Little history: I have been the JV Boys Head/Varsity Assistant Coach for the last 8 seasons. Five seasons at a school in a different state and then I was brought over here to my HS alma mater for the last three seasons specifically to take over the Varsity Head of 30 years (multiple state championships, over 10 Final Fours, state HOF, 300+ wins). He has told me that he is likely done this year (but last year he said the same thing).

Question 1) When hiring your staff, did you have complete control from 5th grade on up? Did you specifically tell them what they must run? Both coaches I have coached under were pretty hand's off.

Question 2) Do you feel it is more important to have the "better" basketball coach as a Varsity Assistant or JV Head coach. We currently have 3 coaches for 9-12 (JV Head, Varsity Head, Varsity Assistant).

Question 3) I'm confident and ready for this next step in my journey. I have coached almost a decade of JV ball under two very different but both successful coaches (including the current one who coached me when I played) and am convinced I'm ready to take over the reigns. However, I'm wondering if any of you have had any experience taking over for a beloved and celebrated coach as I will with a long record of accomplishments and such an amazing track record? I'm worried that I will forever be compared to "him", no matter what happens, good or bad. I know this WILL happen and I am responsible because I did come back to my alma mater but this is town where I live and I work in the HS so it was too good to pass up. Just wondering if this has happened to anyone else.

Thanks and keep winning,

Coach

Ok, lets try this again.... I had my reply finhished and all of a suddden GONE! :-( Hopeully I can remember all that great stuff LOL My answeres will be a little shorter tihs time.



Conratulations, especially IF tihs works out for you... you must be in a very good program - that has to be a good feeling.



I only had control of my staff at our school. I only wish I had control of the feeder schools.... our problem was that we had several towns feeding into us... NOT a good thing. I know of several coaches that had complete control and had good programs because of it. Jerry Liggett, Quincy Illinois - Virgik Fletcher, Collinsiville Illinois - two great programs.



Remember that your program starts at the bottom.... so your players will need a good solid foundation of fundamentals and learning your system.... so my vote goes to the JV coach. For a few years I was not blessed with a lot of good coaches, most being out of the building. Finally (even though they were all out of the building) I got 3 other head coaches and one guy that played for me when he was a sophomore. We had some great meetings and they came up with several ideas that helped our programs win games. It's important that you make sure that your coaches feel important to your progam.



Don't worry about what the other coach did or did not do. Remember, you can only make 5 sets of parents happy.
I took over for a very good coach, didn't have those credentials but he won... I changed things slowly and did almost everything different than we were doing.

Let be give you some advice that a 15 year old sophomore ( I brought him up ) gave me after a few weeks.... he told me..... JUST BE YOURSELF........ I never forgot that... and he is now very successful in a company called Athletico.

By the way, I know a coach at Wheeling Park HS that was in the same situation you are right now. He cleaned up a few things that he didn't like and has a great program now.... been in the finals of state a cuople of times already. Young guy who knows the game.... very classy. Good luck

There are a lot of sayings.... as coaches, we are only as good as our last win..... and the kid played a great game (they won) A lot of coaching errors when we lost. Here are twp of mine - what people called SARisms... " TAKE CARE OF THE LITTLE THINGS AND THE BIG THINGS WILL TAKE CARE OF THEMSELVES. " And -- " Don't let them do anything in practice that you don't want them to do in games. "

The high schools in my area that work with their respective feeder teams are the more dominant schools. It would have helped tremendously to have our feeder high school reach out with regards to their systems and concepts. Having someone from the JV or V staff coming around to a practice or conducting a skill session, dropping by a few games, getting to know the kids. Basically, connecting and supporting. From my perspective as an 8th grade feeder coach, it's a huge deal to have the support of your feeder high school.

Rob,

I wish I could have done that.... I went to sevreal games from one Jr Hi .... trust me, he was not going to listen to anything I had to say. He was a good coach, taught m2m and did some other good things, so why start trouble. I did get to know a lot of those kids.

Because of the different towns that fed into our school... small schools, it was impossible to have any kind of relationship with them.... I wish you were coaching one of the schools that fed into our school. There are some schools/coaches that didn't want any part of a HS coach. Paranoid? :-) How about several schools where the kids had a choice as to where they could go.... that was a joke. I could walk outside our South entrance, throw a stone across the fence and hit a house.... those kids had a choice.

It was so much fun beating them.

Ken-

Interesting about the feeder teams in your area. Where I live, the only "real" winter competitive league (our 8th grade boys divisions had 92 participating teams this year - two competitive levels) is based on a feeder team concept. Their intention is to prevent "super teams" from forming along with promoting kids playing together who will be attending the same high school. All participating teams must have at least 60% of their team feeding into the high school they represent, based on a few qualifying criteria. We also have the same deal here where kids can apply to go to a high school out of their area. Fortunately, 100% of the kids on my 8th grade team are all going to the feeder high school we represent.

Some of the better high schools who are heavily involved with their feeder teams require 100% of their 8th graders at the higher competitive level to prove they are attending the high school. I think it's a great way to strengthen your high school program and give the kids who are really attending your high school a shot at making the team. Plus, what a benefit for the high school coaches if you have kids coming in who already know your program.

Rob -

We have a Junior Demon program.... 3 teams, 6-7-8th graders..... but they aren't involved with their Jr Hi teams....or should I say coaches. They don't seem to get along well with each other.
They started an AAU team last year and are going to involve more levels this year...... this is the FIRST step in building their program. He took over 3 years ago and the program was a disaster ........ last year I told him to get rid of all the trash in the program.... it was almost like starting over.... had some good kids but there are NO bigs.... not a good thing in today's game.
In Chicago kids can go to any school they want... and don't worry about eligibility - they will take care of it LOL


I bet your high school coaches love you and the kids you have coached. When I coached a Catholic school team, they played all 3 sports .... we had no gym and even though they rented a gym for practices, its not the same. But football, that was a different thing... they loved our kids, they knew how to block and tackle and they weren't afraid to hit.



That is a great deal for the high school coaches....hopefully they spend some time with you and your kids. What a way to build a program. You have to understand what our school was / is like.... when I left, there were 57 different languages spoken in the building... more like 75 now. I didn't know there were that many. While its great to get along with all those different cultures.... it doesn't make for good athletic teams..... but it was fun coaching them.

Thank you for all the great comments. Please keep them coming. I believe I've built up a lot of goodwill and respect over the years. They are just big shoes I guess. I spoke to a coach who was in a similar situation. He said the first couple years there was a lot of comparisons but after a few years, people just accept you as you are and stop making comparisons. I'm obviously very excited for this next step.