Second stint as middle school coach: A fun first year, and hopefully the start of something big

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Well, my first season in my second go-round as a middle school basketball coach is in the books.

Our Community House Cavaliers finished 7-7, tied for 4th place in our 8-team conference. Given that 8 of our 11 players had little to no basketball experience coming into the season, I'm pretty darn proud of what those determined athletes were able to accomplish.

Having been part of championship teams, bad teams and every kind of team in between, I'm not gonna try to fool anybody: Being a champion is special. 

Still, at this level, winning and losing really is secondary. My job at Community House is to give my players a fun experience, to grow their love of basketball, to help them improve, to show them tangible evidence that hard work is rewarded, to guide them in overcoming adversity, and other similarly high-minded concepts.

Each of our 11 players started at least one game, and most started multiple times. Every girl played in every game. I honestly believe that all 11 got better as the season progressed.

I'll take all that, and a 7-7 record. (Not that I have a choice - ha!)

We had a team outing to watch my former school, Ardrey Kell HS, play a game.
Community House is the middle school that feeds into AK.

Our season highlight was a 1-point victory at Crestdale in December, as we roared back after falling behind by 15 points. I haven't been part of many post-game locker-room scenes more joyous than that one was. 

When we played the same team at home in January, we again fell way behind (this time by 14 points). Again we rallied, tying it with about a minute to go. But this time, Crestdale made plays down the stretch and we didn't, and we lost by 3. 

As we got deeper into the season, it became obvious that our opponents included:

• 2 deep, talented, tall, well-coached teams (Alexander Graham and South Charlotte) we simply couldn't beat; we were 0-4 in those games.
• 3 less-talented teams (Southwest, Carmel and Quail Hollow) we couldn't have lost to unless we played really, really poorly; we were 6-0 in those games.
• 1 team that was a little better than us (JM Robinson); unfortunately, we went 0-2 against them.
• 1 team that was our absolute equal (Crestdale); we split our two games with them.

We finished last week with a decisive, satisfying victory over Carmel. Two players were out: Meniya, who had been our leading scorer, missed several games with health issues; and Allie, an 8th-grader with little experience but a huge heart, had to leave school early that day because she wasn't feeling well.

In her text telling me she was sick, Allie expressed sadness at having to miss her final game. I relayed that to the girls during my pre-game talk with the team. I encouraged them to appreciate this last opportunity to play with their teammates, and to show it by giving maximum effort on the court.

We then went out and played one of our best quarters of the season, building a 16-4 lead thanks to 9 points from our point guard, Skyler; 4 points and great all-around play from our other 8th-grade standout, Jalayah; and tremendous energy, intensity and defense by the other 7 players.

Jalayah inbounds the ball to Skyler

It was especially nice to see our 7th-graders, who likely will form the nucleus of next year's team, demonstrate how much they have improved by playing well in this season's finale. Emma and Bryson each finished with a career-high 5 points; Emersyn and Avery helped set the tone with their aggressive defense and hustle; Janita battled bigger players to grab several rebounds.

It was a great way to finish the season.

The next night, Community House held its winter sports banquet. My team, the boys team and the cheerleading squad were honored, and the three coaches got to talk about our athletes.

I praised my girls for their work ethic, toughness and resiliency. I talked about some of the challenges we faced and how we dealt with them. I joked about us scoring twice into the wrong basket -- including on our very first play of the season. That's some great coaching there! I said something nice (and true) about each player. 

I also gave out 3 awards: Coach's Award for Aggressiveness to Avery; Heart of a Champion Award, for going above and beyond expectations, to Emma; and MVP to Skyler.

Skyler ended up being our leading scorer, with 110 points. She was followed by Meniya (101) and Jalayah (78). Those three -- the only players who had returned from the 2018-19 team -- accounted for 81.6% of our scoring. 

Add in the three other 8th-graders (Chloe, Alyssa and Allie), and it means we have to replace 87% of our scoring. 

Eighty-seven percent!!

I told the girls, especially the 7th-graders, that it was time for them to do some serious recruiting. They need to talk up how much fun they had being part of the Cavs; they need to convince athletic 7th-graders and 6th-graders to go out for the team next season. I specifically encouraged them to point out how much playing time -- and how many shots -- will be available.

My single biggest surprise this season actually happened before we got started: Even though Community House is one of the largest middle schools in North Carolina, with about 600 girls in 7th and 8th grades, fewer than 20 tried out for our team. (By comparison, more than 120 tried out for the boys team.)

It wasn't what I expected after leaving Ardrey Kell High, where I had been an assistant for two seasons following my first 4-year stint as a middle school coach.

I've since been told that the CH girls program has been down for a few years -- and that we're trying to change the culture to make it a more fun and rewarding experience.

Hopefully, this season will have been a major step in that direction.

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Oh, and of course, I can't wrap up a post of The Baldest Truth without putting up a pic of Jack and Logan, my terrific (and terrifically cute) grand-twins.

Happy, 6 Month Birthday, LoJack!

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Hello, 2020! ... Here's hoping the rest of the New Year can live up to my first week

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Just got back from a great (but too short!) trip to Chicago and Milwaukee.

So much fun with our adorable grand-twins Logan and Jack (aka "LoJack"), and of course their parents Ben and Sammi.

LoJack loves Grandma! (And vice versa!)

Grandpa hangin' with da boyz

As they close in on their 5-month birthdays, the boys have gotten so big. Fun little personalities. A lot of smiling, as Logan demonstrates ...

The boys even are showing an affinity for TV (uh-oh).

Saturday was a darn near perfect day ...

• Drove up from Chicago to Milwaukee with Robbie, Ben and Mickey (Ben's father-in-law) for the Marquette-Villanova game.
• Found a free parking spot on the street within 3 blocks of the arena. I loves me some free parking!
• Met Marquette buddies Tom and Jim at a local establishment before the game to share some great memories and laughs. Also shared some beverages, which in my case were New Glarus Moon Man and Spotted Cow.
• Watched our Warriors play very well in defeating the No. 10 team in the country.
• No trip to Milwaukee is complete without a dash to Leon's for amazing butter pecan frozen custard.
• Went to Ben's in-laws' place in the northern burbs to eat deep-dish pizza and to spend a few hours with family: Ben, Sammi, Mickey, his wife Linda, Sammi's sister Lauren, various dogs ...  and, of course, the stars of the show, Logan and Jack.
• Drove back to my son's place to tuck in LoJack.
• Watched the end of the Patriots' playoff loss to Tennessee. Bye-bye Brady!

Hard to beat that!

Rob took this artsy-fartsy photo of 3 old farts:
Tom, Mike and Jim

Mickey, Ben, Rob and Mike up in the Fiserv Forum nosebleed section

Marquette's All-American guard, Markus Howard,
takes it right into the teeth of Villanova's defense
(Photo credit: gomarquette.com)

Leon's butter pecan ... The best treat in the entire world!

Naturally, we were sad to say goodbye on Sunday. And when we got home, we had a ton of work staring at us, as we just had both bathrooms renovated and the entire downstairs painted. 

On Monday, it was back to practice with my Community House Cavs, who just returned from winter break. We'll take a 3-2 record into our first post-break game on Thursday, Jan. 9.

I hope everybody had as great a start to the New Year as I did.

Oh, and here's lookin' at you, kid!

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My Cavs: Good, with a shot at being Very Good

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I don't want to leave folks hanging, so here's a quick update on my Community House Cavs ...

We split our games this week.

Fell behind early against our biggest rival, JM Robinson, rallied within 2 after three quarters, but ran out of gas and lost at the end. We got sloppy with the ball when we could least afford it, and also gave up two offensive-rebound putbacks on consecutive possessions. I'm already looking forward to the rematch next month!

Last night, we played well in the first half, and a half-court shot at the buzzer by our point guard Skyler gave us a 13-point lead. Her reaction was precious -- an absolutely amazed look on her face, arms raised as she ran back toward the bench, and she kept shouting, "I made it! I made it!" It was as if we had won the WNBA title.

But despite my stern reminder that we had come back from a bigger deficit just last week against Crestdale, we got a little full of ourselves thinking the game was over. The opponent, Southwest, didn't get that memo. They played harder and better than we did, and we turned the ball over several times as they pressured us a little. Just like that, we were up by only 2.

Thankfully, led by our experienced 8th-graders Skyler, Meniya and Jalayah, we took care of business in the 4th quarter and pulled away to win by 11. Meniya, whose pursuit of the basketball is relentless, finished with 20 points, the highest total by any Cav this season. I liked the defensive effort and hustle we got from our 7th-graders: Emma, Emersyn, Avery and Bryson.

So we take a 3-2 record into the break. Coulda been 4-1 if we hadn't run out of gas against JMR. But coulda been 2-3 if we didn't rally to win at Crestdale or even 1-4 if we also hadn't figured things out last night.

Yep, 3-2 is just about where we should be.

We are a good team, with the potential to be very good. We'll see if the girls (and their coach) are willing and able to make that jump in January.

Most importantly, it's a good group of kids, and a lot of interesting personalities. Very different from most of the girls I coached at my previous middle-school stop.

They do play hard, they want to get better, they want to compete. It's fun being their coach, and I'm excited about the 9 games on our schedule after break.

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A New Assignment For Coach Nadel

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A couple of months ago, I received this text message from my basketball coach at Ardrey Kell High, Jeff Buseick:

Community House Middle School is looking for a girls coach. Do you know anyone that would be interested/good?

Community House is one of AK's feeder schools, and many of the best players I had the privilege of assistant-coaching during my two years at AK came from there. So it certainly was in Coach B's interest to get this filled with somebody he could trust.

I was thinking of my many coaching colleagues, and even called one to see if she knew anybody who might want to do it. And then I started thinking ...

Hmmm. I loved coaching that age group during my four wonderful years at Scholars Academy. And I want to be a head coach again. And I don't think I want to be a high school head coach because of the time commitment, especially with all the visits we have to make to our new grand-twins. ... I don't know about the "good" part, but darn right I'm interested!

I told Coach that and he thought it was a great idea. He sent out an email of recommendation, I set up an interview with the Community House AD for the next day, and the offer was waiting for me in my email inbox by the time I got home from the interview.

So I'm a middle school basketball coach again. This conference is a considerable step up from the one that housed Scholars Academy, so I knew it would be a challenge -- but a fun one.

Even though Community House is one of the largest middle schools in North Carolina, with nearly 1,800 students in grades 6-8, not all that many girls showed up for tryouts. (Only 7th and 8th graders are eligible to play.)

Our Cavaliers ended up with an 11-player roster that included 3 girls who were on last season's team (Jalayah, Meniya, Skyler) and 8 of various experience levels -- from some rec ball to having barely ever played (Alyssa, Avery, Emersyn, Emma, Chloe, Allie, Janita, Bryson).

Our season started last week and we were crushed in our opener by South Charlotte MS, whose outstanding point guard will almost certainly be a varsity starter in high school a year from now. We tried man, zone and box-and-1, and we never could corral her. Offensively, we committed too many turnovers and missed too many layups. The Cavs simply were out-played and out-coached. 

Oh, and the first points of my second go-round as a middle school coach were scored in the opponent's basket after some confusion following the jump ball. Yep, we made the layup ... and we were down 2-0.

Thankfully, one of the great things about sports is that you get a chance to play again soon. This past Monday, Dec. 9, we went to Quail Hollow MS and rolled to victory. 

Our energetic 4, Meniya, dominated defensively and on the boards; our do-everything wing, Jalayah, smoothly navigated around defenders, scoring and setting up teammates; our point guard, Skyler, ran the offense efficiently; everybody contributed; and 8 of our 11 players scored. It was rewarding to see the girls execute the things we had been working on in practice.

The boys coach snapped this photo of me in my CHMS polo during the Quail Hollow game. (My wife was like, "What? He couldn't have gotten any of the team in the photo? You look like some random bald guy standing in a gym.")

Then came Thursday, Dec. 12. We went to Crestdale MS and fell behind 20-5 midway through the second quarter. Skyler had 3 fouls. We couldn't make a shot. We were missing defensive assignments, leading to numerous layups by our opponent. 

Then a little life ... we finished the half with an 8-0 run that included Meniya's 3-pointer and much better defense. Down only 20-13, I told them at halftime that we were right in the game but needed to turn up our defensive intensity.

I started Meniya and Skyler in the second half even though each had 3 fouls. We outscored Crestdale 11-6 in the quarter to make it 26-24. It was a game now.

We finally caught them midway through the fourth quarter ... but both Meniya and Jalayah fouled out. Our role players, who had done well all game, really stepped up. Emersyn made a huge 17-footer, Chloe hit a free throw for our final point, and Emma grabbed the clinching rebound. 

Community House 35, Crestdale 34

Our bench exploded with excitement and I pumped my fist. After the handshake line, the girls went to the locker room to wait for me. I gave them a minute to let it sink in and then I burst through the door, clapping. The girls followed suit, clapping and hootin' and hollerin'. It was an incredible scene of exuberance that lasted a couple of minutes. You gotta love youth sports!

I told the girls how amazing that was: down 20-5 to a good team but battling back, never quitting, showing heart, showing skill, a complete team victory with so many contributing. I told them how proud I was of them, and that wasn't just coach-speak.

I left the locker room completely energized. It doesn't matter what level it is -- from Biddy Ball all the way to the WNBA or NBA --  a comeback like that feels awesome. 

Hey, here's an interesting aside ...

I got back to the bench to collect my things before the boys game would start, and the refs were talking to the scorer's table. It seemed the final score on the board (36-35) didn't match the one in the official book, which is always kept by the home team. I looked at the book my manager kept and noted the discrepancy: We still won, but it was actually 35-34. 

The refs signed off on it, and it was all good ... but can you imagine if they had determined that the game was tied, or that we had lost? I don't know what they would have done ... and I'm glad I didn't have to find out!!!!!!

Look, winning is not my main mission in this assignment. I want to give these kids a great basketball experience, help them improve as players, maybe even teach a life lesson or two along the way. I play every girl in every game -- all have made the commitment and all work hard in practice; they all deserve to play. I already have started 9 of our 11 players, and the other 2 will get a start soon.

Nevertheless, the scoreboard does have numbers on it, and at the end of the game one team's number will be at least 1 point higher than the other team's. So we might as well endeavor to be the team with the higher number, right?
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I know I hadn't posted on The Baldest Truth in several months. A lot going on. And when I had posted, it was all about "LoJack" -- my beautiful grand-twins, Logan and Jack.

I figure I shouldn't hit the button on this without showing a few of the latest pix of these 4-month-old wonderboys.

Happy Jack

Laughing Logan

LoJack at 4 months

Life is good, folks!!