Daily Journals
Photo Credit: Joe Renuart, Tiffin University Athletic Department
Author
John Tenerowicz
April 4, 2024Today I would like to reflect on some of the goals I set out for myself. When I first started this position, my goal was to gain as much knowledge and experience as I could working in college basketball. I have said this before, but my goal is to one day become a Division I head men’s basketball coach in college. In order to do that I know I must first work my way up. I had goals of learning about game planning, managing rosters, recruiting, player development, and so much more. I can honestly say that this experience has been incredibly valuable in helping me to achieve these goals. Throughout my time as a graduate assistant for Tiffin University men’s basketball I have had plenty of opportunity to gain experience working in these roles. I have helped manage scouting reports by watching film scouting the most common ran actions by the opposing team. I have helped with recruiting, setting up visits, going on recruiting trips, and planning the operations side of official visits as well. I have worked with player development, helping each player to reach their potential both on and off the court. This can mean helping players to perform in games while also helping them in the classroom so they can be the best student as well. I have also gotten to help manage rosters. Coach Church allowed me to share my voice in the depth chart rankings, who should be where in practice, and even rotational aspects of games. I am incredibly thankful for the opportunity I have received and I believe I have gained valuable experience that will be very vital to the development of my career.
April 3, 2024Working in college basketball has always been a dream of mine. It has been great to say that I am living out my dream as a graduate assistant working in college basketball at the Division II level. One of the cool things about working at the Division II level is all of the different responsibilities I can have. While Tiffin University may not be a super large school, this can have its benefits. This means that our staff as a team is not going to be a large as some of these other Division I staffs. When you have a larger staff this means that there are more people to do different jobs so each person will have their own responsibilities. However, with a smaller staff, this means that it allows everyone to take on more responsibility. Being a graduate assistant at a smaller school means that I have gotten to take on a lot of responsibilities that I would not have gotten to do at a larger school. I have been able to help manage travel operations, help with scouting reports, help with offseason workouts, have a voice in practice, and so much more. This is one of the aspects of this experience that I am so thankful for. Because I honestly get to say that I am gaining valuable experience that I may not have gotten elsewhere. I am incredibly blessed to be in the situation I am today. Throughout this experience I have learned so much and gained so much valuable information that will benefit me later in my career as a college basketball coach.
April 2, 2024One of my favorite parts of the offseason is how the team can just focus on preparing for the following season. When I was a college basketball player, I loved how in the offseason there was not a ton of duty’s that I needed to constantly be paying attention too. During a full college season, it can be easy to get caught up in all the responsibility’s one has with practices, games, and class. In the offseason classes are slowly coming to an end and the players can just focus on getting better during offseason workouts. This was my favorite part because I could just focus on how I need to develop and train to be in the best possible shape for the following season. Part of my offseason duties now is to work with players on how they can improve and develop for the following season. Some players have aspirations of playing professional overseas while others have goals of just being the best college basketball player they can be. Either way both are valid reasons for wanting to be the best they possibly can be. I have been meeting and discussing with players what they need to do throughout the offseason to best prepare for the following season. For some players this includes improving their strength, speed, and quickness. For other players this includes improving upon aspects of their basketball game such as shooting, dribbling, or finishing around the rim. Each player in unique and has their own plan that they must follow.
April 1, 2024Today was the start of a new week for Tiffin Men’s Basketball. This week started off with our coaching staff preparing to have official visits in the upcoming weeks. These visits would be for our varsity team. Since we are losing 7 players to graduation and 3 other players have entered the transfer portal, we have a lot of positions to fill on the team. Official visits are different than people just coming to visit the campus. Official visits mean that we have serious interest in offering a player a scholarship and this player has serious interest in coming to Tiffin for the following season. We often set up official visits to entice players to commit. When we set up official visits, the team pays for the player and his family’s travel, hotel, and food. They get a free trip to come out to campus and get to enjoy the whole experience. On top of this the player also gets to spend time with the team to get to know his future coaches and teammates. This is very good for the player and his family because they really get to know the type of program he will be committing to. They get to have discussions and conversations with the coaching staff and with the players which really helps them get to know everyone they will be with the following year. The goal for us is to try to create a family-oriented culture that is serious about academics and the opportunity they will get on the court. This helps athletes to feel comfortable committing to Tiffin University.
March 28, 2024Today we had a recruit on campus for the extended varsity program. Recently we have been doing a lot of recruiting for the extended varsity program. It is anticipated that we will lose a good number of players from the extended varsity program due to the transfer portal or some players simply realizing that college athletics is not for them. It is always exciting when a recruit comes to visit the campus. This means you have an athlete who is genuinely interested in coming to the school and playing for your program. This individual was accompanied by his mom and dad on his visit. The visit starts with admissions taking him on a basic tour around campus. Then we met up with him to show the recruit the athletic facilities part of the campus. This usually involves showing them the weight room, the Heminger center, and the Gillmor Student Center. We especially want to show the Gillmor Student Center because that is where we play games and where the practices will ne held. It is always exciting for a student-athlete to see where they could be potentially playing for the next year. After this we then take them to have a meeting with Coach Church. This is where Coach Church talks about how the program is ran, the university, and discusses the potential opportunities the student-athlete will have by coming to play for Tiffin University next year. He also uses this time to answer any questions they may have. Recruiting is such an important aspect of college athletics and I am gaining valuable experience through this experience.
March 27, 2024Yesterday I discussed how thankful I am for my experience with this program and the fact that I am able to work with players directly. I would like to expand on this and discuss how important the relationship aspect is when it comes to college athletics and working in athletes. While it can be easy to get caught up is all the duties one has as a coach or as a player, it is important to focus on building relationships as well. As a former player who is now a coach working in college athletics, I realized how easy it can be to get caught up in everyday life. As an athlete you have so much to deal with, with school, study hall, practice, and workouts, it can be a lot. Same thing as a coach or just working in college athletics in general. I am a graduate assistant which means that I have to not only deal with schoolwork, but I must also deal with the duties of my job. It can be easy to overlook little aspects like forming relationships with players, however, this is very important to college athletics. Forming relationships and really understanding a player can allow a coach to understand the individual’s goals and background. This will not only help the coach work with the player, but it can help him to understand his or her goals and motivation. Little aspects like this are so important when working with a student-athlete that can be easily overlooked when dealing with a bust schedule, but it is vital to the success of a team, player, and coach.
March 26, 2024One of the best parts of my experience with Tiffin Men’s Basketball is the experience I have gotten to work directly with the players in their development. One of my personal duties as a graduate assistant was to help players individually with their development. This meant organizing workouts and plans to ensure that they could reach their full potential both on the court and off the court. One of my favorite things to do with players is to watch their game film and to find ways they can improve their game. Then taking these things that they need to improve upon and apply it to their workouts. There are plenty of times where a lot of players simply just do not know or understand what they are doing wrong. This is where I can come in as a coach and help them understand this. I can discuss with them things that I have personally seen them do that needs more work while also discussing things that they are really good at but need to continue to work on. This allows me to design workouts for each player individually. I will take what they are good at and what they need to improve upon and create a detailed plan to help them achieve their goals. There is nothing better than helping a player improve and seeing what you worked on translate directly to the court. It truly a rewarding thing. I am incredibly thankful that this experience has allowed me to work directly with players and see the progress I am able to help them with.
March 25, 2024 Today was the start of a new week for Tiffin Men’s Basketball. So, to start this week off I had to get my transfer portal spreadsheet updated to the current number of transfers in the portal. This year there have already been over 600 basketball players enter the transfer portal at just the Division II level. This shows just how serious the transfer portal is becoming. Every day a plethora of kids enter the portal looking to find a new home for the following school year. Because of this every college coach in the nation is basically trying to fill their roster with transfers for the following school year. This is the same at Tiffin this year. Our coaching staff is currently trying to find transfer players that can have an immediate impact the following season. Since we are losing seven seniors and three other players have already entered the transfer portal, our team has a lot of roster spots to fill for the following season. Today I entered over 100 new players into our spreadsheet of Division II transfers. This will allow for the coaches to be able to easily look through all the new players who entered the portal to find potential candidates for the following season. The transfer portal is such a huge part of college athletics today that it is completely changing the college game. Just ten years ago this many players did not enter the portal every year. However, now there will likely be over 1,000 players who entered the portal just after this season. It is crazy how much has changed but it goes to show the current landscape of college athletics.
March 21, 2024Today was the last day of the end of the season interviews for the extended varsity roster. These interviews have been really helpful for both the players and the coaching staff. For the players, it provides them with an opportunity to have an honest conversation with the staff. For the coaching staff, it provides them an opportunity to hear out the players and their perspectives. It also allows for the staff to plan for next year. These meetings provide insight as to who will be coming back for the next year and who will not be coming back. For the extended varsity roster, these players are not on athletic scholarship. Therefore, they are on their own to pay for school. Some players receive academic scholarships, and some are on financial aid. However, when players are on their own to pay for school, it becomes more common to see players quit college athletics. Some players decide after their first year that college sports just are not for them. This can be for multiple reasons. Some cannot afford it while some decide that simply playing sports in college is too much of a workload. These meetings allow us as a staff to figure out who plans on coming back and who does not. This way we can figure out how many players we need to recruit for the extended varsity program the following season. This is very important because we do not want to overrecruit but at the same time we need to make sure we have enough players. Therefore, these meetings give us insight to how many players we must recruit for the following season.
March 20, 2024Today was the second day of the extended varsity end of the season interviews. One of the big lessons I am learning from this is the importance of being upfront and honest about expectations and advice. Many of these meetings consist of players talking about their goals for the future and what they want to achieve as a player on the basketball court. As a former player and current coach I think it is great that these players have goals for themselves and things they want to achieve as players. The difficult part about this is that as a coach, you need to be upfront and honest with the players. There is nothing wrong with players having goals but at the same time they need to be realistic. There is saying that is one of my favorites and it is that if your actions do not match your goals then you need to either change your actions or change your goals. I am a very big fan of this saying. Because while it is good to have goals, you must also be taking the proper steps if you truly want to achieve these goals. During these meeting sometimes as a coach you have to be very honest with these players. There will be players who come in talking about how they want to be moved up to varsity but then are ineligible because of their grades. Every year we move up 1 or 2 players from the extended varsity program to the varsity team. Therefore, a lot of these player have goals to be moved up. But as a staff we have to be honest with them. If we believe that they are not doing the right things to be moved up then we must have honest conversations with them about what they need to fix.
March 19, 2024Today was the start of the end of the season exit interviews for the extended varsity players. Our meetings today started at 10:30 am and ended around 11:30. These meetings are very valuable. They allow the players and coaches to have face to face conversations about their plans for the future and talk about their experience throughout the year. With the transfer portal being such a huge part of college athletics now, it allows some of these players to have opportunities elsewhere as well. Some of these meetings consist of players coming in and discussing their desire to transfer schools. The reasons can be for many different factors, some are too far away from home, some can no longer afford school, and some simply believe that there is a better opportunity out there for them elsewhere. These can be difficult conversations to have but they are very beneficial to the players, the staff, and the program. It is very rare to have these conversations face to face which is why they are so important for the players. It is very valuable to have these in person conversations with the players and hear their thoughts and opinions on everything. Sometimes they will even ask for advice in the case if they are transferring. Some players will ask what our personal thoughts are and ask if us as a staff can help them find a good situation. This is really valuable and I believe that being honest in these meetings allows for the players to receive the best feedback that will help them in their life.
March 18, 2024Today was the start of a new week for Tiffin University basketball. The emphasis this week will be end of the season meetings. With the season just ending 2 weeks ago, it is a standard practice for each individual player to have their own individual meeting with the head coach. At Tiffin we have an extended varsity program that has their own roster, schedule, and practices. As a graduate assistant one of my roles for the program is to operate as the head coach of the extended varsity program. With the season now over, Coach Church wanted to have individual end of the season meetings with each player on the extended varsity roster along with each player on the varsity roster. My job was to formulate a schedule for this week for what time each player on the extended varsity roster would have their meeting with Coach Church during this week. I spent a good portion of my day getting in contact with each individual player and finding a time that worked for them to have their meeting. The tricky part about this is that I not only had to find a time that worked for that player, but I also had to make sure it was during a part of the day when Coach Church was free. Also, I had to make sure that the time that worked did not conflict with another player’s meeting time. This became a lot more difficult than I thought because there are about 20-30 extended varsity players on the roster so there was a lot of conflict in scheduling when planning all of these meetings.
March 14, 2024With the offseason underway one of the main focuses every basketball player has is developing for next season. However, when a senior plays his last college basketball game, there is no next season in college basketball. That does not mean that these seniors cannot keep playing professionally though. Some of our seniors graduating this spring have decided that they want to pursue a professional basketball career overseas. One of my duties has been to help some of these players achieve overseas basketball careers. I am doing this by compiling highlight tapes for every player to send out to agents and coaches overseas. I am also creating offseason workout plans for them to develop their game as they continue to train for their future overseas basketball careers. These plans showcase their strengths that they need to continue to work on as well as weaknesses that need to be improved upon. I will also be hosting offseason workouts with them to help apply these plans to real life. Now that the seniors are graduating, there are no more restrictions on how many hours they can spend on the court with a coach. When you are a college athlete, there are limited amount of hours players can spend on the court with coaches in the offseason. But now that the seniors have used all of their eligibility, these rules no longer apply to them. So, they are allowed to workout with the coaches as much as they want. By doing this they will be one step closer to achieving their goals.
March 13, 2024Today the big emphasis in the office was recruiting in the transfer portal. The transfer portal has completely changed the landscape of college athletics and especially college basketball. Each year more players than ever are entering the transfer portal after the conclusion of their season. Some people question whether this is good for college sports or not. I think this is great for the sport of basketball. I am all about player empowerment and I believe that if an athlete is unhappy in his or her situation then that individual should not be forced to stay. I myself am a product of the transfer portal as that is how I originally ended up at Tiffin. I think it can be a great way to provide opportunity to those who are in bad situations or in situations that are not the best for their own personal development. With that being said I have started making a list of all the players entering the transfer portal who may be potential players for Tiffin. Our team will be losing seven seniors to graduation and possibly a few more to the transfer portal. So, the transfer portal will be a huge part to our team’s success next season. The list I am compiling will allow for the rest of the coaching staff to easily find players and be able to contact them for next year. Our goal as a staff is to find the best possible players to fill our class for next season. With the power of the transfer portal, this will all be possible.
March 12, 2024Today I was really tired after working a 23-hour day the day before. I arrived at the office at 10 am but luckily did not have to work as long as I only worked until 4 pm. I have realized that working as a college basketball coach will require some very long workdays. Not every day will be super long but with all a coach has to worry about with playing games and recruiting, it can result in some very long workdays. However, that is the sacrifice you must be willing to make to work in the sports industry. Despite the long day yesterday and how tired I felt waking up coming into work this morning, I was incredibly thankful for the experience I was given. Today’s focus was on the transfer portal. In college athletics, the transfer portal has become a huge part of every coaches off season. Every off season there are now over a thousand college basketball players entering the transfer portal. Coaches are constantly looking for transfers to bring into their program all off season. One of my jobs is to compile a giant spreadsheet of every player who enters the transfer portal who could potentially play for us. This list will continue to expand each day as there are new players entering the transfer portal every day. The goal with this is to make a spreadsheet so that Coach Church and Coach Des and look through all the players we have compiled to easily find prospects for next season. They will then get in contact with the players and hopefully set up visits for them to come down to Tiffin University, see the campus and learn what Tiffin Basketball is all about.
March 11, 2024Today was one of the longest day’s I had worked all year. I worked a total of 23 hours. My day started at 4:45 am. I went on a recruiting trip with two of the other coaches on the staff. We left campus at 5:30 am to head to Ina, Illinois. This was a six-and-a-half-hour drive. Our goal for this recruiting trip was to search for potential recruits for next year’s season. Tiffin Men’s Basketball is losing 7 seniors due to graduation. Because of this, the team has a lot to replace for next season. We arrived at Ren Lake Community College around noon. He first of four games would be starting at 1 pm. We watched four different basketball games in hopes of finding potential players. This event featured junior college basketball players. In college basketball, junior college basketball players are only given 2 years to play at their school and then they might be recruited to play at a four-year school for the rest of their college career. We were looking at these junior college players because we already have 3 high school seniors signed so we want to now search for older more experienced players to bring in. In the four games I watched we watched two players who our staff is really interested in. Our staff plans on really recruiting these players in hopes that they commit to Tiffin for next year. We left Ren Lake Community College around 8:30 pm central time. We then had another 6-and-a-half-hour drive back home where we would also be gaining an hour due to the time zone change. Our trip finally ended at 4 am when we arrived back to campus, and I was able to head home after a long day. Despite being such a long day, this was a great experience for me where I learned a lot about recruiting in college basketball.
January 20, 2024 (10 Hours)Today was game day for Tiffin Men’s basketball. Today Tiffin matched up against the number 1 team in the conference, Trevecca Nazarene. Heading into the game Trevecca was 12-4 overall and 7-1 in conference games. Tiffin was 10-5 overall and 4-3 in conference games. Because of this there was a lot on the line for both teams. Today I did my usual duties before the game by preparing the gear and jerseys for the players, setting up for the game on the court, helping the players with shootaround and preparing pregame meal. The game started at 3 pm so the team started stretching an hour before the game while the women’s team was playing. Once the game was over the team then began its 30-minute warm up before tip-off. There was a good amount of people at the game as today was our annual alumni game. I helped set up an area for the alumni the day before the game so that they could gather and watch the game. The game went in Tiffin’s favor was we won 81-77 in a hard-fought game. I was responsible for my usual duties during the game which includes watching the actions the other team was running to help game plan against them. Beating the number 1 team in the conference was huge for Tiffin. It made it even better that we were able to get this win in front of all the alumni. Some of the alumni came into the locker room to talk with the team and how proud they are of the guys. It’s always great to meet and talk with former players who still support the team to this day.
January 19, 2024 (10 Hours)As I have said before, Fridays are always busy days. Not only were we coming off a win from the night before, but now we had only one day to prepare for our game at 3 pm on Saturday against Trevecca Nazarene. Our game tomorrow would be our annual alumni game where we welcome back all Tiffin alumni. In order to prepare for it we had to set up as there would be a special set up for the alumni in the upper section of the bleachers. I arrived at the office at 8:30 and spent the first hour and a half setting up for the game. This required pushing back the bleachers and placing tables and chairs in that area for the alumni. There would be a plan to have food during the game so that the alumni can watch while enjoying food. After this, I then watched film on Trevecca Nazarene to prepare for the game tomorrow. Our team had practice from 1-3 pm. During practice we walked through a lot of actions we expected to see from Trevecca tomorrow and discussed our game plan to guard it. We then went over the scouting report and watched film on the team’s personnel. It was also my duty tonight to make sure that the gym and basketballs were ready for Trevecca Nazarene to practice tonight. However, there was a problem. It was originally planned for them to practice from 7:30-9 pm, however there was miscommunication and they ended up showing up at 6 pm, needing access to the basketballs and locker rooms. I was alerted of this and had to instantly run up to get the basketballs our for them and provide them access to the locker rooms so they could practice. This taught me a very important lesson of always being prepared for plans to possibility change. Luckily I was available and ready to help when I was needed.
January 18, 2024 (14 Hours)Today was once again game day for Tiffin Men’s Basketball. Today we had a game against Kentucky Wesleyan at 7:30 pm. My day started at 8:30 am when I arrived to the office. The first thing I did was make sure all the gear was washed for shootaround and the game today. I then finished up some of the scouting work I needed to do before the game. Our team had shootaround at 2 pm. During shootaround the players prepare for the game by practicing shooting and then reviewing how we plan to attack and defend Kentucky Wesleyan tonight. After shoot around I had to get out all of the gear for the game by passing out everyone’s jerseys, shorts, and shooting shirts. After that I then made sure everyone showed up to team meal so that everyone had food before the game. The game started at 7:30, but with the women’s team playing before us this means that we start warming up on the court at 7 pm. In order to give the guys extra time to stretch and be prepared, we run them through a stretching routine beforehand and then go over the game plan inside the locker room. This was a great game tonight as Tiffin won 72-59 over Kentucky Wesleyan. After the game I then had to collect everyone’s gear to make sure we had it all and then wash it. I ended up staying a few hours after as coach wanted to start preparing and planning for our next game which was on Saturday. I ended up leaving the office around 10:40 pm after a great day for Tiffin Men’s Basketball.
January 17, 2024 (10 Hours)This Wednesday I arrived at the office at 8:30 am. The first thing I did upon arriving to work was switch out the laundry so that the players gear would be ready for practice and team lift. After that I watched film to prepare for our game on Thursday and then I helped instruct a few individual player workouts. After this the team had team lift from 2:45-3:45. It is one of our responsibilities to supervise team lift and making sure everyone shows up. After team lift, we headed back to the gym to start setting up for practice. We practiced today from 4:15-6 pm. This practice was much lighter as it was the day before a game. A lot of the practice consisted of discussing how the team will defend Kentucky Wesleyan’s actions and what we are going to do offensively against them. The team then closed out practice by watching film on Kentucky Wesleyan. During film the team watched film on each player discussing their tendencies and how we plan to guard them. We also watched their actions to discuss what we expect to see tomorrow. After practice ended, I had to collect everyone’s practice jerseys and gear to wash them so that they will be ready for tomorrow. My day ended at 6:30 but Kentucky Wesleyan was using the gym from 7-8:30 pm. So therefore, I had to be here to put out the ball rack and put it away once they were done with practice. However, I am not allowed to be in the gym while they practice, so after I provided them with the basketballs, I went home and then came back once their practice time was up to put away the basketballs back into the locker room.
January 16, 2024 (11 Hours)This Tuesday I arrived at the office once again at 8:30 am. This day would be a longer day as our extended varsity program had their first practice back from winter break. Our varsity team practiced from 3:30-5:15 and then our extended varsity team practiced right after from 5:30-7 pm. In today’s practice, our varsity team went through the different actions we would be expecting to see in our game on Thursday against Kentucky Wesleyan. It is always important to scout opponents to best prepare the team to succeed in the upcoming games. We ended practice by going over the scouting report and discussing the tendencies of each individual player on Kentucky Wesleyan. After practice we then had a team meeting with the extended varsity program. We discussed the team expectations for the second semester, the upcoming schedule for practices and games, and what the off-season workouts will look like. After the team meeting, we then held practice until 7 pm. The extended varsity program is coached by the graduate assistants. As a graduate assistant for the basketball team, my responsibilities are to help coach the varsity program while running practices and coaching games for the extended varsity program. Being the first day back, we wanted the guys to compete and get back to playing with each other. Therefore, we did a lot of competition and live play during the practice. This helped to keep the players locked in during the practice and make the practice very competitive. Overall today was a good day with the extended varsity programs first practice back and preparing the varsity program for their game.
January 15, 2024 (8 Hours)This Monday I was back in the office preparing for a very important week for Tiffin Men's Basketball. After losing Saturday's game, we would now play the two of the top three teams in our conference with Kentucky Wesleyan on Thursday and Trevecca Nazarene on Saturday. One of the most important lessons I have learned since working with Tiffin is just how important it is to take every game serious in college athletics. College athletics are so exciting because you get to watch and help college athletes compete, learn, and live their dream of playing their selected sport. However, in the midst of a season, it can be easy to be caught up in the workload of a season, and potentially not take certain games as serious as one should have. That’s what I believe happened to use in last Saturday’s game against Malone. Malone was one of the bottom teams heading into the game but yet, it is important to always give every game your best effort. The players and coaches left the game after a loss feeling as though we let a game slip away fro0m us. Now with two of the top teams in the conference this week. Tiffin is looking to correct their efforts and get back on track with two huge wins. The staff and players are all seriously preparing for these games. The best part is that they are both home games which means we will have home court advantage on our side. I am hoping both of these games end up in our favor with the home crowd on our side.
January 13, 2024 (13 Hours)This Saturday Tiffin Men’s Basketball had another game. My day started at 6:45 am as I arrived at the office to finish up packing the equipment and load up the bus. The bus left at 7:30 am for Malone University in Canton, Ohio. The trip was originally only supposed to be 2 hours long however it ended up being a little bit longer due to terrible weather conditions of very intense winds. We arrived at a restaurant called The Cracked Egg where we had team meal. This meal was organized by the other GA’s and I, as we collected everyone’s meal orders and called in the day before to organize the meal so that the food was ready upon arrival. After team meal we headed to Malone University for shoot around where the players worked on their shooting and the team walked through what to expect during the game once again. After shoot around the team headed to a conference room near a hotel where I set up for the team to watch film on Malone University that day. I then packed up the bus once again and the team headed to Malone around 1 pm where the Tiffin Women’s Team was playing before our game. Around 2 the team started pregame stretching and then warmed up before the game. The team ended up losing a close game to Malone 69-61. After the game it was my duty to collect all the team gear and load up the bus with the equipment to head back to Tiffin. We stopped at Cane’s for post-game meal where the meal was already preordered for the team. I went inside to pick it up and bring it back on the bus to pass out to the team while we traveled back to Tiffin. We arrived back at Tiffin around 7:45. This was another busy day and unfortunate we lost however there are still many lessons that can be learned from losses as the team we will try to get back on track next week.
January 12, 2024 (8 Hours)Fridays during the conference part of the season are always busy as well. This is because during the conference part of the season, the Great Midwest Athletic Conference (GMAC) plays on Thursdays and Saturdays. Therefore, on Fridays there are duties that need to be done because it is not only the day after a game, along with duties that must be done because there is another game tomorrow. The first thing I did was wash the player’s gear, then the jerseys, and then the loops. I did it in the order because the players may need some gear for practice today so I make sure to wash that first. Practice was at 1 today so before practice I watched film on the upcoming opponent for tomorrow, I set out all the equipment for practice, and then I organized a few player workouts before practice as well. Practice went from 1-3 today. Todays practice was lighter as the team was recovering from a game the day before and preparing to play a game the next day. Today’s practice consisted of watching film on the upcoming opponent tomorrow, walking through what to expect from them, and getting up a lot of shots. After practice I had to start packing the equipment as we would be traveling on the road to head to Malone University for the game in the morning. This means I had to make sure the jerseys were packed, shooting tops, towels, and other game day gear, along with Gatorade, water, and snacks for the team. I also had to pack equipment for practice such as towels and the projector as our team is planning on arriving early to Malone for shoot around and then watching film in a conference room after before the game. My day ended around 4:30 where I was able to go home and prepare for an early morning the next day.
January 11, 2024 (14 hours)Today was game day for Tiffin Men’s Basketball. These days usually consist of much longer hours compared to the rest of the days. My day started at 8:30 am where the first thing I did upon getting to the office was changing out the laundry to ensure that all the players had the right gear they needed for shootaround and the game later that night. After switching the laundry and passing out the gear, I went to McDonalds to place a breakfast order for team breakfast at 10 am. After team breakfast I watched film on the upcoming opponent that day, until about 12:30 where I went onto the court to set up for team shootaround at 1:30. Shootaround went from 1:30-2:30 and then after it was my duty as a graduate assistant to get the team pregame meal and get everything organized in the cafeteria for the team to eat. The game did not start until 7 pm, however there were many tasks that needed to be done in between team meal and the game. This included passing out jerseys and shooting shirts, filling up the refrigerator with Gatorades and water, watching more film, and leading the team through pregame stretches and warmups before tip-off. At 7:30 the game started where Tiffin won 70-49 against Ashland University. After the game it was my duty to get the team post game meal, clean up the locker room, organize the gear and jerseys, and meet with the staff about or next game on Saturday. I ended up leaving the office around 10:30. Game days are usually the busiest days of the week. However, they are the most exciting as the team gets to play a game and there is a lot to learn from how the team prepares to play each game.
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