KYLE JURGENS – SKUTT CATHOLIC (NE) HIGH SCHOOL BOYS’ BASKETBALL HEAD COACH – EPISODE 906

Website – https://skuttcatholichs.rschoolteams.com/page/3100

Email – kylejurgens@skuttcatholic.com

Twitter – @SkuttBasketball

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Kyle Jurgens has been the Head Boys Basketball Coach at Skutt Catholic High School in Omaha, Nebraska for 11 years. During his tenure the SkyHawks have won three state championships in 2014, 2020, and 2023.  Kyle started his coaching career at Millard North High School where he was the Varsity Assistant for the Basketball, Football, and Soccer teams for 8 years.

Jurgens graduated from Nebraska Wesleyan University where he played Soccer and earned a degree in Mathematics. He attended North Platte High School and was a three-sport athlete in football, basketball, and soccer.

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Be prepared to take some notes as you listen to this episode with Kyle Jurgens, Head Boys Basketball Coach at Skutt Catholic High School in Omaha, Nebraska.

What We Discuss with Kyle Jurgens

• How his Dad and his neighborhood in Nebraska really shaped his love for sports growing up
• His favorite memories from playing high school basketball
• His decision to attend Nebraska Wesleyan to play soccer
• Switching from pre-med to education after realizing he wanted
• “You’re not just going to school for basketball you’re going there for the school, you’re going there for the experience, you’re going there for the people.”
• Working as an assistant coach at Millard North (NE) High School for football, basketball, and soccer for eight seasons
• “If you’re going to do it the right way, you can’t be afraid to put the time in.”
• “You got to show up for the kids. Because that’s the only way they’re going to respect you. And that’s the only way they’re going to work hard for you.”
• “Putting your ego in your pocket and putting the team before all the other stuff.”
• “When you put that much time into it, you better enjoy who you do it with.”
• Putting together a great coaching staff
• The importance of having a supportive administration
• “I think our kids know that you better like defense. You better want to play defense. You better want to guard. Or you’ll have a tough time playing in our program.”
• Seeking out advice from other coaches
• ” In terms of a leader, I mean, obviously I look at someone who’s a hard worker, has the respect of their teammates, holds people accountable, doesn’t make excuses, doesn’t point fingers and someone who has kind of a a mental toughness about them that you need.”
• “If there’s not energy and there’s not talk and there’s not pop, you’re probably in a losing gym.”
• Always starting practice with a high energy drill
• Organizing practice teams during different parts of the season
• Scouting live vs on film
• “Anytime your former players now are coming back and joining your coaching staff, it’s just a super cool feeling.”
• Balancing family and coaching
  

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TRANSCRIPT FOR KYLE JURGENS – SKUTT CATHOLIC (NE) HIGH SCHOOL BOYS’ BASKETBALL HEAD COACH – EPISODE 906

[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 Kyle Jurgens, head boys basketball coach at Skutt Catholic High School in Omaha, Nebraska. Kyle, welcome to Hoop Heads Pod.

[00:00:15] Kyle Jurgens: Thanks guys. Appreciate you having me on.

[00:00:20] Mike Klinzing: We are thrilled to have you on, looking forward to diving into all the things that you’ve been able to do thus far in your coaching career.

I want to start by going back in time to when you were a kid. Tell me about some of your early experiences in the game of basketball, what you remember, what made you fall in love with it?

[00:00:37] Kyle Jurgens: Sure. Well, grew up in a house where sports were a big deal and probably started with my dad and cousins and uncles.

And I mean, anytime we got together, it was, depending on the season pickle in the backyard or throwing the football around or shooting hoops or what have you. But  I got the love of the game for sure from my dad.  He taught me how to throw a baseball, football, shoot a basketball, all those types of things.

So just grew up with athletics kind of all around and my dad still kind of played him when I was younger in the slow pitch softball days and the pickup basketball days, you tagged along with, with those types of things. And then I grew up in a neighborhood with a bunch of kids that went, we had a lot across the way and we’d go play baseball there and meet at everybody’s houses and play basketball.

Some of the stuff that probably needs to happen more in this day and age. Playing out in the driveway. And so, yeah, I think you had a coach TJ O’Connor on earlier in the fall. We grew up  three houses from each other. And so he’s a head coach now here in Omaha as well.

And so I can remember his uncle is the college coach out at the community college, we would go out there and, and watch games. And as you got older the high school that I was going to attend going and watching those games and just kind of looking at those guys and that’s some of the stuff we talked to our guys about too is don’t get caught up in these little kids that are here watching you, they’re looking up and they want to be you someday.

And that was kind of me. I always watched those high school guys and said, man, I can’t wait to play on that floor someday. And so that’s kind of where it originated for me. And that was always the dream in high school to be a varsity basketball player and was fortunate enough to be.

[00:02:53] Mike Klinzing: I know you ended up playing soccer in college, but as you grew up, which of the sports was your favorite? Because oftentimes there’s a sport that maybe you’re the best at. Yeah. It’s not necessarily your favorite. Did your allegiances switch as you got older? How did you navigate which one was your favorite, which one you were playing, which how much you practiced outside of it.  Just give me a rundown.

[00:03:16] Kyle Jurgens: Yeah.  I mean. You basically nailed it.  When I was younger, it was just whatever I was playing. I loved, but as I got older, I was pretty unique in that I was a four sport kid and that the high school I went to, I played football in the fall, basketball in the winter, soccer was in the spring and our high school did not have spring baseball, only legion baseball in the summer.

And I played Legion baseball in the summer. And I did that until up until the up until the summer before my senior year, I decided not to play baseball. I also had injuries in there too. When I was a sophomore, I tore my ACL returning a punt in maybe the first or second football game of the season.

Kind of retweaked it again. And so that took me out most of my sophomore year because I had to wait to get surgery on it. And so that took me out of all of football, my sophomore year, basketball and soccer. And then I played baseball that summer, redid it, not redid my ACL, but I had to have it scoped again.

So I didn’t get to play much of my junior year of football either. So, football, I played as a freshman and then I played as a senior but then was able to play the rest of them as a junior and senior. I mean, basketball was always my first love. It’s what I love to play the most. I got recruited to play football basketball and, and soccer.

Soccer was probably what I was best at. I mean, football, I’d had to get a lot bigger and, and a little bit the same in basketball too. But I loved them all. And probably one of the biggest reasons I quit the summer before my senior year in terms of baseball is we had a really good team and there was about eight or nine of us seniors.

And our coach had come from California, coached high school basketball in California. And he was going to take us to Omaha to a few team camps. And then we were we piled on, we piled in a 15 passenger van, like nine of us, my coach his wife, his kids. And we drove all the way out to California and we were out there for about a week. We played a bunch of old high schools that he used to play against when he coached out there. And I really didn’t want to miss those experiences playing baseball. And so the rest of those seniors were basketball players.

I was kind of a multi sport. But it was, I mean, it was huge for us because, I mean, you can imagine 24 hours in a 15 passenger van. You get to know each other pretty well. I mean, you become, talk about becoming a family.  those types of things were big. And then that that following year, my senior year, we, had a really good basketball season.

Still, I mean, at the high school, North Platte High School, where I went, still the, I think the best, I mean, record wise, best season in school history. We got beat in the Semi-finals of the state basketball tournament in the highest class in Nebraska. And I mean, those are the memories that stick with you.

I mean, talk about high school basketball. I mean, playing in the state tournament is something I’ll never, ever forget. And I mean, we must have played in a semi-final game in front of eight to 10,000 people. Those are just things that you, you don’t get to do. I mean, even if you go on to play college basketball at some smaller colleges, you’re not going to play in those types of atmospheres and so environments.

And it was just really, really special. And it was a special group. And yeah, it’s one of the biggest things I remember about my high school career. Were you

[00:07:33] Mike Klinzing: Were you still in touch with a lot of your high school classmates, teammates?

[00:07:37] Kyle Jurgens: Yeah. So one of them ended up my roommate for a couple of years in college.

And he coincidentally, he was like my next door neighbor growing up. And then another one is a coach in a small town right outside of Omaha. He’s a head coach and it was cool cause we both he and I, so we’re in class B, which is one class below the highest class in Nebraska, and he’s in there’s C1 and C2, so C1’s the next class down and his school’s in C1 and they won the state championship last year and so did we.

And so a lot of people didn’t know that we started on our high school team together growing up and his dad was our we had kind of a little travel team when we were in middle school. His dad was our coach growing up. So that was that was pretty cool deal too.

So yeah, stay in touch with him. And yeah, a lot of the other guys too. Then one of the other guys just got the head coaching job at the high school we attended. He was the JV coach there for a long time. And that guy stepped down and now he’s the head coach there. So stay in touch with him too.

So, yeah, a lot of connections there, a lot of  special relationships.

[00:09:03] Mike Klinzing: Talk a little bit about the college decision process and how you ended up at Nebraska Wesleyan and how it ended up being soccer as opposed to the other sports that obviously you had a passion for all of them.

[00:09:17] Kyle Jurgens: Yeah, I did.  And I just had a pretty good, I just had a pretty good year in soccer when I was a senior and  the coach recruited me  pretty hard and they were successful too. And I was looking at some smaller colleges football wise, basketball wise in Nebraska, but Nebraska Wesleyan is in Lincoln where the University of Nebraska is.

I like that it was a smaller college, but still in kind of that college town atmosphere. I like that.  When I took my visit, I liked the campus. I liked the school and I liked that, that they had some good players and we’re going to be successful. And I went there and played soccer and we made the NCAA tournament every single year we were there.

And so, yeah, I think it was just kind of a deal where that was kind of what I was best at, but still never stopped playing basketball and that was kind of the cool thing is we’ve I found a bunch of kids in college who were pretty good high school players and we would play pickup and  all meet at the gym at the same time on certain days and get some pretty good pickup games.

That was always a good time and then still kind of had that passion for  coaching kids so when I was in high school, my little brother was probably a sixth grader and so I coached his team and I had a lot of fun with that. And so when I went to, so I went to college, I started pre-med did that for about a semester and then just kind of felt it wasn’t maybe the right path for me, just kind of still felt a calling to athletics just, they were such a big part of my life and I didn’t know, I just thought I didn’t really want to do something that wasn’t going to allow me to be around them. And I really did enjoy the coaching. And so I switched to education and was always pretty good at math, kind of the guy who helped people in class a lot.

And so I thought I would do the math route and my high school basketball coach his name’s Dan Moore. He actually just retired, he actually moved to Omaha, got another job here in Omaha and just retired, but he was a math teacher and a head basketball coach. So you can imagine he had a big influence on me and someone I really looked up to. And obviously I’m a head basketball coach and a math teacher. So that kind of says it right there. When you think

[00:12:06] Mike Klinzing: When you think about your experience as a college athlete. And you talk to players that you may have had in your career that want to be college athletes.

What’s one or two pieces of advice or things that you tell them as they’re going through their process of being recruited? Maybe something that you learned from your experience.

[00:12:29] Kyle Jurgens: Yeah, just to kind of make sure you do your due diligence on everything, I mean, You’re not just going there for whatever it is, football, basketball you’re going there for the school, you’re going there for the experience, you’re going there for the people.

And so just to make sure that you’re doing it kind of for the right reasons. And, and it’s something that you feel really, really good about because you only get to do it once. And I say that and kids kind of transfer all over the place now. So, but it’s. You hope you’re trying to find the right fit for you.

And so that’s kind of what I encouraged our guys who get recruited basketball wise. And we’ve had some good basketball players just go to school, but of late, we’ve had some go on to the next level. And our two better players from last year, ones at South Dakota and then ones at Wayne State, a Division II college around here.

I think they both kind of found a really, really good fit and they seem to love it. They love the guys they’re playing with, the coaches, the school I’ve kept in contact and they’re fitting in, I think to the programs real well too. So I think that’s probably the last thing is to make sure you’re a good fit with style of play, what they kind of lean on, stand for type of deal.

And I think those two guys did a really good job of that, but those are always things that you want to encourage you guys to do because  it’s not just basketball or whatever sport you’re playing. There’s, there’s a lot of other things that go with it.

[00:14:26] Mike Klinzing: Yeah. It’s a great point. I think sometimes kids and I think even oftentimes parents sometimes get caught up in just looking at one aspect whether it’s that then primarily you’re thinking about Sport and we all know how much time that parents pour into their kids and what they do in youth sports as you said 15 minutes ago We could probably use and this has been a frequent topic here on the pod Kyle is we could probably use some more Pick up in the driveway, at the playground, at the sandlot.

We could probably use more sports like that where parents aren’t always there. But the reality is, is that era is maybe not completely gone, but it’s disappearing at a pretty quick rate. Because parents are so invested in their sports career, I think oftentimes you see people are so focused on the sports side of it that they forget that, Hey, you got to go to school there too.

And that there’s social environment, the academic environment, all those things are so critical and finding the right fit. And I love when you said, Hey, you got to do your due diligence. And I think that really is great advice for any. it’s out there. No matter what sport you’re looking at is just to make sure that you consider all the options and figure it out and make a good choice based on really looking into what it is that you’re going to do because otherwise you can end up in a situation where it’s not the best for you and then you have to transfer and there’s a whole bunch of different things that go along with that.

[00:15:57] Kyle Jurgens: Go ahead. No, I was going to say it’s like you’re saying, I mean. You got to let them figure it out for themselves a little bit too. And that goes back to the driveways. Like we’re trying to do everything for these kids and figure it out for them. And back in the day, you left the house, you went out and you played in the driveway and you figure it out on your own.

And there’s just not a lot of that. And so kids struggle with that when they have to do it on their own, it’s been kind of done for them. And so I agree a hundred percent with everything you just said.

[00:16:41] Mike Klinzing: Yeah, I’m sure you see that. As a teacher, Jason teaches fourth grade and I’m right now teaching elementary physed and you see it just in their ability to navigate for themselves and think about you and your friends playing on the driveway or playing backyard football or whatever, and you kind of got to agree to a set of rules and what’s out of bounds and you got to govern yourselves.

And kids today, they honestly don’t really have very many opportunities, mostly not necessarily of their own fault. But. Our fault as parents in a society that it’s, it’s more difficult. Kids just don’t have the opportunity to be put in those positions where they have to kind of organize themselves and then work it out when there is a disagreement, because there’s almost always an adult there to step in or intervene or organize.

And I do think that, again, I don’t know exactly what. The ramifications of that are in terms of how the generation of kids that’s growing up today, how that’s going to impact them as older athletes, but also as adults. I got to believe that there’s, there’s something, there’s something that’s missing that our generation learned just by doing those things out and about without parents and kids today.

And I say this all the time, my, my own kids included, they just don’t, it’s not that they don’t want to do that. They just, Don’t get the opportunity because we as parents don’t parent in the same way that. Yeah. Parents did in the in the eighties and early nineties where you can just kind of go out and be outside and running around.

And now you want to know where your kids are every moment of the day.

[00:18:25] Kyle Jurgens: So I’m laughing because my wife I got a six year old and they’ll she’ll be downstairs with.  and you’ll hear a bunch of squawking and all of a sudden they’ll come up and I’ll go, no, no, no.

You guys go back down there and figure it out. Like my wife will try to start and I’m like, no, no, don’t do that. They can go back downstairs and you guys figure it out. Like they can figure it out on their own. It’s been done before. Trust me.

[00:18:54] Mike Klinzing: Exactly. Yeah. It’s so true. I mean, it’s just a different, there’s a different expectation that we have as parents.

And I think in some ways we’re doing them a tremendous disservice by not allowing them to do that. And I get to a certain extent when I think about just the way I grew up and kind of having free reign around in the neighborhood. And then as I got older, driving around. The city of Cleveland to different playgrounds and parks and places with my friends and gyms.

And I think about my own son doing that same thing. And I’m not sure, look, if he could do it in the environment that I was doing, I guess, I guess looking back at it. Was it, was it safe? Was it not safe? I don’t know. I didn’t, I never perceived it as not being safe. Maybe it wasn’t by today’s standards.

I have no idea what I think about it, but by the same token, like I said, it’s just, we just don’t give our kids that same opportunity to. Yeah. So, I guess I always look at it as, okay, how can we maximize the situation that we have? And your example that you just gave with your daughters is a great example of a way to, in a safe environment, put the onus back on them.

Like, Hey, you’re going to be, you’re going to be safe in our basement to work this out and maybe argue a little bit and come up with a solution. And they’re not out on the streets doing whatever, but they’re, but they’re still, but they’re still learning those skills. And I think that’s an important piece of what we as adults, coaches, teachers, parents, it’s part of our, part of our responsibility.

Let’s go back to when you graduated and tell me a little bit about Your job search, looking around, okay, you’ve obviously been an athlete your whole life. And now athletics is going to go away in terms of you being a player on a school team. You could still obviously play pickup and get involved in that way, but you’re, you’re going into a different phase of your life.

So tell me a little bit about the job search when you graduate.

[00:21:05] Kyle Jurgens: Yeah, so I did, when I switched to education, I did some coaching around Lincoln. I coached some soccer there’s one of the Class A, Class A is the highest level in Nebraska. There’s quite a few in Lincoln.

And so I helped with, coached some summer basketball. For one of those schools in Lincoln, when I student taught I coached football, flag football, and then the eighth grade basketball team at the place that I student taught. So I had some experience there and then because I took that extra semester, I actually graduated in in December.

And so. I had second semester to do some subbing and kind of apply to different places. So my first my first job interview was at a school in Omaha called Millard North. It’s one of the bigger high schools. In Nebraska. And I actually had another interview at Millard West, which coincidentally is where my wife teaches now.

And, and so I went to Millard North. Actually, my car broke down on the way from Lincoln to Omaha on my first job interview ever. And I had to pull over, change a tire. It’s a long story. There was construction. I ended up having to call and say, there’s no chance I can get there.

And they just said, we’ll come back tomorrow. And I said, okay. I mean, I was in a full suit on the side of the road, sweating. It’s always fun. That’s all. Yeah. So I went back the next day and. Just had a great conversation with the principal, the head of the math department. And then another guy in the math department who again, coincidentally now, so he was my mentor, my math teacher mentor when I got to they pair you up with kind of a veteran teacher.

And he’s now my athletic director at Scott. So kind of crazy how, how things kind of come full circle, but just had a great. interview, if you could call it that. It was more of a conversation around a table and thought, man, I really like this place. And probably Lincoln or Omaha was where I kind of wanted to end up.

And I knew one of the basketball coach at Millard North He had come from a school in Lincoln, Lincoln Northeast. And when I was in high school, we played against them and both, we were very good and they were very good. And so he knew who I was from putting me on a scouting report.

And so I had a kind of relationship there right away and he was totally open to me coaching basketball. I talked to the football coach who’s he’s one of the better football coaches in the state of Nebraska. In my opinion, he’s kind of a legend around here. Just retired after 41 years after this season. And he allowed me to coach football and then same with the soccer coach.  I told him I played in soccer and I wanted to help out and they had no paid positions open. So they did on the girl’s side and I just said, well, that’s not really the avenue I’m looking to go.

So I ended up volunteering, my first year I ended up volunteer coaching football. Basketball and soccer. So I made no money for it, but I coached all three seasons. So, I mean, I dove in head first, I guess, as you can say cause I did three sports there for eight years. So it’s a lot, but I enjoyed every second of it and got a lot out of all those experiences.

[00:25:04] Mike Klinzing: All right. So just in general, and obviously you’re coaching three different sports and there’s three different sets of circumstances and three different head coaches that you’re working with. But when you think about your time as an assistant, what are one or two lessons that you learned as an assistant that you feel like made you a better head coach once you got that opportunity.

[00:25:29] Kyle Jurgens: Oh man. That’s like picking a couple out of so many . The guy that I coached for football and basketball, the two guys I coached for were in number one. Incredible with kids. I mean, they knew how to motivate kids. They knew how to get kids to respond.

And, incredibly hard workers too. And so I think the first thing I learned is the work that it took to do it. And. And I say do it, but do it the right way. I mean, if you’re going to do it the right way, you can’t be afraid to put the time in. And that’s something that they taught me right away is that you got to be here and you got to be here every day.

You got to show up for the kids. Because that’s the only way they’re going to respect you. And that’s the only way they’re going to work hard for you. And, and that was something that I learned right away is what it took to do it at that level.  And then just bits and pieces along the way of you can know everything there is to know about basketball and the X’s and O’s and all that stuff.

But at the high school level you better be able to get them to play hard, night in, night out, practice hard, do everything at a at an effort level that’s consistently working hard. And then I think doing everything for the team. I mean, that’s the other thing is putting your I say putting your ego in your pocket and putting the team before all the other stuff and, and the guys that I coached for were really, really good with those types of things in, and I picked up a lot from them because of it.

[00:27:37] Mike Klinzing: As an assistant, it’s kind of like, I’m sure picking between which one of them was your favorite kid as an assistant coach, which one of those three sports was. The most fun, which one was the most difficult. Just give me some thoughts on each one of those different sports, being an assistant and just how you approached each one.

[00:27:59] Kyle Jurgens: Yeah. Well, so each one was kind of different because football, I was a lower level coach, like a freshman coach. And your job on Fridays was to go scout the other team’s opponent. So every Friday I would go watch whoever we were going to play the next week. And I think Coach Petito is the coach that I coached for.

And I think as I learned more that was the other thing in terms of X’s and O’s football wise I mean, I wasn’t even close to the understanding  all the things that go into it. And after a few years, I think he saw that I’d grown in that regard. And he came to me and asked if I wanted to go up in the booth on a headset with him or kind of as an offensive guy, who’s looking for different things.

And so, I mean, I was like kind of shocked, but at the same time, like, okay. And he kind of knew how to do those types of things, put you in those positions where, force you out of your comfort zone. He was just really, really good with that. I mean, not just with his players, but with his assistant coaches, because then the rate at which I learned was incredible to the point where probably the year before I got my head coaching job, there’s a, it’s called, so we ran the wing bone. So like triple option football and there’s a wing bone association and there was a high school close to Omaha who. A guy had just taken the head coaching job and wanted to run the offense.

So through the wing bone association, they send like a veteran coach to, to help them with in a summer camp. And he came to me and he said, I want you to go do it. And I kind of was like me, you want me to go do it? Are you sure? Like, I don’t know that I can do that. And he’s like, yeah, you can do it.

And so I went and it was an awesome experience. And I helped at the school and it was exactly what he said. I mean, I came home. I remember telling well, she wasn’t my wife yet, but just telling her like, I know that I’m ready to become a head coach.  I feel like I could be the head football coach at that school.

I was just at right now. And so that kind of, it was almost like he did it to show me that I was ready. And so that was kind of my evolution through football and in basketball I think Chip Baugh is the guy who I coached with Basketball wise, I think he saw something in me early and I was kind of the assistant for the JV and then like a varsity type assistant.

The guy who was the JV coach left after my first year and he gave me the JV job. I did that for like four or five years. And then he asked if I wanted to move to a varsity assistant, just the varsity assistant, cause they didn’t have a paid varsity assistant when I started. And then they added it and he kind of asked, do you want that?

Or do you want the JV coach to stay the JV coach? And I kind of thought to myself, well being the JV coach, I still have to do head coaching things in game, head coaching things. And if I just become the varsity assistant, I won’t have that. And that won’t get me, yeah, that won’t get me better as a coach.

And so I actually told him I want to stay the JV coach. I mean, I know I don’t really care about the optics. I’m just concerned about getting better. And so kept doing that until the guy, the varsity assistant got a head coaching job. And then at that point I felt like I was ready to just be the varsity assistant and kind of start looking for head coaching jobs.

And after a year or two of, of being just the varsity assistant, I got my first head coaching job. And so, that was kind of how that went. And in soccer, I was the varsity assistant from the get go. And the guy that I coached with there, Bill Cunningham was he was awesome to work with.

He was very different than the other two coaches I coached for.  He was very he was very teacher laid back  just different type of coaching style. And so I picked up  many things from him in that regard too. But, but all three guys that I coached for there were huge influences on me as a coach, and I enjoyed each experience individually. And we had success and we had some good memories and just cool things that I’ll remember always.

[00:33:16] Mike Klinzing: When you got that first head coaching job, what do you remember about the interview process? Questions that they asked you, maybe questions that you had about taking that job.

Just tell us a little bit about the interview process.

[00:33:32] Kyle Jurgens: Well, I mean, I had gotten told no already from other places. So it wasn’t my first interview. And that’s kind of what I tell people is for, I don’t know, maybe two years, at least a year, but two years, maybe I applied for jobs.

Some didn’t get interviews for some did.  And so, and it’s just one of those deals where you thought, I mean, I can remember not getting a job and then calling and saying it came down between you and this guy and man, we might be making a mistake, but we know this guy better because he was kind of a part of their community and we don’t know you as well.

So maybe we’re making the safe choice and kind of feeling discouraged, but trying to hopefully I don’t know. I mean, just kind of hang in that it’s for the best and it truly was because the job at the school I was at opened up and I applied for it and another guy who would  coached for many, many years in Omaha, just retired.

And he wanted to come and coach there and they gave him the job. And that was kind of a bummer, obviously after I’d put eight years in there, but kind of said to myself. Well I got to look at it glass half full type of deal. He’s obviously got a lot of experience and I knew him through the coaching world.

I’ll just learn from him. And I kind of told my wife at that point, like, I think I’m not going to apply for any other jobs.  SWe’ll look at it after next season. And then the Skutt job happened to open up. Because the head coach was the principal and they didn’t really want the principal to, I think continue coaching basketball because that’s just a tough deal to do.

And the AD was an old North Platte guy. And he reached out to me and just said I don’t know if you’re going to get the Miller North job because at that time it hadn’t come out. And he just said, but if not, would you want to throw your name in this deal? And so I did.

And they interviewed me, asked about all the things that the normal things of what how do you handle parents and what does your program look like? And I was pretty seasoned at that point at answering those types of questions, the nerves really weren’t there anymore.

And so I interviewed and then a week later hadn’t heard. And then they got back to me and it came down to like two guys and I had to go back and interview again with the president of the school. And then they called and offered me the job and it was a cool feeling.

I mean, it was an awesome feeling. It was something that I’d worked super hard for. It was something that I had always wanted and at the same time it was it was scary too, it was one of those deals where I was leaving a place I knew very well, and I was leaving a bunch of people and coaches that I knew very well.

We had a really, really tight coaching staff at Miller North. I mean, I think at one point our staff had went on and I would say six of us who were on staff at Miller North ended up head coaches at one point. I mean, a lot of us still are. So to kind of look back and think about we had a staff of eight or eight or nine guys and six are, were, are still now head coaches.

And we were all really close too. I mean, our families were close. I mean, one of the guys was in my wedding and it’s actually the team I went and scouted tonight, his kid was my ring bearer and now he’s second leading scorer on the team we have to play next week. So it’s shut the ring bearer down.

Yeah, exactly. So it, I mean, it’s one of those deals where I was like, I want to establish that at Skutt, but it’s a scary deal. How does that just happen? And so I can honestly say this is year 11 and I feel like our coaching staff is just like that bunch of guys that really get along or super close Families know each other.

It’s just kind of that family atmosphere because I mean, you put a lot of time into it. And when you put that much time into it, you better enjoy who you do it with. And so that, that’s a huge part of it. And something that I’m super grateful for.

[00:38:39] Mike Klinzing: How did you put together your first staff, 11 years ago, and then sort of how has that changed, morphed over time in terms of what are you looking for an assistant coach? Obviously you want somebody that you feel comfortable with it. You want to hang around with and spend that much time with, but just how’d you put together that first staff?

And then as you’ve gone along, how have you built that staff and what kind of characteristics are you looking for?

[00:39:07] Kyle Jurgens: Yeah. So, I mean, it’s kind of crazy cause it’s the guy who had retired from another school in Omaha, who got the Millard North job where I was his assistant then his name’s Dave Eckley.

He applied for, he was his assistant for like 18 years at that school and he applied for that job. And so he didn’t get it. And so the first thing I did was go to him because he was a guy who had a lot of experience. He had been under a really good coach and a successful program.

And I knew he would be fantastic with kids. And so I knew that and just a great to work with. And he’s still on my staff today. And so getting him was huge. And I just told him, I said we’re hitting the ground at the same time. I want this to be a team effort type of deal.

I want to make this a place where that the culture is something that we’re proud of where we build on and, and I want to do it. Kind of together and he said, okay, yeah, I’m in there’s a lot of the coaches that were on staff did not stay on staff for different reasons, jobs and life changes and stuff like that.

There was a younger coach who actually was roommates with my brother, happened to be one of the freshman coaches at Skutt, so when he heard I was interviewing for the job, he was hoping I would, I think, get it a little bit. And he’s still on my staff. He’s now my JV coach. And then just through different walks of life acquired other people.

I have a, another varsity assistant who was with me at Millard North, stopped coaching for a little while, came back to coach. My second year a Skutt alum her husband, they moved to Omaha from Boston and he was a coach in Boston and he was looking to continue to coach.

And he reached out to the AD at SCUT and they had lunch and then he introduced him to me and now he’s been on my set staff for the last 10 years. And so just through those types of things, I mean, we have what we call alumni open gyms in the summer.

And I mean, one time a guy brought his brother in law and same thing. The guy was marrying a Skutt grad, and he played at Lindenwood in St. Louis. And I’m watching him like, man, this guy can play. And then a few years later we needed a freshman coach. And I reached out to him and said, do you have any interest?

And he said, yeah, I’d love to. And so he’s been a great addition. There was a guy who was on staff before I got there who. who left and he came back. His family are big Skutt people and he’s now got a freshman in our program. And then our AD that hired me, his son was he coached for me and then went off and did some college coaching and then came back and now has a teaching job at Skutt and he’s my sophomore coach or reserve coach. And so I’m incredibly lucky.  It’s hard to find good coaches sometimes in this day and age, cause it’s you’re not paying them a million bucks and the time that you’re asking them to spend is so much.

And so I’m super lucky with the group that we have. And like I said, we’ve been together for a long time. Everybody kind of knows the expectations or the Skutt way or what we stand for. And so that’s very helpful for me.

[00:43:27] Mike Klinzing: As you took the job going from public school to private school and then sort of comparing what it’s like coaching at one versus the other differences and things that are similar.

There’s no difference. Just how did you approach that or what’s your experience been like with the eight years you were in a public school setting and then now being in a private school setting?

[00:43:50] Kyle Jurgens: Yeah. I mean demographic wise, there wasn’t a huge difference. I mean we’re a five minute drive from the school that I was at before.

Probably the biggest thing is obviously size. I mean, I was in a school with 2,500 kids and now I’m in one with 700, 800 and I would say kind of there, it’s just a little bit more of a, I want to say closeness, family type atmosphere where the public school, the big school that I was at, it’s, I mean in terms of parents being involved in all that stuff, you could kind of keep things at arm’s length.

And I think in a school like Skutt, you got to embrace to a certain  point that  people want to help out. People want to they want to talk to you. People want to be around and they want to do things with the kids. And you have the fundraisers and you have the service and all the great things that go with a private school that I’ve really enjoyed and I’m also lucky that I coach and teach at a school where the administrators were all ex head coaches.

So they get it and they’re super supportive. And so I think kind of just that and the smaller environment are probably the biggest differences.

[00:45:41] Mike Klinzing: When you think about yourself as a head coach and obviously at this point, 11 years in, not that you’ve got it all figured out, but you’re probably pretty comfortable with sort of who you are as a head coach. How far into. Scott, were you, until you sort of felt like, Hey, I’ve kind of got my philosophy.

I’ve got the pillars of my program. I’ve got the things that I want this program to be. I sort of have those things figured out, obviously. It’s never a hundred percent. And obviously you’re always adapting and changing to each individual team, but just from an overall perspective, in terms of your philosophy and sort of the self awareness and understanding of yourself as a head coach, how long was it before you felt completely comfortable with where you were as a head coach? If that question makes any sense.

[00:46:37] Kyle Jurgens: Yeah, no, I mean, it took a while. I mean, it takes a while to kind of to figure it out. And we were lucky because we had some early success and that maybe was a little bit misleading in terms of you have success. That doesn’t mean you’ve established what you want to establish or figure it out.

I mean, I’m 11 years in and trust me, I still don’t have it figured out, but there are some things that I think as I got into year three, four, five, and then seven, eight, nine. There’s things that you definitely want to hang your hat on. And there’s things that definitely you want to make sure that don’t get left in the wash, if that makes sense.

And sometimes when you’re trying to figure it out in the beginning, it’s hard to even you’re trying to figure out some of the basic things. And so to have the other things, we got to take time to do service. We have to take time to help out with this or that or whatever.

And if it takes away from basketball, it’s still okay. And that’s something that I still probably struggle with too. It’s like, well, what about practice or what about this or what about that? It’s like, well, what? We have a student manager who’s worked his butt off for us for three years and he’s a great bowler.

And we’re all going to go to the bowling alley in the morning at nine and support him at the at his bowling tournament and just figuring those types of things out that those things are still important too. It’s something that honestly, it takes a while.

If you’re talking about the basketball stuff, I think you kind of knew what you wanted to be, but you kind of narrow it down because there’s a lot of things and it’s like you said, what are the pillars what are you going to stand for? And so  for us, I think we try to hang our hat on giving great effort, doing the little things really, really well. And for us, it always starts on defense. I think our kids know that you better like defense. You better want to play defense. You better want to guard. Or you’ll have a tough time playing in our program.

And that’s something that we try to, as soon as they step into our gym, get them to understand that for us it starts on that end, but yeah, those are some of the things I guess that I figured out along the way. But like I said, I still got a long way to go.

[00:49:39] Mike Klinzing: When you think about your development as a coach and trying to get better and improve, how do you go about doing that?

Where are you going? Are you talking to mentors? Are you studying film? Are you reading books? I’m sure you’re doing a combination of probably a lot of those things, but what’s your go to when you think about, Hey, I need to improve some aspect of my coaching. What are some things that have worked for you in the past?

[00:50:06] Kyle Jurgens: I mean, yeah, I’ll look at different stuff that people do, whether it’s I mean, obviously away from the X’s and O’s, obviously books and, and stuff like that, if you’re looking at videos and things like that, I think are good, but probably the thing, the place I go first is if I know somebody who does that really well  there’s a college coach close to here who one year we wanted to kind of start implementing a ball screen type offense.

And I knew he did it and I knew he did it really well at a I’m talking about like national championship level. And I knew him and I just I went to their practices. I sat down with him and he helped me through it. I mean, I would call him in the middle of the season and say, We’re really, really struggling with this part of it.

What do we got to do? And it’s funny because sometimes when I had questions for him, he’d be like, what, when you figure it out, you tell me. And so those, those kinds of things are, are fun. I’m lucky cause  I had a kid play for me a few years ago. His dad’s an assistant at Creighton.

So I know those guys fairly well and oftentimes go watch them practice and pick their brains. Now that’s a different level, different beast, but you can tweak things and steal things and make ’em your own, so to speak.

And I feel like we’ve done that with some things too, just going and watching a lot of people play and practice, and then just talking to the coaches that.  you look at and go, man they’re doing something right. And I want to know what it is that they hang that their hat on, they’re emphasizing and such.

And so done a lot of that over the years and I think it’s been  super helpful still kind of want to, you still got to be you, so to speak, but always trying to get better for sure.

[00:52:24] Mike Klinzing: Talk a little bit about leadership in your program. How do you develop leaders with your players and what do you look for in a leader?

[00:52:33] Kyle Jurgens: Yeah, I mean, That’s one that I think is super important as I do this longer. I think you often, there’s correlation to having good leadership and having successful seasons. And that’s why we did a little bit of trying to start a leadership council at Skutt.

A multi sport one and had it rolling pretty good. And COVID kind of killed it a little bit just because you couldn’t, you, I mean, you’re trying to figure out how to just have school, let alone leadership council meetings and stuff like that. And so we’re just now trying to get it back rolling again, but things like that, we’ve taken kids to leadership summits.

I think talking to them about situations, stuff like that.  Maybe helping them find the way that some of the really good leaders that came before did and in terms of a leader, I mean, obviously I look at someone who’s a hard worker has the respect of their teammates holds people accountable  doesn’t make excuses doesn’t point fingers and someone who has kind of a a mental toughness about them that you need. Whether it’s you and usually when adversity hits whatever that looks like and that could be in a drill in practice that could be in the middle of the third quarter that could be in a two or three game losing skid or whatever, but who’s kind of your voice? Who’s your guy who’s going to keep the troops rallied and, and heading in the right direction? Those are the kids that I think of. Usually they’re pretty tough kids and, and honestly they don’t have to be your best players but it’s tough if they’re not probably hardest workers and  that’s when you, I think, really get special teams is when your best players are your hardest workers and your leaders.  Usually you get some pretty special things. It’s usually a pretty good recipe, I would say.

[00:55:04] Mike Klinzing: Yeah, that’s the best combination if you can get it.  You don’t always get that. But it’s definitely, if you can have your best player or your best players be your hardest workers and your best leaders, that’s usually when you have the best chance of success. It also makes it the easiest on you, right? As a coach.

[00:55:21] Kyle Jurgens: Correct.

[00:55:22] Mike Klinzing: If your hardest working kid is your seventh man, it gets a little bit more difficult to kind of navigate through those waters than when it’s your best player who ends up being your best leader.

You talked a little bit about practice and obviously getting kids to pick it up and being. High energy and doing what they need to do on the practice floor. When you think about putting together a practice, what are some keys for you in terms of preparation and planning when it comes to practice?

[00:55:56] Kyle Jurgens: Well, it depends on what part of the season it is, obviously.

I mean we’re in the dog days right now where you’re usually in a day, I mean, a lot of times you’re in a day after a game or maybe the day before or whatever, you’re kind of game planning for that next opponent at the same time, I think you gotta continue to we coined days a lot of times where today’s about us.

So we might do a few things that’ll prepare us for the opponent we have in two days, but it’s still the majority of it’s about us getting better at the things that we put a huge premium on for whatever time it is, whether it’s early in the season where you’re going two hours or a little over two hours, or later in the season where you start to try to cut it down a little bit and stay sharp and focus that as soon as, As soon as practice starts, we’re going to be high energy.

And like I said some of the things that we emphasize are bringing that energy and that talk. And when people walk into our gym it should sound like a winning gym.  We say that all the time is if there’s not energy and there’s not talk and there’s not pop usually you’re probably in a losing gym.

And so we want our gym to sound like a winning gym. And that’s kind of one of the, like I said, one of the phrases we coined, but in terms of planning a practice, we want to get going or I want to get going right away. So something that’s got us moving and going, something usually full court something that’s usually getting shots up because we want to get a lot of shots up still throughout practice and then normally for us, like I said, it, it starts with defense, some sort of defense, whether it’s like a breakdown defense day or it’s just a we’re going over the other team’s stuff because it’s, we play the next day or even just half court. We have a lot of different competitive defensive drills that we do throughout the season.

Variations of shell, some of it’s just.  straight half court defense, but there’s different stipulations and stuff like that is usually where we start before we get into anything other than that, whether it’s transition, offense or defense, rebounding working on offensive stuff sets, things like that.  We kind of move into, but like I said, our pillar and what we do right out of the gate is very high energy. We also we’re a pressure team most of the time. And so we’re usually, usually pressing people. And so most days aren’t a lot of days where we’re not at least taking 10 minutes and doing some sort of pressure drill something that gets us going. And we have a few things that we do in that regard that just keep things moving pretty fast and we make it competitive too. We use the scoreboard for almost everything that we do so that there’s a winner and a loser.

[00:59:37] Mike Klinzing: How do you divide up your teams in practice? Are you typically keeping your starters together going against your second team? Are you mixing in guys 6, 7, and 8 with the starters? Do you have balanced teams? Does it vary practice to practice? Again, time of the season.

How do you think about just putting together the groups that are going to compete against each other in practice?

[00:59:59] Kyle Jurgens: Yeah. I mean, very time of the season like in the beginning, we’ll mix it a lot when you get into this part of the season and you’ve kind of established a maybe a rotation or  how many guys, usually we stay with that when we don’t have a lot of prep time.  You get those, where maybe you get a good four or five days of practice, or I think right after our holiday tournament, we had like a whole week before we played another game. And so those are good opportunities, I think, to have a day or two where you do mix and match. And now the guy who comes in for the other guy are now on opposing teams going at each other. And so I think you got to mix some of that at certain times throughout the season just to keep the competitive level as high as you can and challenge kids. And we also tell them it’s competition on all the time in our gym.

And so we’re always evaluating and it gives it gives kids a chance to show things. And so I think all those things are good. But yeah, for us, it’s kind of hit or miss kind of when we do it based on the season time and time of season.

[01:01:28] Mike Klinzing: I know you were out scouting before we recorded tonight.  When you go out and scout. How do you like to organize your scout? What are some of the key things that you’re looking for? Obviously, there’s clearly actions and out of bounds plays and personnel things that you’re looking for, but what are one or two keys that you always want to try to dive into with a particular team?

[01:01:50] Kyle Jurgens: I just think there’s like when you go see somebody live, there’s things that you just can’t always See on film. And again that can be a lot of different things. Those can be basketball things. Those can be we’ll, I mean, I’ll watch the bench. I’ll watch their player interaction.

I’ll watch them during a timeout. I’ll watch when they’re guys on the floor, do all the guys run over and help them up? Because you can see some of that. Sometimes a kid falls down and the teammates 10 feet from him and turns and just walks the other way.

And you’re like, okay, there’s something there.  Those are things that like when we watch film, we show, I show them when other teams do that kind of stuff. And we kind of make it a deal where that doesn’t happen. Like your teammates on the ground, he better have his choice of four hands to help him up.

And those types of things, I think you see live. The other stuff is just the personnel stuff, the tendencies.  I think it’s good to be there and see it.  Tonight.  the first four shots a kid took, three of them were getting to the paint pull ups.

And so you’re like, okay, that’s a pretty good tendency. And you can see that stuff on film too. But  how are they getting into that stuff too? So those are the things kind of I guess look for  I just got a text from my assistant. Sounds like I missed a heck of an ending.

It was tied baseline out of bounds with two seconds and the team hit a three at the buzzer to win. So I can’t wait after this to get on there and see how that transpired. But yeah, I mean, just those types of things. Like I said, some, I mean, a lot of the stuff you can see on film, but probably some of the stuff I talked about initially is some of the stuff, really body language and when stuff goes good, when stuff goes bad, kind of how kids handle it, how they interact with their teammates, the other team, the referees.

Those things can give you an indication of you can’t always get an indication of mental toughness, maybe how kids handle adversity by watching film. But sometimes when you’re there, things stick out. And I watch for them.

[01:04:27] Mike Klinzing: What of those things do you end up sharing with your team and your players?

So obviously there’s a base of knowledge that you gain from watching and scouting other teams, but then what do you share? What are the key components of the things that you share with your team to help them to be better prepared? How do you parse down what you’ve collected and give it to them in bits and pieces that they can easily digest?

[01:04:53] Kyle Jurgens:  Yeah well, I mean, Hudl’s great, obviously, for the clips and the things like that you can you can make the playlists and watch the shots and stuff like that. But I think if you’re thinking that these three things or these four things are the keys to the game, then you got to find clips that show it.

I mean, we’re going to play a team tomorrow that if we don’t make hits, box outs and rebounds we’re going to be in trouble. And if we don’t keep them out of transition, we’re going to be in trouble. And if we don’t keep them out of the paint and force contested jump shots, we’re going to be in trouble.

And so we watched film today and we showed them here’s what we’re talking about. Here’s the transition. Here are the offensive rebounds. Here are the when they get into the paint it’s, it’s game over type of deal.  I think you got to show them that on film and then we go practice it.

I mean, the three or four things that you showed them on film that you said were Emphasis to the game. Then you go out on the court for hour 15, hour and a half and try to execute those things. And so I think kind of consistent with that and then having a scouting report that emphasizes it again, and then talking before the game by then you, you better know what the game plan is.

And so those are some of the things that we do, I guess. And it obviously gets a little bit more specific, detailed when you get later in the season and to the playoffs. And now all of a sudden you’re in the state tournament and you’re playing in a semi-final game or a state championship game. You might talk about a few more detailed things, and the film session might be a little bit longer than the dog days of January.

[01:07:10] Mike Klinzing: All right, I want to ask you. Final two part question. We’re going to get you to be able to go watch that film. When you look ahead over the next year or two, what do you see as being your biggest challenge?

And then the second part is when you think about what you get to do every day, what brings you the most joy? So start with your biggest challenge and then go to your biggest joy.

[01:07:30] Kyle Jurgens: Oh man, coaching challenge. I’m assuming you’re asking about. I mean, I still think my biggest challenge is probably I’m very, I don’t want to say controlling, but releasing some of the control to other people and like I said, I got great assistants and I actually have an ex player who’s now been helping for the last couple of years and he’s really trying his butt off as a good  hardworking young coach, you look back and I’m just like, man, that’s kind of what I was 18 years ago.

And so I love seeing it and I love, I mean, anytime your former players now are coming back and joining your coaching staff, it’s just a super cool feeling, obviously, as a coach. But even this team we’re playing tomorrow, I mean they’re one of the top class A teams in, in Nebraska and he’s probably went and watched him four or five times and he’s watched a bunch of film and I said, do you want to write the scouting report on him?

And he kind of looked at me funny ’cause I don’t usually do that, but I said he should, I mean, he should, and, and I know he’ll do a good job and why not? And so I think that, and then and then probably just managing time, family’s important and  just managing the time between  basketball and family.

My wife is a saint, I mean, as they all are, but I have two girls  my oldest is has special needs, severe, special needs. and medical  issues a little bit. And so she is spending time with her and our family and not maybe sacrificing some of the basketball stuff is, it’s tough for me because I’m competitive and I don’t want to lose the edge and all that stuff.

But also perspective is a thing.  It’s a big thing and she provides a ton of it. My daughter for me and our family. And coming home to her, it’s really easy to it’s still just a game it’s just a game. And it’s a game that we love and we try hard at, and we want to do our best at, but in the end, that’s what it is.

And the bigger picture stuff is really the most important. And I think, like I said, she really helps with that. And so that’s something that I just want to continue to make sure that is in the forefront of my mind. Because we all know this is a 12 month job and want to make sure that that’s always that my family is always number one. And, and it’s tough because you want to do the job the right way. And then, like I said, my, my wife is incredible because I, and I say this every year at the banquet and in here, she doesn’t just allow me to do it.

She allows me to do it the way I want to do it the right way. That requires a heck of a lot of time. And then that equates to just so much sacrifice from her. I’m extremely grateful. And none of the success we’ve had, our programs had would not have come without the behind the scenes, people like that and all our coaches and their wives and families and stuff.

It’s a sacrifice that does not go unnoticed. And like I said, just something that I just want to make sure I’m always acknowledging and I don’t know, the greatest joy is, probably this, that I get to do this, that I get to do this with great kids at a great school for great people, great community.

And, I still love it. I mean, it still drives me. I’m still super motivated. That’s hard to say when I’m on however many hours of sleep in the middle of January right now, and we’re coming off a loss on Tuesday and going to play a tough opponent tomorrow.

But, I mean, you gotta love those things and love every part of ’em. And I have a great group of kids and we, we have a pretty young group, I’d say in the eight or nine guys rotation, we have one senior. So we have a group that’s a lot of guys coming back next year.

And so those things are always encouraging and fun, but yeah, just that I get to do it and do it with the people that I get to do it with and for the community and in the place that I get to do it.

[01:12:59] Mike Klinzing: Time is love. I think that’s what it comes down to, right? You want to be able to do the job right.

And you want to be able to have time for your family as well. And that requires lots of moving parts and pieces as anybody who’s coaching to any degree of success will certainly attest. And I thought you articulated that really well. Before we wrap up, Kyle, I want to give you a chance to share how people can connect with you.

If you want to share social media, email, whatever you feel comfortable with. And then after you do that, I will jump back in and wrap things up.

[01:13:28] Kyle Jurgens: Yeah, mean, if anybody ever has questions or wants to reach out, my email is my name, KyleJurgens@skuttcatholic.com and then, I’m not a big social media guy, we do have a a Twitter, X account. And @SkuttBasketball, @SkuttCatholichoops. So feel free to follow along there, but just appreciate you guys having me on. This has been fun. You get caught up in the grind of a basketball season and don’t always kind of take a step back to I don’t know, reflect on how far you’ve come since you were a little kid, It’s for sure been a journey, so I’m appreciative of that too.

So thank you guys so much for having me on.

[01:14:38] Mike Klinzing: Well, you’re welcome. And again, we appreciate you taking the time out of your schedule, especially in the middle of your season. And I think that one of the things that we always enjoy is getting a chance to hear.  And it’s one thing if you’re the head coach of the Nebraska Cornhuskers and people are asking you questions all the time and you get to talk about your story, probably you’re tired of talking about it.

But when you’re a high school coach or you’re a small college coach and you get an opportunity to tell your story and there’s probably tons of people Kyle in your own community that don’t necessarily know that much about your background and. I always feel like this is a great way to be able to allow high school coaches and people who maybe aren’t in the spotlight all the time, give them an opportunity to share your story.

So we certainly appreciate you for being willing to do that. And to everyone out there in our audience, thanks for listening and we will catch you on our next episode. Thanks.