Sunday, September 18, 2016

What I learned at Carolina Basketball Camp



Now that the summer is over, it's time to sit back and appreciate some of the finer moments. The highlight of my summer was easily a long-planned trip to Chapel Hill, North Carolina. For the longest time I dreamt of working at the Carolina Basketball Camp. And I do mean for the longest time stretching back to my days as an undergrad. Ever since I started coaching, I've been thinking about it. And in the last couple years since my son has been bitten by the basketball bug, I knew some day I'd be making the trek up to Chapel Hill.

This week at camp, I had the good fortune of being in Coach Ed Will's gym, which just so happened to be Carmichael Auditorium.  All Carolina fans know that Carmichael has so much history, the site of famous games in Carolina basketball lore. To get to work there for an entire week was a cool experience.

Carmichael


So here are some of the things I learned this summer.



  1. Stephen Curry is impacting the basketball world, and not in a good way. Kids are jacking up threes at the slightest notion.  I thought it was maybe a CR thing earlier in the year, but at Carolina basketball camp kids were firing off shots left and right. Prepare yourself coaches, we are facing a generation of gunners.
  2. Carolina players are good people. We had the good fortune of having two UNC basketball players in our gym (current and past). Fans are so focused on games and titles, but it's easy to forget that players are real people. It was refreshing to see that we have some great guys representing the university, just good guys. Our current player was genuinely interested in topics beyond basketball.  Now maybe he was just being nice and respectful, but I found him to be genuine in his interactions with coaches and campers.  
    Joel Berry & Dani
  3. You know how sometimes you step into a different world?  Basketball gear, particularly branded gear, has this currency at a basketball camp. It's a badge of who you are, where you've been and what you represent...at least at first glance. I never quite comprehended the impact of gear in basketball circles, but I got an interesting look at that this summer. The irony here, is that I work in marketing in my regular job; I am well versed in the power of brands, so this was an interesting revelation.
  4. My son has become a hoops junkie. That's not exactly a surprise; he tags along to all the games he can, he sneaks into the locker room of my games and he checks the Laker's latest moves every morning, even in the offseason. This was the first overnight basketball camp. He drank straight from the fire hydrant. My son got to run up and down the Smith Center court in a warm-up game. I'm not sure if he can fully appreciate what a cool experience that was (decked out in full Carolina gear no less). Of course he didn't touch the ball once in those four minutes (again, gunners), but he was out there being a good teammate. He got his picture taken with Coach Williams as well as a few players. And he learned a little basketball, which he now practice almost daily. 
  5. On the court at the Smith Center.
  6. Attention to detail and organisation makes a huge difference. I spent a year as a JV manager when Coach Randy Wiel in my freshmen year in college. That year left an indelible mark on my views about basketball; I soaked up every bit of knowledge I could gleam and that has been the foundation of my basketball coaching. Many of the drills I learned back then, and that I use with my teams to this day, were being used at camp. At no point during camp did I feel at a basketball information disadvantage with my fellow coaches; I took that as a good sign for coaching in Costa Rica. There's some coaches in Costa Rica who know their stuff (and many who don't know what they don't know).  The biggest gap, and its not just coaches, is in organisational skills (planning, punctuality, attention to detail, communication, follow up, etc. ). There more than 800 kids and nearly 100 coaches at camp participating at 15 different sites. As a parent and a coach, I can say it ran like clockwork. What's even more amazing is that the operation is basically run by an army of managers (as well as the steady supervision of Coaches Frederick and McGrath). The managers weren't involved with the basketball side of the camp for the most part, but they make sure campers are where they need to be and that coaches can do their job. One of Ed's most astute observations was that the operational efficiency at camp is a legacy left by Coach Guthridge. I compare that to our situation in Costa Rica, and that's where I see the greatest difference and room for improvement. Take for example the National Games and the daily schedule of competition. Two games into the day and things were already behind schedule. By the end of the day, games were an hour to two hours behind schedule. 
    With my college roommate, Ed Wills.
  7. The enduring power of friendship should not be underestimated. I met Ed back in those JV Manager days as a freshman in college. On the surface, we made for an unlikely duo; Ed was from the frozen tundras of Vermont and I was this kid from Costa Rica. Basketball has always been a uniting force; we bonded in the bowels of the Smith Center on those endless gamedays. We eventually ended up as roommates on a path to an enduring friendship. As years roll on,  life gets in the way. You see each other less and less, and even with social media helping bridging distances, it's a challenge to keep in touch the way you'd like. Being able to spend five days at camp with Ed was such a delicious luxury. In some ways, it's like you pick up things seamlessly, like picking up a conversation mid-stream after many years. 
  8. In other ways, Ed has grown so much as a basketball coach. He's been doing Carolina Basketball Camp for 25 years, running his own gym. It was so cool to see Ed in command of the gym; I learned as much watching Ed that week as much as anything. The other cool thing was seeing the bonds Ed has created with his fellow coaches, forming a long-standing quartet with Mike Hefner, Troy Odergard and Jeff Junker). It was like watching a jazz quartet playing in the dark in total sync, knowing what note each guy is going to make.  It was just cool to see a close knit group of guys brought together by basketball. As an innocent bystander, I went with the flow, even if it meant having "dinner" at 4PM. 

    Coach Ed Wills