Personal Narrative: The Navarro Runnin Lady Panthers Basketball

“Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do”, as the great John Wooden would say. In the vignette Coach Wooden and Me by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, the author talks about how his basketball coach became his best friend and influenced his life in many distinctive ways. This tale tells the story of how two vastly different, yet successful individuals in John Wooden and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar altered each other’s lives for the better. I think the author wrote this book to share the wisdom of Coach Wooden in hopes of changing young lives similarly to how his life was changed by informing Coach Wooden’s ideas, for instance his Pyramid of Success and his many inspirational quotes, one being:”Be more concerned about you character than your reputation, as your character is who you truly are and your

Coach Steve Rocker is one of the most successful high school basketball coaches in Kentucky’s history. Coach Rocker was very successful in previous years. Strangely, this year was very different for him. For the first time in his professional life, he is falling short of his expectations, the community expectations, and the team’s expectations. His team lost a lot of games, but most importantly the boys had no motivation or desire to bring the team out of the rut they found themselves. His players have lost their will to win, their love for their teammates, and their passion to play. Coach Rocker’s motivational methods that have always worked before and resulted in success are now failing, and he doesn’t know why. He argues that his players have become selfish and bored with winning because they have been so successful in previous years. “And there’s no question that my guys have lost their drive to win because they’ve won so much in the past. Now all they want is individual ‘wins’…which just doesn’t cut it on a team” (Gongwer, 2010, p. 17).

As an athlete, I acknowledge the guidance and energy thrived off a special coaches. To recognize that their main priority is to guide us with positive vibes and to play the role as another effective role model in our lives. They’re are more than the ones who corrects your mistakes, pushes you regardless of your indecisive to do anything,

I will inspire athletes to demonstrate good character. Sports do not have an influence on one’s character; however, coaches can strongly impact athletes’ character, both negatively and positively. For this reason, I will work to coach in ways that support the growth of athletes’ character and create learning opportunities and situations in which athletes can practice and learn from. As a coach, I will lead by example and demonstrate good character because actions speak louder than words. I will do this by embodying sportsmanship and respecting athletes, opponents, other coaches, and referees. I will also show this to athletes by respecting, caring, and being trustworthy. I will also lead by example by staying

I’m from a town in which the basketball program is not known for winning. Growing up going through a program like that nearly killed my love for the game. My main career goal is to become a coach and return back to my hometown. I want to reshape the entire program into a winning program. I want to create a legacy in my hometown. I’ve also seen so many girls who grew up playing the game quit once they went through its current program. Their love of the game was destroyed, and seeing that happen to so many people nearly destroyed me. I want to return and fix the program so the younger generations have something to strive

When I went to Pike High School I participated in an activity called color guard for four years. Color guard is a performing arts activity that incorporates dance while using flags, rifles, and sabers. When I began this activity I barely understood what I was getting myself into. Our team got abandoned by our coach for most of the winter season my freshman year, so our show was pretty awful. We went to competitions with expectations of losing and embarrassment among our peers. At this point everyone was discouraged about how our winter season ended. It was not far to the seniors who gave their whole high school years for this activity. Something had to be changed to in order for our team to progress in the future. Second semester our guard Director, Mr. Emmert, hired Nick Bledsoe as our new coach. Though he was a skinny short white guy with blond hair something about him was intimidating. He walked into the guard room like he owned the place. He sat up with such a great posture that I straightened up from my usual slouch. The seniors did not like Nick too much, but their only wish for him was to not give up on us. From that day forward Nick dedicated his work towards our team regardless of how challenging it was to manage. My guard coach Nick was amazing because of how passionate he was about his profession at my high school.

I remember that day as if it was like yesterday, it was a warm day, the sun shining, and it was the perfect weather for us to play in. The important day for the Iowa-Grant Panther Softball 5th and 6th grade team, it was our championship game.

In November of 2014, my team and I made it past the first round of the LHSAA Division AAAA playoffs after defatting the number twenty-eight seed, Belle Chase High School. After finishing a very good regular season with a record of 10-2, we went into the playoffs surprising everyone as the number four seed. After the winning the first round in style, we found ourselves matched up with defending state champs from the season before. On this defending state champ team, they possessed some of the top defensive backs in the state of Louisiana. In this nail biter of game, my team and I would face adversity, nervousness, and discipline. We got on the rented charter bus, and began our trip down to the heart of New Orleans to play the East Jefferson Warriors in what would be a very exciting high school football game full of hard hits and upsets.

The experience of coaching impacted me majorly, and helped to build my character to what it is today. This service project was not only extremely important to the community, it was also extremely important to me personally because I was able to express this love with young girls that were aspiring to follow my in footsteps. The pressure of having young girls look up to me in every aspect of life such as, cheerleading, academics, and character, added to the accountability of building my character to one that is desirable. Because I knew so many young girls were looking up to me, I made sure that I set the example that my five year old self once looked up

One situation in which I overcame adversity is making b-team basketball for White Knoll High School. Basketball has always been a love of mine. I first fell in love with basketball when I went to an Atlanta Hawks game with my dad when I was 5. Afterwards, my dad purchased a basketball goal to go over the garage and we spent most our weekends playing in the driveway. The next year my dad signed me up for a recreational league in the area, and I played in the same league for 5 years. My dad was my very first coach. The pride he'd have on the sidelines when I made shots or played good defense forever cemented my love for the game of basketball.

There were 3 families going to Toronto, Canada to watch the “Panama Girls Basketball Games.”They were staying in a large house in a small neighborhood. When it was time to go to the basketball game we had to drive to a small train station about 3 miles from the house. The train station was very small it only had a few trains going to the station. As we walk up the concrete stairs to the track we can here wheels on the solid metal track. As the train pulled up it kept going and you saw lots of heads from the large windows go by.We got on a long silver train with about 25-30 cars and each had two levels. You walked onto one of the cars and the seats were blue with red,yellow, and white spots on it. The carpets match the seats and each car had maybe 20 seats and seat held 2 people.

Coach Ed Thomas, the heroic football coach from Parkersburg, Iowa, once said, “If all I have taught you is how to block and tackle, then I have failed as a coach.” Coach Rod Conrad, the girls head basketball coach, uses this same philosophy even though he does not coach football. He inspires girls on and off the court through his words and actions. These traits (and many more) are what make Conrad a genuine hero.

Within Sports Coaching Literature, it has been established that reflection is a generic term for intellectual and effective activities, in which individuals examine their experiences, in order to develop new understanding and intrapersonal appreciation (Knowles, et al., 2006). Research in this field has advocated reflective practice as an approach to professional development which positively impacts coaching effectiveness (Cropley, et al., 2012). This reflective report shall discuss, analyse and evaluate my own personal development throughout my first semester spent studying at UCFB, in order to develop new understanding and intrapersonal appreciation, and help explore my decisions and experiences, increasing understanding of

The coach tirelessly pursues personal education, formally and informally, both in the performance related sciences and in liberal arts. He sees the journey to coaching excellence as a never ending story; seen not only in terms of a chosen sport and coaching theory and practice, but in understanding how to successfully live a balanced and full life, while facing tougher and tougher challenges in the chosen field of endeavour.

One simple question changed my life. It was a scorching hot day in the middle of August in Wingate, North Carolina. My parents and I were sitting in coach Hancock's office in the basement of the admissions building. While sitting on the stiff black couch in coach Hancock's office, I could feel beads of sweat accumulated on my back. Never before had I sweat this much in my life, I knew I was nervous awaiting what coach Hancock was going to say next. Instead, I heard my mom begin to talk, I turned and looked at her with my eyes wide and a fake smile on my face. As I'm listening to my mom speak, I hear her ask me if I had any questions to ask the coach. Nonetheless, I started to ask coach Hancock various questions about her team chemistry and volunteering they may do. Even though, I thought I had asked all the questions I had previously rehearsed in the car on the way to Wingate University I was quickly reminded by my mom that I wanted to ask one more important question. “How does your team defend ball screens?”