Lose to Win

Men's Basketball Coach Bob Walsh's recent post "Why Is It So Hard to Talk and Play?" got me thinking about how we handled this at Paul VI Catholic High School.  

Communication is a skill that most fourteen year old athletes don't have.  We had to provide our athletes with a vocabulary we wanted them to use, we had to show them when to use it, and we had to show them why they need to use the skill.  Lastly, we had to provide multiple opportunities in practice, in games, and in meetings for them to process the new material.

As we built the program, we needed to determine our benchmarks and we needed to determine what we would accept as evidence of mastery.  Here are some differentiated ways to assess your program.



Win/Loss Record

The win/loss record is the black and white standardized test.  What is your program's accepted level of mastery?  20 wins?  Top 4 finish?  Championship?

This is the most glamorous and the most emotional benchmark.  But this cannot be the only way to measure your program's growth, right?  Look at UConn Men's Basketball,  a national championship cannot be the only way to assess their 2010-2011 season.  If you are rebuilding and felt 15 wins would be a great benchmark, but only won 13 games,  is the entire season a failure?


Rank Film Clips/Games

Provide clips that illustrate different outcomes.  Ask them to rank the best to the worst.  You may be surprised to hear what they say.

When we were very young and did not have depth, we could not truly compete with some of the powerhouses.  So, here is what I did to assess our transition defense:

Clip 1 showed an outlet pass with the guard taking 3 dribbles to the rim, but had his shot blocked by our late-to-recover big man. 

Clip 2 showed a missed free throw into a secondary break that lead to a ball reversal and a made, open 3.

Clip 3 showed a successful defensive conversion that we negated with a hand-check as the opponent pulled the ball out to set up a set.

I intentionally picked three that did not end with a clean, successful stop.  I needed to know if the team mastered the objectives the coaching staff set out to teach.  Could they apply and evaluate the concept AND the physical execution, even though our youth could not physically compete with the 18 year old  high major seniors they faced every night?


In the off-season, have them rank their top 3 offensive games, defensive games, and transition games.  Have them rank the worst losses.  Make sure they provide reasons.


Pick Your Own Team

There is always a way to incorporate a scrimmage into a practice. 

First, this provides  the guys who may not see a lot of game time with a way to communicate with their team and to contribute to the success of the team.  We always had the last two guys on the bench pick and coach their own teams.

Second, it gives your main rotation feedback from someone other than a member of the coaching staff.   What does it tell you if your starters don't get drafted in the first round?  What does it tell them?

Third, it gives you feedback regarding sets in which your team believes.   Are they calling the same sets you would call?  Are they only calling one or two sets?  Are they not calling any sets?  This is all valuable feedback and an alternate way to assess your team's growth.

Even after the season, this could be a great way to debrief.   Each student-athlete  could draft their top 5 players if they needed a 3,  if they needed a stop, or if they needed to execute a set.  Play around with this to differentiate the assessments. 

Outside Feedback

I sat with the coaching staff at St. Andrew's School (MD) a few weeks ago.  They were despondent after a tough road loss.  The staff is in their first year and did not bring any recruits with them.  But, one of the coaches mentioned a few comments from the parents of their athletes.  The parents commented on the fight of the team and the decreased margin of defeat.  Rather than being down 20+ at half time, St. Andrew's is taking teams to the fourth quarter--with the same group from previous seasons.

I commented on the way their student-athletes tried to execute press breaks.  Physically, St. Andrew's did not have the athletes, the physical maturity, or the depth.  The other team pressed through the 3rd quarter until their lead swelled to 20.  The St. Andrew's staff burned timeouts trying to stop the bleeding, but I was impressed how their kids kept fighting, kept listening, and kept attempting to do all the right things. 


The differentiated instruction is the cerebral part of coaching and teaching to which I'm addicted.  I'd love to hear your thoughts and suggestions.   Ready for March Madness?

13 Minutes to Go

Tick Tick Tick Tick Tick Tick Tick

I give my students 13 minutes to respond to the prompt: "Experience is the best teacher."  Decide whether you agree or disagree and provide at least one example. 

Here is my response:

Observation is the best teacher.  I feel people learn best when they can imitate something great.  I feel people learn best when they can watch and avoid mistakes.  Look for crowds.  Is the crowd flocking to a certain event, a certain painting, a certain star, a certain type of car?  Why?  What does that thing have that you do not?  Observe.  Study.  Practice.  Strive to imitate that model.  Perhaps there are features about that model you do not care for.  What are they?  Look at them.  Identify them.  Do not include those items in your model. 

There is something to be said for letting somebody else go first.  Ladies first!  Observe. 

Sometimes you may not want to follow.  Okay.  Trail blaze.  You may make a mistake, you may not.  there is nothing wrong with this.  Sometimes the end is unknown.  Maybe go on a walk-about.  This is good.  When you get to the end, look around.  Observe.  Take it all in.  It.  Take it in.  Then, then learning will occur. 

Reflect.  Reflecting is observing.  Take stock of what transpires.  Look in the mirror.  Study the face.  Observe.  Teach.  Coach. 

I looked at the clock--six minutes to go.  Can't stop.  I want to stop and observe my students.  Who is tirelessly writing?  Who is starring?  Who has their head down?  Who did not have paper out, or a pen out?  Is anyone else struggling with this topic?  Why do those NCLB people pick such topics?  There cannot be high school English teachers on this test creation committee.  As Richard Bach writes, "you teach best what you most need to learn."  Wouldn't a topic on something relevant to the adolescent mind get better writing?  Maybe their writing will be better than mine since my mind is a bit removed from adolescence...or so I tell myself.

A prompt I would really like to tackle in 13 minutes:  Hip Hop is the appreciation of the urban aesthetic.  Support or refute.

Or:  Should bars include domestically brewed craft beers in their "domestic happy hour" specials? 

Maybe:  Music is the dominant agent in cultural changes. 

Another:  A green lawn is indicative of a self-conscious man.

Boom!  Times up. 

Top 5 Storm the Court Games

I'm still emotionally high from last night's Paul VI buzzer beater over Dematha, which probably biases this top five list.   Really, any come-from-behind win, or clutch strike out, or improbable goal is exhilarating.  All coaches have huge lists of when they have been part of such games and all athletes have those moments too.  The kid next door can tell a story about a whiffle ball game at the beach.  The guy at work rants about their softball beer league when somebody made a great play that lead to high-fiving and jubilation.

But to be in the top five,  history and cultural context shape the moment into the extraordinary and make the moment supernatural.  Here is my top five:

5.  The New England Patriots Tuck Rule Game

As Sean Rollins writes here, "That game was seen as just any other on January 19, 2002, but ten years later, it’s seen as a game that sparked a dynasty."  Of course.

But for me, this marks a monumental swing in football allegiance--the kind of which Bill Simmons would gladly exclude me from his fan base for committing such a crime.

from bleacherreport.com

This marks the moment I divorced the Jets for this young, much more sexy enigma.  I was on dorm duty back at St. Andrew's (RI).  The snow storm was burying us and St. Andrew's had already won a basketball game that day, but I couldn't go out and celebrate with the coaching staff because of dorm duty.  I couldn't do the New England snow party routine because of dorm duty.  I was stuck with ten or so kids who were playing Play Station and had no interest in the game and I couldn't invite anybody over because of dorm duty.

I was alone.  I was looking for something to believe in.  I was vulnerable.  Tom Brady took advantage of me and now the Patriots are my team and that game is in my top five.


4.  Game 5 of the 2001 World Series 
The attack on the World Trade Center changed everything.

But on a superficial level, this was the first season I watched Yankees games without any of my long-time Yankees friends. I was fresh out of college and living in the dorms at St. Andrew's and hadn't really had time to make any sense of this new place and this phase of life.


My dorm apartment was a kitchenette with a knocked out wall to bring in an old dorm room to act as my bedroom.  I was in the bottom corner of the dorm at the furthest corner of campus.  I had my college futon against one wall and the TV against the other.  The kitchenette was to my right and the door to the dorm was on my left.  I was surrounded by responsibility and cut off from the irresponsibility of sports bars, bar flies, and college. 

from bleacherreport.com

I jumped from my couch and screamed so loud, so long, that I found something dark in that scream.  Ethereal.  It released the feelings of loneliness, of uncertainty, and fear.  It ushered in excitement and a sense of triumph.   Through Scott Brosius and the Yankees, I was connected to family, friends, and the world.


It validated my memories and made me proud to be me.



3.  Vassar College Men's Basketball over NYU 1999

To this day, this season is the best in Vassar Men's basketball history.  Two other teams came close to breaking our single season wins mark, but our 18-9 record still stands.


We struggled through two seasons of mediocrity in 97-98 and 98-99.  Some dead weight graduated and some new freshmen changed this team.  We caught lightning in a bottle.  For the other two guys in my recruiting class, this was our peak.  I ended up joining the swim team our senior year and the other two guys  suffered through a brutal 8-17 2000-2001 inaugural season in the Liberty League.

In both our freshman and sophomore years, NYU abused us.  Flat out.  We weren't even a little brother to them.  They were a bully and we were the poor wimpy kid they tormented.  We hated this team and this game on the schedule because they demoralized us every year.  The three of us all had great high school success and never experienced losing the way we did in our first two years at Vassar.  Schools like NYU, Wesleyan, and Williams toyed with us.  Those 30+ point loses, especially at home, were impossible to endure.  They made basketball miserable.

But in that 99-00 year, we put it together.  We climbed the regional NY/Metro DIII rankings and were just outside the D3 top 25 that year.  NYU came to our gym and we stunned them.  That pig pile underneath our home basket, in front of our fans, with each other...

We knew what it was like to lose.  We knew what it was like to suffer.  This was the antithesis of the previous two years.  We were validated.  Our efforts meant something.  We proved to ourselves we were as good as we believed.

Triumph. 

2.  UConn over Clemson 1990

What else could a 12-year old Connecticut kid want?  I had a blue and white UConn ball I held every game.  I cried because I thought it was over.  I cried when Tate George knocked it down. My mom went upstairs in disgust (funny-even to this day she gets so disgusted with UConn, but gets even more excited than I do over games like this...I think she would leave my dad for Kemba if she had the chance).  Me, my 10 year old brother, and my father stood, arms around each other, and prayed in front of the TV.  One of my favorite memories all time.  Basketball, family, and life intersected.

1.  Paul VI over DeMatha, January 27th 2012

One year ago...courtesy of washingtonpost.com

We were up 17 in this 2011 game and Mikael Hopkins had a tip-in with 3 seconds left to give them their first lead of the game. 

Triumph.  courtesy of washingtonpost.com

Last night after draining a go-ahead 3 with .2 seconds left.










This is why teachers teach and coaches coach.  I cried last night seeing Patrick Holloway so happy.  That moment for me was more about seeing a young man experience a moment that validates what he believes in than the actual winning of the game.  Over the last two years, he wore me out both physically and emotionally.  We all rebounded for him.  We all let him in the gym early.  We all stayed late.  And, we coached him through times when he didn't necessarily believe in himself.  This is why we do what we do and it comes and goes as fast as .2 seconds. 

But this moment runs even deeper for me and is the cathartic release of 10 years of history and an 0-7 record against DeMatha that spans stints at St. Andrew's (RI) and Paul VI.  Each one of those games has memories clinging to it--I think that is true for all coaches,  right?  The game marks chapters of our lives, not just stats and numbers on a page.

DeMatha  beat us with ease during the 2009-2010 quarterfinal WCAC game.  That night, Paul VI was the last team they played in their old, historic gym before they moved to their new epicenter.

That was also the night my Uncle Stan had his funeral and I decided to stay for the game rather than go home to family.  I felt, and still feel, Uncle Stan would have actually been disappointed if I skipped the game.  A unique experience of coaching in a Catholic league is the pregame prayer and on that night,  that moment brought me to tears with memories of Uncle Stan.  It didn't matter we lost that night.  It mattered that the game was played and coaches coached.  A piece of my Uncle lived that night while I was on the sidelines.  Really, that was his funeral and he and I intersected one last time.   Don't get me wrong.  I don't need a DeMatha game to remember my Uncle, but the context behind last night's moment makes this supernatural.

He was the one who taught me to play.  He was the one that made me tough.  He was the one that showed me what I can learn about myself and about life by doing defensive slides with two bricks in my hands on an outdoor court in August. 

Last night, I could not stop myself from running onto the court and diving into the pile.

He, life, and all things between are the reasons why this is my number one storm the court game.

Next Play II

Seamus Heaney has ability to find meaning in something otherwise overlooked. 

One of my favorite's of his is Field of Vision, which ends with these two stanzas:

Face to face with her was an education
Of the sort you got across a well-braced gate--
One of those lean, clean, iron, roadside ones
Between two whitewashed pillars, where you could see


Deeper into the country than you expected
And discovered that the field behind the hedge
Grew more distinctly strange as you kept standing
Focused and drawn in by what barred the way.

There are two distinct things going on here as the narrator stands and studies his nearly catatonic aunt.  He sees a life well-lived in his aunt's face--a life full of experience.

He also realizes that he, too, is becoming catatonic through his pensive examination of this field that expands out further and further and becomes more strange and unusual.  

What the narrator needs to do is get on up over this gate.  The fear, uncertainty, introspection, and hesitation he feels is all just part of living, but only if he is actually living. 

This is his turn to make the Next Play and educate himself. 

Go ahead.

Get out there.

See what this field has to offer. 

Next Play

Basketball taught me to quickly move on from making  mistakes.  Within the game, there is always the emphasis on the next play. 

Don't dwell.

Don't over think.

Don't let it get to you.

Be confident. 

Be ready to make the next play.

As coaches, we always yell, "next play! Next Play!  NEXT PLAY!"  to shake our players out of their funk and get them moving onto the next moment.  

In high school and college basketball,  I felt like this was easy.  I'm starting to grow unsure of myself, however, when I try to make the real world application.

Today I met with an English department colleague about an action my co-chair and I felt was unprofessional and detrimental to the team's morale.  This conversation did not go well.  My colleague quickly became defensive and argumentative thus preventing any chance of me learning about their perspective or this person listening to our perspective.

The only thing I could do was sift through the tone in search of the root of the behavior and leave her with a brief recap of our observation--that we felt her actions compromised the integrity of our team and we felt her decision was unprofessional. 

I know she heard me based on her reaction.  But did she listen to what was said? 

The script I rehearsed about other ways to handle the issue and to open myself up to be receptive of her perspective went right out the door.

As I debriefed with my co-chair, I could not stop myself from dwelling on the poor outcome.  What did I do wrong?  What could I have done to create a conversation rather than trigger the tirade?    I was ineffective and as a result, I contributed to the negativity beginning to swirl in our department by upsetting my colleague. 

I made a mistake.  But why can't I disengage and move on like I was always able to do in the game of basketball? 

I started watching the Syracuse/Cincinnati game and remembered how fast the game moved.  For every missed shot, foul, turnover, or blown assignment, that player was immediately thrust into another situation.  Another opportunity to be successful came within the next second.  Literally.

The school day ended  and now I have all this time to dwell on the day and my mistakes.   My next play my not come for another day, week, or month.  I don't have practice to go to tomorrow to work out the decision.  I don't have a coach breaking down film with me.  I just have me and my reflection. 

How will I know if I will be ready next time? 

What are my [dis]Illusions?

No, this is not about  Use Your Illusion I 

or  Use Your Illusion II, although I stumbled upon a sweet  heavy metal blog 

looking for  FREE and unrestricted Guns N' Roses images.


Oppose SOPA.


As we get into THIS time of year (and maybe this only speaks to teachers and basketball coaches), there is something about mid-January and mid-term exams and the heart of your conference basketball schedule and the day-in-day-out muddle it all becomes...

Don't we seem to lose ourselves?

I just revisited my copy of Richard Bach's Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah.  Oh, and if you haven't checked out his blog yet, feel free to postpone your time on this page.

Three lines that resonate with this mid-January grind:

"There was a Master come unto the earth, born in the holy land of Indiana, raised in the mystical hills east of Fort Wayne" (1).

Love it.  Don't take yourself seriously.  Have a sense of humor.  Recognize who you are and what you are doing.

"You teach best what you most need to learn" (48).

I wish all of the people spouting negativity and defeatism and pontificating about whatever gets them all riled up could take a step back, remember where they are from and who they are and that they "teach best what [they] most need to learn." 


And finally, "Live never to be ashamed if anything you do or say is published around the world--even if what is published is not true" (48).

5 Keys to Victory

My favorite passage from The Art of War begins, Thus there are five factors from which victory can be known:




1.  One who knows when he can fight, and when he cannot fight will be victorious. 

This first thought is the essence to successful leadership and  drives the individual to truly explore their own strengths and weaknesses.  After doing that, one must be able to detect the strengths, weaknesses, and most importantly, the commitment level of the opponent.

Any person that is challenging a line or rocking the boat is doing so for a reason.  Is it worth engaging this challenge, or letting it pass and not risking a loss?  Can you actually affect change and victory or is this a brick wall of resistance that needs to be revisited another day?

2.  One who recognizes how to employ large and small numbers will be victorious.

Is this something you need the entire team to execute or is this something a small group can accomplish?  Does the entire team even need to know about this initiative? 

If you march through the door with your guns blazing, you are asking for a fight--and maybe this is the only way to achieve victory.  Or, maybe a series of diplomatic conversations to foster  a trust and an alliance is the best strategy.

3.  One whose upper and lower ranks have the same desires will be victorious.

This element is elusive and may take time for the leadership to build and establish a culture.  Recruiting the right people, embracing energy and initiative, and letting people walk away are crucial to establishing a common set of goals and desires.   

4.  One who, fully prepared, awaits the unprepared will be victorious.

This recalls the John Wooden quote, "Failure to prepare is preparing to fail."  However,  Sun Tzu pushes deeper.  To be fully prepared, one has to experience failure.  A person has to know what failure feels like, what the road to failure looks like, and needs to develop early recognition skills to avoid such paths. 

5.  One whose general is capable and not interfered with by the ruler will be victorious.

Mark Brumley addresses the problems with public school reform in his blog.   But what about athletic programs?  At any level, does a coach truly have freedom to work with his team?  Do parents, alumni, sponsors, AAU coaches, and other forces have an interfering influence?

The chain of command needs to be transparent.  To whomever is entrusted with responsibility and leadership, get out of their way and let them execute.  Otherwise, trust someone else. 



The passage is from Ralph D. Sawyer's "The Complete Art of War."