Honored to be inducted into the Susquehanna Valley chapter of the PA Sports Hall of Fame. Congratulations to all the inductees! It was a great evening to catch up with so many legends who have positively impacted athletics.
Dylan was surprised & honored with a Good Citizenship Award by @SenatorMartinPA today! Many thanks to his wonderful teacher for nominating him & Senator Martin for the recognition! So proud of Dylan - he has such a big heart & desire to help those around him. โค๏ธ @Coach_Butt
West coast bound! โ๏ธ SO excited to play at the 20th Annual Fresh Faces event in Oakland in August! ๐๐ซ
Grateful to be part of this awesome experience with so much history, meaning & amazing talent. Thank you for the invite, @gemsinthegym! Letโs gooo ๐ฅ
Growth, energy, resilience all weekend long. Team-first attitude helped bring home the ๐ Proud of this group!! Big summer loading! @CentralPAElite@Premier1Events@agame_hoops
Proud of you every day! Your hard work, dedication and love for the game continue to show. Excited to watch you keep growing and chasing your dreams. The future is bright!!
Many thanks to @qs_visi0n_ for the video highlights from The Whoโs NXT? All-American game in Phoenix! Forever a core memory. So grateful to @YoungLife_Ath & @PassThaBall. ๐๐
A quick two-minute glimpse into the past two weeks โ @WhosNXTaa All-American 2030 game in Phoenix followed by @MADEHoopsGirls East Mania with @TEAMPAHOOPS 16U P32. Excited for this weekend - @lp32_league in MKE! Letโs go! ๐
Toughness isnโt a trait.
Itโs a receipt.
Proof of the work no one sees.
โYou donโt just become tough. You earn tough.โ
- Cori Close ๐ฅ
Worth 90 seconds of your time.
An amazing trip to Phoenix for the 2030 @WhosNXTaa All-American game! Huge thank you to @CoachTYwhs (@YoungLife_Ath) & @PassThaBall for the opportunity - an awesome event. Big thank you to my dad (@Coach_Butt). Memories and friendships that will last forever. โค๏ธ #lovethisgame ๐
Most people are getting this wrong. It's not being coached hard or soft...it's a coach saying the right thing at the right time to get them out of a spiral. And focus them on what matters.
When you're in that spiral, your attention scatters. You're replaying mistakes, drifting into the future, losing the moment.
Frese disrupted it in two ways.
First, she walked directly to Okanawa, locked eyes, and forced her to focus and connect with her in the present.
Second, she gave confidence AND agency.
"I believe in you...But you've got to want this moment." This isn't my story..."
She didn't say, "What are you doing...get your head in the game." Those feed the spiral, giving your brain evidence that it's all going wrong. Akin to telling a nervous person to "just relax."
In our lowest moments, we need a signal that someone still sees what we're capable of. And then gives us the agency and challenge to go get it.
She scored 7 points in the third quarter after that exchange, added 6 more in the fourth, and finished with a team-high 21.
Maryland still lost. But Okananwa showed up.
It was a brilliant display of snapping a player out of everything scattering towards catastrophe:
"Really what that was, was a regroup moment for myself and her telling me she believed in me. Sometimes that's really all you need to hear."
Research backs this up.
Psychologists at the University of Amsterdam found that whatever emotional state coaches expressed predicted their players' emotional state and subsequent performance.
Angry coaches produced frustrated players who made more errors.
Another study of basketball players found that low to moderate anger targeted at a specific problem could improve performance.
Raw, undirected intensity made things worse. Targeted intensity that was aimed at something solvable worked.
Texas A&M football coach Mike Elko put it this way: "My job is to be calm and collected when they're frantic. My job is to create intensity when they're not intense. My job is to always be opposite the moment."
The leader's job is the counterbalance.
Frese saw her star's attention drifting when the moment called for focus and controlled fire.
So she brought the intensity Okananwa wasn't generating on her own.
Most people see the intensity and think that's the important takeaway. It's not.
It's just one tool used in a specific moment.
Frese said it herself after the game: "You can't have those conversations if you don't have a relationship with them."
It's the relationship underneath that gives you the ability to use the right tool at the right time.
Sometimes that tool is direct eye contact and I believe in you.
Other times, it's taking a calm breath with and a reminder that I value you as a human, not just an athlete.
Or, as I had one athlete request one time, "Just cuss me out in the last 400. Tell me it's worth dying for..."
Sometimes you pull out the crazy if that disrupts the cycle.
Know your athlete. Build the relationship. Then know when to disrupt the cycle and focus them on the work at hand.
MBB: #BU is headed to the Patriot League title game at Lehigh on Wednesday thanks to Gladden's 3FG with 0.6s left on the clock. Terriers stun reg. season champ Navy, 73-72.
#GoBU
Boston University knocks off top-seed Navy on a last-second three pointer in the Patriot semifinals.
What a win for BU. Brutal loss for Navy, who had a tremendous season.
Lehigh v Boston University for the Patriot conference tournament title on Wednesday night in Bethlehem.