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August 30th,
2011
By Brad Strand,
MBCA President (Pelican Rapids HS)
Greeting Coaches,
I am very honored to represent all
of you this year as your MBCA president. I would like to take this time to
thank Steve Grove for his excellent leadership of our organization the past
year. Our association has an awesome executive director, Tom Critchley Sr..
Tom has great passion for the game of basketball and the student-athletes who
compete. Please let Tom know you appreciate all he does for each of us
throughout the year to promote basketball.
It was great to see so many of you this summer
in gyms throughout the state working with your athletes to improve your teams.
Basketball coaches in the state of Minnesota work extremely hard and the
evidence is seen in the number of players who have the opportunity to continue
to play basketball beyond high school. Thanks to all of you for making this
commitment to improve the level of basketball that is being played in the
state. Hopefully all of you had a chance to relax over the 4th of
July and the month of August.
The MBCA Fall Clinic is scheduled October 28th
and 29th. The Hyatt Regency Hotel in Minneapolis will once again be
the site for the clinic. More details, including hotel reservation information,
clinicians, a registration form, and an event schedule is included in this issue
of the Prep Coach and is also posted on the MBCA website. Please take the time
to visit our website (http://www.mshsca.org/boysbasketball/).
Information available to you on the website also includes a timeline to assist
you with deadlines and all forms such as academic all-state, all-star
nomination, and hall of fame nomination.
It is important you are a member of the MBCA for you and
your athletes to be considered for various awards. Please join both the MSHCA
and the MBCA and encourage your assistant coaches and lower level coaches to do
the same. There are many great benefits. As part of your MBCA membership you
will also become a member of the National High School Basketball Coaches
Association. Our state is one of the founding states in the organization.
Coaches will be receiving more information about the organization in the near
future. Member coaches are encouraged to visit the website (http://nhsbca.org
) for such things as coaching resources, job openings, events, special offers
from suppliers, etc. We will communicate how to log in to the member section at
the Fall Clinic.
The 2012 state tournament for boys
will see a change in the A and AA divisions as both classes, per the
recommendation of the Basketball Advisory Committee, will join AAA and AAAA in
being seeded. The MSHSL Board of Directors will make the decision if the
seeding will be 1 – 8 or top 4 and draw 4 at their October meeting. The
Basketball Advisory committee has recommended 1-8 seeding.
The MSHSL Board of Directors has
set as one of their goals to review policies in regard to section and state
tournaments as well as seeding and other related issues. MSHSL policy now
states that sections may seed by coaches vote (face to face or electronic) or
via a points system. All sections that seed by points will now be required to
seed by using the QRF. See the minnesota-scores.net website for the reasoning
presented by the MSHSL. Information regarding the seeded 64 team State
Tournament (4A) was provided to the Board at their August meeting and it is
probable further discussion with possible action will occur at the October board
meeting. More information will be available at our Fall Clinic.
The Spalding Legacy is now the
official ball of the MBCA and the ball that will be used in the 2012 State
Tournament. Spalding has discontinued producing the ZK Pro. The Legacy is a
revised version of the ZK Pro with a moisture management system and deeper
channels as key components. Dealers are knowledgeable of this and should have
the Legacy in their stores and/or warehouses at this time. The MBCA values
their long and beneficial relationship with Spalding.
Two MN coaches have received
special honors at the national level. Congratulations to Ken Novak Jr. ,
Hopkins, on being named the ESPN RISE National Boys Basketball Coach of the Year
and to Dave Cresap, Perham, for being named the Max Preps National Male Sport
Coach of the Year. Both will be excellent speakers at our Fall Clinic and will
provide insight, which will be valuable for all of us to hear.
Congratulations to the new members
of the MBCA Hall of Fame: Howard Bahn – Kimball, Dan Brink – St. Paul
Central/St. Paul Como Park, Perry Doney – Hector/Wood Lake/Canby, Don Tangen –
Glencoe Silver Lake, and Larry Weum – Robbinsdale Armstrong. They will be
inducted at the Hall of Fame banquet, which will be held October 30th
at 12:00 at the Hyatt Regency.
Congratulations to the new members
of the MBCA Hall of Honor: Gary Addington – Hibbing/Rochester
(Coach/Administrator), Bill Haben – Shakopee/Benilde (Coach), Jeff Munneke –
Minnesota Timberwolves (Friend of Basketball), Barry Wortel – Mankato (Media)
and Jimmy Robinson – St. Paul (Official).
I wish everybody the best of luck
as the season approaches and hopefully each of you will have the opportunity to
bring your team to the Target Center/Williams Arena and participate in the 100th
Minnesota State Basketball Tournament. I look forward to seeing all of you at
our Fall Clinic. It is an excellent time to connect and socialize with each
other. We need to continue to support each other since we understand the common
pressures we all face everyday. |
