tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-89740752011-04-21T11:14:55.079-07:00A coach's journal of six weeks in the life of a big-city middle school basketball team, for better or for worse. <br>We're hoping for better.Coach Waddleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04163037854981274834noreply@blogger.comBlogger271100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8974075.post-1142932656715090122006-03-20T23:39:00.000-08:002006-04-02T19:04:36.003-07:00

Hoover........08..13..22..13...56Lindbergh...09..19..12..10...50The PrologueI suppose I could start with last year's disappointment, or I could even reach back four years to my first semifinal loss, but I'm not so sure that there's much point to that anymore. I just read the obituary I wrote following last year's loss, and the parallels are obvious, but there are enough differences for this game

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The benefit of running the table during our admittedly short regular season, aside from the Northern League Championship, is that we get a first round bye in the playoffs. While it's nice knowing that we get an automatic trip to the semi-finals, it's even nicer being able to scout the competition.You might be wondering -- isn't this middle school basketball? Well, yes, but all that really means

Coach Waddleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04163037854981274834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8974075.post-1141892252023651972006-03-08T23:40:00.000-08:002006-03-09T00:17:32.056-08:00

Hamilton....08..10..11..01...30Lindbergh..22..11..07..08...46This was a game we knew we would win long before the opening tip. Hamilton came into the game at 0-4, and they had lost their previous game by about forty points, so I was sure we would be facing a broken team. I had a hunch what might be going on. Of all the schools on our schedule, Hamilton is the closest to us, both geographically

Coach Waddleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04163037854981274834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8974075.post-1140771222223702452006-02-23T23:56:00.000-08:002006-02-24T00:53:42.283-08:00

Marshall (1-3).....19-00-18-20--57Lindbergh (4-0)...17-10-20-20--67If last week was the most enjoyable game I've ever coached, this week's game was definitely the strangest game I've ever been a part of. I expected a bit of a letdown, since we had already beaten the top three teams in our league, but that's not exactly what happened. We were athletically superior to (and even taller than) this

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Hughes......12..12..13..20...57Lindbergh..10..16..23..19...68As I sat at the coaches meeting last month and looked at our schedule for the first time, I figured that our season would be defined by this game against Hughes. I wasn't completely sure how good our team would be, and I had no idea how much talent Hughes would have, but I was fairly certain that our game with them would be a good one.

Coach Waddleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04163037854981274834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8974075.post-1139996601758678302006-02-15T01:04:00.000-08:002006-02-15T01:43:22.450-08:00

We play Hughes Middle School on Wednesday night in what is definitely our biggest game so far. Part of the difficulty of coaching middle school basketball is the vast uncertainty connected with every aspect of the job. Here's what I've had to manage during the past week:• One of my players, Lemont, was involved in a fight last Thursday. I don't think the fight actually happened, but it seems

Coach Waddleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04163037854981274834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8974075.post-1139645693472729862006-02-11T00:13:00.000-08:002006-02-11T00:14:53.473-08:00

Northern League StandingsHughes...... 2-0Lindbergh.. 2-0Bancroft..... 1-1Hoover....... 1-1Hamilton.... 0-2Marshall..... 0-2

Coach Waddleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04163037854981274834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8974075.post-1139645482879081942006-02-10T22:54:00.001-08:002006-02-11T00:13:03.163-08:00

Lindbergh -- 16 11 09 26 -- 62Hoover ---- 14 08 15 14 -- 51We knew this game would be a strong test for us, and we weren't disappointed. Hoover had won its first game fairly easily, and their success during football season suggested that they would be fairly athletic at the very least. Like every game I've ever coached, I went in looking for a win, but I was secretly hoping for something more,

Coach Waddleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04163037854981274834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8974075.post-1138869497928464542006-02-02T00:05:00.000-08:002006-02-08T00:03:51.976-08:00

Lindbergh -- 08-20-11-16--55Bancroft --- 10-08-12-14--44Even though there was a fair amount of drama leading up to it, this was a pretty good effort for our first game. Here's a quick recap of our pre-game issues:• A student was discovered with a pipe bomb at school on Tuesday morning (yes, a pipe bomb), so that afternoon's practice was delayed so that the bomb squad could continue its search

Coach Waddleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04163037854981274834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8974075.post-1138691877638252862006-01-30T23:16:00.000-08:002006-01-30T23:17:57.636-08:00

February 1 @ BancroftFebruary 8 @ HooverFebruary 15 vs. HughesFebruary 22 vs. MarshallMarch 1 vs. Hamilton

Coach Waddleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04163037854981274834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8974075.post-1105514900816250162005-01-11T23:23:00.000-08:002006-01-30T23:14:12.960-08:00

A Descent Into the Maelstrom   1 2 3 4 F Stanford 08 17 15 10 50 Lindbergh 25 08 11 04 48 I had wanted to write about this last Wednesday night, the night of the game, but I just couldn’t. Tomorrow, I told myself. Tomorrow would be better. How could I possibly produce anything that was at all coherent so close to the event?

Coach Waddleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04163037854981274834noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8974075.post-1103168399748208442004-12-15T19:27:00.000-08:002004-12-15T19:39:59.746-08:00

While my family and I were leisurely wandering through the aisles in an open-air market on the Kona Coast of the Big Island of Hawai'i, my Lindbergh Eagles won their first playoff game, easily defeating Bancroft, a team from another league. Leslie and I are both off-track this month, the first time our schedules have matched up in four years, so we planned this Hawaiian vacation several months

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  1 2 3 4 F Washington 15 8 5 3 31 Lindbergh 10 21 9 18 58 As I think I mentioned on Tuesday, we had actually already clinched the league championship by beating Stephens on Monday night, but this was still an important game. As we huddled a few minutes before the opening tip, I reminded the boys that we

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  1 2 3 4 F Stephens 18 12 16 30 76 Lindbergh 20 27 18 19 84 Skin of our teeth? Not exactly. The final score (84-76) makes it look close, but it really wasn't. We played Stephens on Monday night in a game that would decide the Northern League championship. Like us, Stephens came in at 3-0, but they

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School Record PF PA Lindbergh 4-0 265 192 Stephens 3-1 268 253 Hamilton 3-1 262 203 Washington 2-2 257 254 Franklin 0-4 142 242 Butler 0-4 219 269 Lindbergh 84, Stephens 76 Washington 61, Franklin 43 Hamilton 75, Butler 56 The playoff

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  1 2 3 4 F Lindbergh 18 7 26 9 60 Butler 6 8 15 16 45 I don't have a whole lot to say about this game, and since it took place five days ago, the details are already fuzzy. Here's what I do remember: • We were much, much better than this team, and it showed in the first quarter. Even without our

Coach Waddleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04163037854981274834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8974075.post-1102325718832900842004-12-06T01:19:00.000-08:002004-12-06T01:35:18.833-08:00

School Record PF PA Lindbergh 3-0 181 116 Stephens 3-0 192 169 Hamilton 2-1 187 147 Washington 1-2 196 211 Franklin 0-3 99 181 Butler 0-3 163 194 Lindbergh 60, Butler 45 Stephens 73, Washington 72 Hamilton 58, Franklin 40 As you can see,

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  1 2 3 4 F Lindbergh 11 14 20 13 58 Hamilton 14 11 22 7 54 It's been four days since we played this game, and the delay in posting a recap is only partially because of the Thanksgiving holiday. Mainly I've just been trying to figure out how to sum it all up. In a nutshell, it was the best game I've

Coach Waddleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04163037854981274834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8974075.post-1101450167520657412004-11-25T22:19:00.000-08:002004-11-25T22:22:47.520-08:00

A complete report of our second game will be posted soon, but for now you can check out the standings below. School Record PF PA Lindbergh 2-0 121 71 Stephens 2-0 119 97 Hamilton 1-1 129 107 Washington 1-1 124 138 Franklin 0-2 59 123 Butler 0-2 118

Coach Waddleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04163037854981274834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8974075.post-1101201512078104542004-11-23T03:00:00.000-08:002004-11-27T01:26:01.733-08:00

Last Friday might've been the most important moment of our young season. The eighth graders received their first trimester grades. Our district's eligibility rules state that players must carry a 2.0 GPA with no more than one "U" in conduct. For our first game, four potential players were ineligible based on the last report card of their seventh grade year, so I was hoping for some good news

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Here's how things stand so far in our Northern League. I'll include the scores as well, even though they don't really mean a thing at this point. I'll also be keeping track of points scored and allowed, as these numbers might help differentiate between teams with similar records. School Record PF PA Hamilton 1-0 75 49 Lindbergh 1-0 63

Coach Waddleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04163037854981274834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8974075.post-1100855842191072522004-11-19T01:12:00.000-08:002004-11-19T01:17:22.190-08:00

  1 2 3 4 F Wildcats 9 3 1 4 17 Eagles 23 17 23 0 63 The line score tells you that it was a blowout, but the game was not as close as the score might indicate. A quick word about the Wildcats. Their school is located downtown, in an area more blighted than ours, and year after year they have problems

Coach Waddleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04163037854981274834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8974075.post-1100167283286801812004-11-11T01:09:00.000-08:002004-11-11T02:01:23.286-08:00

Slowly but surely, the group of boys is getting closer to becoming a team. On Wednesday morning I posted a list with twenty-one names, the boys who are still alive. I put it up inside my classroom window, and as I was taping it up, one of the boys stood on the other side of the glass, scanning down the list with his index finger. I knew he wouldn't find his name. He slowly travelled down the

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Just as sharks have evolved over millions of years into the perfect killing machine -- swift, strong, and efficient -- the eighth grade boy also serves as an example of evolution perfected. There is perhaps no other creature on the face of the earth so single-minded in the advancement of itself atthe expense of others. So in that sense, the eighth grade boy is perfection; in all other respects,

Coach Waddleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04163037854981274834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8974075.post-1099816776472178232004-11-06T23:35:00.000-08:002004-11-07T00:46:55.326-08:00

Basketball season officially started today, when our school's flag football team lost in the city championship game. Eighth grade tryouts will be on Monday, and round two will be Tuesday, when I expect to have about thirty boys from all three grades competing for the final 12 to 14 roster spots. I'll post that final list on Wednesday, then we'll practice that afternoon, skip Thursday (Veteran's

Coach Waddleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04163037854981274834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8974075.post-1099635352176731092004-11-04T21:29:00.000-08:002004-11-05T01:05:46.936-08:00

Sixth grade tryouts are always one of my favorite days of the year. Long ago I decided to split tryouts by grade level before the first cut for two reasons. First, it makes the numbers a lot easier to deal with. I usually have between 80 and 100 kids who come out, which is far too much for one small gym to comfortably accomodate. Second, the sixth graders are easily intimidated by the

Coach Waddleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04163037854981274834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8974075.post-1099379014101716082004-11-02T00:00:00.000-08:002004-11-01T23:51:05.710-08:00

Welcome to the new home of my personal Basketball Diaries, or as they'll be collectively known this year, "A Season in a Blink." That title accurately reflects the insane shortness of our season. Here's a quick overview: October 29th: 7th Grade tryouts November 4th: 6th Grade tryouts November 8th: 8th Grade tryouts November 9th: Call backs, all grades November 10th: Call backs, Day 2 November

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