state title I honestly felt like a champion every year. Returning home would represent the biggest challenge of my coaching career.

Wining games would not be my goal early in the rebuilding stages. In fact my assistant coaches and I took winning games out of our first season plan. We needed to install discipline, sportsmanship, academics, teamwork and a solid family attitude. We also had to gain the trust of the athletes and the community. The program had no respect and honestly did not deserve it at the time. It was our plan to tear the whole thing down and start over. This would not be easy. Finding support and people who would give us a chance proved to be a completely uphill battle.

The first thing we did as coaches was to change the look. We literally went into the storage room and threw everything out. Uniforms, practice jerseys, basketballs and anything we could find that represented the past program. We then went out and replaced everything. The old practice jerseys were white. We replaced them with black practice jerseys. The basketball were Spalding, we went and got Wilson. Everything was replaced but with something completely different. We repainted the locker room and team room. We left nothing unchanged. That was the easy part.

Next we met with players. This meeting took place one week before practice started. During the meeting we laid out our team rules and philosophies. We gave each player a parent player handbook, game schedule and practice schedule. We went through step by step on what we expected of them and what they could expect of us. We were very careful not to scare any of the players but we left no questions on how things would run and what would happen if they did not run that way. Actually that first meeting went real well. However our system would soon be tested.

The following week we started practice. The first practice one of our players began cussing and tried to pick a fight with another player. We quickly removed that player from practice and our program. Even though this seemed like a terrible way to start the season it actually became our best move. The players, their parents, the administration and the community quickly realized we were for real. After that we began to notice that players listed a little closer.

When games started a few weeks later, we were very surprised. We won a couple of games early and actually had officials, parents and administrates approach us with positive comments. Not on how we were playing but on how disciplined and well mannered our kids were. This was a great victory for us. Things were going in the right direction and we wanted to make sure it continued.

We did have a few small problems throughout the rest of the season. However, none of these situations ever got outside of our immediate family. We worked real hard with our players to keep the negative stuff inside our program. We dealt with them together and kept the community, parents, and administrators out of them. We felt this helped keep our family tight and built a atmosphere of trust.

When the season came to an end our record was not the greatest, but our reputation in the league and our town was very good. Over the next couple of years we continued to put much of our focus on those goals but we slowly began to include the concept of winning. The last three years our team has reached the play-offs and had a very good showing.

At the current time our program is doing well. Although this season we will be young and inexperienced, our players are hardworking and respectful young men. What we have done at the high school level has feed down through our feeder programs. Players start learning our system at a very young age and understand that there is more to the game than just offense and defense.

We have a lot more to do. Our goals now have grown to include more than just competing and being classy. We now want to make a run at the stat tournament. We know that in our small town this will tough but with the right attitude and hard work we are sure that it will happen.