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.
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