SFU Men's Basketball September 2017 Newsletter

It's that time of year! September brings a fresh start, a new school year..
September 26, 2017

A Message from the Head Coach 

It's that time of year!  September brings a fresh start, a new school year, and some new faces to the SFU campus for 2017-18.  With four incoming high school players, there is a youthful exuberance and excitement.  For our three Seniors, they have Freshman to help develop and show the ropes to and two college transfers to help balance the roster. How we develop leadership in all of our players is extremely important.  Creating good citizens of our school, future husbands, fathers and ambassadors of our sport is equally important. Reading James Kerr's book Legacy on the culture of the New Zealand All Blacks certainly changed my perspective on how we show and teach leadership to our young men.  The word legacy's meaning in Maori "something handed down by a predecessor" really sticks.  Regardless of what it is, we are handing down something!  We want what is handed down to be positive and life-changing.  With that in mind, we look to make huge strides on and off the court this season.  

‍On top of the Stawamus Chief - near Squamish,BC

   

‍Olympic Rings in Whistler Village

              

2017-18 Season Schedule Released

This year's schedule is a great mix of local games, tough Division I and Division II non-conference match-ups which includes a pre-season trip to San Diego. Although we have fourteen home games, we have to improve our overall record - especially on the road. In November, we start with a short trip to Bellingham and WWU's newly renovated Carver Gym to play Hawaii-Hilo and Notre Dame de Namur in a GNAC vs. PacWest Conference Challenge. We return home to take on Capilano and Quest University before heading to San Diego for US Thanksgiving to take on Azusa Pacific and Point Loma.  Our tough pre-season schedule will prepare us for the rigors of conference play when we host Western Oregon for our GNAC home opener on November 29th and Concordia on December 1st.  After our two week exam period, we will travel to Moscow to take on Don Verlin's Idaho Vandals (Division I) at the Cowan Spectrum on December 16th.  This will be a tremendous experience for our team playing in front of hostile crowd in a tremendous environment.  We return home to play Douglas and Langara on December 18th and 19th before a 7-day break.  Over the holidays we return to conference play at SMU (Dec. 28th) and SPU (Dec 30th). In 2018, we have some special nights planned for conference home games with those announcements coming very soon.  As usual, the GNAC will be another dogfight with the top six making playoffs.

Terry Fox Run > Friday, September 29 @ SFU

One of the biggest inspirations in our community and for our team is the story of Terry Fox.  I've been very lucky to grow up in the neighborhood Terry was from, play and coach at the high school Terry went to, and - in a small way - be a part of helping tell his story to our young people.  What makes Terry's story so special is he did something anyone "could do" but he did what no one else did do.  His passion for awareness, helping others, and being selfless are attributes we want our players to have and learn from Terry's legacy and what impact one person can have on the world.  We are certainly proud to call Terry Fox SFU's very own.  Our team will run in support of Terry's cause this Friday, September 29 and talk about his impact on our program and help raise awareness for cancer research.I hope you take a second to read about Terry's legacy and remember what his journey meant to all of us.   http://www.terryfox.org/terrys-story/marathon-of-hope/ 

Wednesdays are WINS-DAY with Us

Compete. Compete. Compete. Last year, I read an article that Richard Sherman from the Seattle Seahawks wrote in the Players' Tribune about Pete Carroll's culture and the Seahawks' way.  It was how they have a Compete Day that has nothing to do with football every week.  I thought we could use a little bit of that and add it to our pre-season when we can't use a basketball.As we prepare for the start of full practices on Sunday, October 15th, one thing we want to instill in our players is the desire to compete and WIN.  The outcome is less important than what it means and what it takes to compete each and every day.  Whether it is sunny or raining, whether it is a game of baseball or conditioning on the track, we want guys that WANT TO WIN in everything they do.  It is a mindset. Each Wednesday, from 12:30-2:20 PM we compete in non-basketball conditioning.  We have split our guys into two teams and by mid-October we will crown a WINSday Champion.  Points are accumulated for every competition we do.  Week 1 we ran sprint relays on the track followed by football field goals and a longest throw competition, Week 2 we did a school-wide "Hunt". Our players had to use their phones to take selfies of locations on campus, with their teammates, and compete against a clock.  They went hard, guys were sweating, and having fun.  COMPETE! 

Carl Bergstrom from CoreVYO > Helping us move better...

Carl Bergstrom of CoreVYO was a guest coach at one of our 7:00 AM sessions this month.  The CoreVYO was devised by world renown physiotherapist Rick Celebrini while working with professional athletes like Steve Nash.  I see it as much of a teaching tool as it is a piece of equipment.  Carl had our guys go through a progression of movements, slides and ball handling which had our players focus on stability and balance - thus living in the correct position to perform multi-directional movements effectively.  It is something we need to work on everyday and we thank Carl and CoreVYO for teaching our team and our coaching staff.