They are a small school, yet have football, so we get to see a physical and usually quick team before we play our first game of the year. It's been good for us and a good thing to get our feet wet before the actual games begin. With scrimmages, however, each year, I plan on sitting and watching. I want our guys to see for themselves what they are doing right and wrong, but the competitive juices in me get going and I cannot stand to sit and watch some of the stuff we do....every year, this year was no exception.
Many of the negatives that we saw today, were things the coaching staff has been talking about for two weeks in practice and we have seen some progress on some days of practice. But there are many things that kids won't believe until they actually play a game....and that's what the scrimmage is for. Along with the negatives, you also get to see some positives. As coaches, I think, we tend to see more negatives than positives, but they are there. We had a couple of kids play pretty well for a long time and some that were on roller coasters....it happens especially early.
We talked after the practice with SD that we wanted Henryville basketball to be known for a lot of things, but the first two things that comes to mind is that we play hard and will compete. You would think those things are givens, but they aren't. To do so, you have to get out of your comfort zone sometimes. To do so, you have to be aware of what is going on and where you are supposed to be all the time. It takes time, too much it seems sometimes, but it happens.
We have pretty high expectations for ourselves each year, the players and the coaches but they are far from unattainable. So much comes down to getting on the same page, playing through adversity and having each others backs whether on offense or defense. Selfishness is a tough thing to overcome and it can show from taking bad shots (which is what everybody notices) to not helping on defense which we believe may be worse. That "selfishness" comes from being comfortable on the court, it comes from being tired sometimes physically but definitely mentally and still helping each other out.
We open up in three days at home vs. our larger school rival and it will help us no matter the result for the reason of the season.
