HARD WORK

"Time lost is time lost.  It's gone forever.  Some people tell themselves that they will work twice as hard tomorrow to make up for what they did not do today.  People should always do their best.  If they can work twice as hard tomorrow, then they should have also worked twice as hard today.  That would have been their best.  Catching up leaves no room for them to do their best tomorrow.  People with the philosophy of putting off and then working twice as hard cheat themselves." -John Wooden-

With the end of the school year just around the corner and exams on all our player's minds we are stressing to our team the importance of hard work and planning.  It is important to us at Spring Hill for our players to make good grades and excel in the classroom as well as on the basketball court.  Hard work requires proper planning and a focused mind.  We are stressing to our Badgers not to put off their studies and to work hard to achieve good grades.  Coach Wooden was not only a great basketball coach but a wise man.  His books are a must read for anybody who wants to excel at life.  Although, Coach Wooden is a basketball coach his litterateurs are not usually about basketball, they are about living life the right way and becoming a better person.  He relates his life maxims to the game of basketball and coaching but they are simple life maxims that everybody should implement into their daily lives.  Reading Coach Wooden's books puts a proper perspective on my life and how we want our basketball program to run.  We are striving everyday to be people of character who work hard and give our very best effort no matter how big or how small the task.  We have been stressing to the players the importance of using this summer to work hard and prepare yourself for the upcoming season and to not wait for the Fall workouts to get into shape.  All of the players have taken this to heart.  We are excited about the hard work we have put in to finish up this year strong and very optimistic about the future of Badgers Basketball!  We are putting in the hard work, and doing our very best in all aspects of our life so that we can achieve success!   

Spring Hill Hosts YBOA Tournament

All this weekend our team has been hosting a YBOA 12 and under basketball tournament to help raise money for our local YBOA team, the Mobile Celtics.  I coach a team and Coach T coaches a team.  Everyone involved with Badgers Basketball has been donating their time to help make this tournament a success.  It has been a real pleasure for all of us at Spring Hill to take part of this event.  Coaching these young kids is like a breath of fresh air.  The Celtics when we first started coaching them were a lot like this blog was when it was first created, just a blank piece of paper waiting for information.  We have been coaching the team for 2 months now and every practice and game has been a joy to be involved with.  It is great to see young kids learn new concepts and strategies that they have never been exposed to before in their young basketball careers.  Watching our teams execute a play, defense, or just giving all out effort makes me crack a smile that could grin down a Grizzly bear.  It has been real special to have our Badgers being involved with our Celtics teams.  It is a special spectacle to see our big 6'8" center Nick Brown work with our Celtics post players the same way we work with him during our practices.  All of our players and members of our Badgers family who helped out with this tournament are greatly appreciated and it shows that the Badgers are progressing as a team and becoming a true family that we are able to come together and help out when help is needed. There is nothing better than a compliment from our wonderful parents telling us that we have been doing a great job with the team and the tournament.  Thanks to everyone who worked and we have enjoyed putting this tournament on! 

BADGERS LEND A HELPING HAND

When schools hire new coaches most of the time it means the new coach will have to be moving his or her family into new living arrangements. This was the case for newly appointed Women's Soccer Head Coach, Christian DeVries, who joined the Badger Athletics family after a successful 12 year career at the University of Minnesota-Morris. Badger Athletics is a family so naturally our basketball team jumped at the opportunity to help our new soccer coach move in! All the players and coaches loaded up in our cars and drove to Coach DeVries new home expecting to see your everyday common "UHaul" truck but to our surprise we rolled up on your everyday common "18 Wheeler" truck! Haha! A running joke within our program when faced with hard work is our sarcastic saying; "You're going to take that and learn from it...so ask Jeeves about it, email Father Salmi about it, Youtube it, type a paper about it, and learn from THAT!" Needless to say our player's high spirits about knocking this move out quickly, rapidly turned into a feeling of despair eerily similar to the feeling of a buzzer beater that doesn't go your team's way! Coach T, sensing the drop of optimism amongst the troops, swiftly gave a motivational speech that probably should have been saved for future games. As a unit the Badgers quickly rallied together and worked hard to help their fellow Badger out. Due to our players having exams and classes we were unable to finish all the moving but we were able to get the hard stuff out of the way. We will be back at it again bright and early tomorrow morning. What a wonderful way to start a Friday! Nothing like hard work, fellowship, and helping people in need to start the day off right!

A NEW DAY

My daily routine in the mornings usually consists of waking up, taking a shower, brushing my teeth, getting dressed, eating an apple, and finally taking an hour to read my daily devotional and Bible. This seems to always jump start my day and gets me motivated to conquer the day. Recently I have switched up my routine and instead of reading my devotional and Bible in the morning I decided to read them at night before I go to bed, electing to read motivational books from great coaches and sports figures in the morning. Today it just so happened I read one of my favorite poems about making the most of your day. Coach Bear Bryant always kept this poem with him and it goes like this...

"This is the beginning of a new day.

God has given me this day to use as I will.

I can waste it or use it for good.

What I do today is very important because I am exchanging a day of my life for it.

When tomorrow comes, this day will be lost forever.

Leaving something in its place I have traded for it.

I want it to be a gain, not loss.

Good, not evil.

Success, not failure.

In order that I shall not forget the price I paid for it."

I love this poem! It puts a lot of things in perspective. It seems like that in today's society everyone is in a hurry, and wants to make it to the top as soon as possible. Everyone wants to be Brad Stevens(Butler University Head Coach) the young gun early success story as opposed to Bill Guthridge(Former North Carolina Head Coach) a man who waited his turn behind legendary coach Dean Smith. I find myself wishing for the same early success and allowing my mind to wander to places I want to be instead of focusing on doing my job to the best of my ability now but reading material such as this poem put me right back to where I need to be. Focus on being great TODAY! Don't stress over what is to come tomorrow! Work your butt off and success will come your way in due time. It is all a process that the only thing we can control is the effort we put into life each and everyday.

Regardless of who you cheer for it undeniable to see that Coach Bryant had a firm grasp on how to live each day and make the most of the day God gave to him, which is probably why he is one of the most successful coaches in sports history. Here at Spring Hill we are focusing on making the most out of the days God gives to us and buying into the process of becoming a great team and program.

WELCOME

Welcom to Badger Hoops! I would like to welcome all fans, alumni, and supporters of Spring Hill College Basketball. With this blog we intend to give everyone an in depth look into Badgers Basketball. I will be updating this blog throughout the year keeping you up to date on the latest news and information about your Spring Hill College Badgers. We are excited about the future of Badgers Basketball and are working extremely hard to turn Spring Hill College Basketball into one of the elite programs in the country.