Sunday, November 22, 2015

Escazu 77 Barva 88

Our first road game was a visit to Ferreteria Barva, one of the league's traditional powerhouses. The team underwent some important changes, bringing in a slew of old and new faces. An experienced  coach from Puerto Rico, Wilo Colon, has come in with a new approach to turn things around. One of the other significant changes is that Barva will not be playing their games in the roomy Palacio de Deportes.  The team wants to play at the old Liceo de Barva gym, but an impasse with the school administration has them playing in San Joaquin Flores, the only court I know with gutters running down the sideline.

I was away from the team for a week on business. In that time we dropped a six point loss to defending champion San Ramon. With teams dropping out at the last second, we now have these weird gaps in our schedule with ten days between games. The practice before the Barva game, we had a practice injury to our big man Juan Carlos Rosich that required several stitches and will keep him on the shelf for the foreseeable future.

Barva got off to a hot start moving the ball around and getting good looks for their big man David Shedden. The game was back and forth through the first six minutes, but they started to build our lead  as we went to the bench. An offensive lull on our part allowed them to build a slight lead going into the second quarter. In the second quarter we had better ball movement, leading to a 30 point quarter effort and gaining the lead on Hernie Forrester's three pointer at the buzzer.

The shots stopped dropping in the third quarter, while Barva preyed on turnovers and misses to get on a big run. Coach Colon decide to change things up with a small ball lineup that helped him take a 15 point lead going into the final quarter. We had a few runs in the final quarter to get the lead back down to eight points, but Barva got timely baskets from Malcolm Leitford and Gabriel Moya to sustain their advantage and ensure the win.

Antonio Jones had 21 points and Clifford Smith had 20 for Escazu, while David Shedden led a balanced Barva scoring production with 22. Next up is an away game to Grecia.

Grecia 67 Escazu 91



The season starts off with a brief warm-up tournament known as the Torneo de Copa. This year only four teams decided to participate in the TdC: Barva, Grecia, San Ramon and Escazu. 

Our first game was against Grecia, which knocked us out of the tournament last year with a vicious blowout. A different season means a different team for both sides. The current Grecia squad features Amir Alvarado, one of the league's most versatile players, and Mario Bogantes, as well as a slew of young players. 

This was the first look at our revamped squad. We took part of last year's core and added in a few players. Coming back to the fold was Jeff Dixon and David Gourzong, two players that have been on various of my recent teams. We also brought in Jaffry Spencer, who's been a mainstay with the champion Barva teams. Spencer was one of those guys on the other team that was always a handful as a threat all over the court. I got to know him during my Barva stint, and am glad to have him on my side for a change. 

For one of our foreigner spots, we brought in Antonio Jones, a lefty point guard who's played with Perez Zeledon and Barva. In one of those crazy coincidences that happens in life, Antonio  is not only from Miami, but Coconut Grove, a place where my family lived for a couple of years in the 80s. Not only that, he played high school hoops for Gulliver, where I attended third grade (Go Raiders) and has always been a special place. So for the first time I have a Miami guy on the roster. How cool is that? Antonio is an explosive scorer who can hit the outside shot as well as get into the lane. 

Antonio replaces Brandon Rozzell who is tearing it up in Denmark. Our other big loss was budding star Victor Arias heading up to Dawson Community College in Montana; it's a great opportunity for Victor. Both guys are going to freeze this winter. 

The game against Grecia went pretty much as expected. This is a skeleton Grecia team taking a look at youngsters. Meanwhile, we were looking at our team under live fire for the first time. We played about five minutes of good basketball, 30 minutes of so-so basketball and five minutes of crap. Guys are still figuring out our systems, which leads to guys in the wrong position and thinking instead of just reacting. Antonio Jones was the leading scorer with 30 points with several other guys getting in double digits. Juan Carlos Rosich led the defensive effort with timely blocks and rebounds. Overall, it was the outcome to expect for a first game. 

Tuesday, November 3, 2015

Building a Team

Every season ends in some degree of disappointment for all but one team. That's just part of sports. I took over the Escazu team halfway through the season and we were able to go from fifth place to second place, in large part because I was able to bring in some good players. A few key injuries derailed us in the playoffs, ending the season on a sour note.



As the season ends, the process turns to the next season and its new challenges.

My off-season process goes through the following steps:
  1. Evaluating your team: what worked, what didn't work, what players developed, what players are not a good fit for your program. I have found that it's best to let a few days pass so that you're not making knee-jerk decisions.
  2. Sponsors & financial: the greatest challenge in Costa Rican sports is raising money for alternative sports. Football is king here, so raising sponsorships for other sports is a challenge. Year in, year out this is the greatest challenge for any franchise.
  3. Recruiting your roster: one crucial step is figuring out who you keep from your current roster, and who wants to stay. Sometimes, things don't work out with players, either because of playing time, chemistry or things popping up in their personal life. One key aspect is other teams poaching your players, particularly teams with deeper pockets.
  4. Free agents: Just like teams pick players off your roster, it's fair game to recruit players from other teams. I love it when teams call me to complain about going after their guys. Motherfucker, you took one of my guys last year, and now you're complaining that I'm going after your guy?
  5. Season projection: besides the financial challenges, the creates challenge in Costa Rican basketball is the ever-changing landscape on the administrative side. What will the league look like? What crazy new rules will be implemented? Who is in charge of what team? What does the calendar look like? What do the rules look like?
  6. Practice planning: once you know what the season will look like, I like to sit down and plan my practices for the pre-season and regular season. As time has passed, I've decided on a detailed pre-season plan, and then a more general monthly plan for the reminder of the season, so that I can adjust to the tempo of the season.
This has actually been one of the more successful off-seasons. We landed a landmark sponsorship deal with Coopeservidores, a local credit union. We put together a good roster combining young guys with experienced vets. With a month of practice under their belts, the players are looking forward to starting the games. 

Thursday, October 1, 2015

Costa Rica Basketball 101

Updated 10/1/15
A few pointers about the structure of Costa Rican basketball:

  • The best way to explain the league's structure is to think about European soccer. It's a very similar structure and philosophy.
  • A few years ago, the league had eight teams, but that number has dwindled down to six. I compare it roughly to DII ball in the NCAA, though I think the better teams can compete with a low level DI school. The six teams projected to be in the league this year are:
    • Ferreteria Brenes Barva, seven-time champs, Barva Web Page
    • Escazu 
    • Liceo de Costa Rica
    • Copenae USJ San Ramon, defending champion
    • Grecia
    • Limon Sharks
  • Typically, the bottom team each year drops down to Second Division and the top Second Division team comes up to First Division. The Second Division season has dragged on this year, but it looks like the winner may take the challenge of coming up to First Division.

Back in the saddle

And we're back.

Back in Escazu that is. Let's do a quick recap. After the 2013 in with Escazu was eliminated in the Finals, I decided to take a break from coaching. Two emotional seasons that were virtually back-to back, as well as some national team duties left me a little burned out. So I was set to take a season off from basketball…except that some turn of events eventually led me back.

2013-14 season

San Ramon took the Apertura tournament. They brought in a hot-shooting guard from VCU, Brandon Rozzell, which gave them perimeter firepower to go along with their traditional strength inside. After winning the last title, Ferreteria Brenes Barva had a tumultuous tournament, losing Kay Martinez after an incident with the refs in a controversial loss to San Ramon. They were eventually bested in the Apertura Finals despite the best efforts of Antonio Jones to carry the team in the series.

The Ferreteria Brenes administration decided on a series of mid-season changes, setting aside Antonio Jones and Dale Carn and bringing in Escazu's Micahel Jackson and UWM big man, Jason McCoy, as well as bringing Cristian Chavarria out of retirement. Jorge Arguello also reached out to me to join their coaching staff as an assistant (I'll dedicate a future post about that experience). Barva eventually took the Clausura title, taking advantage of a key injury to Isaac Conejo. In the National Finals, Barva took a 2-0 lead, only to see full-strength San Ramon claw back into the series taking it to a fifth and final game. The fifth game was a tight game, with each team landing blows but neither team able to grab control of the game. Barva had a fleeting fourth quarter lead which San Ramon eventually narrow to a tie with nine seconds left. Rohel Wilson hit the shot of his career as the buzzer sounded to give Barva back-to-back titles.



2014-15 season

Looking to avenge their Finals loss, San Ramon put together a loaded squad, bringing in D3 standout Giorgio Milligan and Dijon Farr, as well as bringing in Kay Martinez, giving them their deepest squad in years. Brandon Rozzell defected to Barva, which brought back most of the previous title team. In the semifinals, Barva found a way to survive a resourceful Grecia, which won the first game and was up in the last quarter of the second only to see the series victory slip through their fingers. In the ensuing Apertura Final series, each team won a game before San Ramon obliterated Barva 83-50 in the deciding game. 

Just like in the previous year, Barva decided to enact wholesale changes, removing Jorge Arguello as head coach and cutting Brandon Rozzell. In the process, I was let go as well. Even though the new coach, Henry Martinez eventually asked me to stay, it was pretty clear to me that the Barva ownership didn't want me around. 

Eventually, I found myself taking over Escazu. They had finished in fifth place and out of the playoffs. I came onboard as Head Coach and we added a few players, including Brandon. The revamped roster caught people by surprise and we were able to finish second in the league. However the season took a toll on he roster and we lost both our point guards before the playoffs, where a hungry Grecia team put us out of our misery. San Ramon beat Barva and Grecia in convincing fashion to regain the title. 

Los jugadores del equipo de San Ramón en pleno festejo tras coronarse campeones nacionales de baloncesto.   |  JORGE ARCE