Podcast

[Elder statesman 22]

For anyone who likes to hear sports stories from the past, check out SWVA hoops podcast on Spotify.  FYI, this is focused mainly on far SWVA up to this point.   In particular, I have enjoyed hearing all the various successful coaches discuss their different approaches to the game.  Some of the notable coaches have been Scotty Vermillion (Gate City), Misty Miller (Honaker), Rick Goodman (Council), John McCrary (Twin Springs among other schools), Robin Dotson (JJ Kelly/Wise Central), Zach Moore (Union), Aaron Williams (Castlewood, Abingdon, Burton), as well as other coaches and successful players from the past.  As an old school mind, I appreciate those coaches who have been mainstays at their respective schools and enjoy hearing about their methods of practice and preparation each season as well as their involvement and guidance of their respective youth programs.  It is very evident that the schools with the best youth programs are the same ones that have the success year after year.  Honaker and Wise have great youth programs for their girls' programs as does Gate City and Twin Springs with the boys' programs. 

Common attributes for successful youth programs are the willing and capable volunteers as well as the leadership of the Varsity coaches to give direction on how these youth teams should be coached.  Coach Dotson, for example, relayed that he was not in favor of players going off on various travel teams.  His goal was to provide the opportunity for his girls to play together at every level in order to achieve the chemistry and success needed to excel at the varsity level for their program.  

Another key feature for the better programs seems to be having numerous assistant coaches who are on the same page with the head coach and are able to spread out the workload to better prepare players for the season.  Coach McCrary was very complimentary to many of his assistant coaches and their roles with his teams.  He stated that his job was to be hard on the kids and push them out of their comfort zone and his assistant coaches were there to then coach those same players up as well as listen to their questions/complaints and help them understand where the coach is trying to lead them.  Each assistant coach has a role.  Some are there to work with individuals on shooting, post moves, defense, learning plays, etc.  Others are there to help have practice plans flow smoothly to be more efficient.  

Basically, all we see from the stands are the wins and losses.  It's eye opening to hear how humble some of these coaches are when they begin deflecting their accomplishments and giving credit to all those behind the scenes that we, as fans, don't really notice.