IowaIntensity

Coach Hansen, founder of Iowa Intensity Youth Sports, a non-profit organization located in Grinnell, IA

[IowaIntensity @IowaIntensity]

Tryouts for this Spring/Summer are less than 3 weeks away: https://t.co/NguCjVgFFs

[IowaIntensity @IowaIntensity]

@NDNSports1 Congrats Kate!!

[IowaIntensity @IowaIntensity]

Congratulations to the Lynnville-Sully Hawks girls on punching their ticket to state tonight! #keepworking #Intensityfamily

[Newton News Sports @NDNSports1]

The first time since 2014, the LS girls are onto the state tourney. @IGHSAU

[Coach Parkinson @CoachParkinson]

Ticket Punched! Way to go Hawks! We are so proud of you all! @LSHawks

[IowaIntensity @IowaIntensity]

LS Hawk girls get the win to advance. #intensityfamily #keepworking

[IowaIntensity @IowaIntensity]

Love this and good luck with the playoff run!

[KCCI News @KCCINews]

Family affair: Lynnville-Sully basketball players aim to match their moms with a state title | Click on the image to read the full story https://t.co/Y7dcI1A3BN

[IowaIntensity @IowaIntensity]

Tryouts are March 1. Registration deadline is just 2.5 weeks away!

https://t.co/NguCjVgFFs

[Greg Berge @GregBerge]

Why Coaching Is Harder Than People Think (A Holiday Reminder)…

Because coaching isn’t just about plays, drills, or game nights.

It’s about people.

It’s about walking into practice every day and managing emotions you didn’t create but are responsible for.

Your own.
Your players.
Your assistants.
Parents.
Administrators.
Fans.

It’s about teaching kids who are all at different stages.

Different maturity levels.
Different confidence levels.
Different home situations.

And somehow holding them to the same standards while still meeting them where they are.

It’s about decisions that look simple from the stands but feel heavy from the sideline.

Who plays.
When.
Why.
How you communicate it.

And how that decision might land on a 16-year-old who ties their identity to minutes.

It’s about losing sleep over kids who won’t buy in.

Over conversations you need to have.

Over mistakes you replay in your head long after everyone else moved on.

It’s about being judged by people who see the outcome, not the process.

The scoreboard, not the hours.

The result, not the relationships.

And yet, you show up again.

You plan. You teach. You model. You care.

As the season slows and the holidays arrive, this is the reminder:

What you do matters.

Even when it goes unseen.
Even when it feels heavy.
Even when it’s hard.

Coaching is about influence. And influence lasts longer than any season.

That’s why coaching is harder than people think. And also why it matters so much.

As the year winds down, I hope you find a little rest, a little perspective, and a lot of pride in the work you’re doing.

🎄Happy Holidays, Coach.

[IowaIntensity @IowaIntensity]

LS-Sigourney girls varsity tonight.

[IowaIntensity @IowaIntensity]

LS girls up on Baxter at the half in a physical game so far

[The Midwest Recruiting Resource @TheMRR7]

In Waukee, IA at the brand new IYAF Sports Complex for the @AllIowaAttack Midwest Girls Classic.

Programs with teams in the top 3 age groups include:
IA:
@AllIowaAttack
@play4himacademy
@SWARM_BBALL
IA Prep (@TNT5Basketball )
@212BballAcademy
@IowaIntensity
@IowaSuns
IA Storm (? @IowaStormBB ?)
Ames HS
Blue Jays

MN:
@NorthTartan
@NorthTartanSE
@MNDiamondElite1
@MinnesotaHeat
@Opptybasketball
@CrossfireGHoops
@WCUgirlshoops
@MnMetroStars

SD:
Hoop City (? @HoopCitySoDak ?)

NE: @370Select

[IowaIntensity @IowaIntensity]

2-1 and second place this past weekend for our 16u/17u girls team!

[IowaIntensity @IowaIntensity]

Congrats Emie and Kate!

[Newton News Sports @NDNSports1]

The Iowa Print Sports Writers Association selected its all-state girls basketball teams. Those squads were released Tuesday and 3 area players were chosen.
Baxter's Emie Tuhn - 2nd team in 1A
Lynnville-Sully's Kate Harthoorn - 3rd team in 1A.
PCM's Tori Lindsay - 3rd team in 3A.

[IowaIntensity @IowaIntensity]

Good luck to the current and former Intensity girls playing at the state tournament this week!

[Newton News Sports @NDNSports1]

She’s made 2 3s since the tweet and LS back within 7. #iahsbkb

[IowaIntensity @IowaIntensity]

@JSchilling9 @schillingbreck Congrats and soak it all in. Lots of time and work put in!

[Billy Oppenheimer @bpoppenheimer]

After his second year at Michigan, Tom Brady wanted to transfer.

He wasn’t playing in games, and he was so low on the depth chart that he only got 2 reps in practice.

Brady met with his coach to express his frustration, “The other quarterbacks get all the reps.”

Coach replied,

“Brady, I want you to stop worrying about what all the other players on our team are doing. All you do is worry about what the starter is doing, what the second guy is doing, what everyone else is doing. You don’t worry about what you’re doing.”

Coach reminded him, “You came here to be the best. If you’re going to be the best, you have to beat out the best.”

And then he recommended that Brady meet Greg Harden, a counselor who worked in the athletic department.

Brady went to Harden’s office and whined, “I’m never going to get my chance. They’re only giving me 2 reps.”

Harden replied, “Just go out there and focus on doing the best you can with those 2 reps. Make them as perfect as you possibly can.”

“So that’s what I did,” Brady said. “They’d put me in for those 2 reps, man, I’d sprint out there like it was Super Bowl 39. ‘Let’s go boys! Here we go! What play we got?’”

“And I started to do really well with those 2 reps. Because I brought enthusiasm, I brought energy.”

Soon, he was getting 4 reps. Then 10, “and before you knew it,” Brady said, “with this new mindset that Greg had instilled in me—to focus on what you can control, to focus on what you’re getting, not what anyone else is getting, to treat every rep like it’s the Super Bowl—eventually, I became the starter.”

Takeaway 1:

Greg Harden telling Brady to focus on being great during his 2 reps reminded me of a piece of advice from the entrepreneur Mark Cuban.

“People come to me all the time and tell me they’re stuck,” Cuban explained. “They’re stuck in a job they don't like. They’re stuck working for a boss they don’t like. They're stuck on a team they don't like.”

“I just tell them, ‘Be great.’”

“The reality of life is that you can’t just always quit your job. You can’t just always go to your boss and say, ‘Give me the promotion, or I’m out of here.’” You can’t just always go to your coach and say, ‘Give me more reps, or I'm transferring.’

“So when you’re stuck, you’ve gotta find it within yourself to say, ‘Ok, this is where I am. And if I’m going to be here, I’m going to be great.’

Because if you’re great at your job, typically other people and companies find out, so it creates opportunities.”

Takeaway 2:

In the field of strategic management, there is a distinction made between “lead measures” and “lag measures.”

Lag measures are the results you’re trying to achieve: getting a promotion, winning a championship, being the starting quarterback. Lead measures are the actions that predictably drive those results. 

The core characteristic of a lead measure, the authors of “The 4 Disciplines of Execution” write, is that “a lead measure can be directly influenced by you.” To achieve your goals, they write (echoing what the Michigan Coach told Brady), “apply a disproportionate energy” to the things that are in your control.

Starting at Michigan and for the rest of his career, that’s what Brady did.

After he was selected by the New England Patriots with the 199th pick in the 2000 draft, Brady was asked: “Are you aware that [along with starting quarterback, Drew Bledsoe] there’s another quarterback here that they drafted last year?” 

Brady said he was aware of that, “and I know he’s a heck of a player. But I’ve always concerned myself just with the things I can control. I don’t put a lot of thinking into the other guys because I know I’m not at my best when I’m not just thinking about playing as well as I possibly can.”

- - -

“I never once in my life ever said I wanted to be the best of all time. Ever. I wanted to be the best I could be, period. I learned that in college. It didn’t matter what the other guys were doing. It didn’t. It mattered what I was doing.” — Tom Brady

[IowaIntensity @IowaIntensity]

Got to watch these freshman Intensity girls play (and excel & win) against my alma mater tonight. #intensityfamily

[IowaIntensity @IowaIntensity]

We’re privileged to be able to make a donation to the Grinnell-Newburg Schools to purchase a new “Gun” for player rebounding/passing for youth basketball.