ROUND TABLE 87 – WHEN PLAYERS LOOK BACK YEARS LATER, WHAT DO YOU HOPE THEY REMEMBER MOST ABOUT PLAYING FOR YOU? – EPISODE 1226

Welcome to the 87th 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.
March’s Round Table question: When players look back years later, what do you hope they remember most about playing for you?
Our Coaching Lineup this month:
- Erik Buehler – Arapahoe (CO) High School
- Joe Harris – Lake Chelan (WA) High School
- Stephen Halstead – Grace College
- Oronde King – Putnam Valley (NY) High School
- Mike Koehler – Elkhart Lake (WI) High School
- Bob Krizancic – Mentor (OH) High
- Tom Sadler – IMG Academy
- 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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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 Erik Buehler on Twitter!
Click here to thank Stephen Halstead on Twitter!
Click here to thank Joe Harris on Twitter!
Click here to thank Oronde King on Twitter!
Click here to thank Bob Krizancic on Twitter!
Click here to thank Mike Koehler on Twitter!
Click here to thank Tom Sadler on Twitter!
Click here to thank Don Showalter on Twitter!

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TRANSCRIPT FOR ROUND TABLE 87 – WHEN PLAYERS LOOK BACK YEARS LATER, WHAT DO YOU HOPE THEY REMEMBER MOST ABOUT PLAYING FOR YOU? – EPISODE 1226
[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 87th edition of the Coaches’ Corner Round Table on the Hoop Heads podcast. Each episode of the Coaches’ Corner Round Table will feature our All-star lineup of guests answering a single basketball question. A new Coaches Corner Round Table will drop around the 15th of each month.
March’s Round Table Question is, When players look back years later, what do you hope they remember most about playing for you?
Our coaching lineup this month includes:
- Erik Buehler – Arapahoe (CO) High School
- Joe Harris – Lake Chelan (WA) High School
- Stephen Halstead – Grace College
- Oronde King – Putnam Valley (NY) High School
- Mike Koehler – Elkhart Lake (WI) High School
- Bob Krizancic – Mentor (OH) High
- Tom Sadler – IMG Academy
- 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 at Hoop Heads Pod for the latest updates on episodes, guests and events from the Hoop Heads Pod.
Coaches, you’ve got a game plan for your team, but do you have one for your money? That’s where Wealth4Coaches comes in. Each week, we’ll deliver Simple, no fluff financial tips made just for coaches. Whether you’re getting paid for camps, training sessions, or a full season. Wealth4Coaches helps you track it, save it, and grow it.
It’s time to stop guessing and start building. Subscribe now at Wealth4Coaches.beehive.com/subscribe and follow us on Twitter at Wealth4Coaches for daily money wins. Your money needs a coach. Start with Wealth4Coaches.
[00:02:02] Colin Tabb: Hi, this is Colin Tabb Head, men’s basketball coach at Western New England University and you’re listening to the Hoop Heads Podcast.
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Let’s hear from our panel about what they hope players remember most about playing for them.
[00:03:17] Mike Klinzing: Eric Buehler, Arapahoe High School, Centennial, Colorado.
[00:03:23] Erik Buehler: Hey, what’s up Hoop Heads? This is Eric Buehler at Arapahoe High School and this month we were asked what we hope our players remember years down the road after playing for us.
And I think there’s a lot of great moments like last second shots or big game wins. Things like that. But kind of as a whole experience, I hope they remember the comradery the culture and why coaches were so hard on, on them at times was not just to prepare them as basketball players, but to prepare them for life and being good human beings.
So when they’re, they’re employed or their fathers or their husbands, they walk away and they take some of those lessons that they learned. From practice, from games, from bus rides and locker rooms, and they apply that to their life. We only get a few years with them, but hopefully they, they remember and they take with them lessons and memories that will sustain them for the next 40, 50, 60 years.
So that’s my take, that’s my hope for players that, that play for us. And thanks for having me on again and talk to you guys next time.
[00:04:37] Mike Klinzing: Stephen Halstead from Grace College.
[00:04:42] Stephen Halstead: Hey, this is Stephen Halstead from Grace College tuning into the hoop heads round table number 87. This month’s question is going to be when players look back years later, what do you hope they remember most about playing for you? And I think for me and our entire staff at Grace.
As the guys step away from the game and, and their playing days are over, I hope they can look back and realize that the coaches just loved and cared about them a lot deeper than players. The quote that always comes to my mind is, people will forget what you said. People will forget what you did, but people never forget how you made them feel.
And hopefully over their course of their four years at Grace, they feel loved, supported encouraged by us that we’re able to continue to coach them. I’m sure. There’s a lot better basketball coaches out there, X’s and O’s, Ys and what they do. But we really hope that we’re able to build genuine relationships that we’ll be able to continue for the rest of their lives.
[00:05:32] Mike Klinzing: Joe Harris, Lake Chelan High School, Lake Chelan, Washington.
[00:05:39] Joe Harris: Hello, Hoop Heads. This is Joe Harris from Lake Chelan. Jumping back in with tonight’s round table question. When players look back years later, what do you hope they remember most about playing for you? Years from now? I hope my, our players remembered more than just the games we won or lost.
I hope they remember the things we did together and the standard we set. Showing up every day ready to work, holding each other accountable and putting the team before ourselves. But more than anything, I hope they remember. Our relationship and that I believed in them and pushed them to be better than they thought they could be.
Not just as athletes, but also as people. Because if our players left our program, understanding the value of discipline, teamwork, and doing things the right way, even when no one is watching. Then as coaches, we’ve done our job because the wins fade over time. But those lessons learned and the relationships we’ve built and the pride of being part of something bigger than yourself are really what I hope stay with them for the rest of their lives.
Thanks again for having me on.
[00:06:53] Mike Klinzing: Oronde King from Putnam Valley High School in New York and King’s Basketball.
[00:07:01] Oronde King: This is Coach King with King’s Nasketball in New York and Varsity boys coach of Putnam Valley High School. And this month’s round table question is when players look back years later, what do you hope they remember most about playing for you? This is a great question. I love. So when players look back years from now, I hope what stays with them isn’t just the games or the wins, but more so the experience of being part of something that pushed them and believed them at the same time.
I hope they remember that playing for me meant being held to a standard one that was built on effort, accountability, and doing things the right way, even when it wasn’t easy. I hope they remember the confidence they built, the moments they realized they were capable of more than they thought. And the pride that comes from showing up every day with purpose.
I hope they remember that I cared about who they were becoming as people just as much as who they were as players. But most of all, I hope they remember the feeling of belonging to a team that felt like family, where they were challenged, supported, and valued. And if years from now they can look back and say, I became a better version of myself in that program.
And coach believed in me so much that he taught me how to believe in myself, that I know I did the job the right way. It was a great question. Thank you for this one. Had fun with it.
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Mike Koehler from Elkhart Lake High School in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin.
[00:09:12] Mike Koehler: Mike Koehler, varsity boys basketball coach at Elkhart Lake High School in Wisconsin. With this month’s question, what do you hope players remember most about playing for you? I think this is one of those questions like some others in sports that has a standard answer, but that answer kind of falls short of the realities of the situation in many cases.
The standard answer is probably along the following lines, right? That the player had fun and learned valuable life lessons. A prior round table explored the issue of what fun means and how different players may ascribe different meaning to that term. And of course, sports, just like other aspects of life, should teach valuable life lessons.
But to me that’s kind of a rather generic answer. So when I think about coaching and what former players may remember, I want to focus on the things that I can control as a coach and for players to look back and answer that. The question, kind of the following way and, and things I can control as a coach are, was I responsible?
Was I organized and prepared? Was I a good communicator in terms of basketball specifics? I want former players to say that. I articulated standards for individual and team success, both in terms of player development and and game strategy, and I held all players accountable to those standards.
If in doing those things players had fun and learned valuable life lessons, that’s great, but that’s not necessarily something I can control. Similarly, if, if doing those things, players invite me to their graduation parties, their, their weddings, while that’s just sort of icing on the cake.
[00:11:05] Mike Klinzing: Bob Krizancic, Mentor High School, Mentor, Ohio
[00:11:12] Bob Krizancic: Coach K, Mentor High School as my players looked back after they were out a few years, graduated from Menor High School. I really hope they cherish the relationships and the bonds with their teammates and with me and the coaching staff. Also, everything that we did in practice prepped for games did in the summers was for the success of their future, more so than in basketball.
If you came into our gym at Thanksgiving or Christmas, you would probably see at least 10 to 15 alums, and that means the world to me. Best of luck,
[00:11:55] Mike Klinzing: Tom Sadler from IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida.
[00:12:02] Tom Sadler: I hope when the players look back that they remember that I actually cared about them, not just as basketball players, but as people. I hope they remember that I did everything I could to hold them to a high standard. Not to be hard on them, but because I believed in what they were capable of. I want them to be able to look back and say that playing for me, taught them something about who they are, how they handle adversity, how they show up for others, how they compete when it’s hard, the habits, the accountability, the standards that we set together.
I hope that stuff all follows them longer after the game is over, but more importantly, I hope they remember the relationships. With their coaches with each other in the locker room on the bus. I want that to be something that they talk about when they’re grown men.
[00:12:53] Mike Klinzing: Don Showalter, USA Basketball.
Hi Don Showalter here from USA Basketball. What do players remember about playing for you years later? A great example for me was when Pete Van Mullen wrote my biography of cornfields to gold medals. He interviewed many, many players that had played for me. The thing that stuck out was really, they, they didn’t remember a lot about individual wins and losses, but they remembered a lot about just comradery how fun the season was to be together.
And of course a lot of that has to do with wins and losses as well. But I, I think they remember the, the activities that were, that you did as a coach with them. I think that’s really important and just shows you how much your relationships matter. When you go back and look 25, 30 years later of what they remember.
You’ll get invited to many weddings and. Get e texts and emails about, oh, they just had another baby boy or whatever. I think that’s all through relationships. So you hope you have developed good relationships with your players, that they can feel free when they become adults, that they contact you and stay in touch.
So that, that really stuck out to me and when Pete wrote that, wrote the book about my career. The other thing, I think that. we want, we want fond memories of the players that to have playing for you, and they’re going to have fond memories. If you were a very positive coach, individual, individually with each one of them, cared about them trusted them, they’re going to remember that.
And I think that’s what develops that relationship over the years. So good lesson for all of us. Thank you.
[00:14:56] 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.
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 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. As a Hoop Heads Pod listener, you can get your coaching portfolio guide for just $25.
Visit coaching portfolio guide.com/hoopheads to learn more.
[00:15:56] Narrator: Thanks for listening to the Hoop Heads Podcast presented by Head Start Basketball.


