Morning before tryouts...

Good morning everyone ... It's the first day of tryouts at Seneca and I am very excited about the up coming year.

First because I found out mid summer that this year I will have more of a role with the team ... Last year I helped out with the team at practices and a bit at games but I was not overly involved with the coaching aspects of things ... yes I was in charge of the conditioning aspect of it and did help with the drills and teachings that the other coaches conducted but I spent a lot of the year watching and learning ... and this is something that I needed to do ... jumping from being a high school coach (which I still am) to being a college assistant coach is a transition I wanted but wasn't sure I could handle ... I have been coaching for a while now and I feel that I have built up a nice resume ... I have been fortunate to have had players that want to listen and want to win and go to class!! Yes I am one of those coaches that stress SCHOOL BEFORE BALL ... and i will maintain that philosophy as long as I coach ... no education will get you no where in life basketball can only get you so far ... how will you be able to go further ... ok back on point ... So making the jump to college was a good idea and learning from the sidelines helped me understand what is needed as a coach at this level.

This year I was asked to work with another coach on the offense for the team so i am very excited and looking forward to this challenge.

Secondly because this year will be the first year that the team is ours ... yes we coached them last year but we were taking over a program that someone else had built and left us the pieces ... this year its ours, we brought in most of the guys and have been working a good core of them through out the summer ... So it will be nice to see if our recruiting skills are up to par with the rest of the league ...

Tonight's tryouts will be full of everything ... still working out what I would like to run in my pod of the tryouts but I am sure that myself and the other coaches will think of something to see who can handle playing at this level ... We will have approximately 100 to 200 players tryout for 13 remaining spots on the team ... mind you they all will not be showing up tonight (I hope not anyways) but over the 3 days of tryouts we will see at least 100 different players ... should be interesting

I will be using this blog to keep everyone updated on the 2009-2010 Sting basketball season. i am hoping that there will be lots of positive postings by me and that the Sting have a successfully year and make it to the Nationals!

See you all after the first day of tryouts!

Coach Hopps