KEVIN BRAATEN – BEREA-MIDPARK (OH) HIGH SCHOOL BOYS’ BASKETBALL HEAD COACH – EPISODE 726

Website – https://titansathletics.org/teams/3366521/boys/basketball/varsity

Email – kbraaten@bereaschools.org

Twitter – @braaten_kevin

Kevin Braaten is the Boys’ Basketball Head Coach at Berea-Midpark High School in Cleveland, Ohio.  He took over the boys’ program this season after two different stints as the head girls’ coach at the school.  As a head coach for both boys’ and girls’ Braaten has won more than 225 games in his career.

Kevin played his high school basketball at Strongsville and collegiately at Baldwin Wallace University where he was selected to the Ohio Athletic Conference first-team three times and twice to the NCAA Division III All-American team. As a center, he led his teams to two consecutive NCAA National Tournament appearances in 1995 and 1996. His 1,867 career points rank fourth in school history and his 1,230 rebounds rank first. 

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.

Get ready to take some notes as you listen to this episode with Kevin Braaten, the Boys’ Basketball Head Coach at Berea-Midpark High School in Cleveland, Ohio. 

What We Discuss with Kevin Braaten

• The early influence of his Dad getting him started in the game
• His early experiences with Strongsville Basketball from rec to junior high
• Playing JV basketball as a 9th grader
• His affection for his high school coaches Bob Casey & Norm Connors
• Studying Kevin McHale’s footwork
• Signing with Western Michigan out of high school, but eventually transferring to Baldwin Wallace University to play with his high school teammate Joe Mackey
• His daughter’s ACL tear and how that impacted her college decision
• Just enjoy watching your kids play and don’t worry so much
• “I want players to feel like how I felt about my coaches.”
• Lessons he learned from each of the coaches he played for
• Working as an assistant coach for his college teammate Joe Mackey at Brunswick (OH) High School
• Why he took the girls’ head coaching job at Brunswick
• “Girls care more about the team dynamic than they do individual success.”
• “You really have to buy into that fact that you have to get to know your kids starting in third grade.”
• Coaching the whole program and not just the varsity
• “Let’s play fast, let’s have fun.”
• Communicating with parents
• How he figures out his offensive and defensive systems each year
• Coaching multi sport athletes
• “Yes, off-season commitment is important. It’s a huge part of our program, but when our first game hits, the best kids are going to play.”
• How he plans and organizes his practices
• “We don’t stop practice very much.  We coach players on the side.”
• Designating coaches’ roles during practice and empowering his assistants to do a lot of the coaching
• The little things like cool gear and social media posts that mean a lot to players and help build the program
• The need to “recruit” your own players so they stay in your program

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.

United Basketball Plus has over 3,000 plays, 45 Deep Dive Courses with some of the best minds in the game including Tyler Coston, Paul Kelleher, Tobin Anderson, Dave Love and more. You can also view United Basketball Clinics, and receive 50% off in-person clinics. United Basketball Plus partnered with Jordan and Joe Stasyzyn from Unleashed Potential to create their Skill Development Curriculum. United Basketball Plus is a one stop shop to help you grow as a coach, leader and culture builder. Use the code ‘clinic’ and receive an annual membership for $50.  

The first Training Camp – Elite Skill Development and Performance Combine will be held on the campus of Western Reserve Academy, just outside of Cleveland, OH powered by Unleashed Potential & the Hoop Heads Podcast. The camp is designed for boys rising to grades 6-9 and will take place June 29 – July 1, 2023. An emphasis on improving your individual skills in the context of a team environment will be the hallmark of the Training Camp. 

Mike Klinzing from Head Start Basketball/The Hoop Heads Podcast & Joe Stasyszyn from Unleashed Potential will serve as the Camp Directors of this inaugural Training Camp.

Campers can expect 3 days of hard work, intense skills instruction, and learning how to be a great teammate on and off the court at the Training Camp.  Players will participate in 10 Elite Skill Development Sessions led by some of the best coaches from across the country.  Visit headstartbasketball.com to get registered.

THANKS, KEVIN BRAATEN

If you enjoyed this episode with Kevin Braaten let him know by clicking on the link below and sending him a quick shoutout on Twitter:

Click here to thank Kevin Braaten 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 KEVIN BRAATEN – BEREA-MIDPARK (OH) HIGH SCHOOL BOYS’ BASKETBALL HEAD COACH – EPISODE 726

[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 Kevin Braaten, the head boys basketball coach at Berea-Midpark High School here in the state of Ohio. Kevin, welcome to the Hoop Heads Pod.

[00:00:15] Kevin Braaten: Thanks for having me, Mike.

[00:00:16] Mike Klinzing: Excited to have you on.  Looking forward to diving into all the things that you’ve been able to do throughout your basketball life. Want to start by going back in time to when you were a kid growing up in Strongsville, tell us a little bit about some of your first experiences with the game of basketball.

[00:00:31] Kevin Braaten: Sure, I mean, it really starts with my dad putting a hoop up in our yard and just really Spending a lot of time with my dad playing one-on-one and free throw contests and all the things that kids my age did with their dad.

He was the one that got me excited about the game and I wouldn’t be where I am without him. I know that for sure. And as  Mike, growing up in Strongsville you didn’t really play organized basketball until eighth grade. So  I went through the whole Strongsville Rec with with Mr. Fry as a third and fourth grader. And those were fun times Saturday morning basketball and when you saw Mike Klinzing walk in the gym as one of your coaches that was a big deal to the kids my age. So that was always great. And playing at Albion Junior High.  I never actually got to play for Coach Eicher, but, I always looked up to him as a coach, and then as a ninth grader in Strongsville, ninth graders were actually at the junior high. And the varsity coach, coach Casey and the varsity assistant coach Connors said to me and my parents, Hey, we think maybe he could play JV as a freshman, which meant getting on a bus by myself and  driving with the bus driver over to Strongsville High School.

I just remember the first practice I was scared and walked in the gym and nobody really talked to me and. Coach Connors said, we’ll get in the drill. I was a freshman and definitely very nervous and went into like a four on four shell drill. And the senior post player, Matt Perciak basically just beat the living crap out of me.

And there’s blood everywhere and kind of looking around like, is anybody going to say anything? But I just kept going and he was beating me up. And finally Coach Connors is like, go clean yourself up. And he kind of looked at me like it was almost like a little test were you tough enough to come over here and play and practice against the varsity team?

So that’s kind of how my career started. And loved Coach Casey and Connors they were like fathers to me. My time at Strongsville was just great. I know you kind of know what I’m talking about with that, but when you get your varsity uniform in Strongsville, that was a big deal

[00:03:09] Mike Klinzing:  So I think there’s two things there that you hit on that stick out for me. And I think the one is obviously you talk about going through the recreation program and I’ve touched on this a number of times at the pod on the podcast and just how influential that program was on me. Both, as you said, when you’re a player and you get a chance to look up to the guys who came down that were high school players when you were in elementary school and those guys who come down and coach you and then you go and see play on Friday night and come running out in the warmup line.

Like I always feel like that was something that had a huge impact on me looking at those guys and saying, wow, someday I want to be out there and be able to come out with the band playing and go through the layup line and all those kinds of things. And just, you think about the impact that those coaches that.

you got a chance to work with. Again, they weren’t coaches at the time. There were kids that were playing high school basketball, but you literally looked up to those kids and I think that was something that really had a huge impact on me, both when I was a player. And then also obviously when you’re a coach and you get a chance to coach the littler kids.

I think it’s something that, obviously basketball has kind of gone away from that in terms of the way we run our youth programs today, but it’s something that I think kids, kids missed out on. Somebody who didn’t get to go through that I don’t think understands how special that is. So it’s cool to hear you mention that.

And then I think the second piece that when I hear you talking about it and remembering back to the time when, yeah. Strong as we had a junior high system where we were seventh, eighth, and ninth grade were at separate schools. And so you didn’t get to the high school until you were in 10th grade. And I know, I think it’s different today, and maybe I get your perspective on this, but how was it for you just going up and playing above your grade level?

Cause I feel like nowadays that that’s maybe not as big of a deal in terms of sort of the interpersonal relationships, and there’s more of a blurring of the lines between grades. But I feel like back in the time when I was playing, when you were playing that there was more of a definitive line between, okay, you’re a 10th grader, you’re an 11th grader, you’re a 12th grader.

How did that, just, how did that go for you? Not so much from a basketball standpoint, from just from a kind of fitting in stand point.

[00:05:15] Kevin Braaten: I mean, I think it was difficult because, at least for me, I was going to school with my classmates at Albion Junior High, but I was playing basketball with the kids at the high school.

So I didn’t really have that type of connection with my teammates that you would have now. Cause like you said things are definitely more mixed now. So I think socially it was probably pretty tough for me. But from a basketball standpoint, I obviously loved it, but you’re right, it’s, I think at Strongsville at that time, not many guys even played three years of varsity basketball.

I mean, it was very rare. I think like Tucker Neale, people don’t really believe this, but he really didn’t play varsity basketball until he was a junior as great of a player as he was. So  things have definitely changed.

[00:06:07] Mike Klinzing: Yeah, there’s no doubt about that. When you think back to your time as a high school player, do you have a favorite memory or two that stands out?

[00:06:14] Kevin Braaten: I think my sophomore year  we went 20. Oh. And it was we had ced the conference we obviously went undefeated conference and the seniors Tucker and Joe Mackey and a couple of the other ones said we don’t want to cut the nets down until we go 20 and 0, and our 20th game opponent was St.  Ignatius, who obviously at that time still is and was a powerhouse. And so that game with Ignatius, we were 19 and 0, the game was sold out at getting the JV game and we obviously won the game. And so that memory is probably the one that I remember.

[00:06:54] Mike Klinzing: You mentioned earlier about working with your dad when you were a little kid, but when you got into high school and you started working on your game, what was the process that you went through for getting better today?

Obviously kids can go on and work with a trainer. They can go on YouTube and find a million different drills to do and ways to improve. But back in the time when you and I were playing, it was a little bit different. You didn’t have access to that stuff. But when you think about how you went about getting better and working on your game, how did you balance working on your game by yourself versus playing pickup versus just what were some of the things that you did to improve yourself as a player back when you were in high school?

[00:07:34] Kevin Braaten: Sure.  honestly, I didn’t play a ton of pickup basketball. Especially when I was younger it was mainly. I mean, truthfully, it was watching basketball on tv, watching somebody like Kevin McHale and studying his footwork as a I was a post player, so I was studying his footwork.

 I’d go my dad took me to every Strongsville game and the post player when I was younger was Steve King. So I would watch him and how did he score in the post? And then I would just go in the backyard and try to recreate those types of moves. And it was really a lot of backyard.

I was in the back working on my footwork, shooting a ton of free throws and just doing it kind of on your own. And then obviously as I got to high school, there was a little bit more pickup at the Omni.  I mentioned Joe Mackey and his, his dad owned it. And ton of high school players went there.

So that’s kind of where I played pickup. But as far as working him on my game, it was really me by myself with a ball and a basket. And that’s really it. And like you said, today the landscape’s totally changed.

[00:08:48] Mike Klinzing:  Yeah, it’s completely different. I mean, I think about the amount of time that I spent either working on my game by myself or playing pickup, wherever it might have been, whether it was outdoors or whether I spent a lot of time at the Omni as well.

And just, you think about doing it that way versus today, kids playing AAU basketball or working with a trainer and just the amount of time, I know, we’ll, we’ll get into this as we talk about you as a high school coach, but you think about the amount of time that you put in as a high school coach to have the gym open and to do workouts and to, to get guys in the gym and that just wasn’t, it just wasn’t the same.

The, the expectation of high school coaches back in the day wasn’t, wasn’t the same and they just didn’t have access. Like, I don’t remember having access to a gym the way kids have access to gyms today. It was like, yeah, you have to go in you have to go outside and like you said, in your backyard, on your driveway.

Wherever at the courts that you, you could find in the neighborhood. And so it was just a completely different, completely different experience than what kids go through today. And we’ll dive into that a little bit more. Talk a little bit about after you get done with high school, you get an opportunity to, to be recruited and talk a little bit about that.

And then obviously you end up going to BW after, after leaving Western Michigan. But just talk a little bit about your experience being recruited and what you remember about that time.

[00:09:59] Kevin Braaten: Sure. I mean, again, things were so different. There’s no cell phones, there’s no internet. So I mentioned my dad. He was always my biggest supporter, my sister and I.

And every letter that I got and he had, we have, I don’t remember how many, three or four binders of letters because that’s how colleges would contact you. And  I kind of got a little taste of how recruiting can be because I literally got a letter. From the University of Cincinnati every single day.

And Hey, we want you to come down for a visit. And then one day they, they hired a coach. I think most people know by the name of Bobby Huggins. And I never heard from again. So like anything recruiting process is difficult. Western Michigan the assistant coach was a guy named Parker Lakota.

We really hit it off on the phone and, and I really liked him. And the, the only issue was the head coach never came and saw me play. And coach Lakota did and said, you’re, you’re a good for what we wanted do. And then about three weeks before I was going to go up there, he. He got an assistant coaching job at Notre Dame, so kind of the guy that was my supporter was gone.

And I just kind of got a feeling that that wasn’t a good fit for me I kind knew it right away and kind of communicated that to my parents. Thankfully again, I very supportive parents and on winter break I was home and up in the, and I was talking to Joe Mackey and he said how do you like it up there?

I said I said, it’s okay. I said, I’m not super happy. And he was like you should transfer and come home to BW. And Joe was truly the best teammate I ever played with. So the thought of maybe playing with him again was intriguing and mentioned it to my parents. And over spring break I visited with Coach Bankson and BW and I just loved the man and everything worked out.

Ended up transferring there. So it was, I would say that  we always talk about this with our players. You’re going to fail in sports and, and unfortunately for me, I didn’t really fail in basketball until I was 19 years old. But it was it was a great life lesson about you got knocked down a little bit, but have to pick yourself going.

[00:12:21] Mike Klinzing: How important when you have conversations now with kids in whatever, whether it’s in your role as a head coach or whether you’ve been involved with AAU and you’re just talking to kids and conversations about. Finding the right fit for you. Cause obviously we all know that there’s a huge stigma, a huge pressure on everybody wants to go and play division one basketball and it’s a huge thing that’s out there that everybody talks about.

And you see it on social media and yet at the same time you see so many kids that end up having a suboptimal experience because they’re not in the right place. And I think so often it’s just a challenge to get kids families to understand sort of what the college experience should be all about, both from an academic and from an athletic standpoint.

So just how do you use your own experiences when you’re having conversations with kids who are trying to make a decision about, Hey, what’s going to be the best fit for me when I go to school?

[00:13:17] Kevin Braaten:  I always start with that. You’re the only one who knows what your college experience was like and whether that’s D one, D two, d3, NAIA or hey, I’m just going to go be a student.

You’re the one who’s going experience those four years and we like to tell, and it’s true, the best four years of your life. So you have to enjoy it and make sure you’re somewhere where you know you’re going to have great memories of those four years. And I think that’s how I always kind of start the conversation my own daughter’s a senior and you discussions and she made the decision that she wanted to play Division three basketball, which, you know I’m really excited for.

But I had that same conversation with her that I’ve had with dozens of players about, let’s figure out what the best fit for you is. What did that look like for her? Well it was a rough summer. She tore ACL in June. We didn’t really know it was torn. And we got some conflicting advice,  trainer said, we think maybe she displaced her kneecap and I, and  we said like, can she hurt it any worse?

And they were like, not really. So July is the big month for aau. So we, we went down and played and she made a cut on her knee and her knee collapsed. And I kind of looked at my wife and we kind of knew her ACL was torn. And so she missed a big chunk of July and, and some of those opportunities that she would’ve had to play division one kind of disappeared.

There were some opportunities to maybe do a preferred walk on and division one school versus looking at some D three schools that were really interested in her. And she was really interested in the, the college more than just the basketball program. So, hate to say things happen for a reason, but I think for, for her it kind of worked out the way it was supposed to work out.

[00:15:14] Mike Klinzing: AA right. Let’s talk, before we dive back into your career, let’s talk, let’s, let’s take a, a sidetrack here and talk a little bit about basketball parenting and you’ve obviously been in the basketball world as a player, yourself as a coach who’s had to coach players deal with and work with parents that have been parts of your programs, and then you’ve been a parent yourself.

So if you were going to give somebody who’s kid is just entering into sort of the age where they begin getting involved with travel basketball, what are some things that you would share with parents to make sure that their kids had the type of experience that we would all hope for our kids? What are some things you’d share with people?

[00:15:56] Kevin Braaten: I think the first thing is to always remember, and this can be difficult for all parents, that just parents who played sports, but that this is their journey, not your journey and enjoy it. Like, enjoy the process.  I look back and my wife and I talk it all the time. We wish we would’ve just enjoyed watching our kids played instead of worrying about she needs to play better. Or if a college coach comes are you, are you playing up to your capabilities and worrying about all the little things instead of just enjoying the process and understanding that, again, it’s their thing.

It’s not our thing. We can’t want it for ’em, but just enjoy it. Cause it goes so fast.

[00:16:43] Mike Klinzing: Yeah, it really does. I mean, I’m seeing that, I sent my first daughter to college this year, and she’s not a basketball player, but you just realize how fast that goes. And I think. But as a parent, and obviously for you or for myself, that we spend a lot of time coaching our own kids.

So then you’re trying to serve two masters there as their coach and help ’em to improve and get better. And at the same time you’re trying to, as you said, enjoy the process of, of watching ’em go through it. And I think that one of the things that I always found, and I don’t know if you found this to be the case for you, but I’ve often said that when I’m coaching them, It’s so much more difficult from a standpoint of the wins and losses.

 as a coach those things stick with you and it could be a third grade boys or girls basketball game and you can keep yourself up all night thinking about this or that or whatever. And then conversely, when I’m a parent, I’m rooting for ’em when I’m in the stands and I want things to go well, but I can put the results aside a lot easier as a parent than I can as a coach.

So it’s kind of interesting for me at least to float back and forth between those two roles and, and try to keep in mind and keep it in perspective, as you said, because it’s really easy to get caught up in this or that, or how well they’re playing or what the situation is. Or as you said, as somebody coming to see him play and you just have to, again, I think it’s great advice to just enjoy it and try to try as much as you can to realize that the journey’s theirs and not.

[00:18:10] Kevin Braaten: Yeah, absolutely. And like you said, when you are kind of filtering in as a coach and as a parent, it’s even more difficult sometimes to those lines become blurred. But I think you also have to keep in mind that when you do coach your child that you are creating experiences that you’re going to have with your son or daughter for the rest of your lives.

And it’s always something that connects you together. And so if you do have that opportunity, I always say if you ever have the opportunity to coach your kids, do it, even if it is just one year, because it’s something you’ll never forget.

[00:18:45] Mike Klinzing: The experience part of it is really, really important. And I think that if you keep it in perspective, whether you’re talking about it from a parent perspective or from a coaching perspective, What you ultimately want to do is you want those memories and those experiences to be good ones.

I always said that there were times where when I, my kids, especially when they were littler, that, and I wanted to Dr. I wanted to drag ’em to the gym when I was going the gym to do things, . And there were times that they didn’t want to go. I mean, there were times they did, but there were times that they didn’t.

And part of me always was like, God because I was wired in one way. And  my kids, everybody, obviously they’re all wired differently. And I’m like, why? Why don’t they want to go? I don’t under, I don’t understand that. I just, they again, that’s not how I was wired. And so part of you says, well, I know I shouldn’t drag ’em with me, but part of me says that I shouldn’t.

It’s a difficult line to walk, I think sometimes as a parent, but ultimately what I kept trying to remind myself and. As someone who kind of knows the, the pitfalls, at least theoretically you still find yourself kind of falling into things that you’re like, no, I’m not sure. I should be not sure I should be doing that.

But I always tried to err on the side of, I looked at it, that was the lens of I want my relationship with my kids to be fantastic when they’re 25 and not have them look back and be like, dad was a pain in the neck. Because he always made me go do things that I didn’t want to do. And that’s not to say that you can’t push your kids a little bit and, and prod ’em, but at the same time I think that you can definitely get into situations.

I know you’ve seen it and I’ve seen it, that you just have a parent who goes completely overboard and either A, the kid hates basketball or B hates the parent because the parent just does some things that make that relationship fractured. And that’s kind of the lens that I always try to look through it, look at it through.

I want the relationship to be the most important part of it and the basketball side of it. Yeah, it’s important, but it’s not nearly as important as having a good relationship with your kid both in the moment and also going on into the future.

[00:20:49] Kevin Braaten: Yeah, abs absolutely. And I’ve seen a lot of those that you’re talking about, and I mean, I’m going to be really honest with you.

I’ve, as somebody who’s coached their kids, I’ve probably made every mistake in the book.  I always say I’m going to keep learning and trying to get better in terms of interacting with my own child and my own children while I coach them versus the other kids and it’s truly difficult because you love your kids so much and you just want to see ’em be as successful as they can.

[00:21:23] Mike Klinzing: Which isn’t easy. It is not easy to sit either on the side as a coach, or I could tell you, sitting in the stands, watching ’em play as I know you can. That’s challenging for everybody. And like I said, as you mentioned, I’ve made plenty of mistakes and I feel like I know some of those pitfalls, and yet I still find myself either making those mistakes or really having to have an internal fight with myself to not, to not make those mistakes.

So it’s a challenge. When you think back to your time at BW, when did coaching get on your radar? Was that something that you always thought in the back of your mind that you wanted to do? Was it something that you, you, you came to you came to that more towards the end of your playing career or was it something, when did coaching get on your radar?

[00:22:15] Kevin Braaten: I mean, I think for me, once I realized that the playing career was going to end sooner rather than later I knew I wanted to be involved in basketball. So really for someone like me, it was like, it was really an easy choice.  I’m going to go into education, become a teacher so I can coach basketball.

I had so many great role models as coaches from my high school coaches to my college coach, that it was kind of like, I want players to feel like how I felt about my coaches and to have that opportunity and if I could be that type of coach or someone just like my coaches were, for me, that would be a really fulfilling career.

[00:22:57] Mike Klinzing: What were some of the things you took or you learned from some of the coaches, whether it was Coach Casey, Coach Connors, Coach Thompson at Strongsville, or whether it was coach Bankson at bw. Are there things that you can think back that they did or how they influenced you that still are part of your coaching today?

[00:23:16] Kevin Braaten:  I think  starting with Coach Thompson he was just a man of high character who came to practice every day and he was always prepared.  whether it was a drill or team stuff, I always felt like, man, Coach Thompson really knows the game and come to practice every day and to be prepared and for your players to feel that way.

That’s probably what I took from him. Coach Connors, I think it was the relationship more than anything. Like, he just was a, a phenomenal coach to be around every day. He was kind of our post player coach. So we went big little. That was always like a highlight for me in high school, coach Connors loved big guys.

He loved the big guys, I mean, truthfully, when you hear him say, Hey, to throw it in the post every possession, I mean, you’re a post player, you’re going to love the guy. That’s Exactly, exactly. And then Coach Casey, similar to coach Thompson, he was just a great man. And he was in his own way at highly competitive and hated to lose.

And I think from an x and o standpoint he was always a coach that kept it really simple on offense.  and, and with guys like you and, and other guys that came up throughs, think to defensively, we always mixed up our defenses From an o standpoint, I kind of learned that from him.

Cause I still do that to this day as a coach kind of find myself coaching kind like he did. As far as mixing defenses and having different looks to teams coach bankson at BW, I never have been around a coach who was more thorough with everything that he did. He had notebooks and notebooks of journals that he did about every practice.

Like he would tell us he would do a journal after every practice. And then I think the thing that I also learned from him was and, and I think it’s a special coach that can get players to not want to lose because you saw the pain on his face and it wasn’t, it wasn’t a comment or like that he would go off if we lost, but you could just feel that he was in pain.

When we lose a game and. You didn’t want to make him feel that way, like you wanted you worried like, is he going to go home and talk to his wife? We lost to John Carroll. So it was like we have to win for coach. And so it was a genuine love that had for coach banks I think stuck with me.

You have a favorite memory from playing F bw? I definitely yeah, my sophomore year  it was there were only 32 teams that made the division three national tournament and so we got upset By Muskingum in the semi-finals and we had a good year. It finished second the league to John Carroll and  we’re like, our season’s over.

And then we kind of figured out, well, there’s like six games that could go a certain way. And if the favorite would win, we might get in that large bid. Man, I’m really dating myself, but were sitting in dorm, actually dorm, you had to call in updates of the scores.  So we’re calling every 15 minutes and we’re keeping track of it.

And lo and behold, every game goes our way and we get in that large bid. And we were, gosh, I can’t remember our record, but we were probably like 17 and nine and we find out we’re basically going to the number one team in the country hope College. 27 and 0 coach Bankson shows us film of them and they’re throwing alleys to their 6’10” post player.

And  at division three level, you don’t see that very often. They look unbeatable. Coach is like, well, we’re not looking at anymore of that. And then we go up there and  they covered the three basketball tremendously up there. There’s reporters everywhere and it’s they’re camping out to get tickets and we go up like 12, nothing on ’em, and we, they battle back.

I actually had. Two God awful turnovers. I traveled two times in a row as we’re trying to the ball and I’m thinking, oh my gosh, we just, I just lost the game for us , and we’re down. One guards, Ryan, game on was definitely highlight of my years at BW.

[00:27:58] Mike Klinzing: Yeah, those moments. I think when you, when you get involved in any game where there’s a buzzer beater, especially in that kind of se scenario  that’s exciting stuff to be able to, to look back and it’s funny again, the things that, that stick out and that you remember and just how important it is just to think about, again, your teammates.

You mentioned playing with Joe and obviously that he was the best teammate that you ever played with and, and Ryan I’ve known for a long time and just you think about the guys that you had an opportunity to play with that you’re still connected to today. That’s really what it’s all about.

Just that, that kind of comradery that you can build with your teammates is something special when you get done. Talk a little about your first experience coaching when you get done playing.

[00:28:37] Kevin Braaten: Sure. So I graduate from BW in hoping Brunswick Joe Year Varsity.  I majored in  history and social studies and education.

So I’m a social studies teacher, so they have a social studies opening and I go over there and coach we’re all really young pretty fiery. And we had some those early years, we had some really good years. We had some years where we struggled. But I just remember just coaching with Joe and the other, other coaches on our staff and just learning how to become a better coach.

How to interact with players, so much first such great experiences with those guys and the coaches.

[00:29:34] Mike Klinzing: What’s something that you feel like you were pretty good at right out the gate as a coach?

[00:29:38] Kevin Braaten:  I think Xs and o’s wise, I think that basketball just kind has always come natural to me. Really can see things on the court and kind know how to take Your team and kind of figure out, all right, if we do these things, we could be, this is going to lead us to the most success.

Like I feel like my strength as a coach is probably that just putting kids in a position where they’re going to max out their success. So I think I’ve always kind of had a good feel for that part of the game, and then also just building rapport with kids. I think that that’s something I really enjoy and it truly is one of the best parts of coaching.

What’s something that you weren’t very good at? Organization. I was a train wreck , so like things like fundraising and just being like I, I told Joe Hey, I want to be a head coach. And he was like, all right, let’s, you know. So I was always. The front door with everything he was doing so I could learn this is how you, and this not just being a head coach, but it’s all the little things that go behind the scenes that people don’t realize that you truly can’t really appreciate until you have to do it.

[00:30:55] Mike Klinzing: Yeah. There’s no doubt that, I don’t think anybody who’s not in the business really understands all the demands that you have as a head coach. I don’t care what the level is, but talking about it on a high school level, you think about just dealing with all the budgeting stuff and the travel and the staff and just the academics and there’s just so many things that people don’t think about when they go and they sit in the stands and they watch a game on Friday night.

It’s just, there’s a whole process to making sure that everything runs the way it does. And then obviously as a head coach, you’re not responsible for your varsity team. When you’re coaching at a public school, you’re kind of responsible for that K to 12 entire basketball program. And there’s pieces of that that we’ll get into here in a few minutes.

But after you get done now, well, I should say after you, after you finish coaching there with, with Joe as an assistant, you get an opportunity to be the girls head coach. So what was the thought process there? Was that something that you were like, Hey, this is an opportunity to be a head coach? Or was it something that, Hey, I think I’m going to like coaching girls.

Hey,  I’m not sure if I’m going to like coaching girls, but I want to be a head coach. Just what was the mentality as you, as you took that opportunity?

[00:32:01] Kevin Braaten: Sure. I mean, I think a lot of it was I applied for some jobs and I didn’t get an interview. And I would ask like, Hey, why didn’t I get an interview?

Well, you don’t have any head coaching experience. So I felt like if I’m ever going to be a head coach, I have to be a head coach. And  I think, and that’s one of the things I always tell young coaches, don’t look at and I hate to say this, hopefully I’m not going to alienate anybody, but when I first got into coaching, I thought if you, if you’re a male coaching girl, it’s because you’re not good enough to coach boys, right?

And then my daughter’s born and right away she gravitates to the gym and loves basketball. And then I’m thinking to myself, so am I going to say that my daughter is going to that having a male coach is, it means that person’s not good. Good enough coach for her. And I was like that’s ridiculous, you know?

So  coaching girls to me was, I looked at it as a great opportunity and  obviously I coached girls for a number of years. I really not only enjoyed it, I loved it. And some of the coaches I went against, both men and women were just outstanding coaches. So for me, like to take the girls job, I felt like it was an honor and I was really excited.

And, and I felt like it was something that could further my career.

[00:33:32] Mike Klinzing: What was the biggest difference? Adjustment for you, or just in terms of coaching? Girls at that level versus obviously you coach boys, you played on all men’s teams. It’s just a different, it’s a different, it’s a different animal. So how did you go about and make making adjustments or did you make any adjustments?  What was it like making that transition?

[00:33:55] Kevin Braaten: Well, I think if you asked some of the girls that played for me early on, they probably thought I was crazy. I learned a lot. Like I think the biggest thing I learned was girls are coachable to a fault. They always say, because if you tell them like, this is the defense we’re going to run, this is a set we’re going to run, they’re going to do it exactly to perfection and they’re typically never going to break off and just go make a play. Whereas a boy is the opposite. They’re like, well coach, I know you called that set, but I can beat my guy so I’m going to go do it. And so with girls, like technically, I think you really have to make sure that whatever you’re running is technically on point with your talent because they’re going to carry it out to a T, which I really liked and enjoyed and appreciated about my players.

[00:34:52] Mike Klinzing: Yeah. I think that’s something that for sure in my experience, coaching both my daughters, coaching my son and you a high school boys coach for a long time. I think part of what you learn is that. Yeah. The girls are, are more, I don’t know if open is the right way to say it, but they certainly will stick to the game plan, I think, better than the boys will.

And then I think on the, on the personality side, I think one of the things that, that I found is when you can bring, when you can bring your girls team together, that that bond becomes super strong. Now you can clearly have personality issues and not every girl’s team out there comes together in the same way.

But I think if you can get ’em to come together and play for each other, I think that sometimes that can be even stronger than what you get with the boys. Where there is more of sort of, I think that, again, this is just a generality, but there’s, there’s more of that individual side of it on the boys side.

Even when you build a team that is completely together, I think if you, I think that the ceiling for that togetherness is higher for the girls, if that makes any sense.

[00:36:03] Kevin Braaten: Oh, I agree a hundred percent. And I think that. Girls value that whole, we’re a team. We’re in a unit more than probably boys do, you know?

And, and I think that’s what makes coaching girls so much fun is that your program is really, not that it isn’t with boys, but it is truly like a big family. They’re all sisters and they all care about each other and they care more about the team dynamic than they do individual success.  I’ve always found that to be true.

[00:36:36] Mike Klinzing:  So this past year you get an opportunity, you were coaching the girls there at Berea, you get an opportunity to come and take over the boys program. First of all, I guess start with the why you decided this was the right time to be able to do that. Obviously Duke steps down after being there for a long time, so the opportunity presents itself.

But just talk again about just sort of the why behind it and then we’ll dive into what you’re going to do to, to continue to build that program.

[00:37:02] Kevin Braaten: Sure. You know  I’ve been teaching at. I taught at Berea High School, Midpark High School. I taught at the junior high. I’ve taught it now, of course, Berea Midpark High School, my family lives in the community, so this community means a lot to me, hence my family. Really our three communities, Berea Brook Park and Middle Heights. And then I have three kids. I have two daughters and a son. My oldest Kendall’s 18, a senior. And then I have twins that are eighth graders and they all love basketball.

So  it was, I’ve always coached my girls more than my son. So when, when Coach Barther decided to step down to spend time with his kids, it was it was a really difficult family decision that we sat down first, asked my wife and my kids, and  it was difficult, my younger daughter, Regan, I think she’ll never forgive me, but  I think that it was a great opportunity and with our new high school and we have a new athletic director our facilities.

It’s a great job. It’s a phenomenal job and I feel fortunate to do that

[00:38:18] Mike Klinzing: So when you get the job and you start thinking about, which obviously you probably were thinking about it before you officially got named, named the head coach, but as you were thinking about what you wanted to do with the program in terms of your vision and where you saw it going, what was some of the things that you knew you wanted to prioritize in this first year as you start thinking about building the program in, in, into what you want, what you hope it can become?

[00:38:42] Kevin Braaten: The first time I was a head coach, I thought, well, my job is to be the varsity head coach. I run the varsity program and that was really the extent of it. And that’s just not how it is,  you’re really the coach starting, I guess you’d maybe start in third grade that third grade travel basketball.

You have to be a part of that. In fact, I’m coaching a third grade  I have coaching a group of little third grade boys in the B league in our, in our travel league.  you’re part of the middle school program and you have to run the high school program. So like you are the face of the program, third grade through 12th grade.

And I think that is that, how, is that how it should be? I don’t really know, but that’s how it’s, and you really have to buy into that fact that you have to get to know your kids.  starting in third grade. And so we’ve tried with my staff, we have a lot of great community people on the staff that understand that and buy into it.

I think that’s probably what I’m most excited about is the staff that we’ve put together that understand that we are a community based program.

[00:39:55] Mike Klinzing: So give me an idea of what that looks like. So obviously, okay, you’re coaching a third grade team. How much do you get involved in working with the coaches in the travel program?

How do you approach your middle school in terms of being involved with those coaches and making sure that they understand what you’re trying to accomplish with the high school program? Just tell me a little bit about how you put your hands into each one of those pieces beyond, obviously your hand is is really involved in the third grade team that you’re coaching , which is going beyond that.

When you start talking about being able to have an influence across all those different levels of the program, how do you envision it working for you and your staff? What does that look like?

[00:40:33] Kevin Braaten: Sure. So basically we started with a coaches clinic with all our rec and travel coaches Coach McNamara, girls coach, and myself put it on. It was about an hour long, hour and a half where we went through like just basic identity. Like this is the identity of our program.  I’m not going to get into micromanaging a fourth travel team and say, you better run these sets. I don’t involved, but we are going to let kids make plays. We’re not going to get bogged down with a million sets or being too coach controlled. We want our players to be able to make plays and my middle school coaches, two of them coach travel basketball as well. So now we have that connection between, alright, we have three travel coaches that are middle school and high school coaches.

So we, we have that connection so the parents see, alright, our head coach and our ninth grade coach and our seventh grade are also coaching travel teams so they can kind of see that we are investing in their kids. And it’s really just a top down approach of let’s play fast, let’s have fun. And we want kids smiling and really just enjoying their experience.

[00:42:02] Mike Klinzing: When you started looking at the high school program and you thought about. Getting connected to the players that are coming back, but also the families that are returning with those players. How’d you go about engaging the, the parents and families of the boys in the program, just to kind of get off on the right foot with them as you take over the job?

[00:42:27] Kevin Braaten: Can’t think of the name of the book, but it was a book about a guy who took over a ship in the Navy and it was the worst ship in the whole Navy and within two years it was the number one ship in the Navy. And his biggest point was he brought every single person in and said, tell me one thing you liked about the old captain, one thing you didn’t like, and one suggestion.

So I read that book about four years ago and I’ve taken that, so I just sent out like a little Google form, every parent asking that same question those three questions. And it’s, it’s really interesting cause I’ve done it for a couple years now. You get such consistency and answers of what parents and kids say and I sent it to the kid too, what parents like, what they don’t like and, and the suggestions that they have.

And the kids are very, very similar. And, and what you find is because you hear, well, parents are so difficult. Very few people had a whole lot of negative things to say about the program. Most people were extremely positive. I think the thing that parents want is a coaching staff that invests in their kids and is involved with.

Before they get into high school. I mean, that is the common theme that I’ve, that I’ve seen and, and it, so it was for me, really like easy transition to be involved with our program at the lower levels. Plus, I’m pretty lucky because I’m, it can be a good or bad thing, but I’m friends with, my wife and I are friends with a lot of parents whose kids are, are part of our program which, like I said, can be good thing could ultimately be a bad thing.

But I think it was easy because that those lines of communication were open and I could talk to them pretty easily.

[00:44:17] Mike Klinzing: Yeah. To be able to have that. I think reaching out to people proactively to, to get their, to get their thoughts, to get their input and to be able to also get a read on the landscape of where the program’s been and, and where people want it to go or what they envision for it.

I think those are all valuable things that you can take in as a coach and then sort of let that shape and figure out what it is that. You want to do and how you want to go about meeting those needs that you’re hearing from both the parents and the players. I think the more you can communicate with them proactively, obviously the better off you are when you get, build those relationships in a positive way than if you ever do get into a situation where you have an interaction that’s maybe a little bit more difficult, you’ve already got this positive vibe going with a parent because you communicated with them, right?

Just like being a teacher, you want to be able to have that first interaction, be a positive one, not the first time that you’re calling and saying, Hey, your kid’s in trouble in class, and now all of a sudden there’s, there’s no relationship for you to fall back on. So I think that proactive communication is really important.

When you started looking at your guys and, and trying to figure out, okay, what is it that we want to do? How much of you from, from a basketball, I guess Phyllis philosophy standpoint, when you start thinking about what you’ve done in your other stints, As a head coach, what you’ve learned as an assistant coach, how much of sort of the identity, you mentioned you want to play fast, you want to give players some freedom to be able to play.

When you start looking at your personnel and start thinking about adjustments or things that you want to do based on that, how do you go into a season sort of preparing and thinking about what you want to do with your team on both ends before, what does that look like? What does that process for you?

[00:46:00] Kevin Braaten: If I bring our team into it and I start thinking about it, and before I even think about the players, I try to say, okay, if I know nothing about my players, what do I want to do offensively?

I always start with that, which for me is a modified dribble drive, transition basketball  defensively it is pressing pressure multiple defenses. And then you take your, you look at your personnel and say, okay, can we do these things well for us the spring, our point guard trans phenomenal player, Jason Levis transfers the Lutheran West and then seven of our top eight guys play football.

So I don’t see him all July, August, September watching him on the football field. And I’ve never had to deal with that. So it, it’s really been interesting  to to say, even the first week of practice, they were in the playoffs. So I, we didn’t have him the first week of practice.

So it wasn’t until the second week of practice that I have to see him and say, okay. We can maybe do this and this over here, but this other thing, now I can really do it. So to me we have like a really throwback team of kids who play multiple sports. Like we all our guys, honestly, our varsity guys play at least two sports.

At least half of them play three sports. So it’s really like a throwback to a different generation where kids played two and three sports. So it’s, I, I’ve kind really enjoyed that part of it. Cause I’ve always coached kids who always, but most of the time who have specialized and played basketball all year round.

So to coach a group like this, so far I’ve really enjoyed it.

[00:47:58] Mike Klinzing: So how did you approach then that off season, the summer and the fall where you’re going into it knowing that, hey, the guys who are probably most likely to be on the floor for me are guys that aren’t going to be around as much as obviously.

As a basketball coach, you’d like to have those guys around to be a part of it, and yet obviously you understand that they’re playing other sports, and as you said, it hearkens back to a different era. But just how did you approach that where obviously you’ve got kids coming and participating in the things that you’re doing, but yet you know that, hey, my top seven or eight guys aren’t here with us.

Just how did you go about approaching that as a coach, and then how did you approach that with the kids who were there participating in the things that you were doing in the off season?

[00:48:44] Kevin Braaten: Sure. That was tough. That was really tough. I’ll be honest, because. We bring our seventh and eighth graders into our open gym.

Cause we have multiple gyms here at the high school. So we were having like between 50 and 70 kids at open gym and I kept telling the kids like, this is a great opportunity for you to put some time into the weight room. It’s a playing with the idea that you should be better than guys who play a fall sport.

But ultimately, and this is the hardest thing, I think in these types of situations, and I think you just have to be straight up and honest with kids, when the football guys show up. If they’re better than you, they’re better, yes, off-season commitment is important. It’s a huge part of our program, but when our first game hits, the best kids are going to play.

As a coach it’s really hard. It’s difficult when you see a couple kids who have dedicated their fall to basketball and then some kids who are just flat out better athletes walk in the gym and take their spot. So I think that if I could give advice to any young coach going through that, just be really honest.

Don’t promise anything. Don’t tell kids well, because you were here all summer. You get that spot and then you ultimately realize the other kids better and you have to come back and tell that kid something completely opposite, I think. I think kids might not like it, but they can accept it if you’re honest.

[00:50:19] Mike Klinzing: I think ultimately they probably like it more. Maybe not in the exact moment when they’re being told that, but I think ultimately kids want to know where they stand and what their role is and where they fit. And if you do that, I think ultimately that even though the kid might not like what you have to say, I think.

They’re going to respect it and they’ll be able to, to better deal with the situation that they have in front of them instead of kind of going in with, as you said, like a little uncertainty of, oh, here, this, that, and if you kind of hem and haw and don’t give ’em the right answer, it makes it tough and it makes it a challenge.

And I can’t imagine like for you, again, as a head coach kind of going through that process and typically you might have one or two kids that are playing a fall sport that are, that are key components of your team. But to have seven out of your eight that are guys that are in your rotation clearly that’s a clearly that’s a challenge.

And  as you said, missing Jason as well who played with my son aau. He’s just phenomenal. He’s so much fun to watch and obviously would’ve been a big part of your team had he had, he stayed at Berea, but nonetheless when you start thinking about, again, getting into building your team, putting it together day-to-day on the practice floor, what’s your process for putting together a practice plan day by day?

How do you go about doing that? Is that something you sit down by yourself? Is that something that you work through with your staff? You do it at the computer, you write it down handwritten, just what’s the process?

[00:51:53] Kevin Braaten: Yeah, I think we try to leverage as much technology as we can. So everything in our program is on Google is on the Google Drive, and all my coaches have access to it.

Practice plans are on there, so throughout the school day, they’re able to edit things and say, Hey, what about this coach? You know? We try to plan it out by, by month. So the first month of the season what do we want to accomplish in terms of X amount of time with skills, with team concepts, with offensive defense  special situations.

We just want to make sure that when our first game hits, that we are prepared and ready and we have everything in. So our staff spends a great deal of time organizing and getting that all laid out. And then week by week then it’s becomes what do we want to do every single day?

So for us  we do a transition drill to start practice every day. Then we do a ton of shooting. We shoot a ton of threes or on my early years, we would drill a lot, but now we do a lot more small sided games, concepts five on five. We don’t do a ton of five on 0 anymore. Everything is truly like three on three, four on four or five on five.

And we don’t stop practice very much.  We coach ’em on the side and we really try to make everything as game like as possible. I think I hope if you, our players, they really enjoy practice cause there’s not a lots that will not apply to game.  I think that’s one thing we pride ourselves.

[00:53:39] Mike Klinzing: You mentioned about coaching guys when they’re on the side, and I think that’s one of the things that, especially young coaches, and I know I can think back to really in my career, trying to figure out how do you balance correcting players versus. Not stopping the action every two seconds to be able to correct things.

And I’ve told this story before on the podcast, Kevin, when I, my very first coaching experience was at the JV coach at bay and I was by myself for my first practice and I had whatever, 12 or 15 kids and came in and we ran a drill the first five minutes of practice. And I just remember thinking to myself like, oh my God, like I just witnessed like 500 mistakes that I want to correct.

How am I possibly ever going to be able to fix all this stuff? And obviously as you go on in your career, you learn that you have to kind of pick and choose and pick your spots. But how do you go about with your staff thinking about. That piece of bringing ’em to the sideline versus not stopping the practice to kind of keep it flowing.

What does that specifically look like for you? Do you have certain coaches that are looking for certain things where somebody’s watching the offense, somebody’s watching the defense? Are you overseeing the whole thing? Do you focus in on one particular aspect? Just how do you go about organizing to make sure that guys are getting coached?

[00:54:53] Kevin Braaten: Yeah, we don’t designate things specifically by coach, but we do kind just take turns. I have one assistant who technically X and o’s wise, he’s phenomenal. So he kind focuses on mistakes on our out of bounds plays or our presses or our offense, and he’ll pull guys aside and really focus on that.

And then my other assistant is a special ed teacher, he just excels with dealing with difficult kids, kids that have bad moments. So he kind focuses on you attitudinal stuff and when a kid needs a pickup, he’s great at that. Then I kind just, I really try not to talk too much at practice besides like Hey, we’re doing this drill, boom, boom, boom, 10 minutes on the clock, here we go.

And I really try to let my coaches coach our kids up in practice because I know as an assistant coach if I get bored at practice and I really lose my focus and I’m really just not helping the cause very much. So I’ll always want my assistant to feel like they have a huge role to play.

So I kind of let them do a lot of the correcting and fixing and practice.

[00:56:14] Mike Klinzing: I think that’s really important as a head coach to be able to engage your assistant coaches and be able to utilize what they bring to the table. And then also just again, to develop ’em depending upon where they are in their career.

Some of them may want to be head coaches if you have some young assistant coaches. And then obviously if you have some coaches who maybe have been a head coach that that come back and they want to be an assistant at this point in their career. But it’s always interesting, I think, to to hear head coaches talk about how they utilize their assistants to make sure that they stay engaged.

I think that’s one of your most important responsibilities as a head coach. Cause as you said, it’s very easy as a head coach to sort of become, become dominant and be the dominant voice that everybody hears. And I, I think that does two things. One, it, as you said, it kind of undercuts the assistance and they don’t get the opportunity to be heard.

And then I also think that, It just players get tired of hearing the same voice over and over and over again if the only person they ever hear from is the head coach. So I think to be able to have the assistants be able to step in and do some of those things, to me it makes a lot more sense to have, have a more balanced response to what goes on in practice because now you’re hearing a bunch of different voices and, and the kids don’t get tired of hearing, oh man, here comes the head coach one more time where he is the only person that ever that ever talks.

I think when you get that balance, it makes a lot more, makes a lot more sense, makes for a lot more productive, a lot more productive practice. What have you done on the, on the outside of the program to. Promoted. I know one of the things that I’ve seen you do and just again, just going through and seeing social media, I know you guys did a, a summer shooting program that you put stuff out on social media about that You got your Indiana warmup in Indiana style warmups that you put out there for people to see.

So just talk a little bit about what you’ve done to kind of promote the program social media wise, maybe within the school and with the with the staff and students to try to get people excited about the program. Cause I think that’s something that’s maybe underrated as a coach.

[00:58:16] Kevin Braaten: You’re exactly right.  And it’s again, I feel like when it comes to social media you can go two ways about it. With kids today, I think they appreciate you when their head coach is active on social media and we kind of celebrate our successes. So we try to leverage our Twitter and, and Facebook. And the big thing I told the kids was we’re going to take care of you guys, so we got ’em travel suits, the same ones that ST’s has for their guys. We got the blue and orange striped pants. We did our shooting club. We had a big fundraiser with our girls program kind of a wing with baskets. So we’re, we’re trying to really make the program. As big as possible in our communities.

And, and in our, most importantly in our kids, it’s like, I want ’em to feel special and they get off the bus like  we played north in our first game and got a couple people I know from North Royalton like, man, your guys look good. The travel suits were nice and your warmups were awesome.

And  it’s a little thing, but all those little things add up to a kid feeling like our program’s special. So  we, we try to leverage  social media as well to recognize our players academically and their other sports socially when they’re doing great things in the community.

So that’s something that we feel like is going to be a huge part of our program.

[00:59:47] Mike Klinzing: Yeah, it’s really an important part. I think that sometimes as adults, we sometimes discount how important those little things are and how much they mean to kids. Like I know that, think back to when you were a player, how important it was that you got the number that you wanted, right?

Like that was critical. And then sometimes you’re sitting in the coach’s office as a, as a coach and you’re figuring out uniforms and you’re looking at sizes and you’re like, eh, just whatever. Just take 31, or whatever the number is. Sure. And you’re like, what is it?

You’re like, what does it matter? And then you remember as a kid, you were like, God, that was like the most important thing ever was what number was I going to get? Was I going to get the number that I wanted? And I think sometimes we as adults take those little things for granted. I think if you don’t, if you do that as a coach, if you, if you look at those little things, And especially again with social media as you said, and, and just taking care of those, those little things that are important to kids just sets you apart, as you said, to make your program feel, feel special to make the kids feel like, hey, like being a part of this is something that not everybody gets to do.

And there’s a reason why I want to be a part of it. Because all these little things that, as I said, adults sometimes take for granted, kids don’t. And, and those are the things that, as you said right from the very beginning, talking about, it’s about the experience, right? And so if you as a coach can provide them with the kind of experience that is one that they’re going to look back on 30 years from now and be like, man, I was so lucky to be a part of Brea basketball and a play for Coach Bratton.

Like to. That’s what you want. You want the kids to be looking back and saying, yeah you’re going to win some games, you’re going to lose some games. But ultimately you want that experience to be a positive one. I think that’s, that’s really critical. Before we wrap up, Kevin, I want to ask you one more final two part question.

So, first part is, when you look ahead through the remainder of this season and on into the off season, what’s the biggest challenge that you see in front of you? And then the second part is, when you think about what you get to do every day as the head coach at Brea, what brings you the most joy? So your biggest challenge and then your biggest joy.

[01:01:51] Kevin Braaten: Well the biggest challenge is if I look at our season  our league is very competitive. I don’t think that there’s a team that is at the level of obviously a Saint Ignatius is right now, but there’s not a game that we go into where we’re like if we have a bad night, we’re still going to win.

So every game is going to be a tough game for us. And then our non-conference schedule, we picked up Strongsville.  we we’re challenging our guys to raise the level of their games because we want to compete with the best. So that is something that I think is a huge challenge for us.

And then the other thing as we look more in the future challenge wise is, I mean, right now, the, the, the starting back court at Lutheran West are Berea  kids and St. V’s has two Berea kids starting. So as a staff, we have to figure out how do we keep these kids home, right? And so we’ve started some things where we actually had a recruiting day with our own kids and brought in their parents and some of our best eighth graders because that’s my son’s class.

It’s a very talented class. They all come here. We could really have a, have a special four years of basketball. So we actually brought ’em in and recruited them to stay, stay home . So something that you didn’t think that you’d ever have to do, but that’s again, the landscape that we’re in.

What brings me the, the biggest joy is just having the opportunity to be, to lead this program. There’s great people, we have great parents. We have great  our players, phenomenal kids.  we have a team well over three point they’re doing great things on. On the socially away from basketball, they’re multi-sport kids.

We’re doing something in our community and I was just floored. We’re adapting a family that’s been, that’s had just a, a huge loss, multiple family members of cancer and a little boy who’s just  had all kinds of health problems. And I threw it out to the parents, said, we’re going to adopt this family.

My wife made a spreadsheet of like, all these wants that these kids, the family had because they can’t afford a Christmas. And literally within 10 minutes, The sheet was filled up. That’s awesome. And, and parents want to donate money when and when you, when you see things like that you’re part of something special.

So  that type of thing, like really honestly chokes me up and makes me feel just really fortunate to part of this program.

[01:04:42] Mike Klinzing: Yeah, that’s good stuff, Kevin. I think when you can have an impact, not only on the floor, but off the floor, that’s really what it’s all about. And when you get to chance to, to involve not only the players, but then involve their families makes it all the more meaningful.

Again, going back to what we talked about off the top, it’s all part of the experience. And if you can give those kids an experience that goes beyond basketball and have an impact on their lives, man, you’ve really, you’ve really done something. Before we get out, I want to give you a chance to share how people can find out more about your program, how they can connect with you, so whether you want to share your social media accounts, email, whatever you feel comfortable with, and then I’ll jump back in and wrap things up.

[01:05:21] Kevin Braaten: Sure.  Anybody can email me at any time. I’m pretty open. And in responding and that’s kbraaten@bereaschools.org. And then you can check out our Twitter page which is @bmhstitanBhoops. Our athletic department does a phenomenal job with a lot of graphics and if you live in our communities, you can follow our program on Twitter and really kind get a feel for what it’s like.

[01:05:56] Mike Klinzing: Kevin, cannot I thank you enough for taking the time out of your schedule tonight to jump on with us. Probably long overdue. Again, just wanted to say thanks to you for, for being willing to jump on and to everyone out there, thanks for listening and we will catch you on our next episode. Thanks.