Hot Shots

12/12/15 - I didn't plan on coaching Thurston's Hot Shots team, but after getting an email requesting parents to volunteer because there wasn't enough coaches I decided that I'd rather do it than have him end up on a team with someone who didn't know what they were doing.  Coaching also meant that we'd get to pick when the practice times were and that is helpful when we have so many things going on with all the kids.  When I went to the coached meeting I realized that most of the games would be on Saturdays when I was already signed up to sell puzzles at Christmas shows and bazaars.  Luckily they also have games on Fridays and the league coordinator was very accomodating and made most of our games on Fridays so it would work for my schedule.  Jake ended up coaching 2 games for me.

We started with 8 kids on the team and then 2 boys (Brad and Grant) joined who were also playing on another team in another league. They both played with Thurston all summer at Pure Advantage and are both really good players.  They ended up coming to only about half of the games because their other team had games that conflicted times.  We won half of our games, which I was happy with because a lot of the hot shot teams are teams that have played together a while and who practice on their own time, and we were a mixed team with a lot of brand new players and we only got one practice a week for one hour.

I focused on the fundamentals and even had a coach from shoot 360 come in one practice to help.  It was nice to see how he incorporates skills in every aspect of a drill and demands respect from the kids.  It was really helpful to have him come.  It was something that they told us they would love to do when we had the original Hot Shots coaches meeting.  I figured if you have an experienced coach willing to volunteer his time why not take advantage of it?  When I asked him how many other coaches had him come in for a practice he told me that I was the only one who had reached out about it so far.

Here's most of the team --  Left to right --Jaiveer Uppal, Thurston Lewis, Bennett Gales, Trenton Magerl, Jordan Vanover, Nick Okeefe, Landon Walters.  (Not pictured Brad and Grant Harris, and Dylan Clapp)