This one is for you Dad!

This past weekend we won the championship for the Central Mountain Middle School Basketball League! What a day for The Summit Tigers!! For any coach this is the feeling of a lifetime, the feeling that you have done your job to coach the "x's and o's" but to also make the season more than just about sport but also about life.

Dad, you got me started as a coach, you encouraged me to reach new heights in my own life through a different approach to sport, as a coach rather than an athlete. (Looking back never really was much of one) You were absolutely right when you asked me to help with Safe at Home. Dad you saw a possibility for me as a coach and now I am able to say that I am Championship Coach.

Dad, you have taught me how to be a human being and now I am hope that I can have half the effect on the boys I coach as you have had on me. You have always been a guide for me, a "north-star" if you will, and my hope is to help spread what you have shown me amongst the young men of Summit County.

Dad, this year I have won a championship in baseball, one of the top ranked teams in Colorado, as well as basketball and now can call myself an Offensive Coordinator. This year U have taken some risks in my coaching career and have been able to see some reward and benefit. You gave me the confidence to do so!

Thanks for everything Dad!!

Most Improved Player

As a coach, I think my favorite award at the end of the season is Most Improved Player. The award to me symbolizes a player who has embraced the season, taken some risk to get better and to stretch their personal boundaries as well as allowed them self to be coached. As a coach, I show them the way but the players have to go down the path. I may give them the tools to help them get better but ultimately it is up to them to get out of it what they want.

For teenagers there is a lot going on in their lives and often times do not know what or how to deal with it, school is tougher, it is harder to make a team, bodies are maturing to name a few. Kids want to win and want to get better. I tell my players wanting it and doing it are two very different things. When a player takes on this challenge and starts to show greater improvement over the course of a season there are not many feelings that are greater then this.

Most Improved goes to the kid who over the course of a season has made the most of practice time as well as playing time to get better. Players who make this commitment to them self as well as their team to find that next level of sport is so much fun to coach, be around, joke with because they are able to understand the importance of hard work.

When we make decisions to do things in life we are investing our time into something and The Most Improved Player to me is the player who gets the most return on their investment to their sport. These players who find the will to get better are what make coming to practice and coaching games really really fun for the coaching staff!! Thank you for working so hard!!