YBCA

Hello everyone!

  My name is Coach Lerch and this upcoming basketball season with be my 3rd as head coach at a small Jr. High in Illinois.  I coach 5th-8h grade boys and girls.  We split up the grades into three basketball teams, an A (8th,7th) B(7th,6th) and C(6th,5th).  We are a small school, no more than 160 students in the last few years.  Our conference also is made up of small schools and almost all the schools have a similar situation as far as numbers as I have.

  When I took over the program I was informed that the kids were just happy to play, but “hopefully you will have enough for a team.”  Since I started I have been building up the interest in the lower grades to have the numbers for a full out team.  This year I will have between 18-25 kids.  

  A frustration I have run into is helping the kids understand that winning doesn't matter, but becoming a better basketball player and eventually playing in high school does.  That is my goal every year.  At the same time, I want the kids to be as competitive as I can make them.

  After discover Coach Mccormick's excellent newsletter, books, articles, etc.  I have decided to teach everything this year using concepts put in during scrimmages.  I got to thinking how much more competitive a team that understood the what and the why of attacking a man to man would be as opposed to the team that runs a man to man play.

  Essentially we will practice skills for part of practice and then we will scrimmage in the half and full court to help teach a concept either for the day or the week (as long as need be).

  i would like to keep this posting open to let you guys know how things go for us this year and how I set up each practice (similar to what Demon is doing with Blitz basketball).

THanks!

Coach Lerch