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!

GAMETIME WINTER TRY OUTS

SAVE THE DATE: GAMETIME HOOPS WINTER SEASON TRY-OUTS

Basketball try-outs for girls & boys, grades 3 through 8
Tuesday, November 30
3rd-4th grade boys/girls @ 6pm
5th-6th grade boys/girls @ 7pm
7th-8th grade boys/girls @ 8pm

Location: Bergen County YJCC
605 Pascack Road, Township of Washington

For any questions, email Jenny Jurjevic, YJCC athletic director, at jjurjevic@yjcc.org or call 201.666.6610, ext. 235.

Injuries.....

In my two "complete" seasons coaching at Emerson I have had four serious injuries: 3 ACLs (two of them on the same players) and a foot fracture. People began to say that I was working the girls too hard, they were simply playing TOO MUCH! I just could not get myself to believe it. They are high school girls, we would practice 6 days a week and they would practically never run. I am not a coach to throw kids on the line unless I am really mad.

May 2010 I went to a Nike Championship Basketball Clinic (which I recommend for every coach, once a year to attend) in Verona NY. One of the several speakers that weekend was ALAN STEIN. In my own words, Alan Stein is a strength and conditioning trainer with basketball tailored work outs to prevent injury and get athletes to perform better. He started his exercises with no shoes, working the bottom of the feet. He showed coaches several stretches with out having the players sitting down. Before he even picked up a weight, we were shown how to improve quickness and reaction with tennis balls working hand eye coordination all at the same time. I WAS SOLD!

Alan informed us on the common injuries for basketball players: feet, hamis, quads, lower back, and ACL. This information lit up brain cells in my head, in other words it hit close to home. My first year coaching my best player had a stress fracture in her foot and one of my starters had torn her ACL in a preseason game. My second year I had another ACL injury and a lower back injury. For the hour of his lecture my eyes were glued to his demonstrations and my pen never left the note pad. Since the lecture I have tried several of his work outs on myself and this fall I have designed a program for my squad. I have purchased one of his DVD's and download a PDF in season strength training program. I follow ALAN on twitter and facebook. YOUTUBE has a lot of his exercises and his website www.strongerteam.com has been a great reference.

Stronger Team

Alan Stein is the owner of Stronger Team and the Head Strength & Conditioning coach for the nationally renowned, Nike Elite DeMatha Catholic High School boys basketball program. He spent 7 years serving a similar position with the Montrose Christian basketball program. Alan brings a wealth of valuable experience to his training arsenal after years of extensive work with elite high school, college, and NBA players. His passion, enthusiasm, and innovative training techniques make him one of the nation’s leading experts on productive training for basketball players. Alan is a performance consultant for Nike Basketball as well as the head conditioning coach for the annual McDonald’s All American game, the Jordan Brand All American Classic, and the Nike Summer Skills Academies. Alan is a Camp Coach at the prestigious NBA Players Association’s Top 100 Camp as well as the Chris Paul CP3 Elite Backcourt Camp. Alan has filmed over a dozen DVD’s on improving performance and is a sought after lecturer at basketball camps and clinics across the world. He has been featured in Winning Hoops, Time Out, Dime, SI.com, SLAMonline.com, American Basketball Quarterly, Stack, Men’s Health, HOOP, and FIBA Assist Magazine.

GAMETIME COUGAR AAU TRY OUTS

GAMETIME COUGAR AAU

GIRLS' BASKETBALL TRYOUTS

Please arrive 15 minutes prior to your tryout time to register for tryouts. 

TRYOUT AGES, DATES, TIMES: 

11u Girls 6-7:00pm February 24th, 2010 

12u Girls 6-7:00pm February 25, 2010 

13u Girls 7-8:00pm February 25, 2010 

HIGH SCHOOL GIRLS 7-8:00pm March 9th, 2010

Girls VARSITY FALL LEAGUE

Calling All Bergen County

High School Teams!

 

Girls Varsity Hoops League

at the YJCC

 

Game Days:

Sundays

September 20 – November 22

 

Game Times:

2:00 pm, 3:00 pm, 4:00 pm, 5:00 pm, 6:00 pm

Specific time slots to be determined

 

Fees:

Team fee: $700 for 10 games

Free agent: $175

 

Interested?

Contact Jenny Jurjevic at 201-666-6610 ext. 235

Or email jjurjevic@yjcc.org

 

 

Fall Ball with Game Time is a basketball program designed to keep players playing.

 

TRYOUTS

3/4 grade boys – Tuesday Sept. 8 @ 6:00PM

5/6 grade boys – Tuesday, Sept. 8 @ 7:00 PM

7/8 grade boys - Tuesday, Sept. 8 @ 8:00 PM

3/4 grade girls – Thursday Sept. 10 @ 6:00PM

5/6 grade girls – Thursday, Sept. 10 @ 7:00 PM

7/8 grade girls – Thursday, Sept. 10 @ 8:00 PM

 

·        Cost:  $325 per player, 10 players per team

·        Team formation: Teams are completely or partially formed two days after tryouts.  Practices start immediately.  New players are added to complete rosters as needed.

·        Game Locations:  All games will be played within a 30 minute radius of the Bergen YJCC at a local league.

·        Practices: To be determined by coaches and gym time. All practices will be held at the Bergen Y.

·        Coaches:  Experienced semi-pro and collegiate players, high school and AAU coaches.

For more information call: Jenny Jurjevic●Athletic Director●Bergen YJCC●Township of Washington, NJ 07676●(201) 666-6610 ext. 235●(201) 664-7518 - fax ●jjurjevic@yjcc.org.