Kris Dunn's Home: A Short Story

It all started with an email seeking freshman male in his coaching and administration program. The 2012 graduate of UConn’s Sport Administration and coaching program, William Aloia, says this future success as the Associate Athletic Director for The College of St. Rose started out by almost” falling into his lap”. The New Jersey native began his undergraduate experience with two Division-I parents, and like an abundance of people he knew that working in sport was something he wanted to do. Previously a part of the Kinesiology department under the late Joe Marrone, Will jumped on the opportunity posted through an email and started his freshman year as a basketball manager for the very successful UConn’s basketball program. He explains how this experience “opened his door up”. Will states; “once I started at UConn working with the women’s basketball program and being around collegiate athletics at such a high level it’s really something in itself, and unbelievable experience. I knew it was for me, I didn’t know which part for sure, but I knew this was something I wanted to do.” What Will realized very quickly realized about working in sport is that often times it is a thankless job. However, that did not stop him from finishing his undergraduate career as a four-year manager for the basketball team. The motivation for Will early in his career has been a two-dimensional illustration of success.

He “grew up” in Chapel Hill, “believing that Dean Smith, the legendary coach of the University of North Carolina Tar Heels basketball-team (who retired recently after thirty-six years), embodied virtue and goodness as surely as Jesse Helms represented hate and ignorance.” This shows us that Williamson has been greatly affected by the culture around Chapel Hill and finds the actions done by Chapel Hill to generally be those of “virtue and goodness.” This influence has built him into a person that deeply cares about college sports, athletes, and the events that revolve around college sports. Also, his childhood revolved around college sports such as how “from age 12 [he] watched Michael Jordan and others from a court side perch as an operator of UNC’s old manual scoreboard,” and this has given him a strong sense of pride for UNC sports. We notice more of this pride and determination for college sports when he describes how he “[strives] to keep the game in perspective,” when watching a game and when he “[feels] elation when the Tar Heels win and supreme dejection when they lose.”

There are two shades of blue that rule the basketball courts in and around Durham, North Carolina. Both are perennially the best in the ACC and are fierce rivals. The head coaches of both teams are great leaders on the basketball court and in the game of life. In addition, they are able to manage multimillion dollar budgets and maintain the ultra positive image of their players and their respective school.

Before Mark Dantonio took charge of his new football team, the previous coach, John L. Smith, was slowly leading the program downhill. Smith’s last season at Michigan State lead to Athletic Director Mark Hollis replacing him with Mark Dantonio. His previous role as an assistant coach in the program would allow for a smooth transition into the program (Hollis). Suddenly, Dantonio was confronted with a long to do list. He must find a way to rebuild a previously existing winning culture to surround the program. Accomplishing this means finding success over local powerhouses such as Michigan, Notre Dame, and Ohio State. Dantonio relied on player development to compete with these teams but eventually he had to start drawing in talent. His tenure

In his coaching it was not all glamour, on March 15, 1963 Arizona State defeated UCLA 93-79 the first game of the NCAA Western Regional Tournament. John had just created a new dimension of a 2-2-1-zone press that was designed to force teams to shoot the ball quickly. The final score did not discourage Wooden for at the end he announced that he liked what he had seen. John Wooden worked with his players and on March 20, 1965 UCLA won the second consecutive National Championship using Wooden’s zone. Determination in any sport is crucial and that is what John Wooden had in every practice and game. This trait of John Wooden’s was by far the strongest and the earliest developed. When John graduated from the 8th grade his father gave him a card with three rules, don't wine, don't complain, and don't make excuses. From these rules John knew that the only other option was to succeed. He built a Big Ten University from what was once an organization without a home court. His players saw the determination in there coach and displayed it as well. By showing determination and instilling it in his player John taught that the people who do work the hardest will receive the glory and the ones with natural ability can only strive so

The day was March 27, 1980 and NC State had just hired a new basketball coach. He was a fiery Italian from Queens New York named Jim Valvano. He had previously coached at Iona College in Rochelle, New York from 1975-1980. His first order of business at North Carolina State was to ensure that the players in place would stay in the program as many of them were contemplating transfer to other schools. His main focus was on the big three,

During this book there is one character that really pops out, and his name is Owen Evans. Owen has a twin brother named Russell Evans, and the difference is that Owen is a basketball star who lights up the scoreboards, while Russell is the brainac powerhouse who rocks the school boards. Now in this story it mostly happens at the Evans household and The Lewis and Clark Middle School Pioneers. Owen in now a 7th grader at Lewis and Clark Middle, and he played at Cotter Elementary where they were undefeated (if you didn’t count there five loses, because the refs were out to get them.) Now that he is getting a new coach, Coach Baxter, he is afraid that he won’t make the team and that if he does he won’t start like he did last year. Later that day

His brothers are the two people in his life that got him inspired to start playing basketball. Kristaps brother Janis was a really good basketball player and got sent to play in a european league when he was 17 years old. Well, Kristaps was not far behind him and was just as good as his brother or even brother. So two years later Kristaps was starting on his high school basketball team and was getting looked at by his brothers european league team. Soon after his senior game he was offered to go to a camp at his brothers college and he did not decline. They saw so much talent in Kristaps and would not let him go so they picked him up. But sadly shortly after Kristaps got to start on the team he got very sick. His red blood cell count went down very low and almost died. But thankfully he was getting better everyday after he got sent to the hospital. Just 2 weeks later he was pack practicing and got to get back on the court to

In the world college basketball, most basketball players come and go. Moreover, these athletes remain in a conundrum. For those unaware, professional sports remains as volatile as a high-risk investment. This remains attributed to the uncertainty pertaining to professional players. With that being said, numerous players get injured and lose their dreams of playing the sport professionally. In spite of all of these risks, several college basketball teams continue to produce desirable talent. Moreover, these athletes would cease to exist without the assistance of a coach. To expound further, college basketball coaches play an integral role in defining an athlete's strength and using these strengths to their advantage. Furthermore, college basketball

John Wooden’s first year as a coach at UCLA was not your average persona. A regular day for Coach Wooden during his first year as UCLA’s basketball coach, was every morning at six a.m. until noon spend time at a local diary to make money. Afterwards, he was a dispatcher of trucks and was a troubleshooter. When all the trucks made all their deliveries, he would call in the next day’s orders, sweep the place and head over to UCLA. Once he got to UCLA, him and his assistant would mop the gymnasium floor to get it ready for the afternoon’s practice.

On April 1, 2000, I was placed into a group home because of my behavior at the home. My dad and I didn’t get along. So he sent me to a placed called Bowman House. When I arrived there the first person I met was a lady name Alexander, she begin showing me around the units. Alexander was called the granny of the units. It was two units for the boys and girls. She took me to the boys unit first to look at the units. After I looked at the boys unit she took me to the girls unit. Where I would be staying. I had the chance to bond with Alexander, it wasn’t something I was trying to do it just happen. I had to stay with Alexander until the staff came back from picking the other peers up from school. An hour pass and the peers came back I had to go

It wasn't until I was an adult that my appreciation for Fred Rodgers was established. I imagine it's the same with most of us. As a child, Mr. Rodgers Neighborhood wasn't my favorite show. It was just something to watch on a warm sunny summer afternoon.

In the baseball program, coach Jason Smuck stepped down from his position and coach Brendon Mcnulty took his spot. When Coach Mcnulty was asked about his job, he gladly responded. First he was asked, why he wanted to become the baseball coach. He answered by saying, “ The job was open and I worked with the guys as players and as students. I wanted to input my own ideas and thoughts, in the process of coaching a team.”

Nobody told her not to go to the well behind Mr. Porters house, so she did. Sure, people would look down upon the action, some even calling it trespassing, but she didn’t care. Nobody warned anything about it, nobody directly, or even indirectly, told her not to go to her 96 year old neighbors house. They were either ways going to brush off the topic due to the curiosity of a four year old, and that was true. She only went to the backyard because she was curious, but she wasn’t curious for what your average 4 year olds would be curious for. It wasn’t the yapping dog that nearly scared her half to death when she entered the backyard through the freshly painted white picket fence. Nor was it the newly grown dandelions that scattered all around the emerald green yard. It was just the well.

I was Trick,or treating in spencer and I went to mss. Millers house and she gave me some candy reese’s, hershey’s, butterfinger, and whoppers then she pointed behind me saying there are lights behind you. I turned back, there weren’t any lights all there was, was a shadow what looked like a semi parked on the road then I left then I heard the engine sound follow me and I looked back I saw the semi was closer then before then I was at mrs. Kendalls house and knocked on her door and she comes out and gives me a hug and she gives me candy too! And she hears a honk of the truck and I heard it and I looked back and I saw the truck even closer so I leave mrs. Kendall and goes to to mrs. Fulks house and she gives me a fist bump and some candy and