Do Haines High School basketball teams need more gym time, more commitment or just a wait for their fortunes to change?
For the first time in years, the Glacier Bear boys and girls teams each endured winless seasons, several times losing by lopsided margins and at times struggling with even basic shots and plays.
In recent interviews, coaches and former coaches offered their ideas on rebuilding the hoops programs before next season.
Girls’ coach Greg Brittenham, a former New York Knicks trainer, said he’ll be looking to get his athletes into the school gym this summer to work on fundamentals, including dribbling, passing and shooting.
Brittenham started coaching here last year.
“They need to play year-round. We’re playing teams that open their gyms every day. That’s what they do. We play when the season starts,” Brittenham said.
Besides two-day camps for elementary, junior high and high school students in June and July, Brittenham is hoping to host a longer camp in August.
He’s also hoping to have the varsity gym open at least two or three days a week during the summer. “We’ll have the gym open and hopefully the girls will have the time to come in and take advantage of that,” Brittenham said.
Brittenham said he’s solely responsible for the team’s record.
Practicing more than two hours a day, the girls’ team worked hard, learned plays and improved during the season, but so did competitors.
“Your plays are only as good as your ability to perform the skills to execute the plays. The girls understood the plays perfectly. They need to improve their skills to execute them better,” Brittenham said. “Our girls are getting there, especially the younger ones.”
Brittenham said his policy is that all members of his team will play “significant minutes,” including starting and serving as team captain.
His players responded well to that policy, which Brittenham said didn’t sacrifice games.
“That experience is important for the growth of these girls. In life, you don’t get to opt out of those difficult moments. I want them all to experience that.”
Don Nash, a varsity referee and former JV girls’ and varsity boys’ coach, said Brittenham is sending the right messages to his squad. Nash is helping by trying to put together eight girls to attend a June basketball camp in Anchorage.
If they’re only younger players, that’s okay, he said. “You’ve got to start from the bottom up” in rebuilding a program, he said. Nash said his best teams were comprised of players whose parents were strong supporters of the program, but that can be tricky, as parents only rarely acknowledge their children’s limitations.
“To be a coach you have to be a philosopher, but you also have to be hard-nosed. You have to have a special personality and some intuition to deal with players’ parents and then turn around and coach their kids,” Nash said.
Metlakatla is a model of a strong hoops program, he said. “Even if they only have scrawny, little players, they’re always competitive, because they’re always in the gym.”
Boys’ coach Steve Fossman has won two state championships since taking the job in 2007. He said he won’t be changing his coaching formula, although he encourages his players to work individually on skills during the off-season.
“Most times the gym’s open we encourage the guys to be there, but summertime comes and people have a lot outside they want to do,” Fossman said.
Fossman said elementary hoops programs are as strong as they’ve ever been and students today have more resources than ever for improving their games.
“You can go on the Internet and see (professional player) Steph Curry’s signature moves and what he does to get open. Most people have access to that stuff,” Fossman said. “Players can work to the part of the game they’re most passionate about… All the kids know what (they should) work on.”
Players who work during the off-season will become better than ones of equal ability who don’t, but that takes self-motivation and realistically, at a small school, only a small number of players will be that driven, he said.
The state championship squads of 2008 and 2010 “were fairly passionate about the game” and would play pick-up games between themselves, Fossman said. Still, the team wasn’t a shoo-in, he said. “A lot of luck went their way, and it could have gone the other way. It’s not like they dominated.”
After a tough season like the past one, Fossman said he knows there’s second-guessing going on. “I know all the questions people wonder. What’s he doing? What’s going on at practice? It’s nothing different. You make adjustments. Success comes with a consistent and fair program, including letting players know what’s happening at the start of the season.”
It’s important for fans to know that even in a losing season, there are successes and growth, as well as camaraderie and fun times off the court, Fossman said. “There are good things going on, no matter what. Sometimes the lessons that are most important are ones that happen off the court.”
Second-guessing is part of the game, Fossman said. This week Fossman was watching professional basketball on television and he himself was second-guessing Gregg Popovich, one of the NBA’s winningest coaches. “That’s kind of the fun of it,” he said.
Resident Mark McNamara played pro basketball for 10 years and worked as a coach and scout for another six. He helped Fossman with his championship squads, but hasn’t worked as much with teams in recent years.
McNamara wrote a 12-point memo to the school district a few years ago, providing his recommendations for a strong boys’ basketball program.
They include, “full-year, open gym with easy access,” “maximum financial support,” and “organized support” for all non-basketball items, including academics and travel.
In addition, coaches must be allowed to cut players from their teams and players should understand the expectation that they be at all practices, including during Christmas break. “Basketball is a chosen activity. It’s not a class. You should have to try out and be committed,” McNamara said in an interview this week.
He said that the school’s athletic director position should be separate from an “activities” director, as sports require a greater level of commitment than an activity such as a hiking club. He thinks the lines between athletics and activities have been blurred.
“Basketball is not a sport where you can come and go,” McNamara said. “You get out of shape. You get out of the rhythm of the workouts. It’s a team sport. If a kid doesn’t show up for practice, everybody else pays a price.”
Many factors can lead to a decline in a school’s program. He thinks factors like gym closures during construction work and “the instant gratification society, where kids all have Xboxes and cell phones” may have taken bites out of the sport here.
In school sports, the success of a team comes in cycles, but a strong program with support of the school and community can “soften” the down cycles, McNamara said.
“You have to keep fighting, clawing and scratching so the quality doesn’t fall too far down. If you let it fall too far, it’s hard to get back. When you have a program that’s healthy and strong, its chances of success are greatly enhanced… You’re playing the odds.”