Building A Program: From The Ground Up

Building A Program: From The Ground Up

Collin Weber

Mrs. Breitenbach

AP English 12

3/19/07

The fifth and sixth grade basketball team was one of those things that people that were not on it saw as a good way for young boys to stay in shape, but for the few of us that were on the team we knew we were there building a legacy of success. Our coach was determined to make us a great basketball team and let us experience what it is like to be a winner.

However, building a successful basketball program takes much time and effort on everyone’s part not just the coach. The time and effort is needed from getting the program name out and known to being able to run an organized game plan. Many steps can be taken to help the process of developing the program run much smoother. This is not going to happen over night; very often it will take a program a few years to become successful and this is another aspect that often turns people away from the idea and sometimes makes it hard for these teams to recruit players.

The first step of building this program into a successful one is starting from the ground up. The first thing that should be done is appointing your staff that will help with the decisions on many things such as, recruiting, practices, scheduling games, and so on. These include positions such as assistant coaches and trainers. When filling the positions you should look for loyalty; people that are compatible with you and the rest of the staff is also key (Krause 24). Your newly hired staff is most likely going to play a big role in helping you with what you should do next. You and your staff will need to evaluate the players that you have on your roster, both returnees and new incomers. They should be the type of players that can be developed (Krause 24). Talent is going to play a big part early on in the programs ability to win games since it is going to be a new system for the players and they will still be getting used to playing with each other. Selecting the talent is where you are going to need to start; you want to pick the right players (Krause 25). Establishing the team concept may be one of your most difficult tasks. You must try to eliminate “I” from the team vocabulary, replace it with “we” and you want to carry this into the practice environment by acknowledging a good pass or assist (Krause 25).

There are three very key steps that will much improve your chances of having a successful season and program. These three steps are: Define your goals, Devise a plan to

achieve these goals, and execute the plan (Krause 25). Your players’ and staff’s attitudes are going to depend heavily on your attitude. It is important to establish a positive attitude early on so it can carry on throughout the team, school, and the community. Also with this successful attitude, you should develop a good work habit to pass down to the rest of the program (Krause 25). Young players are going to need to mature quickly in these developing years, and you can help them do that by appointing them leadership positions. This will also help down the road because you will have someone willing to step up and be a leader in a critical situation (Krause 25).

All of the things are going to make your life easier in your journey down the road of building a successful program but there is one major factor that you must have in order for most of these tips to work out for you. This key component is organization. You need to be able to organize your talent so they can play as closely as possible to their potential. This involves communicating success to the players; but also it will be a big help if you can organize your practice plans, utilize your staff, and when a teaching situation presents itself, take that opportunity to teach your players a valuable lesson (Krause 25). You are going to be dealing with student athletes and you need to make sure that keep the student part of that first in line. You can help them with this by setting ground rules, but you do not want to set many rules, try to minimize rules, yet maximize guidelines. You should only have three rules and they are, Go to class, no drugs at all, and the players must attend and be on time to all basketball related event (Krause 25).

The preceding hints and tips will be very useful in creating a strong foundation for success within in the program, but there are other things that will lead to the accreditation of your program.

You need to promote your program anyway you can; get the programs name out and known. Your main objectives of your promotion should be to raise money, improve the existing facilities, create a greater awareness of the program, and create enthusiasm, pride, and a winner’s attitude in the community (Krause 25). Many teams will try to gain respect from other programs and fans by their appearance, and part of this is done through the process of raising money so they can afford nice uniforms, warm-ups, travel apparel, and so on. Your team will feel proud to boast the team colors and name if they have nice things to wear, and they will attract attention to your team and possibly fill up the gym. Success is often achieved by work put in outside of practice, such as in the weight room, or on the players own time. Improving facilities will promote players to get into the weight room or the practice gym to work on their own on strength or quickness. Players are not going to want to go into a run down, old weight room or a musty gym to work out. A big crowd pumps up teams and pushes them to play harder, and these big crowds do not come from the success of the team right out of the gates, but rather from the awareness of the program within the surrounding area.

The more people that know about the program, the more people that will be enticed to come to the game and this will also create that enthusiasm, pride, and winning attitude that is desired by programs. Getting people involved is a step in the right direction when trying to promote your program, the wider array of people that you involve in your promotion will help draw in fans from all parts of the community. Some suggested groups to involve are players’ parents, faculty of the school, students that are not on the team, community groups such as civil groups, school interest groups, athletic interest groups, and news media; the sports media should be your first concern (Krause 25). Ideas that often yield a good