Linda Gets One of Best Assists Ever

Many of you know that I have been blogging for www.hoopskills.com about various basketball related topics. Below is part of one of my most recent posts:

After an exhausting but fun week of recruiting in California I found myself playing some pickup basketball last night with several other college and NBA coaches. I have no idea why but for some reason I ended up guarding Eric Spoelstra, the coach of the Miami Heat. Eric had the ball out on the wing and I was in a great defensive stance and “D’ing” him up pretty good. He ripped the ball through from right to left and when he did I managed to get my hand on the ball. The ball squirted loose and started heading straight to the sideline. Without hesitating and without ever coming out of my stance, I took one long and low step and dove head first for the ball. Then right before I hit the floor and skidded out of bounds, a hand grabbed the back of my shirt and pulled me back.

A split second later I woke up and found myself hanging over the side of our bed while my wife Linda let go of my shirt and asked, “What are you doing? Are you okay?” When I told her that I was diving to keep a ball from going out of bounds, she started laughing so hard that she nearly fell out of bed!

Thankfully, Linda probably kept me from breaking my nose. . . but I still almost got to the ball!

Anson Dorrance on Parents

Took our daughter Taylor to her first U11 soccer practice this afternoon and while she was playing I sat on a picnic table and caught up on my reading of Anson Dorrance's "Vision of a Champion." Coincidently, the chapter I read centered around players and their parents and some of Dorance's thoughts made me think and are definitely worth mentioning here.

"What doesn't work is a daughter without strong character and the same type of parent. Those two, who are not willing to take personal responsibility for anything, bond together and develop a self righteous, judgemental view of the world, which is especially damaging to the daughter. What you have in this dynamic is a player who whines to her parent, and a parent who supports and justifies the whining and then whines to everyone else."

"Almost every stressed out, self destructive (soccer) player is characterized by overmanaging parents."

"In fact, in my experience, players whose parents keep their distance actually end up developing faster and better, and with less stress and pressure, than those whose parents want to be overly involved in everything."

"The way parents can help their children. . . . . is by not comparing their children's performance with a rival teammate or by jumping in with both feet and fighting any of their children's battles. If sports can have any value off the field it is in the athletes dealing with the difficult, but ultimately empowering challenges on their own."

So good luck this season Taylor. I am not going to be one of "those" parents. Listen to your coaches. Play hard. Compete every day. Don't whine, complain, make excuses, or blame anyone else. And above all else, remember that being an athlete is not about what you can get but it's about what you can become!

The Secret

Years ago, long before club, summer, and AAU teams dotted the land, a young boy lived in Westminster, California. One day that boy went to his father and asked him how he could become a basketball player. Without saying a word the father got into the car and of course the boy followed. In silence they drove the three miles to Huntington Beach, where they parked and walked out towards the ocean. Upon reaching the water, the father, who was 6'7", walked out into the surf until the water was up to his waist, and of course the boy followed, but the water came up to his chest. Still, not a word was spoken.

Without warning the father grabbed the boy and pushed him down under the water and held him there until the boy thought he was going to drown. After drinking a huge amount of the Pacific Ocean, the boy was pulled up out of the water and immediately started sputtering, gasping, and gulping for air. 'What are you doing?" he finally screamed. "All I asked you was how to be a basketball player and you almost killed me!"

The father responded by asking, "When I was holding your head under water and you thought you were going to drown, what's the one thing you wanted more than anything else?" "Are you serious? Air! I wanted air!" screamed the boy.

Then the lesson. "When you want to be a basketball player as much as you wanted that one breath of air, you won't need me or anyone else to tell you how to do it."

As the years unfolded, the boy realized that relentless desire not only applied to playing basketball, but also to coaching, winning, getting an education, finding a job, etc.

Thanks Dad! Happy Father's Day!!

One Family-Three Great Seasons

The 2008-2009 basketball season is now officially over for the Stricklin family and I must admit that even though I'm still in mourning, it was a pretty good season for all of us. As UCC followers already know, we finished the season 29-3, averaged 90 points a game and were ranked #1 in the Pacific Northwest from start to finish. My son Brad and his North Eugene HS teammates won their first three playoff games and got to finish out their season at historic Mac Court on the campus of the University of Oregon. My oldest son Jeff, a junior on BYU-Hawaii's team, saw his season come to an end last night when the Seasiders lost at the buzzer and were upset in the NCAA West Regional Final. They had their 25 game winning streak snapped and finished with a 27-2 record.

Jeff's game was on TV last night but didn't start until 10:30pm PST.
It looked like BYUH had the game locked up with about seven minutes to go only to let it slip away at the end. The parent in me was concerned about how disappointed Jeff and his teammates were feeling. (When Jeff finally called after the game he could barely talk and wasn't much better when I called him this afternoon) The coach in me had to completely analyze what happened and so I went over a tape of the game until after 2am. Unfortunately, no matter how many times I watched the tape, the game always ended the same way!!

Coincidentally,I was cleaning out a closet this morning and came across a book by John Maxwell called "Talent Is Never Enough" and I instantly started to think about our three teams and how each one ended the season. You know, although it is definitely a great place to start, talent really isn't enough. Sometimes you need you need a little luck; sometimes you need better decision making from both players and coaches; sometimes you need favorable officiating and sometimes you just need someone to step up and make a play! But because talent isn't always enough, sometimes the best team doesn't win, and that fact can result in some exciting possibilities - unless of course you're the best team! The 2009-2010 season can now officially begin! Let's hope it's another great one for all of us!!

Goals

I need to update UCC's "News from the Nest" and so here is last month's Dave's Diary entry:

New team. New challenges. New year. Same goals.

When I first started coaching I sat down and made a list of goals to use as a guide as I started my career. I thought that if I could accomplish these goals, then the wins and other successes would take care of themselves. It’s extremely reassuring to know that several years (and several championships) later, my list of goals is basically still the same now as it was then: I want to get ourselves in a position where we can compete for the Championship. I want to help our players be better college players than they were high school players. I want to help find scholarships for our players who want to move on to four year universities. (Close to 100 so far.) I want to treat and support our players the same way I want my kids’ coaches to treat and support them. I want our players to know that no matter how hard they work and no matter how much time they put in, they won’t work as hard or put in as much time as I do. I want to find talented, hard working, student athletes with a desire to win a lot of games, and then adopt those athletes into our basketball family. I want to make a difference.

Allison (Bickel) Shirey

On the UCC Women's Basketball home page there is a section called "Dave's Diary" where I have tried to share a few thoughts on some things that are important to me. At the suggestion of a few friends and alumni, I've decided to try my hand at blogging. I'm hoping that what's written here will help keep all of our alumni more closely connected to our program and at the same time give anyone else who is interested a greater insight into Umpqua Women's Basketball.

Here's a "Dave's Diary" entry from last Spring:

As I was driving to the airport this afternoon, I began to reflect on this past season (for about the 1000th time!) and on all of its highs and lows and everything in between.

Dozens of things ran through my mind but one instance stuck like glue.

While trying to recover from an unusually tough weekend, I received a phone call from Allison (Bickel) Shirey who played on our team at Golden West College in Huntington Beach, California from 1990-1992. Even though Allison and I had a very good relationship we lost touch when I moved to Oregon to take the UCC job in 1994. Neither of us could remember the last time we had spoken.

Practically the first thing that came out of Allison’s mouth after I answered the phone was “What the hell is going on up there? How could you possibly lose last weekend? You haven’t lost to them in 12 years!!” I was stunned. “Why do you think we should be able to beat them? How do you know we hadn’t lost to them in 12 years?”

Then Allison said some things that reminded me why I coach and at the same time reminded me what separates good teams from great programs. “Even though we don’t talk very often I think about the things you taught us almost every single day. I have followed the team for the past 12 years. Go ahead, quiz me! Just because I’ve never set foot on Umpqua’s campus doesn’t mean I’m not tied into the program. You will always be “my coach” and your teams will always be “my team.”

I asked Allison why she never called me earlier. “Because you’ve been doing great all these years. But after this weekend I figured you could use a call from someone who believes in you and appreciates what you are doing!” It seemed like we talked forever that night and we’ve talked several times since then.

Fifteen years after our last game together (Allison hit two free throws in the final seconds to help us win our second California Community College State Championship) Allison still “gets it.” She knows that the relationships are meant to outlast the wins and losses. She knows that the journey doesn’t end when the season does. She knows that true teammates are always there in times of need. It won’t show up in the stats but that call from Allison might have been the biggest assist of her career.