Van Buren County

[Coach_B]

If you don't know why the other team is getting a rebound after a missed foul shot, ask someone. If you don't know why your girl is beating you down the floor, ask someone. If you don't know why you are running offensive sets designed for a man to man-against a zone, ask someone. Maybe "someone" should be defined: it could be a coach, it could be a mentor, it could be a close friend, it could be a teammate, it could be a family member, but most importantly, it should be someone that you think knows the answer. If you don't know why you keep running into your teammate while running a man to man defense, ask someone. If you don't know why you shouldn't play defense flat footed, ask someone. If you don't know what "filling the lanes" mean, ask someone. If you don't know what to do if the other team is forcing you to go left instead of right, ask someone. If you don't know why it is so important to communicate on defense, ask someone. The Wizard of Westwood once said that "failing to prepare, is preparing to fail." The season will be over soon---seek the answers. /thumb[1].gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":thumb:" border="0" alt="thumb[1].gif" />

 

 

What your saying is correct. What is absent from your post is any reference to motivating these girls. I have been working with girl basketball players for 2 & 1/2 years now. I have seen girls work extremely hard for their team. But in general sometimes I feel like I'm rolling the dice when it comes to motivation. I have motivated more boys to work hard than girls & I haven't spent one tenth of the time thinking "how do I get these boys motivated." I have spent countless hours & nights not being able to sleep thinking up ways to get the girls @ the gym to practice their shooting. I can't speak for the rest of the coaching staff, but in that sense we have failed as coaches to motivate. Until the motivation issue is corrected all of what you've said above will not work even though its critical to win ball games. You can tell a player to do the correct thing, but in order to execute it in a game that player has to be motivated enough to sacrifice for her team more than the opposing teams players are willing to sacrifice for theirs. Simply put if Clarkrange spends more time shooting correctly & game speed than we do there is a good chance that even running the right defense they are going to rip it to shreds.

 

Here are some ways I can think of to help alleviate some of the problems.

 

#1 - The girls need to gain more for being on the basketball team. The first thing that needs to be bought are basketballs. There should be a basketball for each girl. At the moment this is not the case. Secondly where does the money go from these games? Why are the girls / boys either paying for their shoes (girls) or camp (boys)? Perhaps we are tight on money, but I see the gym packed at many home games.

 

#2 - 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th grade teams along with JV teams. We have enough girls to field every single one of these teams with the possible exception of the 9th grade team. We might have enough there, but I was not at their tryouts so I can't speak for sure. I know there are easily enough girls wanting to play basketball to have a team at each grade level in middle school. I've offered to coach the teams, but its still not a reality. Playing time is a HUGE motivator. No wonder a lot of these girls don't show up to shoot when they have to sit the bench game after game. If a surrounding county's girls get to play 20 games a year @ each grade level they are 20 games ahead of many of our girls. This doesn't count the extra work they put in because they are motivated since they are getting to play.

 

#3 - A practice gym. I know this one would be a large cost to the county but most school systems will have 3 gyms (elementary, middle, & high school). We have two. In middle school Sequatchie practices longer than us on many days simply because we are pushing to get two junior high practices in, followed by a high school practice, followed by another high school practice. Add to this the fact that junior high practices happen at the same time. I'm amazed at how well our middle schoolers learn in an hour of practice in a gym filled with 30+ girls / boys. That is a huge strain on a middle schoolers attention span. Furthermore one high school team is getting out later than they should because they are waiting on middle school practice. This cuts into their free time since after studying there is little time left in the day making them dislike basketball even further. Compare this to Sparta. We had one group practice from 130-330 & after that use the weight room for 30 minutes to an hour & a half. The other team would use the weight room from 130-330 & then practice from 330-530. By 530 each player had lifted weights @ least 30 minutes often an hour & practiced for 2 hours. Here we are asking the late practice kids to get out @ 730.

 

The talent is there in Van Buren County. Since I can remember they have had remarkable talent in the county that should be able to get them to the state level year after year. But these things add up. The coaches need to motivate better. The players need to practice their shots / fundamentals more often & at game speed. The parents need to quit being so negative toward everyone. All of that is good. But the infrastructure of how we train basketball players needs to adjust if we want to compete with top teams year in & year out.

[WoodenFan]

Sorry EP, I didn't mean to call you out like that, but I'm soooooo frustrated right now. And yes, Coach B, I agree with all your points, we do need more of everything. But those things will take time. My original post was "seeking the answers," as in now. As in, before we play MTCS Tuesday, and before we play Forrest again, and before we play Community again, etc, etc. We have a wonderful fan base, and have had for many years. So none of my comments are directed toward any of you. But it is so painful to watch us get beat. I'm proud of this mountain and the people. I'm proud of where I come from, and to wear the maroon and gold with pride. I only want these children to be successful for themselves and for the school.

[VBFlyinHigh]

The Van Buren County girls are definately NOT playing up to their potential, but the worst thing any fan of ours can do right now is put the blame anywhere besides where it needs to be. Our assistant coach, is nowhere near the reason we are losing. Our team this year is closer now than it has been in several years. We all get along and we love playing with each other and we have HER to thank for that. In case no one has been watching, after every missed shot or turnover, the only thing our players see, is the floor. How can you put that on someone else other than the players. As for the parents, let the coaches do their jobs. Just be there for us and support us during times like this. Win or lose, we are still representing Van Buren County and if all our fans are going to do is gripe about how we play, how do they expect us to keep our heads up and play ball. Each and every one of us know we can play ball better than how we are playing, but in case no on has noticed, we have the weight of the world on us. The expectations, the gossip, the glares.. the yelling from the stands. I'm sorry, but it's hard enough trying to live up to our expectations let alone the ones from our parents and our fans. We will pick it up, and we will turn it around. You can bet on that. LET'S GO EAGLETTES.

[EAGLEPROTECTOR]

Sorry EP, I didn't mean to call you out like that, but I'm soooooo frustrated right now. And yes, Coach B, I agree with all your points, we do need more of everything. But those things will take time. My original post was "seeking the answers," as in now. As in, before we play MTCS Tuesday, and before we play Forrest again, and before we play Community again, etc, etc. We have a wonderful fan base, and have had for many years. So none of my comments are directed toward any of you. But it is so painful to watch us get beat. I'm proud of this mountain and the people. I'm proud of where I come from, and to wear the maroon and gold with pride. I only want these children to be successful for themselves and for the school.

 

No problem, I understand where you are coming from. We do need to deal with our problems before we get into a hole we can't dig out of. It is nothing a quality win won't take care of. Maybe we can correct these things and win like we are capable of.

[SLEDGEHAMMER]

The title of this thread is "Seek the answers" Some answers we get by asking others, but some of the answers we get from within ourselves.

[VB-booster]

I think we came out with more energy and desire tonight than the past few games. Down by 1 at the half but the fouls where starting to add up. The second half was all MTCS. Between the turnovers and the foul trouble, we didn't have a chance. Hats off to the lady Cougars, they have a good team. We have to stop the meaningless fouls and protect the ball. Hopefully Friday night we can turn things around.

[WoodenFan]

The title of this thread is "Seek the answers" Some answers we get by asking others, but some of the answers we get from within ourselves.

 

I agree with you hammer. I agree that each girl must look inward to find the answers as to why the team is losing. I'm not sure that the girls, as a team, know what the correct choices are when it comes to running an effective man to man defense, however. Maybe they know, but just not doing it? Still saw alot of MTCS girls wide open after a pick was set. I love the "old school" pick-and-roll. We ran it successfully one time, they used it all night within their motion offense. A good defense will have more impact than a good offense. VB-booster mentioned all the fouls against MTCS. Some were over the backs and reach around fouls which I agree are "bad" fouls. But we are also getting fouls while trying to help others who lost their girl. These are what I call "defensive fouls." I think the team needs to make a commitment to defense, and they would see an improvement.

[VB-booster]

I love to see teams run the pick and roll. It is a sign of a well prepared and usually successful team. And when a team on defense gets tired or lets their guard down, the result is a wide open layup or foul. Forrest and Clarkrange have some great plays involving the pick and roll and you can't argue with their success.

[WoodenFan]

I love to see teams run the pick and roll. It is a sign of a well prepared and usually successful team. And when a team on defense gets tired or lets their guard down, the result is a wide open layup or foul. Forrest and Clarkrange have some great plays involving the pick and roll and you can't argue with their success.

 

VB-booster, don't forget about the good ole "give-and-go" to go along with the "pick-and-roll" I've seen it run all year long. Nothing complicated about these throw backs. Hey, maybe we're too complicated. Maybe we need to simplify things? Play good defense, look for mismatches on offense, go "old school" on some people and have fun again. /thumb[1].gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":thumb:" border="0" alt="thumb[1].gif" /> /thumb[1].gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":thumb:" border="0" alt="thumb[1].gif" />

[WoodenFan]

Congrats to the VB girls for coming out after the half and getting yourselves back into the ball game. That's something to build on for the rest on the season. You were aggressive on both ends of the floor, forced the tempo of the game, and got Monterey into foul trouble. Speaking of foul trouble, why would a team that has fought themselves back into a game in the third and fourth quarter, and got your opponent in serious foul trouble, (one starter fouled out, three other starters with 4 fouls each), and with three minutes to go, decide its time to play keep away with a two point lead????????????? Take the ball to them, why stop dictating the tempo now??????? To quote Dennis Green in his infamous post game interview, "we had them where we wanted them, and we let them off the hook!" Again, girls, good effort tonight. /thumb[1].gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":thumb:" border="0" alt="thumb[1].gif" />

[VBHoopster]

You need to be our coach. You keep putting all these posts about our coaches. We don't need to read this stuff. I know you keep tryin to say nice things about us. But you really do run our coaches down you are the one that started all this........why? Please don't stop saying all these things we should do or come out of the stands and volunteer your time!

[VB-booster]

Sad thing about it is this is the 3rd staight loss to Monterey, a team that I feel we are better than. Guess its a good thing we aren't in district 7a. Hope our shots are falling tonight, Pickett Co. girls have a good team as well. Good luck Eaglettes.