Sunday, March 13, 2011

As One Season Ends, Another Begins


Today's post is written by Assistant Coach Marcus Moeller:

A common truth that shows up in many aspects of life is the idea that when one season ends, another begins. The most obvious example of this is the weather. You never hear people talk about the seasons of weather "ending". What you hear, is the seasons are "changing". "Ending" is used to refer to something that stops or ceases to exist. "Changing" is used to signify the ushering in of something new, whatever is next. When Fall ends, Winter begins. When Spring ends, Summer begins. The same is true in the calendar of college basketball programs.

A little over a week ago our season ended at the conference tournament in Kansas City. We finished the regular season with an overall record of 17-9 and finished in a tie for 3rd place in the final MIAA standings. Although our season ended, another one began. For the coaching staff, the season changes to a recruiting season. You don't have to look very hard at high school state tournaments or junior college regional and national tournaments, to see college coaches sitting and looking for the next big star of their program.

The returning players take several weeks off to rest, recuperate, and rejuvenate from a long season and prepare for the next season of their lives...post-season. The post-season is all about the individual. This is one of the rare season's of a student athlete's life that they should focus on themselves. As coaches we design workouts that really focus on what things each individual player needs to work on in order to improve as a player. The goal is always to improve the individual now so the team will improve later.

For those seniors that are done with their playing careers, it becomes a season of graduation and moving into the "real world". Even if the student athlete has another year to complete their degree requirements, they begin to turn their attention to preparing to enter their chosen career field. Whether an internship or a job, they begin to get a taste of life after basketball.

There are always seasons of life that you don't want to see change. This has been one of those season for our basketball program. With many successes on and off the court and amazing people to experience those successes with, we hate to see the season change. We are so thankful to have gone through this season and look forward to experiencing many more just like it.

Until next time...It's a GREAT day to be a LION!!

Marcus Moeller
Assistant Coach