In late July I had the opportunity to be a speaker and instructor at The School of High Performance Basketball in Cass Lake, Minnesota. The School of High Performance Basketball was set up by Dan Ninham, the varsity boy’s Head Coach at Cass Lake Bena High School. Coach Ninham is a coaching legend in Minnesota earning numerous awards, including 2005 Minnesota State High School Coach of the Year. The School of High Performance Basketball was a 5 week long program focused on skill development that included a different speaker/instructor each week. Other instructors included Jay Pivec, the 2009 National Junior College Coach of the Year and Head Men’s Basketball Coach at Minneapolis Community and Technical College, former CBA player Keith Salscheider, former NCAA Division 1 Head Coach and WNBA strength and conditioning coach Kathleen Weber, and former NBA player Ben Coleman.
I gave 3 twenty-minute demonstrations/talks to about 150 girls who were participating in a Team Camp at the high school that day. The demonstrations were broken down into ball handling, shooting, and passing. The players, coaches, and parents were very receptive to my thoughts, drills, and philosophy. After team camp had ended I did a 2 hour workout with kids enrolled in the School of High Performance Basketball. The workout didn’t have extremely high numbers, but was successful. Because of the small numbers, players received quality one on one instruction. I believe that this one on one time is a great way to ensure players are executing fundamentals and drills properly. It also enabled me to get to know each of the players on a more personal level and build some trust, which is paramount for reaching today’s players.
I had a great experience and look forward to more events like it. I also want to give Coach Ninham a shout out for bringing me in. He is a great advocate for the game of basketball in that area and has provided his players with some tremendous resources for improvement.