Winning Happens Before The Game Starts
July 28, 2016 at 4:25 p.m.
By Roger Grossman, Lake City Radio-
It’s a pretty simple formula really. Survive an early run based on the emotion of your opponent, get your offensive game plan established, get the lead, and then let your defense take over.
And that defense has taken over. At 39.5 points-per-game allowed, only South Newton and Angola have been stingier in the state of Indiana this season.
That didn’t just happen because coach Doug Ogle looked up from his math textbook/teacher’s edition and said “Hey, let’s get really good at playing defense.”
And I can’t imagine Tippecanoe Valley girls coach Chris Kindig was sitting in his backyard one weekend two summers ago, looked out into the blue sky and thought “I hope we will be good next year” and then took his foot off the brake pedal of his lawnmower.
While the Valley girls and the Warsaw boys have some clear and obvious differences in their teams, there are a few common denominators in their successes:
• COACHING CREDIBILITY: If you don’t believe in the plan, it’s a lot harder to achieve your goals, even if that plan is flawed. Having followers who are all-in from Day One can override just about anything that might go wrong.
• SECONDARY LEADERSHIP STRUCTURE: Whether you are in business, are part of a non-profit organization’s board or a sports team, having leadership just below your top leader is critical to getting any venture off the ground.
Teams that have “lieutenants” that have the full and complete respect of the rest of the room means you will have fewer or no behavior or discipline problems, or classroom failures. It’s accountability ... to the other people in your group, to the “game” or project itself, and to the people you represent. The Valley girls talked after last Saturday’s close call against Concordia that they didn’t want to let their fans and the community down. There is a lot to be said for that.
• VARSITY EXPERIENCE: Spring leagues and summer camps are great, but they are NOT the same as Friday and Saturday nights during the winter. The lights shine brightest and hottest on those cold winter nights, and in that heat are forged the true and lasting champions. You get better as a player during the summer, but what you do with that on your school team in the winter is what gets remembered.
• DEPTH: Sure, a team with one or two superstars can take you to a certain point, but Anne Secrest would be the first to tell you that she would never score without teammates to get her the ball. And do you think Kyle Mangas and Paul Marandet could play 2-on-5 and hold teams to 40 points a game? Not a chance.
When Valley was without point guard Karis Tucker at the beginning of the season, Brynda Krueger stepped in and did the best she could to hold down the fort in Tucker’s absence. And while Warsaw’s starting five is as good as anyone’s in Indiana, you can make a pretty good case that Warsaw’s bench is why they currently have a “0” in the loss column.
• SACRIFICE: There’s a saying that goes “everyone achieves more when no one cares who gets the credit.” Wow, is that true!
The two teams I’ve mentioned are full of kids who put their own individual stardom aside because they can be more and have more by being less on their own. Go back and think about Krueger for a minute, playing point guard was not really her idea of a good time, I’m sure. But when Kindig said “I need you,” she stood in a gap in the line. Playing defense is not glamorous. It takes effort. It demands attention to detail every possession of every game to be great at it. It requires people to do things that will not get noticed. Warsaw has a GREAT defense. Both these teams have people willing to pay the price.
• COMPOSURE: Warsaw has won 20 games this season, four of those games in overtime. You don’t win those games if you freak out when things go wrong. Take the Northrop game for example. The officiating was not varsity-level, and Ogle was called for a technical foul with 2:10 left with the team losing. There was never a second where you saw panic in their faces.
Mangas hit a three-pointer with five seconds left to send the game into overtime, and the Tigers scored the last 12 points of the extra period to win.
The Lady Vikings had to play their biggest game of the season at Rochester. The place was packed. If Valley loses that game, they likely would have lost the TRC title, bragging rights, and momentum late in the regular season. They were sharp and up to the task.
You add all of that up and you have a winning team.
Put your “team” through this test … do they pass?[[In-content Ad]]
It’s a pretty simple formula really. Survive an early run based on the emotion of your opponent, get your offensive game plan established, get the lead, and then let your defense take over.
And that defense has taken over. At 39.5 points-per-game allowed, only South Newton and Angola have been stingier in the state of Indiana this season.
That didn’t just happen because coach Doug Ogle looked up from his math textbook/teacher’s edition and said “Hey, let’s get really good at playing defense.”
And I can’t imagine Tippecanoe Valley girls coach Chris Kindig was sitting in his backyard one weekend two summers ago, looked out into the blue sky and thought “I hope we will be good next year” and then took his foot off the brake pedal of his lawnmower.
While the Valley girls and the Warsaw boys have some clear and obvious differences in their teams, there are a few common denominators in their successes:
• COACHING CREDIBILITY: If you don’t believe in the plan, it’s a lot harder to achieve your goals, even if that plan is flawed. Having followers who are all-in from Day One can override just about anything that might go wrong.
• SECONDARY LEADERSHIP STRUCTURE: Whether you are in business, are part of a non-profit organization’s board or a sports team, having leadership just below your top leader is critical to getting any venture off the ground.
Teams that have “lieutenants” that have the full and complete respect of the rest of the room means you will have fewer or no behavior or discipline problems, or classroom failures. It’s accountability ... to the other people in your group, to the “game” or project itself, and to the people you represent. The Valley girls talked after last Saturday’s close call against Concordia that they didn’t want to let their fans and the community down. There is a lot to be said for that.
• VARSITY EXPERIENCE: Spring leagues and summer camps are great, but they are NOT the same as Friday and Saturday nights during the winter. The lights shine brightest and hottest on those cold winter nights, and in that heat are forged the true and lasting champions. You get better as a player during the summer, but what you do with that on your school team in the winter is what gets remembered.
• DEPTH: Sure, a team with one or two superstars can take you to a certain point, but Anne Secrest would be the first to tell you that she would never score without teammates to get her the ball. And do you think Kyle Mangas and Paul Marandet could play 2-on-5 and hold teams to 40 points a game? Not a chance.
When Valley was without point guard Karis Tucker at the beginning of the season, Brynda Krueger stepped in and did the best she could to hold down the fort in Tucker’s absence. And while Warsaw’s starting five is as good as anyone’s in Indiana, you can make a pretty good case that Warsaw’s bench is why they currently have a “0” in the loss column.
• SACRIFICE: There’s a saying that goes “everyone achieves more when no one cares who gets the credit.” Wow, is that true!
The two teams I’ve mentioned are full of kids who put their own individual stardom aside because they can be more and have more by being less on their own. Go back and think about Krueger for a minute, playing point guard was not really her idea of a good time, I’m sure. But when Kindig said “I need you,” she stood in a gap in the line. Playing defense is not glamorous. It takes effort. It demands attention to detail every possession of every game to be great at it. It requires people to do things that will not get noticed. Warsaw has a GREAT defense. Both these teams have people willing to pay the price.
• COMPOSURE: Warsaw has won 20 games this season, four of those games in overtime. You don’t win those games if you freak out when things go wrong. Take the Northrop game for example. The officiating was not varsity-level, and Ogle was called for a technical foul with 2:10 left with the team losing. There was never a second where you saw panic in their faces.
Mangas hit a three-pointer with five seconds left to send the game into overtime, and the Tigers scored the last 12 points of the extra period to win.
The Lady Vikings had to play their biggest game of the season at Rochester. The place was packed. If Valley loses that game, they likely would have lost the TRC title, bragging rights, and momentum late in the regular season. They were sharp and up to the task.
You add all of that up and you have a winning team.
Put your “team” through this test … do they pass?[[In-content Ad]]
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