Our season pass info for next season is now available on our website by clicking here. Brochure and order form will be available online very soon. The basketball double header season pass is a great value and if purchased before October 12th will include a tournament pass to our Annual Mickey Place Memorial Basketball Tournament. Check out the details – we would love to see you in the stands next season!
This week I am in Toronto for some semi-vacation time and recruiting. This weekend is the club championships for Ontario girls basketball, or more importantly the tournament in which all the top players in Ontario will be competing. This will be my 4th year attending the tournament. It is a great place to scout and identify future Panthers. Ontario definitely has no shortage of solid basketball players.
I will spend Friday afternoon until Sunday evening in gyms all across the Kitchener-Waterloo area. Although it is a jam packed weekend, it is a great time to see good friends and coaches from everywhere.
So in anticipation of a full weekend today will be spent taking advantage of Toronto, and their shopping!
CC
One of the most important parts of the off season is our player’s dedication to improvement. It is crucial for our progression as a team that their skills and fitness continue to progress as well. This is the time where individuals can make the most improvement in their game.
In saying that, as a coach I feel it is only fair that if we ask the players to improve it is important that the coach commits to improving as well. This can be done by self assessment and evaluation, but also by continuing to learn new things. My university coach once told me as I was getting into coaching that “it is amazing how much you don’t know”. That is what is special about the game of basketball, it is ever-evolving and there is always new and different things to learn.
We don’t have a large budget for professional development opportunities, although there are lots of high calibre coaching clinics across North America every spring and summer. My development is done mostly by watching videos and reading books. This week I read two books that I purchased earlier in the year: Coach K’s “The Gold Standard” and Roy Williams “Hard Work”. Both are great reads by two of the top college coaches in the game. Coach K talks through the process of working and subsequently winning the gold medal at the Olympics, while Roy Williams takes the reader through his days as a boy until he became the head coach at UNC. Both are great stories, but also incorporate many great insights into how their teams have become the best! Now it is time to figure out what to read next – maybe a break from learning and back to book #2 of the Hunger Games series!
CC
As I mentioned in one of my previous posts, the off-season continues to be busy this time of year, and still an exciting time of year as things start to come together – recruits are visiting and committing, camp registrations for the summer and our upcoming mini day camp (April 28th) are starting to roll in, and this morning we confirmed our teams for our Mickey Place Tournament to be held next October 12-14th. The tournament promises to be the best one yet.
Along with ourselves we will have the Memorial Seahawks representing the AUS, a team we had numerous great battles with last season; including a close triple OT loss at the end of January. No question we will be out for revenge when we see them again! We also have the University of Guelph from the Ontario West conference, a team which has never made the trip to the Island. Lastly, we are welcoming back Ottawa University, the 2012 CIS Bronze Medalists. Although they are graduating several 5th year players from last season, they are expected to be amongst the top teams in the CIS again next season. This will no doubt be a great line up of preseason competition for our team, and a great opportunity to for our fans to support and see what the Panthers are made of early in the year!h
We will begin planning for the tournament ASAP, so if there are any alumni or community members who are interested in joining our tournament committee and helping to make our tournament one of the premier events in the country please contact me – we would love to have you on board.
CC
Even though the off season is fully upon us things have not slowed down. Lots of planning is being done for the summer and for the season next year. Exams end this week and by Sunday all of our girls from away will have headed home for the summer. Now it is time for the girls to stay intrinsically motivated after developing a strong routine with teammates throughout the spring.
As coaches we have updates on a few things. First, we are hosting a Mini aged skills and games day, for all players in grades 3-6, Saturday April 28. The day will run from 9am-4pm, and will be under the direction of Coach Kendrick and myself. Panther players will also be involved as clinicians and game referees. All of the information will be on our website soon, so make sure that you sign up early. We are going to have a wonderful basketball filled day!
Registrations are also starting to come in for our summer camps. The interest this summer is as high as it has been sine I have been at UPEI. I have also been out checking out the tryouts and practices of the PEI provincial teams. The numbers and overall talent this year is very strong. It is very exciting to see so many athletes committing themselves to basketball for the summer. That will no doubt bode well for UPEI Basketball in the near future!
Last night marked the closing of another year for UPEI Panther Athletics with the hosting out of Athletic Awards Banquet. Of the 3 years I have been at UPEI it was the nicest banquet we have had to date. Held in McMillan Hall in our Murphy Student Centre, with lights and decorations the atmosphere was set for a great night, and of course the accompaniment of a meal didn’t hurt either!
The highlight of the night for me was rewatching the final minute of the AUS Women’s Hockey final and seeing UPEI take home the championship once again. It was without a doubt the highlight of the year, among many true highs, for UPEI Athletics.
Huge congratulations to Janet Gamble (Swimming) and Manock Lual (Basketball) on their Athlete of the Year Awards; and to Mavric Parks (Hockey) and Laura Bradley (Hockey) on their Rookie of the Year Awards. Also congratulations to our team award winners MVP Amy Gough, Pepsi Coach Award Danielle MacDonald, and Rookie of the Year Katie Donahoe. Finally, congrats to our lone senior, Katie Moore, for being recognized amongst the other athletes graduating for her five years of commitment to our basketball program. Our whole team looked fabulous, and did a tremendous job (as usual) of representing our women’s basketball program.
Thanks to all for a wonderful night – looking forward to bigger and better things to celebrate next year!
CC
Our girls are heavy into their off season training and working hard. Huge shout out to Kris MacPhee who put our girls through a very tough work out yesterday – it is great to see the girls working this hard, and having each other to push each other. I believe it is so much easier to make the extra effort when we train as a group rather than as individuals. It is great to establish the standard and routine before our girls head home for the summer in mid-April.
Yesterday I also met with our women’s soccer and women’s hockey coach to begin the planning for our 2nd Annual Kitchen Party. To be held June 2nd, the event will feature the traditional kitchen party fixings including a lobster dinner served by our athletes, and entertainment at Murphy’s Community Centre. More details should be released soon, but in the meantime please mark the date in your calendar and plan for a fun evening with our UPEI Athletics Women’s Varsity Teams.
CC
In PEI, this week is March Break, which for us means March Break Basketball Camp. We just concluded day 1, which was a great day. We had over 40 kids sign up. We are very excited to have so many young players interested in getting better!!
For me, this week also means the final preparations for my first camp with my national team responsibilities for the summer. On Thursday I will head to Toronto for our Cadet (u17) National Team assessment camp. I am excited to see our players from last summer, as well as some new faces. I am sure their improvement has been great, as I know all of them have been working hard with their preparation in hopes of representing Canada at the World Championships in Holland this summer.
It is a busy time considering it is the post season, but March is one of the best months of the year, and these camps are a big part of why.
Lastly, I would like to give a shout out to Dave Love, NBA Shooting Coach. In addition to his clinics and website, he recently started a podcast called The Love of the Game which can be found on iTunes. I am not only promoting this because he had me on his podcast (haha), but because I think they are a great form of information! Check them out when you get a chance.
CC
Last week we conducted our end of year individual player meetings in preparation for the off season. The meetings went incredibly well, and players are already showing they are living up to the word of just how motivated they are during the off season.
Our off season training will begin officially tomorrow, but most, if not all of our girls, have been in the gym, weight room, on the trails, etc which is very exciting to see. I think our young group is very driven to take program to the next level next season. We have taken some time to rest and now it is time to get back at it.
We have a great opportunity to train as a team at Andrews Sport Science Centre twice a week. We started these sessions last year, and continued them throughout the season. I believe we have made great gains since we started training there. Not just because of our tremendous trainer, Kris McPhee, and his staff, but also because training as a team seems to help provide energy to the individuals to work hard and make the extra push.
We only have about 5 weeks before our team heads in separate directions for the summer, but that is plenty of time to create a great routine and base to build upon for the rest of the summer.
CC