Area basketball coaches utilize different practice styles to achieve success

Practice begins at 5 p.m. A few Pleasant Valley Lady Bears meander onto the court and begin a shootaround with their assistant coach.

Like many high school head coaches, Nadia Gauronsky cannot step onto the court to start her practice until she first addresses personal issues with some of her players. Problems might include a devastating boyfriend break up, a situation about playing time or a just a bad day at school.

Gauronsky plays the role of a teacher, a guidance counselor, and sometimes a surrogate parent, and let’s not forget, she’s a head basketball coach, too, trying to get her team into the district playoffs.

Her practice plan incorporates fundamentals, teaching, and game preparation. Once on the court, she positions her team to run a “13 drill” in which her offense will work against a 1-3-1 defense.

“What do we need to do better?,” she asks her team before beginning the drill. She gets no answers. She looks straight in the eyes at one of her players. “You will rebound or you will come out of the game.”

Now she has all of her players’ full attention. “What do we have to do to rebound better?”

“Box out,” says somebody.

“Yes! Box out. Then when we get the rebound, what do we do?”

“Make the outlet pass,” says someone else.

“Yes! Let’s go!” The coach shouts.

The first girl in line bounces the ball off the backboard, takes the rebound and looks to make the outlet pass,

“Move the ball!,” Gauronsky shouts. “Let her know you’re there,” she tells her player who stands at the left side of the foul line waiting for the pass.

“Here! Here,” the player shouts while clapping her hands.

Repetition of everything is essential at practice. The drill continues up and down the court with five players on offense against a four-player zone defense. Execution is the goal. Mistakes are made. No box out. Bad outlet pass.

Gauronsky stands courtside with arms folded. She blows her whistle when the drill fails. Her team runs penalty sprints. They resume the drill, this time with better results.

She explains the dynamics of her team.

“Some girls are very passionate about basketball and for some, this is their second sport and that’s good, too. I’m all about high school kids playing multiple sports under different coaches. We have teams within teams here. The goal is to get the coaches, the captains, the veteran players and the underclassmen to all come together on the same page. And I’m a big believer that you play like you practice.”

After a water break, Gauronsky teaches her chase drill. A player drives full court for a layup with a defender in pursuit who tries to alter the shot without fouling. After three or four “reps” the coach appears unsatisfied and blows her whistle. Assistant coach Chris Jarrow reviews the options. Take the layup or a pullup jumper or draw the foul. Make the basket. They resume and this time the results are measurably better.

Senior Masani Francis understands the benefits of the drills.

“We work on everything in practice to get better, especially ball handling and shooting,” she said. “Sometimes if I have a bad practice, I’ll take it home with me, but I shrug it off when I get ready to play the game.”

Her teammate, Mikaela Miller, is a cyber school student who is eligible to play for Pleasant Valley. Basketball is her second sport.

“I’m going to play college soccer next year as a goalie, so rebounding in basketball helps me improve by jumping and reaching skills I need for soccer.”

When asked about her basketball play, Miller said she tries not to overthink while working on both her mental and physical game.

Practice moves into the second hour. In the four corners of the gym, the team splits and works on game shots. Jarrow notices that the girls aren’t running out far enough from the baskets to simulate game positioning. He places cones on the floor so the girls will have to circle quicker and farther out for their shots.

The varsity then prepares its next game’s strategy with the JV team running the opponent’s high 2-3 zone. Gauronsky again stresses communication and energy. She reminds her team how many more games they need to win to make the playoffs.

The varsity leaves the court to watch their next opponent’s game film.

The coaches point out the importance of effort and energy so their team understands that winning is the result of outhustling and outworking their opponents.

Contrary to the methodical pace of practice at Pleasant Valley, the Panther Valley boys’ basketball team rocks into an opening shoot-around to the blasting beat of pop music vibrating off the concrete walls of the middle school gym where Coach Pat Crampsie holds his practices.

Anyone observing this event might immediately see that the pace of practice is military like, and up-tempo as “General” Crampsie shouts out orders to his troops. Conditioning begins. Each player has a ball and runs full court tossing it to himself, then runs the court again while twirling the ball behind his back, and then runs a third time, pushing the ball through his legs. Stretching, while walking the court, finishes the opening exercises.

Crampsie demands full focus from his team that has already qualified for districts, and is now preparing to earn a spot in the postseason league tournament.

“They know what to expect,” he said. “Intensity, passion, and chemistry are our keys to success.”

When his whistle blows after conditioning, the players sprint to the end line and give their undivided attention to the man in charge.

“In our past few games, we fought back like we always do,” he tells them. “We’re not perfect. But we’re perfect enough to get the ‘Ws.’

The team applauds.

“Two minutes!” Crampsie shouts to a student helper who sets the game clock to time the first drill. When the horn sounds, the time will be reset for the next drill.

This day’s emphasis is rebounding. For four minutes, balls are bounced off the backboard and outlet-passed for a full-court transition. The horn sounds. Players change gears and rapidly jump into groups of three for a defensive drill. They have to slide their feet across the floor to the ball side, box out on the shot, and go up strong for the rebound. If the scout offense should score, the ‘D’ obediently drops to the floor for penalty pushups.

The Panthers run the same chase drill as Pleasant Valley. Crampsie jumps in randomly and sprints after a player who dribbles at full speed down court for the lay up. Following more speed and transition drills, the team practices half-court offense based upon a film study of their next opponent.

“We need to understand that when we run our half court sets, the energy still has to be the same high level as when we fastbreak,” he explains. “The key is communication. We have to talk while we play, and there can be no confusion or indecision about who’s getting the ball or who’s taking the shot.”

Senior forward Allan Perez works hard on his shooting and ballhandling to get better for the next game.

“Practice is also a stress reliever from school for me,” he says. “It’s fun, too. But I take the games more seriously.”

Senior captain Tristan Blasko says that the winning and the excellent chemistry on the team are why the effort and concentration are so good at practice.

“We’re all friends in school, too,” he adds.

Back on the floor, Crampsie directs a group of his players into the weight room for 20 minutes of lifting barbells around a wrestling mat. He places himself in the middle of the circle of players and participates with all the routines. This group then flip-flops with another and returns to the gym to practice game shots.

“We try to simulate game situations and we stress game speed,” says Crampsie, who is assisted by Keith Gogal, Turtle Miller, Andrew Micholik, and Shawn Midas. “We’ll simulate pressure free throws at practice when they’re tired. There are penalties when they fail to make the shots.”

For both Crampsie and Gauronsky, sprint and push up penalties are utilized to improve their team’s energy and execution when it is lacking.

“You just can’t beat the person who never gives up,” is Nadia Guaransky’s battle cry for her Lady Bears.

“The harder you work for something, the greater you’ll feel when you achieve it,” are Pat Crampsie’s words of motivation for his Panthers. He challenges his players, already owning one of the school’s best records in recent history, to reach for loftier goals.

He asks them, “What will our community think of this team 10 years from now?”

Two coaches from two different Valleys have the same simple three word philosophy to prepare their teams to be ready before the center jumps of their next games.

Practice to win.

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FIVE IN DOUBLES ... In the Marian Fillies’ rout of Schuylkill Haven last Tuesday, Emma McClafferty, Isabella Schwabe, Macy Alansky, Emily Shaud, and Reese Erbe all scored in double figures.

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BENCH MARK ... In Monday’s Jim Thorpe win over Lehighton, Nate Rosahac came off the bench in the second quarter to spark the Olympians to defeat Lehighton with a 14-point, 15-rebound performance.

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A DECADE OF DRY SPELLS ... It’s been 10 years since Northwestern qualified for the District 11 playoffs, but the Tigers’ win over Palmerton last Friday finally ended the drought. Deven Bollinger led his team to victory by scoring 14 points. After the game, he said to win this big of a game against a team where his family grew up made the night extra gratifying.

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WEEKLY HONOR ... Marian’s Tyler Fritz was recently named the Schuylkill League’s Athlete of the Week. Fritz leads all area boys in scoring at 24.13 points per game. In last Thursday’s game against Nativity, he scored 35 points, including a 20-of-22 effort at the foul line. The 20 free throws made is a new single-game record for the Colts. Fritz broke the old mark of 17.