Last week of my internship, and I get to do what I have been setting out to do since I was a little kid and that is to be a coach. The team had a couple of big games coming up against some big name schools and I got to participate in the all the gameday operations. That means attending shootarounds, preparing the jerseys for them to wear, giving them my little pre-game peptalk, and actually sitting on the bench taking stats and helping players out individually when they come to the bench on what they can do better. Sometimes I caught myself sounding like I was the head coach because I would start to yell at the players for not doing their assignment or missing a layup, or just telling them good job. I still felt somewhat the same adrenaline rush coaching as I did playing because of how much I love the game of basketball. I can really see myself going far with my coaching career because of how passionate I am about the game, because of how much I study the game, and for the simple fact that basketball has always been a part of my life. This is something I love and I want to be around it for the rest of my life as long as my body and health allows me to be. 

Dragons have to face off against The University of Akron this week! A Division 1 school will be a great test for the Dragons to see where they are really at and to ultimately push them to be a tougher team to beat in the GLIACs. Again, the scouting report was given out but the team was faced with a problem. When dealing with transfer students, their are certain things that they must go through in order to be eligible to play for their new team. The Dragons have a transfer player who is pretty talented but has not yet been cleared to play. This causes a problem for the coaches game plan because now he has to create a whole new game plan for the whole game. Has to motivate new players to score because he lost a big production of points because he can't play. So with that being said, there are so many rules and regulations you must go by and follow in order to stay eligible and to be able to continue to have a successful program, THE RIGHT WAY! 

Well the first scrimmage was this week, and it showed that our team still has work to do. There is a lot of preparation that goes into playing a game and even in this case, a scrimmage. First you have to go through the scouting report. Then, you have to perform the scouting report in practice so that you know how to defend and play against the team they are going against. Last week in my post, I mentioned that teams "Play the way they practice" and that is exactly how they played. Practice a lot of times are very sluggish because the players sometimes are not in the mood to practice or other reasons that they could only tell you. The coaches do their best to motivate players, from where I am sitting, it is very hard to motivate a group of young men that feel that they are grown and don't need anyone telling them what to do. Men are a lot more difficult to deal with than women are. I witnessed it first hand when sitting in on one of the girls practices. They take directions from authority a lot more easier than men do. It's going to take a while but I think that they will come together

The time is finally here! The first practice of the 2012-2013 season is in the books for Tiffin University! On Monday and Tuesday, the Dragons had two-a-day practices for these two days. Two of the hardest practices that they probably will see all year. Nothing the Dragons couldn't take though because they were all for it and full of energy. The only thing is, how do you keep your players motivated like this throughout the season so that they always come to practice and are ready to compete against each other and work hard to accomplish their goals for the season. Often times, players come in ready for the first few days of practice, but as the week goes on, the intensity level goes down. This shouldn't happen with any team. Let alone this team, especially with the competition that they will be facing through out the season. Every minute counts when you're in practice because once you are in the game, the way you practiced is the way that you will play.

Well, the week every athlete can not wait to come has arrived. THE LAST WEEK OF CONDITIONING! All the running, weight lifting, and individual workouts finally coming to an end. You can see and sense the excitement in the players everyday play this week. Everybody is doing a little more extra in their workouts than the normal to try and earn that starting spot, or at least have their name in the back of the coaches mind as they are approaching the first practice. I also did sales this week at the football games to continue to raise money for our program. Still bringing in a lot of business and this will benefit me in the long run because I will not be just limited to one skill. Now I will have the knowledge of coaching but a little knowledge in sales as well.

The season is approaching fast. The more workouts they do now, the more intense they begin to get. Everyone on the team, including the coaches are beginning to get very excited going into this team. The coaches are very pleased with the progress that they are seeing in their young and new players. There is a bright future for a lot of them if they continue to work as hard as they have been in their day to day workouts. Still receiving a great insight on what it takes to become a coach and how much work and preparation it takes in order to prepare for practice. You always have to have an agenda going into practice because it makes practice go by a lot smoother than just coming up with things to do along the way.  Also, you must show that you are the authority figure in practice when dealing with your players. If you do not display that you are the authority of the team, players will lack the discipline and will ultimately cause your program to fail as a whole. Still a lot more to learn from this job! I am excited to finally get ready for the season to start so I be more involved and in depth with the program.

This week was a little different from the other weeks. Last week I mentioned how I would like to be a coach after graduation if I don't continue my basketball career somewhere else. Well this week, I learned how important it is for a basketball team to be in shape for the season from just sitting down and talking to my coach. I also learned how important it is for a team to look like a team. I did inventory this week and helped pass out sweat suits to the players so that they could wear them to a coaches clinic on Sunday.
The coaches clinic was a very interesting event. What we did was take the varsity basketball team to a school called Bucyrus and had them do a workout for an hour in front of many high school coaches. One important thing to remember about this is that coaches are always looking for an advantage in order to win. Winning is always the ultimate goal when it comes to any sport, so what better way for a high school coach to find ways to win than to get advice from a college coach that is at a higher level of coaching than you are. There were also some high school players there watching as our varsity players demonstrated how a typical college varsity practice goes. This is a great experience for them as well because they can catch a quick glimpse of what to look forward to when they complete their high school career and look forward to 4 more intense years of basketball at the next level.
Lastly, every coach there had their own way that they thought would help them to win. Some shared their ways and some didn't. Overall, I thought it was a good experience and would love to try to attend something like that every year.

This week was a lot about repition. As you know the season has not started yet so we are merely doing the same routine every week as of right now. Conditioning during the week, a few open gyms, and taking care of sales during the football games to raise money for the basketball program. I don't know if I've mentioned this in any of my previous posts, but I would like to eventually become a coach. Being around the practices every day is really helping me to learn and understand the time, effort, and dedication it takes to run a successful program and what it takes to be a head coach.
In sales this week, we did very well as a whole. It was homecoming week, and that meant big business since a lot of the alumni were returning to see the football game and to see some familiar faces. I raised over $500 in sales from selling Tiffin apparel. My coach/supervisor was very pleased with the work that I completed this week.

This week was the first week I was allowed to attend workouts and help assist the coaches during workouts with what they needed. For the most part, I kept time for the coaches so that they would not violate NCAA rules and go over the allowed practice time allowed for each day. I also learned a lot this week about marketing for our sports team. Since we are in a small school, with a very small population in the city, it is very hard for us to bring in big crowds for our basketball games. Coach Hill talked a lot about the team showing up to other sporting events and making appearences so that other teams would come and show support when we are in season. Sound of a crowd at a game can really make or break a team.
Another one of my duties this week was to do inventory on the merchandise that we sell for the football games in order to raise money for our basketball program. Let's just say, this was not the highlight of my week, but is a job that must be done. Sells went really well this week as a result of the type of merchandise that we were selling. We have four more home games that we must work to raise money for the season. Overall this was a very busy week in the basketball world. The exciting part is, the season isn't even here yet so there is a lot more to come.

 Not much going on during this week on the job. I had a lot of meetings with the coaches to further explain what my duties would be for the whole season and to add on any other duties they felt that the coaches felt I could handle. Next week I will be required to attend all workouts that they have and assist the coaches during these workouts whether that be working the scoreboard, handling equipment, or running errands for the coach. I only had one major task this week and that was washing the practice uniforms for the team.