BRIAN ANSBERRY – PADUA (OH) HIGH SCHOOL BOYS’ BASKETBALL HEAD COACH – EPISODE 679

Website – https://paduafranciscan.com/athletics/teams/boys-basketball/

Email – bansberry@hotmail.com

Twitter – @CoachAnsberry

Brian Ansberry is entering his 7^th season as the Boys’ Basketball Head Coach at Padua High School in Cleveland, Ohio.  In 2022, Ansberry reached 100 wins as a head coach while leading the Bruins to their 2^nd straight season with 15 or more wins for the first time in school history. 

Ansberry previously served as the head coach at Lake Ridge Academy in North Ridgeville, Ohio for three seasons where he was named the D4 Lorain County Coach of the Year in 2016.  Ansberry started his coaching career at his alma mater, St. Edward High School where he filled numerous roles, from freshman assistant to varsity assistant, under the guidance of head coach Eric Flannery.

Ansberry was a three sport athlete at St. Ed’s where he played on the 1998 state championship team coached by Flannery.

If you’re looking to improve your coaching please consider joining the Hoop Heads Mentorship Program.  We believe that having a mentor is the best way to maximize your potential and become a transformational coach. By matching you up with one of our experienced mentors you’ll develop a one on one relationship that will help your coaching, your team, your program, and your mindset.  The Hoop Heads Mentorship Program delivers mentoring services to basketball coaches at all levels through our team of experienced Head Coaches. Find out more at hoopheadspod.com or shoot me an email directly mike@hoopheadspod.com

Be sure to follow us on Twitter and Instagram @hoopheadspod for the latest updates on episodes, guests, and events from the Hoop Heads Pod and check out the Hoop Heads Podcast Network for more great basketball content including The Green Light, Courtside Culture and our team focused NBA Podcasts:  Knuck if you Buck, The 305 Culture, & Lakers Fast Break We’re looking for more NBA podcasters interested in hosting their own show centered on a particular team. Email us info@hoopheadspod.com if you’re interested in learning more and bringing your talent to our network.

Grab pen and paper before you listen to this episode with Brian Ansberry, Boys’ Basketball Head Coach at Padua High School in Cleveland, Ohio.

What We Discuss with Brian Ansberry

• Growing up in a big family playing basketball, football, and baseball – whatever was in-season
• Playing 3 sports in high school at St. Ed’s in Cleveland
• “As long as the family has communication with the coaches and the coaches can talk to each other, I think it (playing 3 sports) can work.”
• His decision to go to Ohio University and try to walk on as opposed to playing D3 basketball
• The walk-on tryout experience with Coach Larry Hunter & Geno Ford at Ohio University
• The path from student manager for a college team to college coaching
• Working camp at St. Ed’s while he was in college and how that sparked his interest in coaching
• His first coaching job with the freshman at St. Ed’s and working for his high school coach Eric Flannery
• Learning to understand how players process losses differently from him
• The two big lessons he learned from Coach Flannery – Organization & Relationships
• Getting his first head coaching job at Lake Ridge Academy
• Going from a successful Division 1 High School at St. Ed’s to a small Division 4 High School that was rebuilding
• The need to have his team prepared for anything an opposing team might throw at them
• Why the opportunity at Padua was the right fit for him
• “If your philosophy goes from the binder, from the paper out to the court and into the players and into your DNA, that’s how you’re going to build your program.”
• Connecting with alumni to build support for the program
• Using a survey to get to know the kids on his team
• Asking players what their favorite drills are
• The ability to be fluid as a coach and make changes to practice as necessary
• Getting a feel for when and where to stop a drill to make a teaching point
• Using film to show positive examples & emphasize your culture
• Watching a few quick snippets of film with his team at halftime of the JV game
• “There are three main things that are going to win you a game. It’s turnovers, rebounding and shooting percentage.”
• The momentum that builds once your program has been established and the culture is right
• “Expectations are to win now and to go deep into the tournament.”
• “The challenge is to get them to buy in collectively as a group and then to then come together and be able to accomplish things that you can’t do by yourself.”
• “You have to be that positive light for him and steer him in the right direction in the classroom, on the court or with something that’s going on outside the court.”

Like this show? Please leave us a review here — even one sentence helps! Consider including your Twitter handle so we can thank you personally!

Become a Patron!

We’re excited to partner with Dr. Dish, the world’s best shooting machine! Mention the Hoop Heads Podcast when you place your order and get $300 off a brand new state of the art Dr. Dish Shooting Machine!

Prepare like the pros with the all new FastDraw and FastScout. FastDraw has been the number one play diagramming software for coaches for years, and now with it’s integrated web platform, coaches have the ability to add video to plays and share them directly to their players Android and iPhones via their mobile app. Coaches can also create customized scouting reports,  upload and send game and practice film straight to the mobile app. Your players and staff have never been as prepared for games as they will after using FastDraw & FastScout. You’ll see quickly why FastModel Sports has the most compelling and intuitive basketball software out there! In addition to a great product, they also provide basketball coaching content and resources through their blog and playbank, which features over 8,000 free plays and drills from their online coaching community. For access to these plays and more information, visit fastmodelsports.com or follow them on Twitter @FastModel.  Use Promo code HHP15 to save 15%

Your first impression is everything when applying for a new coaching job.  A professional coaching portfolio is the tool that highlights your coaching achievements and philosophies and, most of all, helps separate you and your abilities from the other applicants.

The key to landing a new coaching job is to demonstrate to the hiring committee your attention to detail, level of preparedness, and your professionalism.  Not only does a coaching portfolio allow you to exhibit these qualities, it also allows you to present your personal philosophies on coaching, leadership, and program development in an organized manner.

The Coaching Portfolio Guide is an instructional, membership-based website that helps you develop a personalized portfolio.  Each section of the portfolio guide provides detailed instructions on how to organize your portfolio in a professional manner.  The guide also provides sample documents for each section of your portfolio that you can copy, modify, and add to your personal portfolio.

THANKS BRIAN ANSBERRY

If you enjoyed this episode with Brian Ansberry let him know by clicking on the link below and sending him a quick shout out on Twitter:

Click here to thank Brian Ansberry on Twitter!

Click here to let Mike & Jason know about your number one takeaway from this episode!

And if you want us to answer your questions on one of our upcoming weekly NBA episodes, drop us a line at mike@hoopheadspod.com.

TRANSCRIPT FOR BRIAN ANSBERRY – PADUA (OH) HIGH SCHOOL BOYS’ BASKETBALL HEAD COACH – EPISODE 679

[00:00:00] Mike Klinzing: Hello and welcome to the Hoop Heads Podcast. It’s Mike Klinzing here with my co-host Jason Sunkle tonight, and we are pleased to welcome to the pod. Brian Ansberry the head boys basketball coach at Padua High School here in Cleveland, Ohio, Brian, welcome to the Hoop Heads Pod

[00:00:13] Brian Ansberry: Mike, thanks so much for having me, Jason, thanks for having me been a big fan of yours.  So honored to be on the show.

[00:00:20] Mike Klinzing: Appreciate that. It’s always nice to know that there’s more than one person out there that’s listening to it besides Jason and I. So that’s always a plus, excited to have you on, looking forward to diving into all the things that you’ve been able to do in your coaching career.

Let’s start by going back in time. Tell us a little bit about how you got into the game of basketball when you were younger and just what some of your first experiences were with the sport.

[00:00:41] Brian Ansberry: Yeah, no problem. I grew up on the west side of Cleveland in the west park neighborhood and my first memory of playing basketball was probably like in second grade.

I went to our lady of angels grade school and they had like an intermural league in the gym. And that was the first time I remember really playing. And then I just, I just loved it from the first time just getting out there I’m from one of five kids from, from a big Irish Catholic family.

And sports was always a big thing in our household and having older brothers and an older sister, and I’m the second youngest having a little brother, but it was always something that we were doing. We were playing every sport. I played basketball, football, and baseball, and that just started beyond my journey of athletics and then being involved with myself.

So I went through grade school, playing basketball, football, and baseball. When I was younger, my favorite sport was whatever one was in. So and I, I loved watching all the, all the local teams, Browns, Indians, calves keeping up watching my older brothers play and watching the kids in the neighborhood play.

From then I went on to St. Edward high school, that high school is something that was just ingrained in my family, both sides of my family. And my mom’s side of my dad’s side were big St. Ed’s family. So I grew up watching those teams and those guys play in front of me. And when I got to St Ed’s, I continued and was lucky enough to be able to play all three sports, baseball, basketball, and football and kind of the same deal.

I started sort gravitating more towards basketball cause I started to like it more compared to the other two sports. But I still, wasn’t doing one sport year round. And I think that helped me develop as a, as a player, as an athlete. And then from there went on to Ohio University. At the time I graduated, I was kind of looking at the idea of playing division three college basketball.

Going to a school and being a regular student. So I settled on you like this, I settle on and I’m going to go to OU I’m going to walk on and, and make the basketball team . So went there and tried that for a couple years. And, and coach fly, did me a solid and reached out to the coach. It was Larry Hunter at the time.

And gave his word that I was going to work hard and all that stuff. But went out there and obviously did not make the team, but it was a great experience and went through college from there. And then that’s kind of where I kind of will stop it there. And that’s just kind of my upbringing through, through sports.

[00:03:02] Mike Klinzing: I have two questions related to what you said that as you’re talking, that, that jumped out at me. So let’s go with, I’m going to go with the, I’ll go with the high school question first. So a three sport athlete at St. Ed’s. When you think about that, Today and the feasibility of first of all, a being good enough to be able to do that with as high as the skill level is across the board in high school sports.

And then you think about the demands on kids’ time, both in season and off season, and not even the demands that are placed on them, but their high school coach. But just the fact that if you’re a basketball player in the spring, most kids who are playing basketball, right, they’re playing AAU and baseball, you’re playing, you’re playing summer, travel, baseball and football.

We all know football coaches are wanting kids to be in the weight room all the time. And they have, they have summer practice and all the things that, that, that entails. So when you look back on that experience and you think about how difficult that would be today, just talk a little bit about, I guess, a little bit more about your multi-sport and how you felt like playing each one of those maybe had an impact on you as a, as an athlete, as a leader, and eventually as a coach.

[00:04:16] Brian Ansberry: Right. I think I look back sometimes and I think if I would’ve maybe specialized, or maybe by sophomore year, just stuck with one, maybe I would’ve been a little bit better basketball player, or maybe could’ve got a little more playing time in a certain sport, but I, I look back and say, I wouldn’t, I wouldn’t trade it for the world.

So going in freshman year football, season’s the first season and at St. Ed’s there’s a ton of kids. I played quarterback, there was five or six quarterbacks and we’re all, everyone was the stud in their grade school. So we’re battling it out. And I kind of split time the, the first year with the guy in my class Daver who was a great guy, great athlete.

And then from there, it was, I remember vividly being in football and basketball conditioning, starting up, and I had followed the program enough to know like, okay, I know basketball conditioning starts while the guys are in football, but. I remember like kind of sneaking in the gym and kind of taking a look, checking out the competition.

And, and of course, like the older guys watching those guys, I just wanted to kind of be there. So we would start practice like a half hour after school. And sometimes I would sneak up in the gym if we were watching Phil, like the varsity was watching film that freshman didn’t start till later I would sometimes sneak in the, in the gym with my football pants on and try to get in a game before, before one of the coaches saw me and said, Hey, no football players allowed.

So that was a vivid memory of mine. So then I’d go out for football practice, but I was in shape obviously, but we, as Mike basketball shape and football shape are two different two different animals, for sure, for sure. But what went out for the team freshman year for basketball and we had we had one team that was St that’s.

Now has two teams for freshman level. and again, it was a grind. I mean, there was kids from all over the city that, that were really good. And I had gone to camp almost every year, since fifth grade, so I knew kind of the kids coming in. So I knew I was a pretty solid player, but you’re still nervous as heck going out there.

For sure go through that and make the team and getting a lot of playing time, starting in a lot of games. So then all of a sudden, I, I love basketball as I was just ingrained in it. The season just watching our JV and varsity teams play and then season’s over and then baseball season starts.

So again, miss the conditioning for baseball. We go in and we’re, we’re throwing a ball around inside mills van lines you know, warehouse of course we’re not on a field. And freshman year actually got cut from the baseball team and that was the first time ever got cut from anything in my life.

So. I was sitting there like, and then I’m thinking, well, maybe I maybe I should have done more done more of this. So that actually has helped me as a coach. And as, as a person, because I can now talk to kids that we have to cut or a kid that’s not getting playing time. So fast forward sophomore year played all three sports, junior year played all three sports.

And that junior year was just a magical year because basketball. I was a junior on the varsity coming off the bench, not playing a whole ton, but I actually got in more than I than I would’ve because we were blowing teams out because we had Logan and Clancy and Steve Lepore, Pete Latkovic and all those guys.

And that experience and just being part of that first state title team in school history was just, it was, it was outstanding. And then the baseball team that. Won the state championship in baseball. And I was a junior on the JV and played up with the varsity in our spring tournament when we went down to Alabama.

But I wasn’t on the playoff roster, but I was still felt like I was part of the team. But that was just, that was an awesome year. And then senior year so the same thing, I played all three sport. I think Mike, like how you’re saying, I remember the football coaches when I was a going into the senior year, because I was still kind of neck and neck with the guy.

It was in my grade and I remember the football coaches saying, Hey, Hey, we’re having throwing workouts. You have to make sure you’re here. At the time I was playing in the VASJ summer league out at Borromeo and I was going, I was like picking one over the other. And that was the first time I really had like resistance where I was like, well, I don’t know what to do so right.

All the other times, it kind of like worked things out, but like I said, I didn’t play AAU and AAU wasn’t like AAU at how it is now.

[00:08:26] Mike Klinzing: Yeah. It was totally different then.

[00:08:28] Brian Ansberry: Yeah. But it was a great, I think, I mean, I’ve seen kids do it. I’ve coached kids that have been three sport guys.

So I think as long as the, the family has communication with the coaches and the coaches can talk to each other, I think it, I think it can work. It’s tough. It definitely work, but there’s so much pressure to specialize. That’s why you don’t see it as much. I was the only one on the basketball team that plays three sports, but we had a lot of like two sport athletes on the basketball.

So it was just kind of one of those things.

[00:08:55] Mike Klinzing: I think that coaching communication piece and that the adults in those situations have to be supportive. And I think one of the things that, again, as a coach, selfishly, you clearly want your guys to be around for your off season workouts and the things that you’re doing and the time you’re putting in.

And yet at the same time, I think you have to. As an adult, you have to, you have to be there with the best interest of the kid in mind, in addition to the best interest of what you’re doing in your program. And so it’s, that’s a fine line. That’s a fine line to walk and I get it. You know, you talk to a lot of coaches and they’re like, I want I want our guys there in the off season.

I want to be in a part of it, which is completely understandable. And yet on the other side, you can look at it and say, man, as a, as a high school athlete, or as the parent of a high school athlete, you only get one chance to do that. Right? I mean, you got, you got to ex you got to experience 11, 11 seasons of high school sports.

And a lot of kids only get to experience four and some get to experience none. And so it’s just as an adult, I think it’s it’s a fine line to walk there as you’re trying to facilitate a kid, being able to play multiple sports and yet still wanting ’em around selfishly sort of for your own, for your own program.

I think it just comes back to you have to, you have to really do what’s in the best interest of the kid. And as you build a relationship with that kid and their family, you kind of figure out how to navigate that whole thing, but it’s definitely tougher than it than it’s ever been before to play even two.

And certainly three is really man, that’s, that’s a huge challenge. Like you said, there’s still a few kids that can do it, but, but they’re few and far between all right. Question about the college experience. So I’m always, I’m always curious what. what the, the, what the walkout walk out, walkout, tryout process look like.

Like what do you remember about what they had you do and just that whole experience of going through a walkout tryout,

[00:10:49] Brian Ansberry:  I would assume it’s different at each, at each school. And now that I’ve got older and talked to college coaches and have, have had kids in the situation where, Hey my, my player wants to be a walkin.

What, what is your process? And but again, back there then with social media and stuff was, I, I see it all the time. Sometimes they’re on social media saying, Hey, we need guys to try out for walk on spots. I remember my situation was I reached out to coach fly and I said, Hey I’m down at OU.

And you know, and I had talked to him cause I had, I had met with him before the season or before the school year ended and said Hey, I’m having a tough time making a college decision. I don’t know if I wanted to go to OU or Dayton, or if I want to go to division three, I think I was looking at maybe going to Hiram.

I never even visited the campus, but they had showed interest and I looked at it.

[00:11:39] Mike Klinzing: The pull of sports is so strong. Right. And it’s like, it’s like the school where it is the co whatever. It doesn’t matter. I just, if they want me to play, that’s where, that’s where I’m going. That’s how, that’s how I ended up at Kent.  I could tell you that.

[00:11:50] Brian Ansberry: Right. And, and in hindsight, I mean, it was probably one of those Hey, we’re going to send this out to all the St. Ed’s kids. And if we get one of those guys and did they, did they physically remember me from a game? Probably not, but you know I was kind of wrestling.

Like I still loved basketball, wanted to play. So fast forward to I’m there. And I reach out to Coach Flan. I don’t know if I called him or I sent him an email. I don’t even know what I. But I said would you mind calling the coach and just putting in a good word that that you coached me and, and things like that.

And he’s like, yeah, I’ll do what I’ll do whatever I can. So I didn’t, I didn’t know if he did or not. I figured he did because I had a good relationship with him, but you never know back back then. But I remember walking in, we walked into the con at OU and there was probably about 15, 20 kids in there and we walk in and Larry Hunter was the head coach then.

So he walked in and their whole staff was there. Their players had just got done with the workout and I remember Geno Ford was the assistant coach. And Geno Ford came walking up to you and I knew he was cause I was a basketball junkie. And he came up and said, Hey, Brian you know, I talked to coach Flannery you know, he mentioned, he mentioned, said you’re a solid player and stuff looking forward to seeing you work out for us.

So I was like, holy crap, this is great. Like Geno Ford, the assistant coaches came up to me and just like, so I thought like, Hey, this is good. At least like they know who I am fast forward. I think we did. We did one day of like a two hour workout with drills and we played and they brought us in and Larry Hunter was pretty much like, well, we’re not going to take anybody this year.

So thanks for coming out. Thanks for your time, which now I know as a coach, they probably had a spot if some stud came out and blew, blew their socks off. So he said keep working at it, you know? So I just, I walked back to my dorm, just kind of going like, Hey, at least I gave it a try and I wasn’t disappointed or anything.

I was just kind of. I didn’t know it was going to be one day or anything like that. So I did try, I did then the next year, because I had talked to some of the players I knew on the team that the next year they had like a couple spots open. So they had another tryout the next year. Now the next year I actually, they actually did go through a little longer.

We had two days and then they had me and another kid come back. So there was two kids came back and they’re like, well, we’re going to take one of you guys. So I’m, I’m in the spot. And I was probably in the best shape of my life and playing the best basketball of my life because I kept with it. I did not, they took the other kids, so I did not make the team.

I was kind of bummed out right. Still went to all the games and stuff and then junior and senior year just kind of played in the wreck and stuff. But yeah, it, it was a unique, I I’m glad I went for it and just tried and, and tried it because if I didn’t I’d sit there and say, well, what if I did this.

Things like that. I look back at hindsight, Mike, I should have just been a student manager. I didn’t know. I wanted to be a coach.

[00:14:36] Mike Klinzing: See, isn’t that, isn’t that funny? That’s hilarious that you say that, because I’ve said on the podcast a couple times with different guests, especially guys, because that have to sort of took that managerial route.

Because when I was, when I was playing, I’m going to be a hundred percent honest. And I’ve said this before. It never once crossed my mind ever that a manager was a manager because they might want to get into coaching. Like my thought was my, my thought was man, these guys, just man, they like hoops and they want to hang around with the players and they want to be a part of, they want to be a part of the team and Hey, that’s pretty cool if they want to do that.

[00:15:17] Jason Sunkle: Now you’ve got like the student manager leagues and things that go on like the right. I know like the championships it’s against each other. Like the SEC has a student manager league and it’s like, oh my gosh, this is awesome. And the guys that probably maybe could have played if there was a division four basketball, like there’s not like other than they could have played there, but they get to play as student managers.

And they’re also probably somewhat, they’re probably more well versed in the game because they’re around practice all the time.

[00:15:51] Mike Klinzing: You know what I mean? Like, yeah. I’d be honest. I almost think if you knew going into school that you wanted to be a coach, I would be hard pressed to come up with a better plan for you than to be a student manager in all honesty.

Like, I think you just, the amount of time that you get to spend with that coaching staff and look, you’re probably doing a lot of things that are not super exciting, but guess what if you’re going to be an entry level. Volunteer coach at a division one level, which a lot of guys do, or you’re going to go and be a division three assistant, or you’re going to be a grad assistant somewhere.

You’re going to be doing a lot of things that you’re not necessarily going to be excited about doing that have to get done in order for a program to be successful. And to me, the number of people that we’ve talked to that have gone that route, I, I would say Brian, you’re a hundred percent, right. That if you really, if you really think about it and you knew that you wanted to be a coach, you could totally see where being a manager.

Would’ve been a tremendous opportunity to sort of start, start your career before, before you even get out of school.

[00:17:00] Brian Ansberry: Right. I think, and Jason brought a good point. Like, I didn’t even know that there was college coaches that were managers like Lawrence Frank. I like when I had heard his story, I’m like, oh, I didn’t, I didn’t even know like that, that, I mean, this is, I graduated high school.

And so this is 2001, right? I’m at OU in 2001. That’s the timeframe. That, that kind of makes me think we had managers when I was playing at Ed’s, but when I went back to coaching or when I started coaching at Ed’s, the student managers that have gone through St. Ed’s with coach Flan have gone on guys that I’ve had, or been an assistant.

And they’ve been under us, have gone on to be college coaches, division one college coaches assistants like so without a doubt, that is, that is totally true now. But back then me not knowing what I wanted to do or anything like that. It’s you look back in hindsight. So it’s interesting.

[00:17:49] Mike Klinzing: Yeah, the internet wasn’t available to help you figure some of this stuff out.

[00:17:52] Brian Ansberry: Yeah. You didn’t know anyone else that did that.

[00:17:54] Mike Klinzing: Right. For sure. But it certainly, again, it’s just, it’s a completely viable way to go. So you said you didn’t, at that time, when you’re going to school, you didn’t know you wanted to be a coach. Was it, was it ever in the back of your head or was it just something that when you graduated and you looked around, you’re like, man, I I’d still like to be involved in the game or just, how did you come to the conclusion that coaching was, where you wanted to end up, obviously coach fly had a huge influence on you.

It’s obvious from the conversation, but just talk a little bit about how the, how the origins of you becoming a coach.

[00:18:26] Brian Ansberry: I would come back every, when I was playing at Ed’s, I would work camp. I would work our youth camp every summer. And. When I went to OU and I was still chasing the walk on dream, I’d come back and work camp.

And even my junior, I would come back every summer and work camp. And it, it was great. It was just a connection because that, that brotherhood at St Ed’s I’d I knew the guys that were younger than me and some of the older guys would come back and some of the assistant coaches that maybe moved on and it was a way for me to make a little bit of money in, in the summer and then be around the game.

And we usually play open gym after playing with the current guys and just being a basketball junkie, I loved it. But as probably, maybe like my junior and senior year, I thought about it. I was like, man talking to some of the guys and I, I knew basketball. I wasn’t going to be playing anymore, but I loved the game so much.

I kind of thought about it, but I didn’t think about it like long. I never had like an aha moment where I was like, Hey, I want, I want coach. It was probably my first year out of college. I was kind of. I was hanging around ads, playing open gym, just with some of my buddies and some of the current players.

And some of my teammates before me had started coaching, like G Barone, who I was on the JV when he was on varsity, he was a freshman coach. Pete Lackovic had just started being a freshman assistant coach and those guys were starting to coach. And then I kind of thought like, Hey, this maybe something I can do.

And I knew those guys they’re friends of mine. So that was kind of when I first started and my coaching journey, I was in the summer at a summer workout probably 2005, 2004, 2005. That was my first year. And I asked Flan. I said, Hey Flan. Do you have any coaching positions open with the freshman team, because at that point they had two.

And at the time he didn’t because he had Geno was coaching. I think Tim Smith was coaching. Pete Lackovic was coaching. Someone else was there and he’s like, He’s like, you can, you can help out. He’s like, I really don’t have any spots open, but you’re more than welcome to come around, you know? Just whatever you want to do.

So I took that as all. I’m just going to, I’ll just kind of hang out. I’m like hanging out in the gym and well, it ended up that a spot opened up. So that was my first year. I was actually G Barlow’s assistant with one of the freshman, freshman green team. So I kind of like stepped into it, but I, I like telling that story because at the, at the moment there was no spot open.

Right. So I could have just been like, okay. And just kind of forgot about it, but I still hung out and said, yeah, I’ll just, I’ll hang around whatever you need. You know, let me know. And that’s kind of how I walked into my first coaching position as assistant and from then on I was hooked.

[00:21:01] Mike Klinzing: What do you remember about that first year and what got you hooked?

What was it about coaching and that first experience that made you say, Hey, this is I’m in the right place.

[00:21:09] Brian Ansberry: I just think I just like giving back to the kids and because I had such a good experience with basketball and I had coaches who I looked up to and I enjoyed having them as coaches, whether I was a starter, whether I was a guy getting minutes off the bench, I truly enjoyed being there and kind of being a, I was a point guard.

So I was a student of the game. I was basketball junkie, I’m watching videos and reading books and stuff like that. But just coaching and being able, I found out that I was comfortable like leading kids and having, having a voice where you see some coaches are a little soft spoken and they’re still, they still may be great coaches, but I was comfortable speaking out loud in front of groups of guys that we were talking about basketball and just seeing them and helping them through it just, you felt back like you were back part of a team and being that, and then being able to help them from a different role, Hey, I’m not playing anymore, but I’m coaching.

And it was at my Alma mater and it was at a place I loved, it was just. I think that helped that it was at St. Ed’s. I still think I would’ve been a coach, but I really just, I enjoyed every, every minute I’d stay and watch varsity practice. I’d help out playing I’d watch film, I’d go scout, do all that.

It was a crash course into coaching and it was awesome.

[00:22:27] Mike Klinzing: What’s something that you were bad at, right at the beginning,

[00:22:32] Brian Ansberry: Probably just kind of, probably just watching, watching our varsity and thinking, okay. I can just do whatever the varsity staff’s doing. I can yell at the refs. I can yell at the refs like Flan yells at the refs.

I could you know, I’m going to get a call here. I can call a set, play, and it’s going to work. But we got five 11 guards instead of six foot, three guards or stuff like that. I think just realizing, I mean, I knew what was going on, but at the same time, I think you, you realize, okay,  this is a freshman level.

Like it’s a little different realizing every kid, there is not 100% a basketball junkie. They may be good at basketball, but that may not be what they eat, sleep and drink it all the time. I remember vividly the next year when I was the next year I was head coach of one of the teams.

So it was my first year being a freshman head coach. And we got back. I think we might’ve, we lost a game. I don’t know if it was VAs J or somebody. And we were driving the school vans and I drove back, got back to St. Ed’s and varsity just finished practice. I walked in the office and Flan asking how’d the game go?

I said, oh, we lost. And I was so like, bomb. I’m like, I’m like flying we just drove home and there’s guys in the van, like they were kind of like just, they were fine with it. Like they were kind of like joking around. You know, not that they didn’t care, but, and I was just like, no, I know what you mean.

And he, and he goes, Brian, let me tell you something. He goes, you have to realize that number one, they’re kids and not everybody takes losses or wins even the same way you did. And he’s like the earlier you can remember that. And it’s nothing like they’re disrespecting the game and it wasn’t anything crazy.

I was just kind of like, I’m like, if we didn’t lose a whole lot when I was playing, so I was fortunate and I know I was fortunate with that, but I was like, if I were lost, I’d be devastated. I wouldn’t. He goes, yeah, but everybody’s not like that. So that helped me as a, as a young coach realized, because I probably would’ve won a practice the next day and said like Hey guys, last night, some of you guys really didn’t take it serious.

I don’t think you’re in it. You know? And I realized that’s not the case. You know a kid may just be moving on or that’s how he’s coping with the loss. He’s not going to be quiet, not talk to his parents when he gets home or be grumpy in school, you know? So that, that helped me a lot.

[00:24:55] Mike Klinzing: That sounds really familiar.  Brian, that sounds like the, that, that sounds exactly how high school Mike Klinzing would’ve handled that situation. For sure. I used to hate to show up when I was playing, I used to hate to show up in school. If there was a day that we lost to come to school the next day. Oh, I was miserable. I was absolutely miserable.

And that was a hard thing. What you just described is a hard thing, as I think, as a young coach, especially if you’re somebody who played, like to see kids exactly. As you described, like on the bus and you’re just like, how can they do that? Like I just don’t, I don’t under, I don’t under, I don’t understand it.

Like I can’t understand that mentality. And yet the advice that FLA gave you is a hundred percent spot on that. Not everybody processes it in the same way. And I think the other lesson that I learned early on as a coach is that. I don’t care how invested those kids are. Nobody cares about it more than you as a coach.

If you’re competitive, nobody there’s nobody who cares about it more than you do. There’s nobody who can’t sleep. There’s nobody who goes and watches the film. There’s nobody who does all those things as much as the, as much as you do. And I think if you can learn, Hey, if you’re a young coach out there listening, and you want to take two good lessons from what Brian and I have been talking about, that’s it right there is just understand that kids are going to let it go.

Kids process it in different ways. And that you have to, as a coach, understand that nobody’s going to care about it more than you do.

[00:26:16] Brian Ansberry: I think you hit it right on the head with that. It was an eye opening experience for me. And it made me kind of more open to then talking to a kid or saying like Hey, how did you think you did last night?

Or sometimes just letting it go like, Hey, is no big deal. Get practice. The next day that kid was working as hard as everybody else. It wasn’t like he didn’t love the game as you know, or he was disrespecting it.

[00:26:37] Mike Klinzing: For sure. All right. So after you spent a couple years with the freshman team, then you got an opportunity to move up and be the varsity assistant.

When you think back to those years as the varsity assistant at St. Ed’s with Coach Flannery, and obviously for people who maybe aren’t from the Cleveland area, he’s been a long time, super successful head coach at St. Edward high school, one of the best basketball programs in the state of Ohio. So Brian got an opportunity to learn from one of the best.

So when you think back to that time, what’s one or two things that you still incorporate into your coaching, into what you do day in and day out that you learned in those in those years, coaching with coach Flyn.

[00:27:16] Brian Ansberry: I think one of the big things is just attention to detail that, that Flan had his ability to, I mean, literally he was the first everything that he was doing.

I was emulating when I was coaching, because he was the high school when I was in grade school. Yeah.  I had a great coach in Don Tecco, my seventh and eighth grade year. And he showed me how to coach with passion and be excited about the game. And it was the first time I had a coach in basketball that wasn’t a dad or someone’s dad.

So I was like, this guy loves the game, man. He is coaching us up. We weren’t doing practice plan. He had practice plans, but we weren’t seeing him like every day when I was at Ed’s and seeing how Flan had everything organized every 10, 15 minutes drill to drill and just be being detailed with that.

And also his feel for the game is something I try to tell other coaches when they ask about, Hey how’s coach Flan. Like what’s he do his feel for the game in terms of when to move on from a drill in practice or when to pound it home or when to stop and talk to a kid that made a mistake or when to kind of.

Glance over it and just say, we’ll get next drill. We’ll get into it. We’ll attack it then. That’s one of the things, and there’s not really a science. You just have to have a feel for that. Just watching him do that. And then his relationship was with, with players and how he, like I said, was able to talk to guy as you know, Mike from coaching everybody’s different in how they receive the message in practice.

And everybody’s got a different reaction to how you coach ’em. You can be hard on some guys and some guys you have to take to the side and say like, Hey pump him up with some confidence. But those two things, I mean, obviously X and O’s guy. He’s an awesome guy with that is one of the best, but those other intangibles are two really huge things.

Builds the relationship between him and the players and his assistants. Those, those are things I try to soak in every day and just kind of sit back still now and go, man. He’s really good at that.

[00:29:16] Mike Klinzing: It’s funny when you get to work with somebody up close and get to see sort of the process and see what they do.

And obviously you had the experience of. Playing for him, then coaching with him. And when you did that, you got to see sort of all sides of the picture. You get to see it from a player perspective and think about, well, how did that work for me and did that style and how did you try to relate to me? And then you go and you see it from a coaching standpoint where he’s trying to build those relationships with 12 or 15 different varsity kids.

And then at the same time, trying to build relationships with the JVs and with the freshman, as you’re trying to get the program going where you want it to go. And then obviously you’re, you’re trying to get those kids prepared. It’s the one they eventually do make it up to the varsity that they, they already have a relationship with you as the head coach, as an assistant coach, and then you’re ready to step them in seamlessly and just keep winning, like Ed’s been able to do for a long time that Eric’s been so successful there after your six years as the varsity assistant.

You get an opportunity to go to Lake Ridge Academy, which clearly a different level of basketball, a different level of player that you’re coaching at lake Ridge academy compared to the high quality high top, top level talent that you’re getting at St Ed’s. So, first of all, how do you get the opportunity at lake Ridge?

And then talk a little bit about the adjustment going from an assistant to a head coach and also going from a really high level of high school basketball to a program that traditionally hasn’t been quite as good, right?

[00:30:48] Brian Ansberry: It was three of at the same time frustrating, one of the most frustrating years of coaching basketball and three of the most important three years of me coaching basketball in the I’ve been coaching now 18 years.

And the, the reason I say that is I’ll go back to how I after, like my third year is being an assistant at, I started getting enough confidence to say I knew I wanted to be a head coach somewhere. I loved, I loved saying Ed’s, that the place has done so much for me, but I said, you know what, I want to be a varsity head coach.

So I started applying for open positions that would happen every year and getting some interviews and a couple of ’em getting down to the last spot and not getting a couple of ’em. And I’ll tell you at the, at the time, like I, I thought at one sense, being at St that’s helped me a ton because coaching those, that caliber of an athlete and coaching with coach fly.

But at sometimes like in the interview process, I. I was almost sometimes they looked at me like, well, you’re at St Ed’s and you guys have a lot of talent.  like, you’re you just, you’re just

[00:31:53] Mike Klinzing: rolling the balls out. Right? You roll the balls out here at lake Ridge. It’s not going to go quite as well.

[00:31:56] Brian Ansberry: I thought it worked like college.  Like, Hey, you’re a top assistant at Michigan state. You’re going to get a job at wherever opens because you’re Hey, and it’s a little bit different in high school, because sometimes it’s who and sometimes the relationship you have with somebody and sometimes some luck involved. So after that one of our assistants at the time Joe Scarpetti, his, his wife taught at lake Ridge and they had an opening.

So he encouraged me because I really didn’t know much about it. He encouraged me to apply for it. And I went in. I was a little at first apprehensive because I’m like, it’s a division four school. I really don’t know much about it. I don’t really hear about it. Basketball wise. I would think I would, I was thinking like, Hey, I’m at St maybe I’ll just drop to a smaller division three school or, or, or one of those others.

So I went in kind at first, a little apprehensive, but the more I learned about the school and Debbie Gai was the athletic director. And she was outstanding. I felt comfortable there and ended up getting hired there and. Looked at it as a great challenge, knowing not knowing even before my first practice, this is going to be a great challenge.

You know, it’s a division four independent private school we don’t get any recognition. We, we, we have, we have kids that are not as athletic, but there, there were great kids. They, it was a great school, was a great atmosphere. There were, there was those three years, the players I had, I loved them.

They were, they worked hard. But it was a huge difference from, from St that. So the reason I say it was, it was tough because at times I’d be sitting there my first year and we lost our first seven games. and I was, and Joe, Joe Scarpa, Joe said, Brian, you’re going to be, you’re going to be at some points going, why did I listen to that guy?

He goes, but trust me, this is a good, a good experience for you. And Joe was right. Like those three years, I got to do everything from the ground up and learned. On the fly in terms of being a head coach and realizing not everything’s going to work just because this is a really good set, or this is a really good philosophy that it sometimes comes down to other things that are out of your control at times.

It humbled me a lot. At the same time, these kids were great. So the we upped our win total every year, and that was great. And in my last year there, we were 13 and nine and I just, it was a, it was a place where I looked at one point and my first year. Thank God. One of my best friends, Pete Lackovic, who I played with at Eds and coached with it Eds.

He had gone up to Toledo to coach at Toledo Central Catholic. He had moved back that summer and was going to go help out with, with St. Eds. And I asked him to come on to my staff and be an assistant. And thank God he was there with me because there was times sometimes where we’d be driving out to a game and I would, I looked at him at one point, I’m like, Pete, I was sitting in the Schotttestein Center two years ago on the bench.

And now I’m in a revamped CYO gym coaching against a homeschool team. I go this is crazy, you know? But again, it was a great experience. The kids were great. The families were great. Huge, huge 180 from where I was at. But Mike, as you know, I mean, sometimes those are things that, that make you a better coach.

[00:35:11] Mike Klinzing: So where did you grow? What’s an area where as a head coach, you think to that first season at lake Ridge, then you go by the time you’re in your third year, what’s something that you feel like you improved upon or something that you got a handle on that maybe as a head coach, you didn’t even realize, Hey, the head coach has really have to have this under control.

So just, how did you grow as a head coach in those three years, maybe point to one or two areas where you really felt like you improved.

[00:35:37] Brian Ansberry: I realized that I had to have a more kind of detailed, like almost like microscopic way of making sure our players felt confident. And the way I say that is I said that we had to have in our preseason leading up your, what we usually have like 25 practices before our first game from, from the first day that OHSAA gives you and I mapped out and I had a Excel file of every single day.

And I had three things on there that we’re going to implement. We’re going to do we’re, we’re going to talk about half court defense today. And then we’re work on switching and things like that. The next day we’re going to work on our our slobs and our blobs, and we’re going to work on that. And then we’re going to work on our zone, press breakers, and it was regimented, but our guys went into the first game, like in other places, like sometimes we would have stuff in and then we’d work on it throughout the year.

I felt like our kids, they needed to like go in knowing like, Hey, if this team comes out at 1-3-1, then we, this is our press break against 1-3-1. If they if they’re pressing, we go to our our Falcon press break. And I realize like that when you’re at a disadvantage, sometimes talent wise, you have to, you can’t have your kids go in and then you call time out and be like, what are you guys doing?

[00:36:51] Mike Klinzing: Yeah. Anybody, anybody who’s ever coached youth basketball can completely relate to that. You try to call time out and be like, all right, here’s what we’re going to do. Yeah. Good luck with that.

[00:37:00] Brian Ansberry: But I’ll tell you what, Mike, because I had coached AAU with, with Cosa and at the very beginning of that program, we had some teams that TalentWise weren’t the, weren’t the strongest, because we were getting kids that had got cut from AAU programs, or they were not going to play AAU.

And they decided to, so we were getting her butts kicked in sixth grade AAU and. I think you can’t do that with those guys number when you don’t have the practice time, but the high school kid, at least no matter his talent level can pick stuff up like that. And those for sure, those, those lake Ridge kids, they, they wanted to be coached.

They wanted to be, they, they wanted to learn. They they, they were in the right spot all the time. And that helped us a ton kind of build the precedent to each year. Kind of get a little stronger with that.

[00:37:42] Mike Klinzing: After those three years, how do you get the opportunity at Padua?

[00:37:45] Brian Ansberry: It kind of happened by relationships, which is a big thing with basketball, as you know I was actually interviewing at university school and friend of mine, former classmate, Mike Paul Vasic, coach polo.

Who’s the football coach now at Padua. Had coach with coach Mel Basa, who was coaching football over there and he had kind of. Me into there. And I was, I was interviewing and kind of walking through some things with him and then we had talked on the phone, he said, Hey, would you ever think about coaching over here at pad wood, he had just got hired two months before to be the head football coach at pad.

And I said, I said, yeah, I’d love to, but you know, it’s not open right now, you know? And he’s like, well, actually it just opened up. He’s like, I’m reaching out to see if you want to apply here. And I was like, I was like, yeah, for sure. I’ll, I’ll check it out. So then I did some research on it and, and looked and kind of saw where they were at program wise and applied for it, went through the interview process and got hired.

And I think what helped me was having those three years under my belt of experience of being a high school coach and also then being able to come right into Padua, knowing like, Hey, I have some stuff in motion where I kind of have a philosophy and. Things like that to get into this next level. And it was a step up talent wise and competitive wise, and being on the north coast league, one of the toughest leagues in the state and I was ready for it and I was hungry for it.

And that’s kind of how I got into that, that spot just by happen chance. I was just a spot opened up at the right time. And I was able to get in there.

[00:39:18] Mike Klinzing: Do you remember if you had specific questions about sort of the program? I know a lot of times when you’re a coach and go in and it’s not just them interviewing you, but a lot of times, especially when you’ve been a head coach and you’re looking for a new spot, you want to make sure that it’s the right spot.

If you’re going to leave a job, do you remember some of the questions or some of the thoughts that maybe you had about, Hey, is pat going to be the right place?

[00:39:41] Brian Ansberry: Yeah. I had gotten some information from Mike obviously, because he, he had just got hired for, for football and I knew him. He was at ale Catholic or he was at St as an assistant then ale Catholic, then Benedictine.

I knew for him to jump to Padua from most schools. He had to see something in that and heading in the right direction. So I had kind of walked through some things with him, but in, in the interview process, I just, I asked basically the, the direction of the sports program and the direction of how they were going to attract kids and how they’re doing and attracting kids as, as constantly private schools, especially Catholic schools are changing in, in terms of how they’re trying to get kids into their school.

And if, if we were going to be able to build something or if there was any hurdles in my way and everything I heard from ’em through the interview process, they followed up on a hundred percent. Hey, can I get kids from different parts of this city? You know, are, are we going to be able to when, when we get here have support from the alumni and the students and things like that.

And, and that’s been 100%, it’s been my go, I just finished my sixth year there at Padua and it’s been outstanding. It’s a growing community and it’s a community with a strong tradition and a strong history. I’m so happy I’m there. And, and being able to build that program up.

[00:41:01] Mike Klinzing: You talked a little bit about the experience that you got at lake Ridge and that allowed you to sort of put together and have a good feel for what your philosophy was.

Do you think that. At what point do you feel like you sort of had that together? Where, okay. I know in an ideal world, obviously you have to adjust to your personnel and things, but when you think about the type of culture you want to build and sort of what you believe in terms of how you want to play offensively and defensively, at what point do you feel like you had a pretty firm grasp on sort of the vision of what your ideal program was going to look like?

Did you feel like you developed that over the course of the three years at lake Ridge? Or was it, Hey, you got to P and then, okay. Things are a little bit different here and it took you a year or two to kind of figure that out. Just where were you in terms of putting together that philosophy? When did that come, sort of become concrete for you?

[00:41:54] Brian Ansberry:  Yeah, that’s a great question. I had my philosophy in place. I have a, I’m very organized in detailed. So I had a binder in my interviews that I did not get hired for and a binder for when I went into Lake Ridge with all the facets of building a program from youth level up. Very detailed. And I knew once I got a chance to be a head coach, I could then implement those, right.

If they go from the binder, from the paper out to the court and into the players and into your DNA is how you’re going to build your program. So I would say like, after that first year at lake Ridge, even though we struggled a little bit and they only had seven wins, I knew like, Hey, this is, this, this stuff that we’re doing this year.

This is, I have it in place. We just have to fine tune some things here. And stuff’s going to change every year, like you said, based on personnel, but the plan of defensive philosophy, offensive philosophy, that stuff, but in terms of player development and things like that, everything was in place.

And we just needed a little bit more buy in from certain aspects of maybe a player getting in the gym a little bit more, or maybe us getting advantage with getting a couple stronger players or having a player, build some confidence who was sophomore year was a little timid or shaky with the ball.

Then worked on that was strong with the ball. So I think when I got into Padua I had everything in place and I just had to fine tune that as any coach does year to year and say like, Hey, maybe we’re not going to run the, the Princeton series here, we’re going to run this. Because the personnel was a little better to go up and down the floor.

A little more things like that.

[00:43:27] Mike Klinzing: You talked about earlier, how important relationships were as you look back and you think about how coach Flannery ran his program at St. Ed’s. And obviously as we’ve said, a bunch of times the influence that he had on you. So when you think about building a new program, what I always think about is, Hey, I’ve have to have relationships with the players, but also with the families.

And as you said with the administration, so how did you go about in the first year or two really building your relationships with your players and with the PWA community to make sure that they were going to buy into the things that you just talked about in terms of your philosophy.

[00:44:04] Brian Ansberry: Yeah. We had a number of things in place that, that first year I was an, obviously an outsider to Padua so first thing I did was reach out to the alumni and, and people I knew that could connect me with the alums and introduce myself and tell them I was excited and reach out and have we had a alumni practice every year we’ve done right around Christmas time where we invite the alumni back and we, we have them come watch, practice, and then after they play and then we, and then usually those guys will then go out and get lunch or something.

And they’ll get to ask me questions and I can check in with them. And the first year I’m meeting all guys, I had never met before. Right. I don’t, I don’t, I know a little bit about ’em and trying to learn more asking them how their experience was and kind of what they expect. We did football tailgates.

I think it was like the third home game. We did a football or a basketball program tailgate where we set up some tables had people bring food and just, just met families and went out there. And a lot of times as coaches, we kind of want to, it’s a, it’s a fine line between going out there and meeting the parents and bringing them in.

Right. And then saying, well, all right, now here’s our space. We’re having practice. And if you have an issue, let the kid handle it with the coach and we’ll talk to you later. Right. But that first year when you’re coming in you have to develop those relationships. So I didn’t care if someone felt comfortable and maybe they were, they didn’t know, Hey, what, what should we do with this?

Number one thing was develop a relationship, meet the people, get out. And physically see people talk to them, ask them are they alum? Are they, are they a family? That’s been in the neighborhood, things like that. And those events are the only way you’re going to do it, unless you’re just going to rely on surveys and things like that.

But the Padua community, the families, the school is just very welcoming. I felt right at home and everybody that was there. Of course, when you’re the new head coach everybody oh, great. To have you coach like, Hey, we’re excited, excited. You’d I haven’t lost a game yet, and the season before they had an early exit in the playoffs. So of course I’m, I’m coming in and everyone’s like, oh, this is great. This is awesome. But just, just realizing how genuine the families were and, and meeting them and meeting their, their sons. And just that, that’s one of the big things that helped me that first year.

You know that that may have been, Hey talking to some people in the lobby during the JV game, where in other years, you’re kind of preparing and getting ready for that stuff. So I went out of my way deliberately to make sure I made those relationships, not only the parents and the families, but the administration emailing the, the teachers and asking if they needed anything that I was fully supporting them.

Things like that. Just, just to show them that this is a two way street.

[00:46:56] Mike Klinzing: On an ongoing basis, thinking about building relationships with the kids on your team. So we can fast forward to present day. How do you go about building the relationships with the kids that are part of your program right now today in 2022?

[00:47:10] Brian Ansberry: Well, we do it every year we have, once the season starts, we, we, I actually do give them a few like pencil and paper or now Google form and their computer and fill out, we have like a, getting to know you survey and I do this. With my students where I teach over at St. Ed still, I’ve taught at St.

Ed’s for 16 of my 17 years teaching. Being a teacher has made me a better coach and being a coach has also made me a better teacher, just because you implement both those things, but getting to know you survey where you’re asking them about their background, their family history, and then also asking them about stuff.

They like, what’s your favorite food? You know, what’s your favorite team getting to know things, but you can’t just send that survey out, read it, and then put it to the side. You have to like follow up on that. Like, Hey, I saw you you like you like this movie. I liked that movie too. Being genuine, being present three days ago, I took my sixth graduating seniors out to dinner right before.

One of them, the first one had to leave for college. And just being sincere with that, like not just meeting them and saying, Hey guys, let’s get a photo and put it on social media and say like, look, coach hangs out with the seniors. This is, we didn’t even take a picture. We’re just, we’re talking about school.

Basketball was brought up a couple times making sure that I see them off the floor in the hallways coming up, watching them play football games checking in with them, shooting my text now and then, and making sure my staff’s doing the same thing. And I think that’s helped me build that relationship with, with those players and, and something I’ve gone through.

And I’ve talked to the guys exit interviews at the end where they’ve said like, Hey, we really enjoyed this. Or this was something that we really, really liked. I had a former player who was coaching high school. He said, coach, can you send me that survey that you sent out? And this wasn’t the bio survey.

This was a survey. Once they make the team, I had, ’em do a survey where I said what are the, we put all the skills down rate your skills one through five. In each, in each ball handling all this who are, who are the top free throw shooters on the team? You know, who, who do you want to take the last shot?

You know, who are top eight players? You know, who are you most looking forward to playing this year? You know who are the top five teams in the city? Just things like that. And he said, coach, I really thought that was good. I want to implement, implement that with my high school guys. So I sent that out and if you’re getting a kid to come back and say that some of those things are working

[00:49:30] Mike Klinzing: For sure, those are things that have a lasting impact when a kid remembers it.

And obviously as a coach, those conversations that you have with a kid that graduated five years ago or 10 years ago, and still, they reached back out to you and you get that phone call and they say, Hey, coach, There’s nothing better than that feeling. I think most, every coach would agree with that wholeheartedly.

And once you have those relationships built, then that allows you to get out on the floor and try to get the most out of your guys, which ultimately is going to lead to the success of your program. So when you think about what you do out on the floor, let’s talk a little bit about practice design. What’s your process for putting together a practice plan?

Let’s say maybe let’s start with a preseason practice plan. So you’re coming in. It’s the first week of practice. How do you go about putting that plan together? Where are you coming up with the ideas, the drills? How do you know, Hey, what are my, my players going to work on? Just what’s your process for putting together a practice plan?

[00:50:25] Brian Ansberry: I think a lot of it is going back and seeing what was successful the year before. And then in those exit interviews, I ask ’em a question I say what were your favorite drills? And I say, what, what were drills you did not like? And then I talk to my staff and if they have ideas.

Or if I see something, I mean, now Mike, with like technology, you can go online, especially during COVID they had all those coaching clinics online or being able yeah. So easy. Yeah. Watch a, watch a college practice online. Those are now available sometimes online instead of going physically and being there.

But like I said, in that pre-season, I have like day, day one, two, and three things that we have to get done that we’ve done like every year to make sure we have in. So I’m doing those, but then, like you said, with the drills, those are going to change. We have some staples that are good, but as you know, being fluid as a coach is important.

So you might be doing a drill and say, Hey, like I, I saw another coach do this, or one of my assistants likes this co drill. So we’re going to do a little differently. I have, depending on what time we’re practicing, we’re going to meet with our team either. Pre-practice like in the, in the classroom and go over some things or go over terminology.

Or we’re going to meet with them after practice. If I, if I am getting right to right to Padua and practice is starting in 10 minutes then we’ll meet after practice and discuss that, or we’ll take, we’ll stop five minutes into practice and discuss something, but get them right back into their drills. So I think just having that plan of attack and having those knowing what you’re doing, one thing I got better at was not talking as much in practice and fixing it quickly and then moving on.

And then if I do need to really explain it to a kid, pulling him over or telling, or having my assistant, pull him over and while the drill’s going, like explain it to him. So we’re not stopping practice constantly, because sometimes we have an hour and a half, sometimes two hours depending on the schedule.

[00:52:07] Mike Klinzing: I think that stopping and teaching and coaching as a coach and as a teacher. Our tendency is to want to step in and fix everything. And I know we’ve talked to several different coaches over the years about this in different interviews where it’s so tempting when you watch and you see 10 things that you’re like, oh, I wish I could fix that.

Or, oh, I wish I could get them to do this. And as you said, you can’t be stopping it all the time. So when you guys are going up and down, or you’re doing some small side of games and you see something, do you try to put a focus in a particular drill? Like, okay, we’re working on whatever pick and roll coverage, and we want to make sure that we’re doing.

X or Y whatever it might be. And so that’s the thing that you’re really focused in on. And if there’s a mistake made or a teaching point, you stop it. And then if there’s other things, maybe you, as you said, have somebody pull somebody aside and they come off the floor, but just, how do you go about looking at, okay, what are we emphasizing in this drill or in this practice?

And so how do you balance when to stop it first to versus letting it go on and then talking about it after the fact.

[00:53:15] Brian Ansberry: Yeah, that’s the that’s the one that’s kind of, it’s tough. That’s the one where I said like, Coach Flan was really good at it. Like just watching, because sometimes you don’t like maybe I should stop it here.

Or maybe I shouldn’t it’s that instinct in knowing your team. Right. So if we’re going over an offensive segment for 13 minutes and practice and we’re working on our ball screen continuity Euro offense, and we’re setting ball screens and we’re working on getting to the kill zone, which is getting the ball to the paint and I’ll write it on my practice plan, like emphasis getting the ball to the paint off the dribble and making sure we’re peeking at the roll man.

So we’ll watch that and we’ll tell the coaches, Hey, watch for this at the same time, if something’s happening constantly, I like to talk to my assistants and if they say. Hey, we keep doing this. We will write it down or I’ll jot it down. I’ll even sometimes just write it in my phone, on my notes.

And just say like, Hey, this is something we have to go over. And then after practice, the, the coaching staff will look at it. And then the next time we do it, we’re like, Hey, we really have to we’re, we’re starting the, the dribble before the screener even set. Right? So you have to take the time to definitely stop it, show ’em or pull ’em aside and say, Hey, you have to come lower shoulder to hip off the ball screen.

Or we might as well not even set a screen. At the same time, if you go in, like you said, Mike, having an emphasis on what we’re going to stress in this, but if other things come up, you have to make note of that and you can’t stop. And just say, Hey, let’s go 10 minutes and explain the five different things we did wrong.

As you know you’re doing offense and the defense is getting shredded. You’re happy. But if you’re, if you’re like, oh, I’m looking at it from the defensive end, like we’re supposed to switch or we’re supposed to double. So The kids always say like, coach, I like that when we’re going up and down more or we’re being more active, like, yes, we need to learn, but we don’t want to sit there and have you do a half hour coach’s clinic and nobody likes it as a player, but we have to teach ’em too.

[00:55:07] Mike Klinzing: For sure. That’s so hard. That balance, I think, is to me, that’s the secret sauce of coaching more than anything else is how do you balance out the need and desire to teach? And when you, as a coach are sitting there on a sideline and you can see things and you know that there are different points that you could make with players.

It’s really difficult to sometimes understand that. Look, I have to, I have to be able to let some things go or we have to be able to circle back whether it’s watching film. If you’re talking obviously about a game, or if you’re watching some film of practice, you can do that. But it’s really difficult in the moment.

Nobody wants to listen to a coach, talk for two or three minute stretches where you’re going through a drill. And now all of a sudden we have to stand here. As your players said, and any player would say, that’s nobody, nobody enjoys that. As a player, you want to be able to get up and down. You want to be able to get after it and play.

And if you’re not, it gets really tough. And I think that that balance is really where that’s really where coaches make their money. Coaches who are good coaches, especially good practice coaches, I think are, are able to do that. I don’t want to say naturally, cause I think it’s something that you learn over time, but the coaches who are good are really good at that particular skill of being able to teach in practice and break things down and do it quickly and also know what they should be focused on and not just going all over the place, scattershot with their comments,

[00:56:26] Brian Ansberry: Totally 100%. Like we’re not going to sit there and do shell drill four on four shell drill and someone’s having problems jumping to help side jumping to help side. And they do it four or five times. We then at that point, Trust me, we used to do that, right. We used to stop. Hey, where’s I don’t care.

We’re spending a half hour on this drill till you get three stops in a row. Right. now, right. Let’s move on. Get the kid out of the drill. And then maybe after practice guys are getting their shoes on and stuff, and you’re showing ’em or you’re taking ’em into, into the classroom and popping on film and saying, look, this is where we need you to go.

Because everyone’s getting frustrated during that time. Like that one, player’s not getting there. He is not getting it done. Now yeah, battling through adversity, that’s obviously something you have to still implement in practice, but like, like you said, it’s the secret sauce trying to figure out how much on it and how much not.

[00:57:15] Mike Klinzing: Talk a little about how you use film.

[00:57:17] Brian Ansberry: Yeah. That’s, that’s changed the more I’ve coached. And then like with hudl and the ability to have all those things is it’s some years we watch a lot more, depending on my team, depending on what we’re doing. It’s year to year. So some years we’ll we’ll watch film. And one thing I, I started doing last year was being more deliberate within film showing positive ways to emphasize your culture, right?

So we like culture. We are what we emphasize, right? Like on, on the surface, optics wise, we wear shirt and tie before games. Right. Guys have to have their shirts tucked in. Okay. If we come into the game and there’s seven guys walking in their shirts are untucked in, we don’t correct them, then that’s going to slide.

And then you’re walking in like that in terms of stuff on the court we want to emphasize like, Hey, picking up your teammate. We want to emphasize like taking a charge. We want to emphasize enthusiasm on the bench and on the floor. So we’re trying to show those more in practice, especially if it’s kid that’s maybe not getting a ton of minutes or he’s having a rough time shooting the ball.

Tell them. Like you’re doing a good job, but also show ’em on the film because then they get a little shine in the film room and you only have so much time for that. So again, it’s our job as coaches and assistants to pour hours into watching film on your opponent and then snippets in terms of how we’re going to attack it.

We’ll watch film the day before in the classroom. And then the day of the game I started doing this last year halftime of the JV game. We will go in the classroom where we meet and we’ll watch those 10 clips again, before they go down the locker room and get ready just to emphasize like, Hey guys, this is what we’re doing on this.

And going, going from there. But there’s so many, like I was talking to my assistant Mitch garish and he’s been coaching a while and he always looks back and says, coach, I can’t believe how much film we can get on an opponent and how quick we can get it, you know? And , we have to divide it up. Sometimes we’ll get six or seven games on a opponent and it’s like, all right, well, I’m trying to watch everything I can at the same time.

You know, our assistant will each will divide and conquer and it’s like, we’re not going to show ’em 30 minutes of footage on, on this opponent and then not go through stuff in practice. So it, it used to be a little bit more and you would do it the day after a game and be kind of a grill session, almost like how it was in football and you’d sit in there.

And if you were getting spoken to, it was something you did wrong. Right. Right. Absolutely. A couple things would be like, Hey, good job here, but it’d be a coach going crazy on a kid for not doing this. And so we, we tried to adjust that just watching kind of how colleges do that, been to a couple places where they, where they show that a little bit more, trying to be positive with it.

And emphasizing that stuff for culture and the stuff you’re stressing as a coach.

[01:00:03] Mike Klinzing: I think it’s really, as you said, a big change in the way film probably was done when you were playing, or certainly I know when I was playing where. Almost everything that was brought up on film was negative. And every once in a while sure you get, Hey, we’re doing this right.

But I think coaches today now do a much better job of trying to find positive plays. And when you think about the learning process, right, you want kids to be able to see like, okay, here’s what we’re trying to do. Look, here’s where we did it. Here’s where you did it. And talk about being able to boost a kid’s confidence and also to be able to show ’em, Hey, here’s the exact technique or here’s the exact rotation, or here’s the exact movement that we needed on this particular set or in this particular defense.

And you can do it like here, we see it. Like here’s proof that we can do it. Now. We just need to continue to build that consistency and be able to do it every, every time, as opposed to you go through a game film and you. Cutting a kid down the whole time or cutting your team down. Eventually that, that wears on that wears on kid kid’s confidence.

And I just think that the way that players react so much better to the positive than they do to the negative. And, and I think so many kids today, especially they’re, they’re just not, they’re not exposed to the way that I you think about the way that kids were coached back, back in the day, where there was so much negativity and it was so much like my way or the highway.

And so you kind of had to just sit there as a player and sort of accept it. And nowadays it’s just not the way it is. Kids just react and you’re going to get so much more out of your players if you’re doing it in a positive way. And you’re building the relationships and doing all the things that, that we talked about when you look at the film and let’s say, it’s the day after a game and you’re going back and you’re looking at your team’s performance.

Obviously, depending upon who the opponent is and, and how the game went, you’re going to maybe look for different things, but are there one or two things that consistently you find yourself coming back to in the film room that you’re like, okay, I have to make sure that I’m looking at this. This is the key to our success as a team, and that may even vary year to year, but just, what are some of the key things that you look for when you’re watching a film of your team?

[01:02:19] Brian Ansberry: Yeah, I think I always go back to like three main things that are going to win you a game it’s turnovers, rebounding and shooting percentage. I mean how many times have we coached a game where we did? I mean, almost everything great. And we shot horribly. We shot 10% from three or we shot something and we lose the game and you’re like, well, we had great help side.

We took five charges in the first half. You know, like everybody wrote, we turned the ball over three times. And it’s like, well, at the end of the day, you have to make shots. So when I’m watching film, even if we win, I’m looking at those three things. I stress offensive, rebounding a ton. Not just from our bigs, but are we getting a rebound outside of our area?

Are our guards rebounding? Is our guy that’s getting back. Getting back to the center circle. Is he like floating around standing and watching. So I’ll look at those and I’ll look at those stats and then I’ll look at the possession. So, Hey, we missed a wide open three. All right, well, what was the possession?

Was it a transition? Was it something in our, in the flow of our offense, secondary break? We turned it over. Were we getting trapped? And nobody came to the middle. So when we go back in the next day, let’s say it’s after a loss. And like, we, we had a lot of turnovers and we didn’t rebound well, and I go, guys, we have to rebound.

Well, and we have to not turn a ball over yet. Well, no kidding coach. We got that so what am I going to tell ’em? What are the tangible things they can take from that? Like show ’em a couple clips, like, look, the reason we turned it over was because of this, it’s the same thing in the math like classroom, when like, Hey, you guys, aren’t doing that problem.

Right. You know, and you’re, you’re not subtracting acts from both sides. And it’s like, yeah, the kid knows it, but you have to show ’em it. And sometimes he’s have to go up to the board and do it. It’s the same thing you show him in, in the film room. And then sometimes you have to go and break down the drill and show ’em there and stop the stop the session there.

So those are three things I look for. And just to, just to see, even in win-win just are those things that are, that are big for, for our team and for our guys to see and, and praise ’em, Hey guys, look, we, we have 15 offensive rebounds and, and Jesse, you at eight, like you were killing it on the boards and great job that’s, that’s something like you said, if you emphasize that, and then it gives you a focus on when you’re watching that film, like I’m going to watch it.

The focus on that and the wins and the losses is make sure it’s, it’s what we want.

[01:04:34] Mike Klinzing: Absolutely. I don’t think there’s any question that if you can dial into those key metrics that you found with your team, with your philosophy, that those things make the difference in whether you win or lose. Now you can go and look at that as a coach, and then you can obviously share that with your players and then work on that out on the practice floor and get it to translate out onto the actual game floor and translate to wins and losses.

And that’s really what coaching is all about when it comes down to it. When you start thinking about the Xs and O’s piece of it, when you look at your success year to year at Padua and where you have the program right now, if you could point to one or two things that you think have driven the success that you’ve been able to have, and that you hope to continue to have in the future, what would be those one or two things in your overall program?

This could be something on the floor, off the floor. Just when you think about what drives your success, what, what immediately comes to mind.

[01:05:27] Brian Ansberry: Yeah, I think it’s we’re at a place now where, when I first got there, we were talking about, Hey come here and we can build something, right. We can, we can, we can start winning and getting into the top 10 in the city or getting into the district championship.

And now we’re at a point where you know where we need to be. Right. We’re, we’re done saying like, Hey, come here, we’re going to build something up. Right. We’re there, we’re, we’re winning. We now are focused. Now let’s get deep into the playoffs. Let’s get to the next step. Let’s do what we have to do.

So for, for somebody coming in or for our returning players from last year, it’s not the same outlook. And coaches are saying, Hey we have to have a good year. And you know, you guys are helping change the program. They know it’s in the right direction already. So the next goal is take it to the next step.

Let’s get down to date and let’s get to let’s cut down nets at districts and at regionals and move on. So. That focus has helped pick up the intensity of the program, right? And along with that is players are coming to the school and now there’s competition. There’s not just competition to make the freshman team there’s competition to stay on the JV team and to battle for minutes on the varsity team.

And as you know, like iron sharpens iron. So when we have, when the program’s going in a better direction, we have more talented players or harder working kids that are turning into talented players. That just pushes everybody. And then you don’t have to teach culture. You don’t have to teach, Hey you should probably get some extra shots up or you should text coach and see even get in the morning, get on the shooting gun that stuff’s already like accounted for.

And once you emphasize it, then the returning players are then telling the younger players. So. That’s something like that probably happened. My first year we had a really good team. We had a lot of kids that really bought in when we got to the district semis. And then the next couple years we had teams that kind of talent wise.

We weren’t the best for what we had that first year, but they still worked hard and they were still kind of doing the culture things and making sure they were working. And then the last two years, just being able to get to the district championship and the district semi and have good seasons of put together a string where we’re getting hot at the right time of the year, that has been just so impactful for our program where they start then being player led.

Right. And it’s not just me and my assistants talking or agonizing about, we keep doing this, it’s the players. And then they’re holding each other accountable. That’s been just huge for our program.

[01:07:57] Mike Klinzing: It’s amazing how once you kind of get things going in the right direction and that momentum builds and you get it going downhill that.

The players kind of take that over and they start to understand what it takes in order to be successful and not every coach and not every program is obviously able to get there. But once you can get your program to that level as a coach, it’s nice to be able to, I don’t know if delegate is the right word, but to be able to put some of that on the players.

Obviously once you build a great staff, you’re putting some of that with them, and then you, as the head coach can act as that overseer, that CEO of the entire program. And I think when you look at the most successful high school programs, and I think college maybe to a degree as well, but certainly at the high school level, when you can get those players to be able to, to take on that ownership role and you can get your staff and you can, you can oversee that as a head coach combined with what we talked about earlier, where.

Very detail oriented and you’re on top of things, but you don’t have to micromanage every single piece of it, which I think sometimes as a young coach or as a first time head coach, sometimes that’s what happens. And as you get more experience and as your program grows, I think that’s really where you find success.

Is that like where you feel you’re getting to that point of paddle?

[01:09:19] Brian Ansberry: Yeah. I feel like for sure we’re getting there and I think you brought up a good point, like when I was at lake Ridge and even like maybe my first year at Padua, even though we were had a real successful team that first year wanting to interject at times and not like, let the kids go, like let the kids go and then talk to ’em.

Like I said, when it’s needed. The other thing is like expectations are to win now and to go deep and it’s into the tournament and that’s. That’s so just fulfilling and at the same time now, now that you’re work, you’re working on something different when you hit adversity, like maybe you lose two or three in a row and then people start going, well, we haven’t done this in a while.

We haven’t, we’ve never lost two or three in a row, or, Hey, what’s going on? Like maybe, maybe we’re not as good as, as we, we thought we could be. So now you’re dealing with different types of adversity, like, or before it might have been like, Hey, we can keep it. Like we can keep it close. And we might be able to pull an upset against this this team and one of the top teams in the state or whatever.

Now it’s like, your expectations are for you to win. So how are you going to handle those? And as you know, Mike, every year you have different kids coming back and are they vocal leaders? Are they leaders by example, are they a quiet team? Are they a team that’s going to be able to talk to each other and tell each other to do things when it’s, it’s a little tougher to tell ’em to do that.

[01:10:36] Mike Klinzing: It’s a completely different job, right. To climb the mountain than it is to sustain that success. And I think that’s really what it comes down to is when you’re building a program, you don’t have that same level of expectation. And so everything is sort of new and people are excited because, Hey, we’re going from not very much to suddenly we have something.

And then once you have something people don’t like to give that something up, they don’t like to see those two or three losses in a row. They don’t like to see an early exit from the state tournament. You know, it’s, it’s like, you want to keep that you want to keep that going. It’s a totally, it’s a totally different experience, I would guess as a head coach.

[01:11:14] Brian Ansberry:  It is without a doubt. I mean, we had, I think one, one, or I think we had two winning seasons in the previous 13 years be before I took over, but that’s, that’s also a little bit skewed because we were playing in the north coast league and sometimes record was around .500, but now we’ve had three winning seasons in the six years that we’ve been there.

And three of those seasons are top six for most wins in program history. And we want to keep it going there right. At the same time we have yet to cut down a district championship net. Right. And that’s, that’s, that’s a goal we have on our way to our, to our ultimate goal. And that’s something where you can still then instill in our guys like, Hey, we want to make history.

We want to get to the next step. At the same time, we’re going to be a team that we should be able to be in every game and be able to compete and hold each other accountable. And, and be there, but yeah, we, we, I mean, no matter what type of team, even when I was at lake Ridge and we had a team that was struggling to get wins, you have adversity in different ways.

Right. And it’s how you handle it. And it’s how you kind of show it as a coach and then explain to the kids like this is how we’re going to get past that adversity and get through it with your help as players. And, and then me helping you guys and you guys helping me as, as player coach relationship,

[01:12:34] Mike Klinzing: That’s a really well said answer in terms of no matter where you’re at, there’s always challenges and there’s always situations and problems that you have to figure out and navigate in order to get to wherever it is that you’re trying to get to.

And obviously from a won loss standpoint, sometimes that’s different depending on what your program, where your program is and what your talent level is. But as coaches, you’re always trying to. You’re trying to figure that out all the time and you’re trying to problem solve. And as you said, you’re utilizing your staff, you’re utilizing your players.

You’re working together to try to figure those things out and. That’s one of the most gratifying pieces of coaching is when something that look like, Hey man, is this going to come together? And eventually as you work through it and you go and you work hard on the practice floor and you put your time in, in the summer and you start to see those relationships build and you start to see a team come together.

That’s really, I think one of the most special times that any coach can have with their team is when things just sort of work out. And I know you’ve coached teams like that. You played on teams like that. And that’s really, when you get that special feeling, you’ve talked about as a high school player, when you’re a junior and you guys go and you’re able to win a state championship.

I mean to be able to, to be able to do that and be a part of that. And the, just the feeling that, that you got to experience that as a player, but you can imagine now as a coach, what that felt like sitting in, sitting in the coach’s office and experiencing that. And that’s really, I think that’s really what it’s all about.

I want to wrap up here, Brian, with one final two part, two part question. So part, part, one. When you look ahead where you are right now over the next year or two, what’s the biggest challenge that you see on the horizon in the next big, in the next year or two, and then part two, what is the biggest joy that you get from what you get to do every day, getting up and being a teacher at St.

Ed’s and then coming over and being the head basketball coach at pat. So your biggest challenge and your biggest joy.

[01:14:29] Brian Ansberry: Yeah, the biggest challenge is kind of, it’s the challenge we have every year as coaches, right? It’s to get a, the collective group. It’s why, it’s the reason that one of the reasons I love coaching is to have a, have an influence on, on young men and be able to have an impact on their life.

Right. And specifically like we’re talking basketball court and not the basketball court, but the challenge is every year you, you start brand new, right? No matter what you did, you know we, we always say the saying doesn’t ma you know, doesn’t matter, you have to get better, you know? And how are you going to implement that?

So the challenge is every year, just to see what is our goal, we’re starting new. We have a new point guard. We transfer, we graduated players. We have a new starting five. We have new bench guys. We have unproven JV guys. We have, we’re excited about that, but that’s the challenge is to get them to buy in collectively as a group and then to then come together as that group, and then be able to accomplish things that you can’t do by yourself.

You know, that is the ultimate thing of a team sport to come. And as you hit on, when I was able to be a part of that 1998 state championship team that will never leave me, those memories and all that stuff. But you needed five guys on the floor. You needed guys on the bench, you needed coaches, you needed the team managers, you needed all that.

All of us came together to accomplish that. So when you go into a season, whether it’s a successful by terms of basketball wise or in other people’s eyes, that’s different, but to get to that group and then to buy in and to accomplish something as a group is something that you can’t get in. Anything you can’t get it in individual sports, you can’t get it if you’re not playing sports.

So you go through that battle on that journey with the other group of, of guys next to you. And it’s just super exciting to, to do that. So that’s the challenge, right? The challenge is how are we going to be successful in the eyes of our group, right? How are we going to be successful to our goals and our, our accomplishments?

It’s, it’s a challenge every year, but it is something that’s so exciting. I think you would agree with that.

[01:16:34] Mike Klinzing: Absolutely, every year’s a new puzzle.

[01:16:36] Brian Ansberry: And then the second question, biggest joy. Yeah. The biggest joy is kind of just to piggyback what I, what I said to, to get up every day and to be able to teach kids and to coach kids and have an influence, like have a positive impact on ’em.

Think of all the people I think of all the people in my life that have helped navigate me through situations and day to day things that have pointed me in the right direction that had a positive impact on me and have helped me through things and that responsibility as a teacher and as a coach is a huge responsibility, but it’s something that is so cherished and the ability to do that and to get up.

And this is what I get to do. That that’s the best part about it. It’s fun. It’s exciting. It’s important. It’s very important. And at times it’s tough, right? It’s at times a kid asks you a question or you’re in a situation and. You don’t know what to do, and you have to be that positive light for him and steer him in the right direction in the classroom, on the court or something’s going on outside the court.

But what a charge we have is teachers and coaches to, to be able to be in that position and to learn from all the people that have helped us and then pay it forward and pass it on to the guys we’re influencing.

[01:17:54] Mike Klinzing: Yeah. It’s well said. I think I always look at, if you have the opportunity to use a game that you love to be able to have an impact on kids, to be able to have an impact on people.

There’s nothing better than that, that you get to do it through something that you love as much as you and I love the game of basketball. It’s really, what’s really what it’s all about before we wrap up, I want to give you a chance to share how people can find out more about you, your program, how they can reach out to you.

So if you want to share social media or email, whatever you feel comfortable with, and then I’ll jump back in and wrap things up.

[01:18:26] Brian Ansberry: Yeah. Oh, that’s great. So I’m on Twitter @CoachAnsberry and then our basketball program @PaduaBruinsBBB, and then we are on we are on Instagram and that is at Padua_ basketball.

And then anytime anybody needs anything. If anybody wants to watch a practice, younger coaches want to come in, check things out be a part of the program, be, be a part of our, we have camps going on ongoing throughout the, the, the fall. We have fall skill clinics coming up every Saturday, starting September 10th.

We have five, five in a row, Saturday mornings, and then we have our summer camp. And then throughout the year, all grade school kids, K to eight, getting free to our football and basketball games and any of our school events. So we’d love to see you guys come out, check out a game and see what we’re all about.

Fantastic.

[01:19:18] Mike Klinzing: Brian cannot thank you enough for taking the time out of your schedule tonight, to be a part of the Hoop Heads Pod. Really appreciate that. And to everyone out there. Thanks for listening. And we will catch you on our next episode. Thanks.