43-35 Win vs. Holland

Nice job today, boys…especially considering the bit of adversity we faced what with not having had any organized basketball under our belts for this entire past week. As I mentioned in the locker room after the game, the third and fourth quarters were mostly impressive (and a big step up from the first half) in terms of tightened, courageous D (i.e. 3 charges!) and much better ball movement vs. a Dutch zone D. We'll need to take a bit better care of the ball late in a game when getting pressured from here on out, but we'll keep plugging away at that as well. All in all, good stuff.

See you tomorrow for practice from 3 to 5 PM!

Upcoming Week...

Greetings, everyone. I hope you're all enjoying the bit of time off…again??! Man…craziness.

Anyway, here goes with the schedule for this upcoming week:

**Monday: CHANGE FROM PREVIOUS SCHEDULE…practice 3-5 PM at HS instead of 5-7 PM. Please let me know if this will be a problem with anyone asap!

**Tuesday: home game vs. Unity (4)

**Wednesday: practice 3-5 PM at HS…Team Dinner at Blood's at 6 PM.

**Thursday: home game vs. Holland (5)

**Friday: practice 3-5 PM at HS

Note: We'll take a team vote at the conclusion of practice on Monday regarding this past week's "team theme": LITTLE THINGS. Stay tuned for the next weekly theme installment!

Let's keep this thing headed in the right direction, all….and please be safe with this weather!

37-22 Win at Z.West...

Congrats again, guys, on our first road (and conference) win of the season! Job well done. After the game, you all mentioned a slew of positives from the winning effort, and we should all bottle 'em up for practice tomorrow as well as the upcoming week of basketball.

Let's keep this thing rolling in the right direction!

See you all for practice tomorrow from 330 to 530...

46-38 loss to Allendale...

Gentlemen,

As I mentioned in the locker room after a winnable game today, we ALL need to individually figure out how to get us out of this rut we're currently in. In other words, how can each individual improve somehow personally in order to pitch in...in a positive way! Remember that this week's theme is "little things", and I think we can ALL admit that EACH of us can contribute more with the stuff that doesn't appear on the stat sheets…in practice, in games, on the court, off the court…in order to help us overall.

As you hear me say often: BE A SOLUTION AT THIS POINT ON... NOT A PROBLEM!

We'll get out of this together, guys…no doubt. ENVISION positive play often, PRACTICE positive play, and APPLY TO GAME SITUATIONS!

See you tomorrow for continued work….

Upcoming week and more….

Hey, all!

First, please check your school email account asap as I am about to send out to each player my sincere "Midterm" Thoughts here at roughly the halfway point of the season. As I mention in each note, please feel free to respond, gentlemen, with any comments, questions, and/or concerns you may have at this point!

Second, congrats again to Kaleb Moore for his peers this past Friday voting him alternate captain for his consistent ability to handle/value the ball.

Our upcoming weekly theme: TAKING CARE OF THE SMALL THINGS…more details to come.

Here goes with the upcoming weekly schedule:

**Monday: film in my classroom at 3 PM…on the court practice 4-5 PM.

**Tuesday: game at Allendale (4 PM)…"dress up" in school…bus leaves directly after school.

**Wednesday: practice 3-4 PM.

**Thursday: game at Zeeland West (5 PM)…"dress up" in school…bus leaves at 4 PM.

**Friday: practice 330-530 PM.

Time to get back to some winning ways, everyone!

44-33 Loss to H.C.

Boys,

We all had the immense challenge of bouncing back in a POSITIVE way from a very humbling loss in our last contest, and for the most part, I really thought we did! As I mentioned in my classroom for our pre-game meeting, the scoreboard would not be the best indicator today regarding our level of "fight" and positive attitude. A team can still lose on the scoreboard and be proud of an overall effort. I think we can do that today as we reflect.

Now, as I mentioned in the team room after the game, it's time to put up or shut up though in terms of repeated simple mistakes out there on the court--fundamental things that we all harp on repeatedly: boxing out, flashing to space, faking a pass to make a pass, etc. We are halfway through the season, and some of the mistakes we are making are "rookie" mistakes that should have been left behind by now.

I know we will all improve from here on out on the simple, small things that, in turn, lead to BIG things!

63-21 Loss at Byron Center...

Well, boys, as Coach Haverdink and I said after the game, that was quite the whoppin' that was put on us out there today…by a good team no less. In a situation where one team plays extremely poorly (us) and the other team plays well (and is already a good team with its only loss to East Kentwood this season thus far), it's not going to be a pretty ending---and tonight certainly was not pretty.

Now, we certainly MADE Byron Center look perhaps a lot better than they are what with the slew of turnovers, passive play on the boards, and consistent penetration into defensive lane again and again.

Time to buck up and get better….starting tomorrow! Actually, starting tonight if you get the chance to watch the film that's about to be uploaded. It'll be a lot of wincing…but make it PRODUCTIVE wincing…and then we move forward.

Continued theme of the week: TAKE CARE OF THE BASKETBALL AT ALL TIMES!

37-24 loss at GRCC and more...

Gentlemen,

Tough loss today…but as I mentioned in the locker room afterward, I thought that for the most part, we competed, scrapped, clawed, stayed positive on a much better level in this loss as compared to our previous loss to Middleville. File that away in our memory banks! But let's be honest, we need to get better…and take better care of the basketball!

Enjoy the rest of the weekend…and let's get back to work on Monday for an important pre-game practice in the MS on the eve of our conference season!

Here's the schedule for this coming week:

**Monday: 3-5 PM practice (MS)

**Tuesday: game at Byron Center (4 PM)…bus leaves right after school.

**Wednesday: 3-5 PM practice

**Thursday: home game vs. Holland Christian (5 PM)

**Friday: 3-5 PM practice

Theme of the week (reminder): Take care of/Value the basketball on every possession!

PS. Check out hudl film of today's game when you can! And LEARN!

44-26 Win vs. Wayland

Guys,

Job well done today, boys. I really enjoyed watching you guys bounce back from our first and only loss from the other night and get a win against an overall quality program in Wayland. Now, we've got perhaps an even tougher matchup this Saturday vs. a game GRCC…another chance at a win AWAY from our place. Can we continue to be COMPOSED?

We'll see you at practice tomorrow…3-5 PM. Check out hurl if you get a chance…planning to upload stuff soon.

On a side note, congrats to Teghan McMahon for his "team award" win for being consistently COMPOSED as voted by his teammates today after the game!

First Loss of the Season/Upcoming (Tentative) Weekly Schedule...

Hey, everyone. Hope all is well in this crazy weather??!! Please be safe!

First, regarding our first loss of the season this last Friday evening (46-27 to a game, hot-shooting Middleville squad), it's best that we do not overreact too much. Let's all admit that we certainly were not on our game, but I certainly do not believe that we quit. We just looked rusty in a number of key areas (minus two players), and we can/will tune up, so to speak. Now, if some of those lacking areas become a trend, then we'll address the matter. But with the class students of the game (and the classroom) that I know you all are, we'll self-analyze, correct, and move on.

Overall, like anything in life, when we screw up, we don't dwell on it…but rather take a quick, hard, sincere look at the past...analyze, learn…and move on. That's us in this situation!

With that said, here goes with our immediate future (weather pending):

**Monday: practice 3-5 (MS East)

**Tuesday: game at Grand Rapids CC (bus leaves right after school)…more details to come.

**Wednesday: practice 3-5

**Thursday: home game vs. Wayland (5 PM)…more details to come

**Friday: practice 3-5…varsity home game vs. Wayland at night…commemorative Hoppe stuff (shirts, dance, etc.) at the game…more details to come.

Reminder: the ongoing team theme from the immediate past is COMPOSURE (which we can all still improve upon…esp. from this past game)

Oh, and did we all check our hudl accounts and review/analyze recent game footage??!!

Take care, all…back to work…in the classroom and out. And stay tuned for weather/schedule updates!