The first piece of business is to say Thank You to Coach Barnes 🙏 for being gracious in his invite for me to sit in on one of this team’s practices.
It’s Wednesday afternoon, the day before the regular season finale at Galax High School and then the waiting game for the Regional seating the be finalized. The mathematics suggests that the Cavaliers will land in between #4 and #7.
The significance of landing the #4 seed is you get to host an opening round game. A 5th or 6th seed keeps you from the opening round play-in-games.
The #7 seed would also host a #7-#10 match up but the winner would then face the #2 seed next.
Practice today starts at 3:30 sharp with the team getting in the necessary Cardio work.
First editors note – Davis Reitzel’s stride while running 🏃♂️ laps around the court is as graceful as his elevation to the basket during a game.
The first question that comes to mind is how do four teams work out a practice schedule with just one Main Gym. One part of that equation is the Boys JV team is practicing at a local Church, the name of which I fill find out once Assistant Coach Chris Richardson returns from driving the bus to and from.
Practice started at 3:30pm sharp and is set to run until 5:30 pm. The Bus to Galax will depart at 4:30pm tomorrow.
The Cardio portion of the practice is ending now and the focus is now full court 1 on 1 drills with the focus on defense and screening.
The pairing of Mario Meza Campbell and Elijah Cox seems to be fun for both of them. Nathan Reed and Davis Reitzel pair off as do Bryce Smoot and Ethan Richardson among others.
4:00pm – 5:00 on the clock now and the team is running half court offense / defense. Not looking to accidentally expose any trade secrets here so I will be as vague about the drills as possible.
Very rare that I have to leave a Post without wrapping up the thought but I had to run out to make a planning meeting for Tim Tebow’s Night to Shine this Friday night. Plenty more to come shortly!
My goal today was to just quietly observe the Varsity Boys practice and much to my surprise Coach Barnes created a great possibility and I couldn’t say Yes quick enough.
Life has turned pretty well for Linda and I but I can’t help from wondering how much quicker I might have made it to the Path if someone in High School might have given me the slightest nudge ?
Over the years I have taught many a seminar in People Management, Time Management and a few others as well. I have also spent the past 15 years working with a long-term Friend, Lawrence Nesselrodt at West Virginia Tech helping his baseball ⚾️ players expand their thought process.
Coach Barnes offered me five minutes with each of his 10 players during his practice and I took the opportunity to try and make these 10 young men think in a manner that is not their normal comfort zone. Expand the Brain 🧠 and the Heart ❤.
The experience went well through my eyes and once I share the responses with Coach I will post all 10 of them individually to try and keep folks from comparing the players and their answers to one another.
Looking forward to sharing their mini-Bios starting tomorrow!
A.S.P.N on The Hill 