I have been interested in coaching for a long time. As in, right around the same time I started playing basketball, at the age eight. Now, I wasn’t even sure I knew what a coach was at that age. When I played the arcade game “NBA Jam,” I thought the man tossing the ball up at the start of the games was the coach. I didn’t wonder why that coach disappeared after the opening sequence of the contest, either.
When I played “NBA Jam”, it was a chance to learn basketball. It was a chance to learn the players and the teams. It was a chance to learn the basic skills, like passing and shooting. But oddly enough for a 2-on-2 platform, it was a lesson in learning what it takes to win. I wasn’t a great player of the game and most of the time, I did not have enough quarters. But I was still fascinated by the gameplay. I spent a lot of time in that recreation center watching other people play, encouraging them, telling them what they had to do to win. I even watched the central processing unit demonstrations. It was a fix.
Fast forward to when I was in a position to be coached. I wasn’t good enough to make my school’s sixth-grade team at Friends’ Central, so I spent that winter learning how to play. I had enough skills in sixth grade: I could dribble, drive and defend. But my awareness was so bad that I was one of those kids who accidentally took a shot on my own basket. And I had no idea how to play with other players. I had to be coached. I had to be coached hard. I reconstructed my shot, learned how to pass, and got used to having the ball in my hands on every possession. Before sixth grade, I played perimeter defense, and that’s it.
The summer after my sixth grade year, I enrolled in my school’s Basketball, Reading, and Math Clinic. For a month, I was in an environment where I had to learn how to really play. The camp had us learning in a rotation in the A.M.: math, reading, and basketball instruction. Basically, skill building. In the afternoon, we had league games. And twice that summer, we had games against our rival school Germantown Friends. I had an amazing group of coaches around me that entire summer. Keino Terrell was my future varsity basketball coach and my seventh-grade language arts teacher. Tim Jones would be my running coach and future junior-varsity coach. And Jason Polykoff was three years my senior, and my younger brother’s future coach.
Jason was a point guard. But when I was in middle school, I looked at Jason as a shooter first. His ability to shoot was enviable. But he was a leader from the beginning. He went on to play basketball at Haverford College, and then he came back to Friends’ Central. He won four straight independent schools state titles before landing on the University of Pennsylvania’s coaching staff in 2012. This month, he was hired to become Earlham College’s head coach.
“Jason’s experience at a number of levels gives us confidence that he is a well-rounded coach and understands what it is going to take to become successful,” athletic director Mike Bergum said in the statement announcing his new coach’s hiring. “It is exciting to have Jason at the helm. He will be an integral part of the campus community and be valuable in building relationships with students.”
Just in that statement, Bergum notes several qualities in a new head coach:
- Experience, both in high school and college
- Well-rounded
- Understanding of success
- Relationship building with students and campus community
Now, I had a two-part philosophy to what I thought a head coach needed to show, regardless of basketball. The first was what I needed on a game-to-game basis:
- Strategy: Does the team have a clear idea of how to play? (Xs and Os)
- Personnel: How does the coach utilize his best players and his depth?
- Flexibility: Does the coach apply adjustments based on what is happening in the game?
- Management: How well does the coach help his team control, and ultimately win, the games?
Jason has a lot to consider when he goes about trying to win games at Earlham. But his games won’t start until November, and he is inheriting a 5-20 team. His game-to-game evaluations will take some time. With that in mind, he shared with me what he’s focused on in his first year on the job.
“This season for Earlham will not be about wins and losses,” Jason said. “It’ll be about doing the things on and off the court that make a team successful. It’s the old adage: ‘Rome was not built in a day.’ You must lay the foundation before you can build anything.”
With that in mind, I had my second part of the coaching philosophy – the year-to-year plan:
- Maximize: The coach may not have optimal talent, and you may have players you didn’t necessarily recruit. You still have the duty to squeeze as much out of your foundation as possible before getting into the rebuild.
- Develop: The coach may have a few more young/new players, and there is a reasonable expectation to see improvement in those players as the year goes on. This is the year where the team may not be successful, but the team is “clearly” “moving in the right direction.”
- Motivate: The reputation of a program is established, and the buy-in should be there as well. Coaches must always be motivational figures for a team. However, this is often a make-or-break year. Veterans see what is going on, and they want to be a part of the program
- Elevate: By this time, the original players the coach has brought in are completely developed and are ideally at the peak of their abilities. The rebuild is complete, and the team enters a temporary window of supremely high play.
Even before he officially became a coach, Jason Polykoff was already coaching. (Credit: Haverford College)
Of course, winning games is a part of any plan, even if they don’t show up in the year-to-year plan. For Jason, his philosophy going into Earlham is about values as much as anything on the court.
“For us, it’ll be about trying to master these five characteristics, which I believe lead to individual and team success: character, hard work, unity, discipline, and enthusiasm,” Jason said. “Once the players buy into what makes them successful, then a positive team culture is formed. Then, once the culture is created, the wins will come. That may take months, or it may take years.
“I’m not sure which it’ll be with Earlham, but hopefully sooner rather than later,” he added with a laugh.
There are a lot of things coaches go through in trying to build teams. Jason also mentioned recruiting. Jason didn’t mention how he is just now 30 and has moved to his third school in three years. It is a challenge for sure. But it is a rewarding one. The timeline moves and resets. Coaching is rarely about the games and numbers. It is usually about the journey. Both within the games and across a career.
Other thoughts on coaches and expectations…
Bob Folwell, Friends’ Central Basketball, Reading, and Math: “First, you must be not only a coach but a teacher, educator, role model and mentor. You must give respect to get respect and have your players believe in you and trust you. You must teach fundamentals no matter what level and preach good health from hydration, healthy diet, sleeping habits stretching, passion and respect for the game. Most of all be a team player, sportsmanship and academics first. Then emphasize hard work practice, confidence, conditioning, no short cuts. Be a complete player both offensively and defensively. Communicate on the court be a leader. Learn more than one position, out hustle all. Tell players to have fun be able to laugh at yourself and learn from your mistakes. Use quotations. Set goals for your self and players short and long term. Be realistic with players and ask them their expectations on the high school level and if they want want to play in college or beyond. Give them your expectations as an individual and a team player. Let them know that you care about them more as a person than a ball player. The life lessons and the journey is just as important as the winning! Have an open door policy for players parents and the community. Don’t be a know-it-all; be able to deligate to assistants and team captains. Empower players. That’s a start.”
Sometimes, just having a new coach changes everything about a team, even when the players are the same.
Tracy Murray, former NBA player and UCLA commentator: “First of all, The new coach has to hire a new staff (assistants & director of basketball operations). Then they have to convince key players to stay and not transfer. He also has to get the key recruits for his system. The coach also has to put his system in. Winning right away is tough, but coaches like Steve Alford had some good talent stay at UCLA which helped his successful first year. The strategy is to have enough players in place for your system to start making a run at the conference championship and a decent run in the postseason. In order to do that is to work on team and individual development (skill development, weight room, pick up games) to bring out the talent from these players while making sure they’re taking care of their school work. The expectation should be high and on winning by the 3rd or 4th year. By that time, the players from the prior coach are gone, you have your own recruits in place, your system in place and your assistant coaches in place and on the same page for awhile now.”
-1SKILLZ