It’s that time of year again! As we gear-up for another basketball season in the great state of Kentucky, please look forward to information from St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital about a free-throw shooting fund raiser, which you should be receiving soon.

The KABC officers and board reps are doing many good things to promote the sport of basketball in our state. At our Fall Board meeting (during the coaching clinic), we made progress on several items.

First we decided to match Elizabethtown’s “donation” to start the Kentucky High School Basketball Hall of Fame, with a loan of our own of $25,000. This Hall of Fame will have the ability to be taken on the road and shared with those throughout the Bluegrass. Of course, its permanent home will be in E’Town. We will be announcing the first class of inductees at a press conference at the Marriott Griffin Gate in Lexington, on Tuesday, March 13 before the state tournament begins on Wednesday!

We also voted to allow different options for membership beginning next year. Now we will be offering “school” memberships for $100. Another exciting happening will be our offer to KABC members, to take advantage of the Marriott’s proposal of state tournament rooms for $100 per night! They will also be offering a shuttle to and from the games, this should be especially helpful for those of you who wish to avoid searching for a parking spot.

Our clinic was one of the best in recent memory. Looking back at our “Championship Speakers,” it’s quite simple to understand why these coaches won championships in the past year.

By beginning a youth program at Rockcastle County, Coach Chrysti Noble took a group of girls who had “grown-up” together in the program and parlayed that into the Girl’s Sweet 16 State Championship. Coach Kerry Stovall at Christian County showed us all how he has a plan, is organized, follows his plan (with a little refining from time to time), and won the Boy’s Sweet 16. Congratulations to both, we all enjoyed your presentation at the clinic.

Kelly Wells at University of Pikeville, has a system, sticks to it, is organized, works his players hard and has taken Pikeville to a National Championship (to go along with his Sweet 16 State Championship at Mason County) in his short time there.

Donny Tyndall spoke at length about player development in his program at Morehead State. He shared his philosophy about hard work and accepting only maximum effort from his players. Coach Tyndall also drew a chuckle with his “mouse in the house” story!

Speaking strictly from a personal standpoint, Coach Don Meyer could possibly be the best clinic speaker I’ve had the privilege of hearing. He spoke about life and about coaching kids. Hearing him share his experiences, to go along with the years and years of accumulated knowledge made it quite easy to understand why he has so many coaching victories in his career.

On Saturday morning, we moved to Transylvania to the gym floor. It was there that 2011 National Championship Coach Scott Davenport from Bellarmine University put his enthusiasm on display. What a way for the Transy players to “wake-up!” Live drills with Scotty D! Coach Davenport makes you want to get to the gym immediately and start working-out your players.

Max Good…’nuf said! If you missed Max, you missed a real treat. Max warned us that he wasn’t going to do a lot of drills, but his message was clear to all of us…cherish the friendships you make while in the great business of coaching. They last a lifetime and you never know when someone dear to you will be gone.

Finally, Brad Stevens from back-to-back Final Four participant Butler University, took us through some of his favorite drills. He shared with us the expectations he has for his players, running times/conditioning, shots made, etc…and how they go about improving their players on a day-to-day basis.

From the feedback we have received, our clinic was an incredible success. We welcome more comments from our members, don’t hesitate to let us know your thoughts. Most everyone loved having the Saturday morning session on the gym floor…hopefully we can do it again next year. Equally as crucial to a successful clinic, was our lineup of speakers. These coaches made it fairly obvious to all of us why they are CHAMPIONS.

Good luck to each of you this year!

Sincerely,
David Henley, President
KABC