Coaching...

WHAT IS COACHING? When you are the coach of a program, you are like an architect. You are a person with a vision. There is an inspiration and a design that must be communicated to those who will help you build this vision.

WHAT IS MY VISION? My vision is to teach kids about basketball that will carry over off the court: accountability, discipline, communication, trust, leadership, responsibility. Things that my kids can "double dip".

WHY DO I COACH?

I never stopped to think about this question until this summer, it has actually never been asked of me. My first response is that I LOVE BASKETBALL. But then I realized there is a lot more to it. If it were just a game, I would probably be putting my time and effort in other things but there are so many elements to BASKETBALL that forge my passion.

• I love the game.
• I care for the kids that I get to coach.
• I love to TEACH. Coaching provides me with an opportunity to teach kids elements they can double dip on the court and in life. I enjoy teaching values and principles, I enjoy sharing my knowledge of the game.
• Relationships. So many relationships are established with coaching. With: players, parents, administrators, other coaches and the community.
• I like to win.
• I love competition.

All of these impact my coaching behavior, they are motivations for me to better myself as a coach. My behaviors as a coach originate from beliefs that I have about the game and life.

KNOW YOURSELF AS A COACH

Being a young coach, I am a 27 year old female coaching at the HS level in Bergen County, I use as many resources as possible. Out of 30 teams that made the Bergen County Tournament Last year, 5 of those teams were coached by females. This gives me MORE ambition to learn EVEN MORE and better myself as a coach. "Your team only gets better if you, yourself get better". "Your success in your individual role is crucial to the success of the team". These quotes stick with me, and remind me that I need to keep learning about the game.

I use Alan Stein as a major resource. The man is a reading machine and he has inspired me to read more. On his website I came across one of his blogs "Mission Accomplished", where he listed 50 books read in the year. Here is the link if you want to take a look at some great summer/fall reading : http://blog.strongerteam.com/post/2009/12/09/Mission-Accomplished.aspx

I went down the list, highlighted ones I thought would be good for me and this summer I came across "KNOW YOURSELF AS A COACH". This book challenges you as a coach, teaches you to think outside of the box and put things into perspective. The book is full of highlighter, post its and tags by the time I finished reading it. This book is my new BIBLE.

Denny Kuiper helped me understand that the terms "athlete" and "coach" help define who I am. "We athletes and coaches know the advantages of team participation, of learning and practicing and performing together, of reaching for the stars, even of failing. We know we are better for having made the effort". Part of coaching is engaging people everyday, engage them in play that carries over into the rest of their lives.

I will be following up with other things I have learned from the book to share with you. I also plan on sending the Author Denny Kuiper an email expressing my appreciation for a piece of work like this!

Fall Basketball Try Outs

The Bergen County Y, Home of the GameTime Hoops Basketball Program will be holding try outs for the Fall on Sunday Sept. 11th.

Fall Ball consists of one game per week and one practice per week.

Practices and Try outs are held at the

The Bergen County Y

605 Pascack Road

Township of Washington NJ 07676

Games are either at the Bergen Y or with in 20 minutes of the Y

Fees are $225 - $275

SEPTEMBER 11th TRY OUTS

3rd/4th grade 12:00pm - 1:00pm

Boys Court 1

Girls Court 2

5th/6th grade 1:00pm - 2:00pm

Boys Court 1

Girls Court 2

7th/8th grade 2:00pm - 3:00pm

Boys Court 1

Girls Court 2

HIGH SCHOOL GIRLS 3:00pm to 4:00pm

For Further information please contact Jenny Jurjevic

jjurjevic@yjcc.org

201-666-6610

Miracle of St. Anthony

I just recently read "The Miracle of St. Anthony" by the records sports writer Adrian Wojnarowski. The book was given to me a few years ago by a players parent. It sat on my desk shelf for a while until I decided to bring it with me on vacation. I WAS HOOKED!

Chapter 3 hit close to home mentioning my high school, Pascack Valley and my coach Jeff Jasper! St. Anthony is only 30 minutes away yet seemed so far for coach Hurley. Bob Hurley had come up to bergen county for a coaches clinic held at my old High School. At that time PV was looking to build a new gym, and Jasper was asking for support from the local tax payers. Too Hurley this was a movie, he never had a gym of his own. He never had the opportunity to ask residents of Jersey City to build him a new gym. The Sisters at St. Anthonys, Sister Alan and Sister Felicia felt this made the boys basketball team the best road team out there!

As I read on I saw myself learning more and more about the game. We share many things in common. Thoughts on AAU.... "AAU is Basketball Junk Food. "They just play. They're not expected to think". Coach felt he needed to deprogram his kids once they came back to play for him after a season off AAU.

I learned the background of basketball at the Riverside Church in New York City , and the controversial founder of the program Ernie Lorch. I learned about the history of the WHITE EAGLE, a ran down bingo hall that produced some of the best open gyms in the country. The book is full of extraordinary statistics. and history and it recaps a perfect season for the Friars. Bobby Hurley (son of Bob Hurley) left behind a 115-5 record at St. Anthony's under his fathers coaching.

The book served a great learning tool for a young coach like myself, but was also purely comical at times! Some of the lines that came out of Coach Hurley's mouth were hysterical! I admired a mad who pushed his kids to get everything he could out of them! The discipline and respect he expected on the court and off that would help develop character in these young men!

A must read for all!