ROUND TABLE 83 – HOW DO YOU INTRODUCE NEW PLAYERS TO YOUR PROGRAM’S EXPECTATIONS AND CULTURE? – EPISODE 1177
Welcome to the 83rd edition of the Coach’s Corner Round Table on the Hoop Heads Podcast. Each episode of the Coach’s Corner Round Table will feature our All-Star lineup of guests answering a single basketball question. A new Coach’s Corner Round Table will drop around the 15th of each month.
November’s Round Table question is: How do you introduce new players to your program’s expectations and culture?
Our Coaching Lineup this month:
- Jake Boyd – Luther College
- Jerry Buckley – Bishop Kenny (FL) High School
- Stephen Halstead – Grace College
- Jason Harris – UMass Boston
- Joe Harris – Lake Chelan (WA) High School
- Mike Koehler – Elkhart Lake (WI) High School
- Bob Krizancic – Mentor (OH) High School
- Dave McGreal – Penn State Altoona
- Chris Richardson – Wheeling University
- Don Showalter – USA Basketball
Please enjoy this Round Table episode of the Hoop Heads Podcast and once you’re finished listening please give the show a five star rating and review after you subscribe on your favorite podcast app.
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THANKS COACHES!
If you enjoyed this episode let our coaches know by clicking on the links below and sending them a quick shout out on Twitter:
Click here to thank Jake Boyd on Twitter!
Click here to thank Jerry Buckley on Twitter!
Click here to thank Stephen Halstead on Twitter!
Click here to thank Jason Harris on Twitter!
Click here to thank Joe Harris on Twitter!
Click here to thank Mike Koehler on Twitter!
Click here to thank Bob Krizancic on Twitter!
Click here to thank Dave McGreal on Twitter!
Click here to thank Chris Richardson on Twitter!
Click here to thank Don Showalter on Twitter!
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TRANSCRIPT FOR ROUND TABLE 83 – HOW DO YOU INTRODUCE NEW PLAYERS TO YOUR PROGRAM’S EXPECTATIONS AND CULTURE? – EPISODE 1177
[00:00:00] Narrator: The Hoop Heads Podcast is brought to you by Head Start Basketball.
[00:00:20] Mike Klinzing: Hello and welcome to the 83rd edition of The Coaches Corner Round Table on the Hoop Heads Podcast. Each episode of the Coach’s Corner Round Table will feature our all-star lineup of guests answering a single basketball question. A new Coach’s Corner Round Table will drop around the 15th of each month.
November’s round table question is, How do you introduce new players to your program’s expectations and culture?
Our coaching lineup this month includes:
- Jake Boyd – Luther College
- Jerry Buckley – Bishop Kenny (FL) High School
- Stephen Halstead – Grace College
- Jason Harris – Umass Boston
- Joe Harris – Lake Chelan (WA) High School
- Mike Koehler – Elkhart Lake (WI) High School
- Bob Krizancic – Mentor (OH) High
- Dave McGreal – Penn State Altoona
- Chris Richardson – Wheeling University
- Don Showalter – USA Basketball
Please enjoy this round table episode of the Hoop Heads Podcast. And once you’re finished listening, please give the show a five star rating and review after you subscribe on your favorite podcast app.
Be sure to follow us on Twitter and Instagram @HoopHeadsPod for the latest updates on episodes, guests, and events from the Hoop Heads Pod.
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[00:02:12] Ras Vanderloo: Hi, this is Ras Vanderloo from Sioux City East High School in Iowa and USA Basketball, and you are listening to the Hoop Heads Podcast.
[00:02:22] Mike Klinzing: Let’s hear from our panel about how they introduce new players to their program’s, expectations, and culture.
Jake Boyd from Luther College.
[00:02:35] Jake Boyd: Hey, this is Jake Boyd with Luther College, answering this month’s round table question. How do you introduce new players to your program’s expectations and culture? For us, it’s going to start during recruiting, just talking about our core principles. Team expectations and program culture will continue to drive this home throughout recruitment.
And then once. The student is on campus. We will get our leadership council involved in the preseason on the floor during runs and setting expectations basketball wise, but also off the floor. We work the football games together and kids’ basketball camp and take a float trip in the preseason to make the connections from what we talked about in recruiting, being a priority or a focal point for us as a team, and making that clear to everyone.
What the culture is before our season starts, so that then carries to the court and then throughout the season. Thank you guys so much. See you next month.
[00:03:34] Mike Klinzing: Jerry Buckley. Bishop Kenny High School, Jacksonville, Florida.
[00:03:41] Jerry Buckley: Hi, this is Jerry Buckley from Bishop Kenny High School talking about this month’s question.
Introducing new players to our program’s, ex expectations and culture. A couple different ways we do that. First thing is really having the players and just being immersed in our summer workouts watching how the coaches and players handle themselves and treat each other during those workouts and open gyms, just as they’re getting introduced to the program.
Again, when we get back to school in our preseason, being around the players, being around the coaches, watching them in conditioning sessions, weight room, and how they handle themselves. The main way I would say would be at our team retreat at the beginning of the season, once we have our freshman JV and varsity programs selected for the teams.
We have a team retreat where I do a presentation discussing the history of our program and specific expectations, and we also have an alumni panel that comes back and speaks to the players and answer any questions that they have. So I feel like those different ways, obviously, again, being immersed in the program and just really watching how the older players hand themselves and then at that team retreat, walking through specific expectations about things on and off the court.
Really do a good job of introducing what our expectations are.
[00:05:01] Mike Klinzing: Stephen Halstead from Grace College
[00:05:06] Stephen Halstead: Hey, this is Stephen Halsted from Grace College for Round Table question number 83. The question this month is how do you introduce new players to your program’s expectations and culture? And this is one, I don’t know if we have the best answer or the best way that we do this.
Definitely something I think we can improve, but one thing that we do at the beginning of every year, just as the guys come in, we go through our toughness week and that is going to be like 10 days of three things a day. For those 10 days and in the morning it’s normally some sort of lifting or conditioning, afternoon, some conditioning, and then the evening, each of those weeks is more of like a chalk talk of, we’ll start out first couple nights just talking about our culture, who we are, what we stand for, what it means to play for grace.
And then also in some of those chalk talks in the evenings, like we’ll talk through some offensive concepts, defensive concepts. And as of now, I’d say that’s the way that we kind of introduce the programs to it. I know we have a PowerPoint kind of showing some stats that make us unique in terms of retention and just how we have so many different guys excel within our program.
[00:06:09] Mike Klinzing: Jason Harris from UMass Boston.
[00:06:14] Jason Harris: Introducing our new players to our program’s expectations and culture starts with really consistency and examples. You can’t just hand someone a list of your values and expect them to understand what they mean. They have to see it. They have to see it lived out every day. It’s big for our returners to set the tone with how we practice, with how they communicate, and how they respond during adversity.
We like to talk about the story of Sisyphus and Greek mythology. The man who had to keep pushing the boulder up the hill, only to have it roll back down. Essentially, that’s what culture is. ’cause you never actually arrive. The moment you stop pushing the boulder rolls back down. So every year, really, every day we’re pushing that culture boulder up the hill together.
it’s not about perfection, it’s more about persistence. And everyone has a hand on that boulder. And when new players start to feel that shared weight, that shared pride, that’s really when they become part of the program.
[00:06:09] Mike Klinzing: Joe Harris Lake Chelan High School, Lake Chelan, Washington
[00:07:14] Joe Harris: Hello Hoop Heads. This is Joe Harris from Chelan Washington with this month’s round table question and it asks us, how do you introduce new players to our program’s, expectations and cultures. I feel it’s crucial to go over your expectations and program culture with your new or incoming players before they ever step on the court.
We would go over our program expectations and our team culture by having team and individual meetings prior to the season, discussing really what our team stood for and how this looked both on and off the court. Also in our early practices, we paired up new or younger players in drills with experienced players or those that have been in the program before.
We felt like this helped strengthen the shared values that we all strived for, and more importantly, your culture and program expectations should be visible in really all that you do. How your players, coaches, and staff conduct themselves in. And out of practice, every drill, every conversation should reflect your culture and the expectations of your program.
Hopefully, this is something you find useful and best of luck as the season gets going.
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Mike Koehler from Elkhart Lake High School in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin.
[00:09:15] Mike Koehler: Mike Koehler head, boys basketball coach at Elkhart Lake High School in Wisconsin. This month’s question is how do you introduce new players to your program’s expectations and culture? I coach at a small public high school, total enrollment of approximately 150 students with total basketball program numbers in all grades in any given year, between 13 to 15 players.
Nearly all of these players. I’m multi-sport athletes, often in other sports with at least compared to basketball, more defined roles and playing opportunities compared to basketball where only five can play at a time. Now, given this context, expectations and, and culture can candidly be challenging compared to perhaps some other instances coaches face where you have tryouts or you have a team.
Consisting of just quote basketball specific players. Nevertheless, despite these challenges, I like to start working with players when they are still in middle school to develop good practice or workout habits to give them some insight into the high school basketball program and what it takes to be successful.
In fact, on occasion, we have eighth graders practice with the high school team to best facilitate this process.
[00:10:37] Mike Klinzing: Bob Krizancic, Mentor High School, Mentor, Ohio,
[00:10:43] Bob Krizancic: Coach K Mentor High School. Love the term culture and identity and what they bring to the program. We definitely talk about culture and our identity. We started in seventh grade, then again in eighth as our. Middle school kids come into the high school. We have our former players, especially the ones playing college ball, come in and address our current players.
We watch films, our locker room, we have all the state of Ohio plaques indicating the district championships, regional championships, state championships, number one in the state. And we constantly talk about our culture of hardworking, pressing. Being strong in every which way, especially academically along with the athletics, and really try to be the best person possible.
But culture and identity is everything in our program.
[00:11:42] Mike Klinzing: David McGreal from Penn State Altoona
[00:11:48] Dave McGreal: Hello Hoop Heads Nation. Coach McGreal, Penn State Altoona. Back at you. This month’s round table, how do you introduce new players to the team’s culture? Many ways we do it through not only team meetings early in the season team activities we do a team picnic, team dinner early in the year.
We have community service events early in the year just to get to know the guys a little bit outside of basketball. So that’s the, the number one thing we do early on. Again, we use common words and common phrases about the culture, including what we call our pride mentality. which are our core values.
The pride is an gram for, for passion, resilience, involved discipline and energy. So we just try to instill those characteristics in our players as well. Through not only preseason practices and preseason workouts, but really through the preseason get togethers. Because we use those core values when we talk about that as well.
So again the things we do here at Penn State Altoona, we get involved with the guys right away. team picnics team bonding exercises. we always have a, a what we call meet the lions night, where all our players are at. So a lot of different activities off the court before we even really get to where we’re on the court every day.
So very important for us in our culture. Hope everybody’s doing well. Good luck this season to all the coaches out there. Look forward to talking to you guys soon.
[00:13:40] Mike Klinzing: Chris Richardson from Wheeling University.
[00:13:45] Chris Richardson: This is Chris Richardson, head, men’s basketball coach at Wheeling University, answering this month’s round table question.
I think when it comes to introducing new players to your program’s expectations, your program standards, your program’s culture, certainly it starts at the college level in the recruiting process. Not just when evaluating the player as an athlete, but also from a character standpoint. We know what type of men we want in our program.
We know what type of young men we want to develop. And we know what we want them to be like when they’re done. And so we lay all that out in the recruiting process. And if it’s someone that we don’t feel is going to be able to fit that for whatever reason, we’re fine going our separate ways before they decide to come to our place.
That’s, that’s a conversation that has to take place. But once they get there, you lay it out again in the first team meeting. I think your first team meeting sets the tone for the entire season, but more importantly, the, the players that have been there, that have played for you, that have been through some hard times, whether it’s not playing much or tough losses or, or whatever.
Those are the guys that that really deliver the expectations and the standards through their daily actions. And when you have a group of players that have come through your program, they’re going to be able to show the guys that are coming in, Hey, this is how we do it. This is us, this is not us. And what you hope is that that continues to cycle through as you move through the years, and that your standards not only rise, and your expectations not only rise, but your culture continues to grow as well.
We’re not big believers in wall culture. Our, our locker room is all about our program. It’s history, players that have come before us, coaches that have come before us. It’s, it’s not about words on the wall that say, this is who we’re going to be. This is who we’re going to be. Is, is proven through actions. And, and that is something that we really, really are intentional about from a recruiting standpoint with bringing high character individuals into our organization.
So, in short, I think to introduce the new standards, the new expectations, the new culture to, to a player coming into your program, you as a coach can, can introduce it, but in terms of walking with the players daily and showing them how it’s done, a lot of that comes from your team leaders, which we’re lucky here at Wheeling to have really good ones.
[00:15:52] Mike Klinzing: Don Showalter from USA Basketball
[00:15:57] Don Showalter: Hi, Don Showalter here from USA Basketball. The question for the month is how do you get new players introduced to your culture? Well, first of all, I think when new player comes in, you build a relationship with them as a coach. And then make sure you introduce him to your players.
But I think that relationship is starting out with, find out about him, his family what he likes, what he does, what, what, what he really likes to do, and outside of basketball. So I think the relationship, first of all, is really important. Secondly, I think you take a couple of your players that are your leaders and make sure they bring him into your team.
Your players are going to be the ones that really. Have an effect on his attitude with your team. So I think target a couple really good players and then say, Hey, you need to bring him into our team because he can really help us. Thanks.
[00:16:58] Mike Klinzing: Thanks for checking out this Month’s Coaches Corner Round Table on the Hoop Heads Podcast.
We’ll be back next month with another question for our all-star lineup of guests.
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[00:17:58] Narrator: Thanks for listening to the Hoop Heads Podcast presented by Head Start Basketball.