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. 

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.