Amistad Basketball – Week 4 – 4 Straight Wins and a Whole lot of Complacency

After winning one of our Christmas Tournaments, and riding a wave of 4 straight wins amidst having a decent record of 5 and 1, the loss to East Haven in the Championship Game on Wednesday night was a clear indication of how much our team really needs to play with more emotional intensity throughout the course of an entire game.

After using all 5 timeouts to address in game strategy, as well as to wake a few players up – Probably the worst thing that a Coach can watch his team do is beat itself.  As a coaching staff – that’s what we witnessed on Wednesday.  Much of it due to a lack of intensity throughout the course of the game by a few of our starters.  Sure, we scrapped back with 4 minutes to go and it was a 2 point game with under a minute to play, and the crowd was excited, and there were several steals, and loose balls, and we made a few shots… But in the end... I was glad that we lost. 

I couldn’t take winning another game while witnessing some of our players go through the motions and violate our defensive rules or hustle principles – all the while thinking that it’s ok because we are winning.  It was about as disappointed as I have been with the team in the 3 years that I have been the Head Coach at Amistad.  Simply because 2 years ago - I watched this same group of Sophomores that were undersized, under-manned, and under-skilled get pounded game after game. When we were losing every game a few years back – we fought for every single loose ball, and nobody every beat us up and down the floor.  That is all we stressed as a coaching staff in games.  Hustle. Hustle. Hustle!  Toughness. Toughness. Toughness! That is the foundation of what we have built our program on.

As our team became more skilled, we started to implement a more complex offense and defense in order to compete against and win against more talented teams. Now as Seniors – with some talent, experience, speed, skill and size – our players have gotten away from what has gotten them this far…  Grit! 

A team that doesn’t play their hearts out from the beginning to end of the game doesn’t deserve to win.  And basketball is one of those team sports where if any one guy doesn’t play their hardest at all times – the other 4 are at a tremendous disadvantage.  And sooner or later – that disadvantage will be exploited, as one of my former mentors used to say “Hard Work Beats Talent When Talent Doesn’t Work Hard.” 

The good News is we get to start all over again and go back to work with what I am sure will be a renewed desire from the players to practice harder, and to play more together as we move forward.  It was a good lesson for us all, though – with how just a little bit of success (4 straight wins) came a whole lot of complacency. 

Looking forward to week 5 of the season.

Coach Walton

Amistad Basketball - Week 3 - 1st Home Game in 2 Years!

Believe it or not - I’d be concerned with my team if we were playing really well in the first few weeks of the season.  Rarely does a team play well out of the gates, and not have something alter their course throughout the tail end of the season.  I would rather see our team look bad now, continue to improve, and peak at the right time.

After winning our first game at Griswold, we responded with one of our captains missing the team bus and being benched for the entire game against Maloney.  It was a great opportunity for our team to see who else would step up.  Nobody did – and we lost bad – as Maloney looked like the more seasoned, experienced team on the floor. 

But it was good for us all to experience the letdown, and to keep in perspective that our progress as a unit takes precedence over relying on any individual player.  We also believe that a commitment to our principles is more important than winning – as our principles and standards will sustain us through the good times and the tough times. 

After the loss to Maloney, we practiced hard on Sunday for 3 hours knowing that we were going to have 3 games in 4 days – beginning the very next day.  We beat O’Brien Tech by 17 on Monday, who was a much improved team from last year.  Disappointingly, we were beat off of dribble penetration repeatedly throughout the game as a result of unacceptable guard play on the defensive end.  The win in O’Brien Tech game slotted us for the championship game of that tournament on Thursday at 7:00 PM.

Tuesday, we played Westbrook – which was our first home game in two years.  Last year – we opted to play every game against any and all takers on the road in order to get more games on the schedule and to prepare ourselves for the state tournament.  This year, we got a 20 game schedule and were able to schedule a few home games.

 However, we do not have a gym at Amistad High School.  So we play our home games at Columbus Family Day School on Grand Ave and Blatchley.  It actually felt really weird to play a home game in the same gym where we practice.  And I think that it felt good for the players to play in front of a home crowd.  Watching our player’s take the floor to pre-game music, our Captains reading a sportsmanship announcement, and being introduced with a National Anthem really meant a lot to me as the head coach – as I have seen our kids have to walk or take the City Bus back and forth to practice for the past two years – in order to be committed to building our Basketball Program.  Now that’s Commitment!

We played well as a team early on the defensive side, and shared the basketball – which got us out to an early lead that we kept – beating Westbrook 70-37.  One of the best things that happened in the night was the sportsmanship within the game that carried over after the game.  Both teams played very hard – it just happened to be our night on the offensive end.  I was most impressed with the Westbrook Boys’ Program and how they actually helped us pick up and stack chairs after the game.  What a great example of class from a class program.

Though we’re 3 and 1 right now, the record isn’t as important to me as my player’s grasping and executing our defensive principles possession after possession.  We’ll see how we do again this Thursday.

Then it’s 3 days off for Christmas immediately Followed by the East Haven Holiday Tournament on Monday.

 Amistad Play Hale Ray in the First Round at 5:00 PM at East Haven High School.

Amistad Basketball – Week 2 – Defense First, Multi-Vitamin Second!

Great teams communicate constantly on the Defensive side of the ball. 

That is why as a coaching staff, we have striven every day to improve upon our players’ defensive callouts and communication.  In this respect, our defensive team play has improved as we have honed in on our Defensive Principles with respect to Man to Man.  As a result, our 2^nd week of the season went a little better than the first with or scrimmages, too.  We played much better on both the offensive and defensive side of the ball in our 3 way scrimmage with Oxford and East Windsor on Saturday Night. 

We have added quite a few new callouts and responsibilities this season, and the players are adjusting slowly to the demands of incessant communication on the Defensive End.  But in order for us to be successful on the both ends of the floor it is absolutely essential to verbally communicate on the Defensive End.

We have also been struggling with the early season flu bug, as a few of the players have been under the weather.  Each player in my program is instructed to balance exertion and rest, drink 96 ounces of water each day, get to bed by 10:30 PM, and take a multi-vitamin before bed each night.

 I am sure several of them are not adhering to this advice, and are paying the price for it as we get into the early grind of the season.  Similar to when a team offense or defense breaks down on the court, it’s too easy for an entire team to get sick when one player gets a cold or doesn’t take of their body during season. 

With a 20 game season this year (15 of which are on the road), and with less recovery/practice time between games – we’re going to need to be on the ball each and every day.

First Game is Thursday at Griswold. 

Saturday at Maloney.

We’ll see what happens.

Amistad Basketball - Week 1

Well, we struck new Ground at Amistad this past week with the commencement of our first freshman team.   This is a huge development for the Amistad Basketball Program, as any high school head coach knows that the development of the sub-varsity teams within your program is the only way that a high school sports program can have success year in and year out.  That is – unless you recruit other programs' players like many schools in New Haven do.

I’d prefer to develop players, as I believe that that is the true calibrator of success for any high school head coach.  I believe that it is not what you got – but rather what you get out of what you got.  And more importantly, my priority as a head coach in service to my players is to prepare them for the next 4 years of their lives AFTER high school basketball is over– not just for the upcoming season.  This is part of the reason that we mandate a 90 minute study hall after school for all basketball players at Amistad. 

This being our 3^rd year of existence as a high school Varsity Program with CIAC affiliation, I am proud to say that each of our seniors is on pace to graduate, all will be attending college, and 6 of our players are being actively recruited to play college basketball at various levels.  It also goes without saying that from going winless in our inaugural season to now, I am very proud of the development of Amistad’s Basketball Program as we enter our 3^rd season together. 

However, we’ve had to deal with quite a few challenges due to the advent of the Freshman Program this season.  Due to the fact that there is no gym at Amistad High School, our players have to take the same bus to get dropped off at two different gym locations after school in order to practice every day.

Unfortunately, the gym times are the same for both the Varsity and Freshman Teams, so I won’t get the chance to see the Freshman Practice all season.  But we decided as a program that rather than leave them to go off on their own, the Varsity Team would spend the first week of the pre-season practicing with the Freshmen in order to teach them the drills and the skills that we work on day to day at the Varsity Level. 

This meant compromising the scrimmage and game readiness of the Varsity team in the first few weeks, but after seeing all the kids in one gym, and the Varsity leading the Freshman through the drills and teaching the Freshmen what the expectations for players in our program are – there is no doubt that it did not set us back one bit as a Basketball Program.  What we sacrificed in x’ and o’s and team offense and team defense – we made up for in with teamwork and program unity. 

With “Team Communication” being a vital aspect to our programs core development this season – the coaches agreed to remain silent throughout a 15 minute segment of practice while we gave one of our Varsity Captains a whistle and let him teach the 11 Man Break to the Freshman Team while we all practiced together.  That alone was very rewarding to watch and be a part of. 

Our first Varsity scrimmage was against Branford on Saturday.  As one of the most disciplined teams year in and year out in the SCC, they looked good.  We had a few good moments here and there.  But there is much work to do.  Every night after the first week of practice, I have to remind myself of one thing: The Season is a Marathon.  And the Goal is to peak in March!

Next Game: AMISTAD at Cheshire Academy Wed., 12/7 at Cheshire Academy, 6:00 PM

Should be fun!

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