The Montrose season is finally over. We lost our final home game (senior night) by one point.
The final 14 seconds of the game epitomized our entire season. The game was tied and we needed to inbound the ball at mid-court. We called a 30 second time-out and drew up our final play, which called for our best player to get the ball on the wing and look to score with 3 seconds left, and have the other four players crash the boards for a last second put-back. Instead, two players went to the wrong spots, the play got scrambled, and we made a lazy pass that got intercepted with about 6 seconds left. The other team ran the break and drove in for a lay-up, which we blocked, but their point guard scooped it up and shot it as time expired. Whistle blew… we fouled the shooter! He calmly sank the first free throw and then turned and blew a kiss to the crowd. Game over. And that pretty much sums up our season.
It was our first loss at home in 8 years and the first time in 34 years Coach Vetter has lost on senior night. We sure had a lot of “firsts” this season; unfortunately none of them were positive! This season was disappointing and overwhelmingly frustrating for the players and the staff. But in all honesty, I am OK with that. I am mature enough to know, in coaching as well as life, you have to take the good with the bad. It can’t be all smiles.
Regardless of the issues we have had this season; I really and truly care about the kids in our program and am so thankful to have had the opportunity to work with them. They are a great group of young men. Other than a few very minor exceptions, our kids played their hearts out all year long. They didn’t play particular well this season; but they always played hard. We demand a major commitment from the players in our program, so I always have a tremendous amount of respect and admiration for those who are left standing in our locker room after the final game.
The odd part is, technically our season may not be over. We are still waiting to hear if we will be invited to the 2nd Annual ESPN/Rise National High School Invitational, which will take place the first weekend in April and will be televised on the ESPN networks. Honestly, I would be shocked if we got an invite, because we have not had the type of season to deserve it. But I also know the selection process is not that cut and dry and a lot of other factors come into play. Therefore, I am completely at peace in letting fate decide. If we don’t get invited, I will be relieved this season is actually over. If we do, then I will be thankful for the opportunity and do everything in my power to help our team prepare. I was told the 8-team field will be announced later this week or early next week.
Hopefully most of you know, my main goal and number one priority is to help as many basketball players and coaches as I can. I am very thankful for the myriad of people who have helped me along the way and I am always looking to give back to the coaching fraternity. I want to contribute to a game that has had such an impact on my life. That is why I put so much time and effort into this blog; as a means of using my experiences and expertise to help others.
In addition to my blog, here are 5 ways I plan to help coaches and players this off-season. The first 3 are absolutely FREE. The last 2 are offered for a very affordable price (don’t forget, this is how I make my living!).
1) Over the past month I have sent out two rounds of “coaching nuggets.” These have been stories, notes, poems, and tidbits I have picked up over the past few years from some brilliant basketball minds. I have been overwhelmed at how positive the response has been. If you would like to receive FREE “coaching nuggets” like these each month, all you need to do is sign up for my email list. You can sign up under the left menu bar on my homepage, www.StrongerTeam.com. This will allow me to automatically send additional “coaching nuggets” out once a month, as opposed to having you request them and then me personally responding. I still have another dozen new “coaching nuggets” I haven’t sent out and plan to send out two or three a month in an automated email beginning in April. So please sign up!
2) Another resource I hope you find helpful is my YouTube channel, www.YouTube.com/StrongerTeamDotCom. I have posted a ton of content over the past 6 months and will continue to do so this off-season. I just posted a video of a Maryland Basketball Off-Season Workout which features former Montrose players Adrian Bowie and the 2010 ACC Player of the Year, Greivis Vasquez. This video shows how intense off-season workouts should be as well as shows how strength and power translates to the court. This video exemplifies exactly why basketball players need to strength train! As far as future videos, I will post the warm-ups and workouts from the McDonalds All-American game, Jordan Brand All-American Classic, and the Nike Skills Academies. I am also launching a series called “Can He Dunk” where I will select a handful of high school age players to participate. They will be kids who are close, but can’t currently dunk. I will document their training for 12 weeks. I will post video highlights from their workouts as well as 3 weekly dunk attempts (to monitor their progress). You won’t want to miss this!
3) I recently shot a few hundred video clips of basketball specific strength & conditioning exercises and drills, including those for warm-up, dynamic flexibility, agility, footwork, plyos, and strength. While I have not finalized where I am going to post these, I will post “100 Exercises in 100 Days.” As the name implies, I will post one new video a day for 100 straight days (I am aiming to begin on April 1st). This will create an extensive video library for those of you in need of some innovative exercises and drills to spark up your off-season workouts.
4) I have received hundreds of email requests for my help in putting together off-season workouts. With that said, I am currently finalizing a 12 Week Off-Season Basketball Strength & Conditioning Program. I plan to have this available for sale in early April. This program will outline exactly what needs to be done this off-season – exercise by exercise, day by day, and week by week. It will include dozens of digital pictures and exercise descriptions, all of which utilize standard equipment (DBs, free weights, bodyweight, etc.) to make sure the program is easily adaptable to everyone’s respective situation. There will be a strength/power component as well as a quickness/agility component (each sold separately). The program will be available online as a downloadable PDF; so you will be able to save it to your computer as well as print copies. I am projecting the sales price to be around $39.99 for each component. Believe me; it will be worth every penny! It will be sold at http://Shop.StrongerTeam.com.
5) I am also in the process of finalizing an online Basketball Strength & Conditioning Coach Certification. My goal is to create an online certification to give a basketball coach (primarily youth, high school, and/or AAU) a solid foundation of proper basketball specific strength & conditioning expertise. I am NOT looking to duplicate all of the training certifications currently available, so there won’t be much in the way of physiology or biomechanics. Instead I will focus on the nuts and bolts of what a coach really needs to know. It will address proper warm-up, dynamic flexibility, pre-hab (injury prevention), quickness/agility, reaction, strength, power, and basketball conditioning. Once someone completes the certification, they will have sufficient knowledge to develop and supervise a year round training program. The certification materials, course, and exam will all be available online, with an estimated cost of $199.00. I am hoping to have this ready by the end of the summer. When available, you will be able to register at http://Shop.StrongerTeam.com.
I apologize if this blog seems “commercial,” but I wanted to clearly define the ways I plan to be of service this off-season. Next week I will give my full thoughts on specifically how to make this off-season as productive as possible. I will address the ever present pros and cons of AAU, will offer some thoughts on evaluating and testing, and on setting player development priorities. But most importantly, I will hammer home why your off-season program is the foundation in building a championship program.
After all, the best players (and teams) are in the best shape!
Next week’s blog will probably be my last blog of the month. My beautiful wife and I are expecting TWIN boys in the next week or so! We are elated for this new chapter in our life and are ready for the joys and challenges of parenting.
But don’t worry; it will only be a short hiatus. The blog will be back in full force in April!
If you need anything else, or if I can be of service in any way, don’t hesitate to email me at Alan@StrongerTeam.com. I will respond as quickly as possible.
Play hard. Have fun.
Alan Stein