Dedication, humility, good sportsmanship and teamwork are things I install on my teams

I did not grow-up focused on basketball.  Sure I played YMCA and pickup with my three older brothers and friends in the neighborhood, but I did not think of myself as a basketball player.  Instead, I was a top ranked competitive swimmer, baseball and football player.

It wasn’t until I moved to a catholic high school 20 miles away from my hometown that I started focusing on basketball.  As a freshman in high school, I was about 6’1” and my friends on the football team assumed I played organized basketball.  When it came time for tryouts, I jumped right in and used my swimmer lungs to hustle up and down the court, set picks, rebound and play hard.  I made the team and from that point on my focus turned towards the great sport of basketball.  It didn’t hurt that I grew 4 inches my sophomore year and my skills developed along with my height.  By the time I graduated, I was 6’7” and was offered a full ride scholarship to play basketball at Butler University in Indianapolis Indiana.

Today, I am the proud father of 4 young boys and enjoy coaching CYO basketball and am on the CYO Board as well.  I am a big team first kind of guy and try to advise parents to not put too much pressure on their child at a young age.  Kids develop at their own pace and you really never know what sport or activity they will gravitate to as their body matures.  The lessons of dedication, humility, good sportsmanship and teamwork are things I try to install on my teams.  These virtues will help them in basketball, but will be far more beneficial to them in life.