11-2

Last night we braved the snow and slush to play a game that was cancelled last week due to snow and slush. Our opponent came from a school that boasts only eight 8th graders- none of which play boys' basketball. Last year we beat this school by a lot in the first round of our big Lutheran school tournament, this year's squad was not much better.

We had a couple guys starting that do not usually start (one who has never started) as a result of wanting to reward one guy and punish a starter, thus we started out slow- for about 2 minutes. Once we got our act together we assumed control of the game and never let it go. We lead 20-6 after 1Q, 28-6 at H, 38-10 after 3Q and won by a score of 46-15.

The game did little more than allow us the chance to get our younger players significant minutes and baskets. This Friday we play one of the better teams in our conference, but I will be gone (missing only the second game ever in my 7 years of coaching). After that, Christmas break- which both the boys and the coaches need.

10-2 and Our 2nd 2nd Place Trophy

This weekend our tournament was only about 6 blocks south and 4 blocks west of us at a local Lutheran school. It was a 10 team tournament and we were one of the two teams that had to await an early game to find out who our opponent was. We drew the host school, which is one of the two games that I was told last year (by my principal) that I must win (The other game is against our sister school). The host school was where my principal got his start in education and we still have several strong relationships with their staff. They (and our sister school) are probably the closest thing we have to a rivalry.

As I talked to other coaches leading up to the tournament and while at the tournament, it became apparent to me that our team had played several more games than most - if not all - of the participants. Some teams had played as few as 2 games before this weekend, while we had already played 9 (it would have been 10 if not for snow last Tuesday). This gave us an advantage since we have already - in theory - worked through many of our early season mistakes.

Last year when we played the host school, we jumped on them early, they rallied and then it was a decent game before we pulled away at the end. This year we repeated the first step (scoring the first 10 points of the game), but then we decided not to let this game play out the way last year's had gone.

One our opponent settled down in the first quarter they were able to run a few good sets and we lead 15-6 heading into the second quarter. The game stayed pretty much the same for the next six minutes and we took a 27-11 lead into the locker room. So far this season, the third quarter has predominantly been our quarter and we kept it so outscoring our opponent 14-6 on our way to a 41-17 lead with one quarter to go. The fourth was an even matched six minutes as the final score was 57-32.

*****

Our semi-final game was against last year's champion. This team is the only team not from a local school (they travel up from Illinois). Last year's squad gave us our first loss of the season and our only loss before Christmas. They bring a troop of kids (19 this year) and are the most organized and systemic middle school squad I have ever seen. Their talent level was down this year, but they still can throw any guy from the bench into the game and get exactly what the coach wants anyway.

It was evident from the first possession that their plan against us was to be deliberately patient as they ran through their offensive sets multiple times before even attempting their first shot. (Imagine the first game Gene Hackman coached in Hoosiers - only way more passes.) Our guys had probably never even seen a team do this before, let alone played against one doing it versus them. Their first possession took nearly two minutes off the clock before they scored, after which they came right at us with their typical hard nosed man-to-man defense. Our guys responded poorly and chose not to run our offense and abruptly turned it over. Back to defense again and more picks, passes and patience. When we did get the ball back it was more frustration and poor improvisation. With about 2 minutes to go we called a time-out trailing 4-0. We managed one basket - one basket - before the end of the quarter and trailed 8-2.

The second quarter was a near carbon copy of the first. Our opponent was dead set on working through every last cut and pass option of their offense before shooting. Defensively they were everywhere causing our boys nothing but headaches. We again found a way to get ONE basket, but also held them to just five points before our point guard hit a shot from just inside half court to close the gap to 13-7 before half time.

We made two adjustments at half time, the first was to get a seventh grader off our bench and into the game and the second was to tighten up our defense picking them up at 3/4 court. This - combined with our point guard waking up - allowed us to shut them out for the entire third quarter and lead 15-13 heading into the fourth. From there it was a fairly exciting game. With a little under two minutes to play, they hit a three pointer to take an 18-17 lead. We came out of our time-out and were stopped offensively. With just under a minute to go, our eighth grade forward - who has struggled up to now to understand our defensive concepts - found himself guarding his man out at half court. His man caught a pass and turned to face our guy with the ball right out in front of him. Our forward swatted the ball out of his hands, took it up court, switched sides and made the lay-up to pull us ahead 19-18. We got a stop on the following possession and then were fouled a couple times to get into bonus free throws. Out point guard made two to put us ahead 21-18. After taking a time-out our opponent set up a series of picks to free up their best three point shooter, but we had the perimeter blanketed and he air balled his attempt. Our point guard got the rebound and was fouled again. This time nerves took over and he front ended his first attempt. There was a scramble to get the rebound and our assistant (who keeps the book for us - meticulously) had us as getting the next jump ball- but the official score keeper did not. So, our opponent had the ball needing to go the length of the floor in less than 4 seconds with no time-outs and down by three. They ended up not even getting a shot off as we redirected their dribbling enough times to run the clock out and we were on to the championship with an ugly 21-18 victory.

*****

Our opponent in the championship round was a short, fast, good team. They only had one guy even 5'10" tall but they made up for their lack of size with a trapping defense and a lot of running. While our semi-final game was a deliberately slowed down game, the championship was the polar opposite.

The first quarter went about as well as we could expect it to, considering our opponent was a good team. They chose not to start out in their press and they had little difficulty breaking ours. Our top two scorers combined for 12 points and we lead 14-10 heading into the second.

We ran into some foul trouble in the second quarter as three of our starters picked up their second foul. I am of the conservative-Larry Brown approach when it comes to players and fouls. I always sit guys down for the rest of the first half when they get 2 fouls so as to have 3 to play with in the second. With a little over 3 minutes to go in the second, we were down by five and had only two starters on the floor with three reserves (one of which barely ever gets minutes). I was about to put my point guard back in - so as not to let the game get away from us - when the reserve guys started playing lock-down defense and our shooting guard hit some big shots. These elements allowed me to save all our guys in foul trouble and give us a little momentum heading into half time tied at 24.

The third quarter was played at a frantic pace and this ultimately proved to be a bad thing for us. Guys who were normally clutch for us were missing several easy baskets and as a result were too upset to play good defense. We managed a few good stops and a few good shots, but trailed 33-31 with one quarter to go.

At this point in the game it was clear to us that our bigs (center and power forward) were only hurting us as they proved incapable of using their size to our advantage, so we went with our smaller line-up for the rest of the game. The quarter was everything you would expect a championship fourth quarter to be between two evenly matched teams all the way down to a minute to go with the score tied. We were on defense and had a mental lapse leading to a lay-up and then on the ensuing inbound pass, our normally-good-at-making-decisions guard had his pass intercepted for another lay-up and a foul. We were now down 4 and took a time-out. Not out of the game yet, we regrouped and headed back out for the free throw. On a FT, the shooting team has two guys in addition to the shooter who are available to rebound and the other team (us in this situation) have four, leaving two guys to cover the shooter on the rebound. The shooter missed his free throw and, sure enough, got his own rebound. He made another bonus free throw, we squandered another possession and were forced to foul again. They made two free throws to lead by seven and we made a meaningless three pointer at the buzzer to cut the final margin to 46-42.

The loss was frustrating on so many levels.
- For two straight games we let our opponent dictate what kind of game we would play.
- Our bigs do not understand how to play as true post players.
- Our top two scorers missed, between them, thirteen lay-ups.
- For two straight games we failed to run offensive sets that we have been practicing since October, because our opponent played fierce defense.
- Our guys seem to really think they are something. They are athletic and have ability, no doubt, but - at this point - they do not understand that they need to work to be great. This is our biggest challenge with one week to go before Christmas break.

We still have 4 tournaments left this year, 2 of which are big tournaments. We are good enough to challenge for titles in all four, but our level of commitment and our attitudes are standing in our way, for now.

8-1 with a Familiar Trophy

This weekend we were at a tournament at the first school I ever taught and coached at. Last year we took 1st place rather easily defeating the three other schools in the round robin tournament by double digits. This year looked to be slightly different as the host school boasted a 6'5ish" center. (I remember when he was in the 4th grade and was as tall as some of our 8th graders!) All week long we were working on specific defensive strategies to prepare for our game with him on the floor.

I have recently been disappointed with the way our guys respond to teams that we are clearly better than. We seem to think we are better than we are and tend - at this point in the season - to play down to the level of our opponents. Two of the three teams at the tournament this weekend come from small schools that traditionally had small teams and we figured that we would beat them rather easily. I was really hoping the host school would give us a good run and possibly even beat us, just to cut the guys down a level or two in their attitudes.

When we got to the tournament the first game was already going on as we walked to our room for the weekend. As we passed by the door to the gym we all noticed to absence of a player anywhere near 6' tall, let alone 6'5". We changed for our game and went back to the gym. While we were waiting outside the gym, our first opponent's coach walked up to say hi and ask me- with a grin, "How many guys do you have this year with mustaches?" He told me how last year when we played them, his point guard came to the bench at the first time out and told his coach we had guys on our team with mustaches. He then told us that we were going to kill his guys. I never really know what to say in situations like that so I just smiled and said, "We'll try not to."

We did what we could to keep my frail promise, but the match-up was just too unequal to avoid the predicted slaughter. We won the first quarter 22-0 and - with our second five in for the whole second quarter - lead 28-4. The starters got two more minutes in the third and then sat for the rest of the game as we ended up winning 42-8. There was not much to take from the game except for the great efforts we went to to get our back-up, back-up point guard some points. Alas, he did not score.

Before our next game there was a 3-point contest with each team entering 2 players. Last year we easily won this contest and there was no doubt we had the two best 3-point shooters there. Our best shooter - who was part of the winning combo last year - totally choked and we took second place. No mini-plaque this year.

Our second game of the night we matched up with a team that was much closer to us athletically, but not in discipline or ability. They ran an interesting trapping zone defense that featured two guys meeting the ball at half court- but after the initial trap they did not cover guys well and we easily broke it for lay-ups. Heading the other direction, they were the first team this year to by-pass our 3/4 court press by passing over the first two guys with passes that went to the other end's three point line. But we had our center playing safety and their guys wanted nothing to do with him. Even with their ability to get past our press, we did enough right to lead 17-8 at the end of the 1Q and 23-16 at half time.

During our break, we adjusted our press from a 2-2-1 to a 1-2-2. This left us with 2 guys back to defend their over-the-top passes. It worked better than we could have imagined, as we broke again broke a game open in the 3Q outscoring our opponent 18-4 to take a 41-20 lead into the last quarter. From there we played our bench and ended up winning 50-30.

The highlight of this game was that it was my 100th victory as a middle school boys' coach. My wife made cupcakes for all of the boys that had "100" written on them. I think our team was more excited about the cupcakes than the "monumental" occasion they represented. =)

Our final game was Saturday morning with my former school. Ever since last year's tournament - when we both featured 6'+ seventh grade centers - our boys have been looking forward to this tournament and this game, especially when we learned how big their center had grown to. We found out after our first game Friday night that their center had broken his hand Thursday night in a conference game. Without him our opponent had next to nothing to compete with us. We were slow in the first quarter - mostly due to our starters not feeling challenged (my interpretation) - and lead only 15-7. In the second quarter we broke out and went into halftime leading 33-13. The third quarter was more of the same, even with our bench in and we lead 42-15 after three quarters and ended up winning 46-24.

So, we are the reigning back-to-back champions of this tournament and we put three players on the all-tournament team. Being my first school, we love going back to see families we are very close with as well as getting an overnight, out-of-town tournament in. But all this tournament really did for us was give our bench some of their biggest minutes. We experimented one game with our starting line-up but did not face any competition. This coming week we have a conference game and then a local holiday tournament featuring the best team we played last year.

5-1

Last night while our team was dressing after our game, I noticed that one of our boys was wearing a t-shirt that read, "Genius by birth, slacker by choice." I made everyone stop dressing to look at the shirt. That shirt defines who our team is as of right now.

Our opponent last night was a school that is literally around the block from our school (My four year-old son attends kindergarten there). Last year they were one of our better games and this year they returned their best player and are always well coached. In our conference, this school and one other will pose the biggest obstacles to our winning the conference championship.

To start the game we had one starter who was absent from school (and practice) the previous day, so he did not get to start. This did not turn out to be that big of a deal as we were able to get some good defensive stops and transition baskets as we rolled to a 16-8 lead at the end of one quarter.

About 30-ish seconds into the 2nd quarter our point guard/forward/center picked up his second foul. His first foul (in the first quarter) was foolish and his second was an additional dumb foul. He sat the rest of the quarter. A couple minutes later our center picked up his second foul after again attempting to block shots in a manner we have been coaching him not to for 6 weeks now.

With our point and center on the bench we were forced to use a line-up that we have yet to use in a game or practice much with and our opponent capitalized on this to win the second quarter 12-5 closing our lead to just 21-20 at half time.

Our halftime meeting consisted solely of my pleading with our guys to do the things we work on day in and day out in practice. At this point in the season we have gotten by on our athleticism and our two best players scoring a lot, so we have gotten pretty lazy at times and unconvinced that we need to work and improve. Mucho frustrating.

We started the second half as we have many times this year already- in our 3/4 court trap and running off a ton of points. Within two minutes we found ourselves up double digits and firmly in control. Their floor is smaller than regulation which works to our advantage with our press, so we were able to frustrate their guards enough that we got several steals that lead to lay-ups, although not all of our lay-ups went in. We steamrolled them in the third quarter (21-7) on our way to a 42-27 lead heading into the fourth.

Just for good measure we scored the first 5 points of the fourth and were up 47-27 with almost five minutes left. Then we collectively fell asleep or quit caring or some other ridiculous thing middle school boys do when they think they are awesome and their family and friends are cheering loudly for them. It is still hard today to figure out how we allowed our opponent back in the game, but they gave us quite a scare as they slowly made bucket after bucket and we slowly stopped playing our offense and our defense and looked like we were playing a lunch recess game instead of an actual game.

Our lead dwindled to 7 when their best player hit a 3 point with 40 some seconds left. We were able to break their press with ease but immediately turned the ball over when we got to their side. The next possession we found a way to stop them, then throw it away, then give up a basket and then dribble out the clock to hold on to a 49-44 win.

In the locker room, there was not much to say other than to challenge our boys as to whether they wanted to be a good team that beats the teams they are supposed to beat and allows less talented teams to play with us or do they want to be a great team that puts away the lesser teams and competes with and beats the other great teams. We have the talent, the speed and the size (plus a three man coaching staff) to be a great team this year. We need to figure out a way to drive our boys to want to be great.

4-1

My first AD I ever coached under used to schedule numerous games for my teams, which I never had a problem with. However, I used to get frustrated with the games he would schedule on Monday's or back-to-back nights because it did not give me a chance to practice and meet with my teams before the game. After having read Phil Jackson's book (about the 2003-2004 Lakers), I have come to understand that my former AD was merely doing that to give our teams tests early in the season that will benefit them later when we are playing our big tournaments and then they will be playing back-to-back games in the same day and also in successive days. Last night's game was one that fit in this category.

Having come off of a big weekend where we played some great and not-so-great ball, it was understandable that we would not have our best stuff in Monday's practice nor in Tuesday's game. On top of that, our opponent last night was one of our tougher games last season (we took 2 out of 3 from them) and is one of the bigger schools we will face. (With our conference's realignment this past spring we are not in the same conference with the "big" schools, so I have had to try to schedule as many games with these schools as we can get.)

Our opponent had several BIG boys on their squad but no real point guard. Last year our 3/4 court press was very effective against this school so we jumped into it right away last night and saw similar results this time as well. We were sloppy the whole first quarter, but did enough right to lead 14-7 when it was over. Our power forward picked up 2 fouls in the first quarter, so he was on the bench the entire second quarter and was joined by our center just a couple minutes after the 2nd began. This forced me to use a couple guys from the bench that do not usually see action this early in a game. (On top of that, our second guard off the bench did not bring his shorts to the game so he was unavailable.) Our back-up center was as big as their center, so he was able to give us a solid 3+ minutes as we protected our bigs' foul situation.

We got more sloppy in the second quarter which came from getting lazy and not having the enthusiasm we needed to compete on the level we are capable of. Our opponents put together some good offensive sets against our line-up of starters and regular bench players. We lost the quarter 12-2 and found ourselves down 19-16 at the break.

Going into the "locker room" (school kitchen), I actually felt good knowing that we would get our bigs back with 6 fouls to go on them and no one else with more than 1 foul. Plus, with everyone back on the floor we could get back into our press. We started out the second half in our press and scored the first 8 points before their best player turned to his coach to tell him he was tired. (Incidentally, this was also the same moment when a dad from their crowd yelled to their coach that they needed some "fresh legs" in the game.) Their coach responded by subbing in two small guards who were not ready to face our press.

We were able to push the lead to double digits before they took a time-out and settled down. Coming out of the time-out we fell back into our bad habits and gave them back a few baskets before closing the quarter out strong to head into the fourth with a 30-22 lead.

The last quarter was everything I want in an early game like this. Intense crowd, intense action, and my guys doing enough to get the win. We hovered at a four point lead for most of the quarter with them cutting the lead to one basket with under 30 seconds, but we were able to break their press and actually make enough free throws to keep them from catching us as we won 44-38.

Overall, we did just enough right to win a sloppy game where it was clear we were still tired from the weekend. I am hoping this does not make our boys thing they are awesome when they win like this. It is my hope that it shows them that we are a good team that could be better if we bring a high level of focus and enthusiasm to every game. We'll be off for 5 days with the holiday and then back at it with an important week next week including a game with one of our closest rivals in our conference and an overnight tournament at my former school.

3-1 With Some Hardware

One of the reasons that I was jazzed for our own tournament this year was because it gave our guys a chance to play some good teams in a tournament setting early in the season, and we got both Sunday evening.

Our opponent in the championship game demolished both of their first two opponents in the tournament. They had a strong first five that featured a beast of a center, two extremely good guards, and two other very good role players. We had a game plan ready and believed that our first five could hang with them if we played ball the way we are capable of playing.

We headed to our designated room at halftime of the 3rd place game with only 7 players present, four of which were our starters. We were going to make a couple minor adjustments to offensive and defensive sets we had worked on, so it was a little bit troubling that our forward was not present. Before I could get into our game plan, I had to get on a few of our guys who were fully dressed but still wearing sandals instead of their shoes. In this exchange my shooting guard (who often has words for me), decided to tell me how he really felt about my asking him to be ready for a championship game. So, I told him he would not be playing the first quarter. We were now down to 3 starters present and ready to hear the game plan. Not quite the way I wanted to get ready for a game. Fortunately, within five minutes our forward showed up and our shooting guard apologized in front of the team. (I changed his punishment from a quarter to two minutes)

We started the game out sloppily, just as we had the previous game. This team was too good to come out flat against and we immediately found ourselves in a 7-0 hole. We settled down, regrouped and were able to put together a decent run to close the gap to 11-10 at the end of the first quarter, and we would never be that close again.

The second quarter was a mess. The officials were impossible to figure out. They allowed very physical play on the ball from defenders but not down low when two or three guys were defending a shot or going for a rebound. We made several key mistakes but also could not get back on track after a series of calls that went against us. We lost the quarter 19-2 and trailed 30-12 at the half. We made a couple adjustments to our offense and everyone of our boys was convinced we could still win the game.

The third quarter started out with more of the same. Our opponent made good plays, we made some mistakes and the officials continued to confound me. At one point one official told me that I needed to pay better attention to our offense because that was where my boys were failing the most. This started to light a fire under our guys and we immediately rattled off 8 straight points to cut the lead to 11. But then our point guard got called for traveling and our rally was over. We were down 18 at the end of 3 quarters and ended up losing 61-35.

- Offensively our bigs still do not understand what we are asking from them.
- Defensively they are not much further along.
- We were also totally lost on both ends when our shooting guard (who went 6/9 from behind the arc) was not on the floor.
- The modified offense that we used in the second half is something that we could easily incorporate into our sets from this point forward.
- Overall, I think the two intense games we played will serve us well going forward from here.

3-0

This weekend is our school's first ever invitational tournament. Our high school is hosting it and we invited community schools that have similar educational and/or Christian philosophies as we do. It is our hope that the schools participating (none of which have their own high schools) would eventually see our high school as "their" high school.

As of 6:30pm last night we had 8 schools signed up and ready to go. As of 6:31pm we had only 7 and the school that dropped out was our first round opponent. Our boys thought that was cool, but as a coach I would have rather had the game. So, we had a bye into the semi-finals.

Our opponent won their first round game fairly easily and featured one player that our high school coaches thought might be worth pursuing and a pretty good point guard, plus several other role players. Like most city schools they preferred to run and play a trapping-style defense to create more opportunities to run. Offensively they did not really run sets and/or plays, just gave their two best players opportunities to create shots for themselves. Their best player was big enough and athletic enough to play any position on the floor. Our two best players, however, matched up well with these two guys and left us with a couple advantages in the other match-ups.

Originally thinking we were going to play at 9am, we scheduled breakfast at my house for 7:30. We ate pancakes, bacon and sausage and then headed to the high school for an extended warm-up/shoot around, since our game was canceled. The "first" game of the tournament was then at 10:15 and our boys sat and walked around until our 3:30pm game. That is a long time to ask middle school boys to stay "game ready"- thus we started out slow. Our inability to make shots from right in front of the hoop was killing us as we fell behind early 12-4. Their two stars we getting good looks and not missing, yet we were able to string a couple steals together and close the gap to 12-9 at the end of the first period.

The second quarter we played HOPE ball. Our guards were getting great penetration on their zone and hitting our bigs with sweet passes that got us easy buckets over and over again as we rallied to take the lead for the first time. As we were starting our run, our opponents inexplicably brought a line-up on the floor that did not include their point guard and - briefly - their star. We immediately went into our 3/4 court press and started to blow it open. They did not score their first point(s) until 2 minutes were left in the half. We won the second quarter 19-3 on our way to a 28-15 half time lead.

We were doing all the little things well, which accounted for their stars being totally knocked out of their game. Mostly, it was our guys starting to buy into our philosophy of solid, team, helping man-to-man defense combined with our guys love for and ability to fast break and hit open guys for easy baskets that put us in a great position with half of the game left.

The third quarter we managed to increase our lead by 3 with more of the same solid defense and timely shots. We lead 40-24 with one quarter to play and started the fourth by extending the lead to 20. At this point I began subbing guys out one or two at at time when I saw their coach bringing in his bench. But then he started bringing his stars back in and they were eating up my bench, so I was forced to answer with our best guys until there was not enough time for us to lose our lead. It was totally frustrating because we both could have thrown our benches out there for a good 4+ minutes and enjoyed it, but no.

So, tomorrow we play in the championship against a team with a BIG fella at center and two GOOD guards and two more good role players. We both feature a solid starting five- it looks to be a good match-up.

*****

As the tournament co-chair person, I was at the school all day and sat next to the scorer's table to help the high school students run the clock and official score book and be available to help defuse any small "fires".

The "highlight" of the day for me came early in the morning when one school had their entire team present, but no coach. He finally shows up with 6 minutes on the clock before his game. I show them to their classroom to change and he leans in to tell me that they do not have any uniforms. Three days ago our semi-final opponents called to tell me the same, so I had a set of YMCA practice jerseys for them to wear. I also had about 7 more on hand so I found them and gave them to the team with no jerseys. The only problem was that they had 15 players. So, here I am in their classroom, surrounded by 12, 13, 14 year-old boys in white t-shirts and A-shirts, putting pieces of masking tape on the front and back of their shirts and writing numbers on them in Sharpie! Only in the City!

2-0

Last night featured two things that I have never been a part of in coaching- the first involved our offensive ineptitude and the second with the environment and behaviors of the fans and players at the game.

Our opponent last night was a team we played and beat last year. The thing I remember most about that game was the loud crowd they had and how much I enjoyed the atmosphere from a coaching/competitor standpoint. This year it was just as loud, but not enjoyable.

We started the game out by missing our first four shots, all 3 feet or less away from the hoop. We managed to get past that, though, and score a couple baskets and jump into our 3/4 court press- and we had our press working! We had their offense totally disrupted and were getting easy lay-ups on our way to an 11-2 lead at the end of the first quarter.

We started the second quarter where we left off the first scoring a quick easy bucket, and then our shooting guard (and focal point of our press) picked up a cheap second foul. As soon as he came out of the game we lost the momentum we had built through our press and our offense became stagnant. The rest of the quarter was ugly and we lead 16-9 at half time.

We felt good about things because we would put our shooting guard back in the line-up to start the half right back in our press and we should have been able to blow the game open just like in our first game. However, the SG picked up a quick third foul and came back out immediately. The rest of the third quarter was more of the second with our offense resembling more of a lunch time game than one we have been working on for four weeks. Defensively, our guys were unable to stop their guards from penetrating and our big men have not fully grasped the concept of help-defense we have been preaching and working on for almost a month now. Our opponent had the ball for the final possession of the quarter and could have taken their first lead, but we managed one good stop and found ourselves up by only one point, 20-19, heading into the final quarter.

Even with our full line-up on the floor, the momentum we handed to the home team was proving a lot for us to overcome. But, our SG played smarter, our bigs came up with a couple good rebounds, and our PG was able to get to the basket for a couple easy buckets that propelled us to a 12 point lead with under 2 minutes left. The last minute was a series of desperate shots from them and missed free throws by us, but we held on for a 37-27 win.

When I got the scorebook from one of our assistants I saw that our PG and our SG were the only guys to score! Those two guys had scored all 37 of our points. In retrospect, nobody else on the squad (of the seven that played) even came close to putting the ball in the basket.

The good news was that we won in a hostile, rowdy environment and we learned who our real on-court leader is. On the negative: Our big men were absolutely absent. No points, a couple rebounds, and zero real defense. Only one guy truly was unfazed by the environment, two that were able to function productively. The other guys were in over their heads in regards to having poise in pressure situation- which actually was a very good experience for them this early in the season. This, hopefully, helps us out later (even this weekend) when we have tense games trying to win trophies.

1-0

This week started out not so awesome. Not even 15 minutes into Monday's practice I had to send home one of our 8th graders (a major contributor) because his attitude and effort stunk. This episode highlighted my biggest problem with the team so far- I cannot settle on 5 guys to start for us that represent what we want our program to be about. So, with our first game looming I graded each guy on our ABC's - Academics, Behavior, Character and on how much they could help the team basketball-wise. I introduced our starters Tuesday and went to work from there.

Wednesday during the day I was informed that a mother of one of our 7th graders (a potential starter down the road) was pulling her son from the team because of his behavior and grades. This represents one of the things I strongly dislike about coaching middle school teams. First, I have to totally agree with a parent of a 12 year old who says that she needs to clamp down on her son's foolishness. He's 12 years old and if he does not get serious now, he might not learn his lesson until it is too late. Also, middle school parents tend to be very reactive with grades and such and often choose not to let the athletic department (ie. me) go through our probation and suspension steps to deal with kids and their grades. Alas, he is off the team unless he makes some changes (unlikely) or Mom has a change of heart (also unlikely).

Thursday rolled around and brought with it our first game of the season, but not without some drama first. A 7th grader built up a hefty quote writing punishment from Wednesday and he and I agreed that if it was not finished by Thursday morning, he could not suit up Thursday night. He did not have it finished. Down to 9 on the roster.

More disconcerting was my shooting guard- a major contributor on our squad. He was so jacked up for the game he wore his black compression shirt under his school shirt and it was clearly visible- a no-no in our handbook. Being the Dean with Super Powers to detect the slightest bit of non-compliance with our standards, I saw his shirt and asked him to take it off (like I do EVERY other student who wears a non-white undershirt that is easy to see). He refused. Again and again. When I confronted him on it later in the morning he snapped on me, calling our rules "ignorant". (Oh, the irony that middle school kids will never understand when they mis-use a word but demonstrate the meaning of a word in their mis-use of the word!) Our "conversation" culminated with my saying, "Maybe you should just go home," to which he replied, "Fine." And then went upstairs, got his gear bag, gave me his jersey and warm-ups and then went to my office and waited for me to call his dad to pick him up. In what had to be a God-ordained moment, Dad was at work. My player ripped a paper, punched a divider in my office, violently rubbed his head, sat silently for 5 minutes and then wrote the quotes I gave him. 90 minutes later he was good to go back to class, but not before he apologized for the incident. My entire relationship with this boy was spelled out in 2.5 hours. The highs and the lows. Man, I love my job! (Most days.)

We actually had very little trouble getting to the game - except for the accident that sent us down another side highway. (One of our assistant coaches this year grew up in Milwaukee so he had an alternate route ready to go via the cell phone, nice.) We got to the school at 5:15 to watch the girls' game at 5:30. Our girls only had 5 players eligible to play and 2 were late. The game started 15 minutes late and our girls' valiantly got whooped. With only one returning player from last year, the past couple of weeks have been difficult. They look to only get better from here on out.

Our game, however, was another story. Being the first game of the year, with a mish-mash starting line-up I expected to not be awesome from the jump- and we weren't. We stumbled our way to being down 10-8 at the end of the first quarter. Our offense was stagnant against their zone and our guys were not playing defense like we had taught them. The second quarter was more of the same, but we started to get better offensive possessions and some steals. We missed several lay-ups and close in shots but managed to lead 20-18 going into the break. Going into the locker room our 6'2" center had only one basket and our best all-around player had zero points.

At half time we decided to come out in our 2-2-1 zone press that worked so well for us last year. It appears it will do so also this year. A minute into the second half we lead 22-20 but got two straight 3 point shots to extend the lead to eight. One guy in our press did not really know what he was doing, but we were forcing them into enough turn-overs to pull out to a 16 point lead. We needed a couple subs at the end of the quarter to get a couple guys a break and our lead fell to 12 at the end of the 3rd quarter.

The 4th quarter, however, we turned it back up and ran away with a 58-30 victory. I was able to get our four bench players 3+ minutes at the end and all of them got some good looks at the basket, even though they did not all score.

Our opponents were really close to matching our size and had one fairly good player. They also had a really good offensive set that involved several good picks and cuts and they ran it well. Ultimately, our press disrupted this and forced them to play our tempo and style. Defensively their zone was really lazy and left our jump shooters open frequently for whatever shot they wanted.

I was troubled by our conditioning, guys were very tired at multiple moments of the game- we will need to put more emphasis on this next week. Also, our center finished the game with only 2 points. Part of that was because he plays all the way back on our press and does not get into the action when we get steals, but when we were on offense he did not get involved enough. Our guards chose not to rebound either. In games like this, we got away with these lazy tendencies, but they will need to be addressed as we go forward.

The game was fun to be a part of - good crowd, intense action, big margin of victory - and it helped the new guys finally get to see how we do what we do. Our next game is Tuesday and then we host our own tournament next weekend.

GO TIGERS!

Week Three Thoughts

MONDAY - No school today, but we had practice and it was probably our best of the season. 10 of the 11 'A' guys showed up and they brought their 'A' attitudes and effort. I am really pleased with how the guys are picking up our defensive concepts so far. Last year we were blessed with the best player I have ever coached along with a couple big guys and a couple good shooters, thus we won a lot of games on our ability and athleticism. By the end of the year, when we were playing our hardest competition, we showed that we had not worked hard enough on defense and defensive concepts. This year it is my aim to make sure we are solid on D and so far, so good. I also got some good work out of one of our post players that will have to be a part of our plans whether or not our center gets medical clearance.

TUESDAY-WEDNESDAY - Not much to report other than a lot of the same. We are ready for a game which is supposed to sort of happen tomorrow with a tentatively scheduled scrimmage with a local AAU team. The guys are still struggling with our expectations for them as young men on and off the court.

THURSDAY - No scrimmage, the other team never got back to us. Instead we ran through some warm-up drills and then ran 4-on-4 for an hour. (Our gym is regulation length but the width is about 3-4 feet too thin on each side due to the walls that are there.) I got some GREAT news during the scrimmage when our 6'2" center called me from the doctor's office and said he had been cleared to play ball again. So, what we learned from letting the guys go a little...

Our starting five is going to be good. We have the aforementioned center who will no doubt face maybe 2 or 3 players his size all season, if not less. Our shooting guard is really good at shooting. We have an 8th grader who can play any of our 5 positions and play them well. We have a guard returning from last year who understands what I want and am trying to do better than almost any player I have had in 7 seasons. We have a 7th grade point guard who will be able to run the show against most of our opponents and should get better as the season goes on. (If he can't our multi-position guy can easily be our point). These five will make a very good first unit. Defensively they are aggressive (not good for the two suburban tournaments we are going to- but great for the rest of the season in the city). Once we get our 2-2-1 zone press in place, these guys will be tough to get past.

We have 2 good subs. One is a 5'9ish" 8th grader that is raw in his skill set, but he is wicked fast, can JUMP and has shown brief flashes of athleticism that made my assistant and I look at one another and grin. If he can listen and learn and grow mechanically he will get plenty of minutes and maybe get some starts for a line up change occasionally. The other probable regular sub is a seventh grader who physically makes me think of Tayshaun Prince. Standing at maybe 5'7" his wingspan is easily 6'. He - like many 7th graders I have coached before - is in the midst of that awful adolescent span when your body will not cooperate with much of what you want to do. However, his basketball IQ is great for a 7th grader. Defensively, he really is tracking with what we are trying to do. He will be great for getting the starters extended minutes of rest.

Of the next 5-7 guys, a couple might fight for some minutes but really should see their best minutes in games we put away early and there should be enough of those.

Our first game is 6 days away and we are ready. We will not have our team shoe since guys are dragging their heels getting me the money, but everything else should be in order to get the game season underway the right way.

Week Two Thoughts

MONDAY...

Ten guys made it to practice today, seven from the A squad and three from the B. We are really starting to understand our defensive concepts and our one offensive set. While we wait to see if our 6'2" center will be cleared to play, we have to work with our other post options. Our best post player stands at 5'9"ish and has good enough ball handling skills that I would like to use him as our point guard when our center returns, but in the meanwhile he is our 4/5. Our other closest post player - from what I gather - has probably never played on a basketball team before. He is really raw and can really jump- if he figures out how to listen and learn he can probably really help us and get some good minutes.

We had two B guys tonight who were really working hard at every drill. We will have to find a way to reward their effort, which will probably be tricky because it looks like not enough guys will stay eligible to have a full B squad and their ability level is not high enough to warrant a lot of minutes in our A games. We'll figure that out later.

Overall tonight I was pleased with our attitude and effort once we got into practice. On our way there was a different story. Guys are still struggling to take us serious when we tell them we expect them to be focused on Academics, Behavior and Character. 5 guys had GPA's lower than 2.0 and/or one or more F's on their report cards. Other guys still have attitudes that need adjusting if they are going to be on this team past Thanksgiving. Ultimately, I feel that we have enough guys who want to play and play our way that we should have no problem getting this group down to the core that want to be a part of our program.

WEDNESDAY...

Finished our short week of school with probably our best practice yet. We had nine of the A guys present and everyone brought the attitude and effort that we need to move forward as a team. Offensively, we appear to have our base set ready to go- enough so that we were able to introduce our two other base sets. Defensively, we are right where we need to be in our man-to-man.

We have a scrimmage this coming week against a pretty good 8th grade AAU team, so that will give us another chance to see what we really have and what needs work before our first game Nov 13. We get back one more contributing player this week and will get an update on our center from his doctor this week also. I am really glad that we started as early as we did, because it looks to be paying off after three short weeks of practice. This team is ahead of other teams I have coached in the past for where they are at the start of November. Here's to hoping we build off of that.

Week One Thoughts

Our first official week of practice is over and we are starting slow. I am glad that we started the season so early because of weeks like this.

Our roster currently has 19 boys on it, 12 on the A squad and 7 on the B. Of that list, 1 is currently out of school for one more week (thus no practice), another has not turned in his waiver and cannot participate yet and our center is still out until he gets medically cleared. With the remaining guys, each of the three days of practice had at least one not bring his practice gear, a couple in after school tutoring, and a couple more decide not to come to practice without telling Coach. Add to that a couple guys who needed to be sent home early from practice for attitude and we were left with a group of about 7 each day.

We put in some good work with the guys who did come with good attitudes. With only three guys returning from last year and two of them not practicing yet, every thing is new. Getting our pre-game warm-up routine down along with learning all the drills and stations we do by name is taking some time. But, with the early start to the season, our margin for error is much bigger than with past teams.

We still have only worked on one offensive set and the guys are starting to get it down pretty well. We will start to introduce our other sets and plays with each coming week. Defensively we want to run man as our staple defense, but we will add some zones in later along with our presses. We have enough guys who are quick and smart to run effective presses- again assuming everyone stays eligible.

My biggest concern at this point is getting guys to buy into the whole program of living right off the court and in the classroom and working hard in the gym. We can have a good season and a good time with whomever wants to do these things, but if everyone buys into this we could be very good.

Mini-Camp Notes

We just got back from a weekend in Minocqua at my parents' church where we officially kicked off our season with a two day mini-camp. We left school Friday shortly after our typical early dismissal and got to the church by dinner. The ride up there (4 hours) was everything every other long ride I have even been on with middle school boys has ever been. Too many silly, goofy things to remember but enough to know that 75% of what is said is hilarious and makes me glad I work with this age group. When we got to Minocqua and were two blocks from the church (which sits off the main street of down town) we had to wait when a flock of wild turkeys crossed the street. The boys in my car thought we were waiting for ducks, but when I told them it was turkeys they all immediately pressed their faces on the windows to see the wild fowl.

We started the night with a spaghetti dinner and 45 minutes later hit the gym for an evening practice. We did not do a whole lot other than conditioning drills, defensive drills and offense introductions. After practice we showered and got ready to watch a movie on the church's big screen projection. Except, the projector would not start. So we went back to the youth room we were staying in and watched the movie on the big screen TV- until the DVD player quit. So we finished the movie on the other TV in the room. (We watched Glory Road which was fun for two reasons: First- only a couple of my players know the history behind Texas Western and Second- the coach in the movie had two little boys the same age as my boys.) The night went pretty well after that with everyone settling down after only 30 minutes of threats. I slept very poorly for two reasons- 1. I always have a bad night of sleep the first time I change my sleeping environment and 2. I could not turn of my "Dean of Students" mind and was convinced someone was going to try something or try to leave the room.

Saturday morning we got up, ate some granola bars, cereal bars and donuts and then headed back to the gym for morning practice. Morning practice was a little less intense than the night before but was still productive in getting the boys moving and reviewing our offense. After the practice I had the guys work through a team building exercise that I had done before with a couple other groups. It was classic in how our guys responded. They did not get it so they fought with each other and then quit. We had a sit down discussion of what we were trying to do that took close to 15 minutes and then they gave it another try and were eventually successful.

We headed to my parents' house for lunch, Pickleball and the Badger-Iowa debacle, then back to the gym for afternoon practice. The first half hour was slow, but we really did some good work the rest of the way. We ended practice with another team building exercise. This one went much quicker than the first and helped the guys work through some teammate issues.

The evening session was a scrimmage we set up with the pastor's son's traveling team. They were missing a couple of their post players but brought a couple 9th graders to fill in. We were much quicker than they were and were able to run a lot on them when we got defensive stops, rebounds and steals. The scrimmage showed me that my top 5 or 6 players (minus our 6'2" center who is still healing from a broken foot) are in pretty good shape and really understand what we are trying to do offensively and defensively. The roster after that still needs some work. We ended up winning by 12 points and got some good compliments from the officials as well.

We had pizza afterwards with our opponents and then finished the evening with an hour and a half of just playing ball in the gym. Needless to say, bedtime was a lot easier Saturday night with a bunch of tired boys than it was the previous night. I, however, still did not sleep well.

Sunday morning we got up, cleaned up, ate breakfast and went to the church's Sunday School class for junior high (and tripled their attendance for the class) as well as the worship service before heading home. I was ready for bed when we got back to Milwaukee at 5:30pm.

Here's what I know after mini-camp...

Our chance to be a really good team this year hinges on whether or not our center's foot gets cleared by his doctor. He broke his foot this summer in a 3-on-3 tournament. When he was given crutches he never used them. When he went back to the doctor he had a cast put on and given new crutches. He never used the crutches. 6 weeks later his cast was off but then when he went to the doctor it was discovered that his foot had an ulcer because of all the walking he did with out his crutches. Longer story- short... there is a possibility that he may not be allowed to play this entire season. Yikes. He can walk just fine, but apparently the damage that could be done long term if it does not heal right is significant.

If he plays, we have a legitimate center, a legitimate shooting guard, and a legitimate all-around player that will win us a lot of games if 3 or 4 more guys learn their roles. Minus the center, we will still win a good amount of games, but we will not challenge to win the big tournaments.

In the 7th grade I have 3 guards that will probably be a part of the regular rotation. One has a very high basketball IQ (for a 13yr old) but he is physically at that awkward age where his body will not totally cooperate with his mind. Another is a great listener who understands basketball pretty well for his age. The third started at point in our scrimmage and turned out better than I had expected, if he can keep his grades and behavior in check he probably can start this season and (if he stays down with the program) could be a pretty good 8th grade point guard next year.

The rest of the squad is filled up by 8th graders new to my system. If they work hard and stay eligible they could see some minutes but only one or two look likely to get into the rotation.

If everyone stays eligible (a big if), we can be a very good middle school basketball team. If we lose a couple key players, we will still win a lot of our conference games but we will not challenge to win our tournaments. If we end up with only seven guys who want to learn the game, behave in school and do their school work, we may not win a lot of games- but we will still have a good season.

Try-outs

Today was our first day of try-outs. 15 boys showed up: 4 eighth graders and 11 seventh. Before even seeing anybody in action, I had a pretty good idea who my first eight players are going to be. The most interesting angle on today came yesterday and weeks before.

Originally, I intended to launch our first ever 5th/6th grade team. However, we only have ten boys in the 5th/6th grade, 2 of them have no interest in playing and three others most certainly will not remain eligible for the entire season. So, I had to kill that idea. After realizing that team would not happen, I realized that I had a lot of 7th grade boys that were interested in playing ball this year but lacked the experience and skill to compete with the teams we will play this year. My solution was to ask the other athletic directors in our conference if they would mind our "B" team (made up of those smaller, less experienced 7th graders) playing their 5th/6th grade teams. All but one school agreed at last night's AD meeting so it looks like I will not have to have any cuts after all.

*****

After the second day of try-outs we picked up two more 8th graders, one who will probably compete to start and get minutes and the other who is told old to play on our "B" squad but will need to put in some work to get minutes. We also had a couple more seventh graders show up who will round out the "B" team at 7.

This weekend we head to Minnocqua for our mini-camp. I am really looking forward to this...

And Away We Go

Well, I gave myself one school day off from the end of the soccer season to the start of the boys' basketball season. As much as I love soccer, basketball is my favorite sport and coaching basketball is far and away my favorite pastime.

Last year my squad was 22-6. We finished the season with 7 players on the roster and 3 of those players are back. Gone is the best middle school baller I have ever coached (and possibly ever seen play), but I do have my best shooting guard, my best basketball IQ and my 6'2" center returning. Added to that mix this year is a new 8th grader who is 5'9ish" and the total package (as far as 8th graders go) and three 7th graders who know the game well enough to contribute. If two or three of my fringe 8th graders stay eligible and contribute, this season could be a special one.

My first six seasons of coaching have been bad, good, bad, good, bad, and good- which means, if I believed in karma, that this season should be bad. But the aforementioned information leads me to believe that this year I will break my trend. Besides the possibility of a lot of wins, this season looks to be a special one for a few more reasons as well. First -by my unofficial tally- I have 93 victories as a middle school coach (against 49 losses) meaning our seventh victory this season gives me 100. (I know, I know it's kind of sweet and pathetic all wrapped up at the same time that I have kept track and am looking forward to this.) Furthermore, it is quite possible that my 100th victory could come at my first school's tournament where I got my first victory. In addition to that tournament, we are playing in 5 other tournaments including our high school's first ever invitational. Growing up playing traveling Boys' Club ball left me with a great love for tournaments and this year we have six! I'm loving it. Lastly, this coming weekend we are headed up north to Minnocqua for a mini-camp for the first time ever. A whole weekend of practices, team building exercises and a scrimmage with my parents' church's pastor's son's traveling team.

Season One is in the Books

This past weekend our season ended at a tournament in Neenah (WI). We had 11+1 players left on the roster and miraculously 11 made it to the tournament. We rode to the tournament with a school just 10+ blocks away from us who just happened to also be our first game's opponent. (The irony of the only two Milwaukee and "city" teams in the tournament riding to the tournament together to play one another was not lost on either me or their coach.)


After getting off the bus we had 5 minutes to warm-up because we were a tad late due to us waiting as long as we absolutely could for one of our players who called me and gave me play-by-play of the stops the city bus he was on was taking on his way to school. He was 40 minutes past our meeting time and nowhere to be seen so we had to leave without him. (The other coach says to me, "Man, I hate those moments!" Amen.) The first half of the game was a great battle. We were a completely even match for one another and it showed all over the field. Neither team was able to get a legitimate scoring threat going, although our goalie only had to pick the ball up once.


In the second half we turned up the intensity and scored the first goal when we had three players following a shot that was in their goalie's hands only to drop out due to the dew-moistened grass and get knocked in by our closest charging forward. There was probably 15 minutes or so left in the half, but their team was visibly shaken by us scoring the first goal. A few short minutes later we got a great lead pass from one of our midfielders that lead our forward past the fullbacks. As the ball rolled towards the goalie box the keeper ran out to pick it up, but he picked it up before it got to his box resulting in a hand ball violation and a direct kick. Our midfielder took advantage of some confusion and inexperience on their defense's part and snuck the ball past the keeper on the far side of the goal, putting us ahead 2-0 and cementing our victory. The victory was extra sweet as our opponent is the school our principal came from - thus we always have to beat them when we compete in any sport. (He also started the soccer program for them...)

The tournament featured 24 teams playing on five fields spread out over a complex with the concessions' stand serving as the middle. Our first game was at the field furthest from our second game's location. Fortunately, we had an hour between.

Our second game was against the tournament's host. When we lined up for the kick-off it looked to be a pretty even match. Size-wise they were much smaller than we were except for one player who had clearly played soccer before. It was evident that we were a little tired having already played a full game on a regulation field with no subs. The first half was largely spent in the middle of the field as neither of the teams was able to keep control of the ball long enough to mount a serious attack. Our keeper made a couple great saves to keep us deadlocked at 0-0 heading into halftime.

At the break our entire team came over to the sideline, got their water bottles and then collapsed on the grass. I knew they were giving me everything they had, but I had to continue to ask them for more.

The second half was only a couple minutes old when their best player finally broke through our fullbacks and beat our keeper 1-on-1 to pull them ahead 1-0. After that we spent almost 10 minutes trying to get a real attack together only to see our forwards make weak passes or weak shots that were easily defended. As the half wore on, I had our full backs push further and further up the field in an attempt to get something - anything - going offensively. This is always a gamble and we paid as their star again broke through and beat our keeper 1-on-1 to end any hopes of coming back. The game ended 2-0 but I was proud of our effort.

After the second game we had a two hour break before our last game so I let everyone get food from the concessions' stand. I did not want them eating garbage between our first two games, but with 2 hours to wait, they had time to enjoy that aspect of a tournament without it hurting their performance. As I filled up our water bottles behind the concessions' stand I got two very kind compliments about our kids and my coaching. It is always encouraging to hear other parents notice the work we are doing with our kids.

Our last game was not really how I ever envisioned our season ending. It was clear from the warm-ups on that we are not ready to play three games in one day- especially without subs. Whatever energy, hunger and competitive spirit we had brought with us to the tournament was completely used up and spent on our second game. We looked tired and flat from the first whistle. Nobody was hustling anymore, nobody was looking to pick up their teammates and fight. We were down 2-0 at half when I made my final plea for 25 more minutes of everything we had to give. But we had already given it all more than two hours before this game started. The lone bright spot came when we were down 3-0 and found enough to make one last attack that scored our only goal. So we lost 3-1 and ended the season 3-6.

Overall, the season was a great success. At one point we had 18 kids at one practice and ended with 11. Less than half were 8th graders, so we have a good nucleus to build with for next year. Hopefully, we will be able to get out this summer and have some camps or at least play together (and get in shape) to see HOPE soccer build to the level of other schools that were at this tournament.

We want to give a gigantic THANK YOU to everyone who sent us donations to help outfit the Tigers this year! We are extremely grateful to know that so many of you love HOPE + soccer enough to support us!

THANK YOU + GO TIGERS!

The Wrong Direction

There were many factors that lead to our last scheduled game not going as we wanted it to. To begin with, our leading scorer and goalie are on an extended leave of absence from school from last week's incident. In addition to those two, six more players from our roster have not been to a practice or game in over two weeks which left us with 11 players for this game. Five players were in afternoon detention and four of those completed their homework and punitive quotes in time to make it to the game. So, we went to battle with 10 players.

Arriving at the game the clouds were threatening to open up and douse the field plus the temperature was the coldest we have had yet this fall. Prior to the game I talked with our opponent's coach and found out that they had tied one of our opponents who beat us by 1 (playing 11 on our 10) so with a full roster we probably should have beat this team. He graciously agreed to play us 10-on-10, so that he could have one sub. The game was ref'd by a parent/assistant coach making 5 out of our 6 games not officiated by a "real" soccer official.

It was clear within 10 minutes that this official was not about to make any "dangerous" or "rough play" calls so there was a LOT of pushing, grabbing and cleat-first jumping and sliding. This proved particularly frustrating for me and our players since I coach my kids to play a style opposite of this, but the physical play more closely mirrors how our kids live day to day.

They scored the first goal of the game with 5 minutes to go on a questionable non-call on what I believed to be offside on one of their players. (When I went home and checked up on the rule, it turns out the call is a ref's discretion- so technically he was correct if he saw it as not a violation. Though I still think the guy was offside.) This was the only goal of the half leaving us down 1-0.

Overall, we were much more aggressive on offense than our opponent in the first half, but we were unable to capitalize on any attack. Our keeper (playing only his second game ever in goal) looked comfortable and made a couple clutch saves as well. My half time talks are getting pretty similar since we have had only one game with any subs- "Get a drink. Keep fighting. You're not tired! GO TIGERS!"

In the second half we gave up two quick cheap goals and lost a lot of wind as the game continued to be rough with no calls and we could not punch anything through. We managed one great attack from the sideline in with a great cross and a rebound score, but we could not get anything else and fell 3-1. Again I had nothing to complain about from our kids' effort- they gave all they had but the bounces did not go our way this night.

Our record now stands at 2-4 and we have a tournament in 10 days to end the season. I am trying to get one more game next week prior to the tournament, but I am not sure if that will happen. I really hope to end the season on a positive note, but our lack of consistency is starting to really hurt us.

A Losing Streak

Thursday was one of my longest and most difficult days at HOPE. As the Dean of Students I work full time with the discipline issues our students need help working through. We had to send 3 students home for serious issues, 2 of which were our leading scorer and goalie from the soccer team. After working through those issues with the students, teachers and parents involved I was pretty spent emotionally with 30 minutes to go before we dismissed for the game. 15 minutes later I took a phone call from our opponent's coach letting me know the game was not at the field I originally thought it was. He immediately emailed me the directions and I printed up my new set for the parents I had already given the "wrong" directions to.

At dismissal I had seven players with me in my van, 1 sixth grader left with his mom before us and two more players were in detention who would join us at the game. Our opponent had called me a couple weeks ago to ask if we could play 8-on-8 because he was concerned about his numbers. At the time we had 14 or so kids on the roster but I was fine with playing with less. Ironically, he showed up with 12 and we had only 9 who made it to the game.

The field was a regulation side so again we had a game with a lot of dribbling through open areas and a lot of tired kids. I had an 8th grader play goalie and he was really excited about giving it a shot (and also about the Brett Favre jersey I had him wear as the makeshift keeper jersey). Unfortunately, zeal does not a great goalie make as he surrendered two goals within the first four minutes trying to figure out where he should be and how he should play. But, he (and our fullbacks) settled down and kept them out of the goal for the rest of the half. We made no real threats on their end and were down 2-0 at the break.

Due to the stress of the day I was a little less patient with our team than I would normally like to be and I did not have the luxury of having subs to give kids a break or a chance to be spoken to personally. We had our typical half time of water and encouragement and returned to the field with our typical resolve to keep fighting. So far this year we have outscored our opponents in the second half 9-2. Ten minutes in we finally broke through to pull within one goal. The official (dressed in a grey tank top and green shorts) was content to let everyone play pretty rough for middle school soccer. He called exactly zero fouls or free kicks, which got frustrating for me and all the kids. We battled with every ounce of energy we had, but were unable to get the equalizing goal. In addition to our keeper and best forward gone, our best defender never made it to the game either and we lost 2-1 to fall to 2-3 on the season.

Again, I could not have asked our kids to have worked any harder or given any more than they did. We have two weeks left in the season with 2 games and a tournament go. I really hope we are able to keep our spirits up and finish well, since it has been a good season thus far.

2-2

Our fourth game of the year came one day after having a day off of school. We still had practice, but only 8 kids came. I actually called 12 or so and reminded them about practice but still only 8 came. Yuk.

Once my day settled down and I had a chance to check attendance and my practice records, I found that I had 12 kids in school and eligible to play. After checking the detention log, I found that I had nine kids who would be ready to go when we dismissed the team. The three in detention had rides arranged to bring them straight from detention to the game. But, 20 minutes before the end of the school day one of my 8th graders came to my office to tell me he could not play because he was in trouble at home.

So at dismissal, 8 players and I got in our vehicles and headed to the game. Our field was much closer than past fields and we actually beat our opponents in getting there. As we approached the field it was apparent that it had not been mowed in probably 3+ weeks and the lines (though painted in place) were next to invisible.

I was glad to get a good warm-up period that allowed us to pass, work on touches and get our keeper some practice saves. Two of the three in detention even showed up with enough time to warm-up. As our start time approached their coach approached me to let me know the head coach was still on his way with another load of their kids. He then asked me if I knew anything about the official. Oh boy.

Their other coach showed up with another 10 kids or so, they warmed up for a couple more minutes and I volunteered to officiate the game (using the whistle I had in my bag and my cell phone to track the time). Our last player went home sick after detention so we played 10-on-11. We were pretty evenly matched up except for two of their players who had apparently played before and could dribble well. Within four minutes of the start we were down 2-0. We settled down a little but found ourselves down 3-0 with only a couple minutes to play in the first half. Their two best players were playing midfield and sometimes moved up far enough to score, but behind them their defenders were tiny guys who clearly had not played a lot of soccer. Right before halftime we were able to punch one through to trail 3-1.

At halftime I did my best to convince the team we were not tired. With no subs and only a couple fans present, they had to draw energy from one another. Our keeper had played really timid in the first half and I kept imploring him to charge at the opponent when they broke through the defense. He started doing this in the second half and spooked their main player three times into missing his shots badly. Three other times he completely blocked hard kicked balls, it was exciting to watch.

In the second half everyone else stepped up their game too. We attacked and attacked and fell back when we needed. The field was a regulation field so it was clear that our kids were getting tired but they kept add it. We scored 10 minutes into the half and then again with 6 minutes to go. We had found our second wind! Both teams went back and forth until about a minute left when their best player got the ball alone in just outside of the goalie's box and put a beautiful shot on goal that went right over our keeper's outstretched arms and below the top bar on the goal. Any higher it would have hit the goal and any lower and our keeper gets it. It was just a good shot. We had a minute left but were unable to get a legitimate attack going in that amount of time. Final score: 4-3.

No one on the team felt bad, tired for sure, but not bad. We had played down a player the whole game with no subs and had almost pulled it out. Now if we can just carry that attitude and effort (and better attendance) over into our practices our last couple of weeks might go really well.

*****

Earlier in the day I was explaining to one of our sixth graders that he could not play in the game because he had not been to a practice in well over a week. He told me straight faced, "I scored a goal in the first game, I don't need no practice."

A Win Streak!?

When we got started weeks ago with just 7 players, I never would have guessed that we would be three games into our season with a 2-1 record, but here were are.

Today's opponent played at a field just 15 minutes away from our school, so that was a very needed relief. We had no snafu's this time getting 14 kids to the game. The closest thing this time was one player unaccounted for who turned up in one of the other vehicles.

When we got to the field the first thing we noticed was that it was huge and the second thing we noticed was that half of the field was covered with geese. That problem was immediately solved when our smallest player (who also incidentally happens to have the most energy of anyone on the team) ran through the entire flock and got the field set for the two teams that had arrived. The third thing we noticed was that the field was dimly painted and the fourth thing we noticed was that the goals were not lined up with one another. The fifth thing we noticed was that their squad (made up of two small schools) had 11 total players - so we played 9-on-9. The last thing we noticed- well, I actually knew before arriving- was that there was no referee. The other coach tried every avenue he knew to get one (I even called a college friend with a huge social network) but to no avail. SO, the game was officiated by the two coaches- both dressed in professional teaching attire and a whistle hung around our necks. GAME ON!

With such a huge field, the 9-on-9 set up created some very tired players and a lot of dribbling in open field for both sides. We were able to cash in quickly on about our third attack to take the early lead and then scored again to lead 2-0. We had a mental lapse on defense and surrendered a goal right before halftime.

The second half was more of the same as the first. We kept the ball on their end for almost the entire time. We scored twice more- once on a sweet pass from one 8th grader to another ("dimes" as they are called in basketball and by the two guys involved in the score) and the other on a hard hit shot that actually ricocheted off the keeper into the goal.

I realized tonight that I probably could not be a soccer referee (or probably any referee for that matter) because I am too much of a fan to watch the finer points. I was working really hard to actually default to our opponents because I wanted my players to learn the game's finer points. There was really only one call I made that upset the other players- actually it was a call I didn't make on a ball they thought was out of bounds. I overheard them tell one another I was cheating (just like our kids do every drill in practice that has teams- but in those instances I really do cheat, but not all the time). To their credit though, the same kids that were upset told me that I had ref'd a good game afterwards.

Once again tonight the team hit the "pizza goal" of 3 or more goals and holding an opponent under 3. They also hit the "ice cream" goal of no hand ball calls- though I contend this one should not count since there were no real refs! I really figured that this season we would struggle to score and to stop other teams, but I had not accounted for several of our opponents coming from schools smaller than us. We have 3 games left and then an out-of-town tournament. Besides a couple fullbacks who still resent me for "forcing" them to play "so far back" from the action, our attitude and effort are continuing to encourage me.

GO TIGERS!

All Even

While sitting in my office today, one of my players was finishing some quotes he owed me from a previous detention. I asked him if he had brought his jersey back from Thursday's game.

"Yeah, I got it on. I also got on my shorts and my socks."

He then proceeded to pull up his pant leg to reveal that he not only had the socks on but also his SHIN GUARDS! This is a great snapshot of how much our kids want to play soccer! He wore his ENTIRE uniform to school underneath his school uniform! Fitted and committed as we like to say at HOPE.

I laughed hard and long and was unable to find another adult to share the story with (probably because they were all busy teaching).

This time around we got everyone dressed and into our vehicles in record time... all but one. While we were getting into our two vans behind my house our last player ran up saying his jersey was in his other bag locked up in the school. SO, we ran back to the school, he changed, and we ran back to the van. When we got a block away he looked at me and said he was missing a shin guard. We drove back and there it was laying in the grass. Once we got it and him back in the van we were off.

Our directions this time (taken from the school's website and confirmed by their secretary) were spot on. We got to the field with time to warm-up! Our opponent was a very small school and their team featured 1 8th grader, a couple 7th graders and the rest were 6th graders. We spent the entire 1st half on their side of the field but were unable to punch anything through for a score. At half time I had visions of a very frustrating tie dancing through my head. The bright spot of the first half was one 8th grade boy who had been to one practice since deciding after the first week of practice that he did not want to play, but asked back on the team when another 8th grade boy (who made it through 3 weeks of practice before quitting) asked back on. His throw ins (though they need a little work) are a definite weapon as he can throw the ball very fair with pretty decent accuracy. Once he got in the game he sent several throws right into our opponent's box.

In the second half it took us a couple minutes to get rolling, but once we got hot we got going! Our first goal ever was scored by an 8th grader who is new to soccer this year (he said in the van on the way home that he has only watched soccer on TV, never played) and he also scored our second goal ever. He missed a hat trick by a couple feet before I took him out. Another 8th grader added a third goal before a 6th grader had a great rebound goal off of a dropped ball by the keeper and then a fullback (playing about 80 yards out of position) capped off our night with #5.

Our keeper only touched the ball twice and our defense got most of their action at midfield. I imagine that the rest of our opponents will be closer in ability to our first, but for tonight it was nice to score so much and to get a win! (Our kids were pretty jazzed that we lost 5-0 last time and this time we won 5-0, "We raw now," one 8th grade girl told me.) AND we met two of the criteria I set for getting pizza from Coach (either score 3 or more OR hold an opponent to 3 or less).

Game 1 Photos

One Down...

History was made tonight as the first ever soccer game involving HOPE Middle School was played on the south side of Milwaukee. Just getting to the field ready to play was - as could be expected - an adventure in and of itself.


I ordered the uniforms last week and was told if I wanted numbers/names on them it would take 4 weeks, but if they were sent without screen printing it could be done in a week. They arrived two days ago and look pretty sharp.


Last week all of our practices were attended by less than 9 kids, which kind of had me sort of worried that I might have to reschedule tonight's game due to numbers. We even lost a couple more of our older players this week who decided soccer was not their game. However, a handful of younger students wanted to give it a try so now our roster has 19 players! Of those 19, all but 3 turned in their permissions slips/waivers by today so that they were eligible to play in the game.


We dressed for the game 15 minutes prior to dismissal but this was complicated by my responsibility for manning detention (which I passed on to our principal and another teacher) and several of our local high school's students downstairs in our building waiting for another teacher. Twelve players with their permission slips turned in were in school today with rides arranged, so we suited up and jumped in our vans and rolled out.

One turn away from our school we turned on to the main road that leads to the highway and it was blocked so we turned down an alley to get to the next main street over- but that alley ended 150 feet later. We turned around got to the highway connected to the next highway, hit our first exit, then turned on the road with the field and drove...and drove...and drove. Our Mapquest directions had left out a really important turn- the last one. Eventually the school's AD called me and got us back to the field. (Sadly, we lost one player/family in the process who never made it to the park.)

We got to the field with 11 players and 10 pairs of cleats. The 11th pair rolled up as we took the field. As a coach (whether its soccer or basketball) I absolutely HATE not having adequate warm-up time- so it is safe to say that I was a bit frazzled heading out to start a game with NO warm-up. I was excited though, as were the kids. We started out in a 6-2-2 formation (6 defenders, 2 mids, 2 forwards) as I figured it would benefit us to try to stop their scoring for as long as we could.

We fell behind 3-0 by halftime. Their first goal was totally due to our lack of experience. Their second goal came on a pretty decent free kick from about 25 yards out. Their third goal was much like the first. We had a couple break downs (a full back all the way up by the forwards, another fullback not moving at all from the spot I assigned) but over all we were running well, just lacking movement and any sort of offensive attack.

We started the second half with the ball on their end for almost 5 minutes (we played 20 minute halves because of our lateness and another club coming soon to the field). We had one REALLY close shot the just sailed over the goal. We were much more competitive in the second half only giving up 2 goals for a final score of 5-0.

Overall, we were much closer than I imagined we would be. Our opponent is one that we should be beating in two years tops. Our biggest disadvantage (besides our overall lack of experience) is leg strength. Several times our goalie punted the ball deep into their side only to see their fullbacks control it and send it flying back. We had two free kicks and one corner kick and in neither situation were we in a position to put the ball on goal or into a position to be shot. We made one more serious push on goal, but were thwarted.

Our kids actually had a really good time, many said they had fun. Despite the chaos, I had a good time tonight too. I am not sure if the rest of our opponents will be on the same level of ability as tonight's opponent (I am going to assume they get better), but I think now that the kids have played a real game they will be more up for working hard in practice. We took a lot of pictures which I will have up soon! Thanks for all the support that has come in. I will be posting some directions to coming games for anyone in the MKE area who wants to come out and catch the Tigers!

Week Three

We're through three weeks and our first game is one week away. As exciting as that is, this past week was not as much of a momentum builder as I had hoped. Monday we were off for the holiday and we returned Tuesday with 11 kids at practice, including two new players. One day later we are down two players (one for scholastic discipline and another has changed schools) and only 5 showed up for practice. Tonight we had only 5 again. Several kids were either absent one or both of the past two days or had transportation issues that kept them from practice. I have decided to chalk it all up to the rain we have had recently.

Tomorrow and Monday I have plans to make a last big recruiting push to the 6th-8th graders. I think there are anywhere from 4 to 8 kids that would play if I ask enough times. The 15 players that have been to at least one practice never come all together, so we really need another half dozen or so kids for subs when the games start.

We ordered the jerseys Tuesday and continue to receive support for which we are extremely grateful. We are only about $250 away from having the whole team set of uniforms, shorts and socks paid for completely. Every little bit helps!

Week Two

Two weeks of Tiger soccer in the books and we are moving along as expected. We struggled this week to have a full squad make it to any practices, our numbers were between 8 and 11 all week. The roster stands at 15 currently and hopefully we will keep all of them as we go forward.

Dribbling and passing are core skills that are absolutely necessary to be able to function as a soccer team and both of these are areas that we need to work on. My biggest concern, however, is our conditioning. Once a week we walk the extra 6+ blocks to the closest full soccer field and this past Wednesday I kept looking at the other half of the field (that we never used) and then back at our team wearing themselves out on half-field exercises and realized that I am going to need to recruit a few more kids just to be able to give our kids a break once our games start.

Our parent meeting is Tuesday night and our biggest issue will be transportation. We do not have a van or a bus, so we need parents to drive their kids to the games. Last year during both basketball seasons this was our biggest struggle. Hopefully enough parents are getting excited about having a soccer team that they plan on attending all of our games.

Overall I think we are where I expected us to be. The older kids expect us to get "murdered" in our games and the younger kids expect us to be "raw". It would be nice to be somewhere in between, we'll know more in another week or so.

Week One

Our last practice of our first week was today. We had 12 kids show up bringing the total number of participants for the week up to around 16. When a car of parents pulled up (our number one fans from basketball season), the mom driving shouted, "Hey Hope Hope! We got ourselves a team!" The past two days at school several other students took the schedule as well so it is possible that next week we could have a solid 16-18 kids coming to practice.

We walked the 8 or so blocks to the nearest full soccer field today so we could get some shots on goal. One of our 8th graders has actually played goalie for 4 or so years and this was his first practice. If you have to start a team from scratch and you only get one player with experience then goalie would be the spot you would want. If he turns out to be pretty good, then we only have to figure out how to score 2 or 3 goals a game instead of 8 or 9.

When we get to the actual playing (versus just drills), a couple players are beginning to show that they have skills above the rest of our players. A couple of my basketball players have finally showed up and have shown themselves to be pretty good at throw-ins. We'll see if that ends up being a "secret weapon" of sorts. Our only big worry at this point is that we only have $40 raised for uniforms with $50 on the way. Our school budget is not yet finalizes, so I am not sure what we are going to do but I am sure that the kids are excited. One boy described for me the "raw" cleats he was going to get this weekend.

Practices have been slow and are stretching me in my ability to slow down myself and reteach and remodel and repeat things I am saying and showing. This whole season will be just as great of a benefit to me as it will be for the kids.