Let's Go Bowling!!

Last week we got together as a team and went bowling. It was definitely a fun time. The bowling wasn't so great, but we did have a blast! The good thing is I know we are MUCH better playing ball than we are at bowling :-)

"The Nation" (Far lane with Pearce, Rocco, Ty, Jarrett) ended up winning the whole thing. Somehow they had guys go from bowling 27 in one game to 150 in the next. They had to be cheating in some way, shape, or form, but we never did catch them so I guess we will give them the title for the year.

 

 

 

Definitely were a LOT of moments like this with a bunch of people laughing. The good thing is since I was taking this picture, they couldn't have been laughing at my bowling!

 

 

Jerell (Top) and Brian (Bottom), did a pretty good job of carrying their teams. Not enough to beat the cheaters, but they were still 2 of the best bowlers for the night. 

 

 

To me, as an old dude, this picture says it all. Some guys laughing at someone bowling, while other guys are texting and tweeting away. Of course 3 of our main tweeters are in this picture. haha

 

 

 

As I'm sure you can tell from these photos, these guys are a lot of fun to be around and they enjoy being around each other. I really like the chemistry of this group and look forward to having a lot more fun with them.....and winning a lot of games!!

 

Yours in Hoops,

Coach Strick

 

Getting Better and Having Fun at Camp!!

Hope everyone had a great fourth of July!!

While this month we are celebrating our nation’s independence, last month our program got to celebrate a little with our basketball camp.  The camp always seems to be a lot of fun to the campers and they enjoy getting better at the game of basketball. This year was our biggest camp yet, as it tripled in size from when we started them a couple of years ago!

Everyday we would start with our ballhandling drills which should be done how often campers…….every day....and for how long....15-20 minutes a day! That's right! Haha  Then we would do our station work which focus on the fundamentals of passing, ballhandling, shooting, and agilities.

After our fundamental work was done for the day, we would get into our competitions.  One of the competitions we do is Basketball Golf.  It’s something I’ve done since I was attending my own high school camp back in Rochester, NY.  Basically what it is, is a glorified game of Horse.  And the kids LOVE it!!!

And of course we would finish up with some full court games. Obviously this is what the kids want to do for the whole 3 hours, but we make sure we get our fundamentals in everyday before they play full court. Besides, the summer is for making the individual basketball player better in their skill work. The season is when the team gets better by practicing and playing together.

Our main goal is that the campers have fun so that they enjoy the game enough to practice the drills at home on their own.  Because the players that practice hard on their own are always the ones that have the most success later in life.  That’s why our goal is to get them having fun doing the drills because if they are having fun they don’t even realize how hard they are working.

Hopefully we will continue to get back some of the same campers as they are AWESOME to be around!!  While I’m trying to make it fun for them, they are making it fun for me.  There’s nothing better than having a camp with good kids who come with a positive attitude and want to get better.  So I wanted to say thank you to the campers that came this year and I hope to see you again next year!  Plus bring a friend or two with you for even more fun :-)

Hope everyone is enjoying their summer and if you are a baller I hope you are working hard at your game!

Yours in Hoops,

Coach Strick

7 Make AMCC All-Academic Team!!

Crazy as this may sound to some, but the Pitt-Greensburg school year is over!! Not gonna lie, one of the best things about coming to Pitt is getting almost 4 full months off for summer. Not too many places where you can get that kind of summer break!

So as we wrap up the year and head into the off-season, I wanted to make sure we gave a s/o to our All-Academic guys. Last week we had our Pitt-Greensburg Athletics Awards Banquet and that is where we honor our athletes both on and off the court.

If you've ever played for me, or been recruited by me, you know that I place a BIG emphasis on academics. After all, you are going to end up going pro in something other than basketball. So when student-athletes are making their decision about where they want to go to college, I always stress that they are not making a 4 year decision, but a 40 year one. Because where they decide to go to school will decide what kind of doors get opened for them after school which will dictate a lot of their career path. Obviously I know a University of Pittsburgh degree will open a ton of doors, so that's why I stress the academics when you play for me...get the degree and get a good start on your professional career :-)

Last year we we had 3 guys make the AMCC All-Academic Team. This year that number went up to 7 players,which was almost half our team. How proud do you think I am as a coach?? So congrats to Brian Heinle, Doug Wilson, Mike Connelly, Dylan Reigel, Jarrett Shannon, Brock Witkowski, and Steve Hearty!! (Pictured in the same order from left to right).

  
Those guys are a great example of what our goals are here at Pitt-Greensburg....be champions on and off the court! As we strive to achieve a Top 25 Team GPA, these guys will definitely be leaders in that pursuit. I look forward to seeing more guys on the All-Academic Team next year and us reaching our Top 25 team GPA goal!

Hope everyone is having a great start to their summer!!

Yours in Hoops,
Coach Strick

Scholar-Athlete Breakfast

On February 21st the University of Pittsburgh at Greensburg held their Scholar-Athlete Breakfast. It is the same type of breakfast they hold at the University of Pittsburgh campus in Oakland, but not with as many athletes. haha  If you have a 3.0 or higher you are invited to the breakfast, which always includes a great guest speaker. This year it was Marcus Bowman who is the Assistant Athletic Director for Administration and Planning at the University of Pittsburgh and former walk-on player for the basketball team.

Our team goal every year is to represent our University the best way we can both on and off the court. Our goal off the court in regards to academics is to achieve higher than a 3.0 team GPA. For comparative sake, Duke is around a 3.0 every year. This year our team came in with a first semester GPA of 3.06! In doing so, there were multiple players that qualified to be invited to the Scholar-Athlete breakfast with higher than 3.0 GPAs. Matter of fact, 9 of our 15 players achieved that 3.0 or better GPA.  Here's a picture of them....

Yes, they did a great job of pretending to be awake for the picture! haha

Seriously though, as a coach I couldn't be more proud of this group! To have 2/3 of any team achieve 3.0's or higher is truly amazing to me and I just can't say enough how proud I am of them. I'm looking forward to next year when even more of their teammates join them in achieving the lofty goals we have for them as students. After all, that is the main reason they are in school and have chosen Pitt-Greensburg!

Yours In Hoops,
Coach Strick 

2 Trips Coming Up....

We have 2 trips coming up as a team: one to Eastern PA to play perennial powers Desales University and Misercordia University. The other trip is to the Bluffton University Tournament out in Ohio where we open up with #23 in the nation Ohio Wesleyan.

Ummm yeh, we kind of have our work cut out for us!! Who the heck put this schedule together?! haha  Just kidding. That's what's fun about playing college basketball...playing some of the best teams in the nation and seeing where you stack up!

The best thing about the trips for me is that we will be in Bluffton and see one of our former assistants, Cody Hartzler, who is Bluffton's assistant coach. Will be fun for myself and the older guys to see Cody again. He was great for our program and I'm sure he is doing the same thing for Bluffton.

Anyway, I will make sure we blog on these trips and have some pictures put on here. I promise!!!!

Your in Hoops,
Coach Strick

Blue-Gold Day

Just like the "big" Pitt, we like to have our own Blue-Gold Day here at Pitt-Greensburg for our basketball program. We have a 3-point competition, a dunk competition, and then a 20 minute Blue-Gold scrimmage. The basketball stuff is then followed by a nice dinner with the team and family and friends.

3-POINT COMPETITION
So we started the day with a 3-point competition. And it came down to our defending champion, Brian Heinle, vs the new challenger, Jerell Figeuroa. In Brian's senior year he led the WPIAL in 3-point shooting and as a freshman ended up being our shooting champ for Blue-Gold Day. Jerell comes from the furthest away and his mom and sister were in the stands, so he was determined to make their trip worth it. The final was unreal as both guys netted almost all of the possible 20 shots they took. Really, it was unreal and definitely was a "clash of the titans" in the final. In the end Jerell hit one more shot and scored a 21 of a possible 25 points to take home the title. Was definitely worth the trip for the family and mom's photos came in handy.

DUNK COMPETITION
We then went to the dunk competition. And of course Coach wasn't smart enough to do videos or photos of the dunk competition, but you are just going to have to trust my account of what happened. The finals of the dunk competition were 6'8 Steve Hearty from North Hills, and 6'3 Rocco Contristano out of Keystone Oaks. Steve impressed with some thunderous dunks. Kind of ironic since he wasn't allowed to dunk for his high school team, but he showed during this competition he could throw it down. But Rocco was the pre-contest favorite. He made it easily thru the first round and saved the winning dunk for the final. He was going to need a perfect dunk to beat out Steve. Sure enough, one 360 dunk later, Rocco was walking away with the title. He is definitely going to be tough to beat over the next few years here. The good thing is after pulling out a 360 dunk, I think that will raise the level of creativity for next year as people try and knock him off.

BLUE-GOLD SCRIMMAGE
After 2 close contests it set the tone for what to expect in the actual Blue-Gold Game. Sure enough a back and forth contest came down to a 1-point finish. Blue hit the shot with 6 seconds left and Gold's final shot came up just short to win it. Although there was some dispute because the clock operator, my oldest daughter Taryn, possibly (ok she definitely did!!) started the clock early which caused Gold to shoot the final shot quicker than they thought they had to. Either way, it can't get any closer than a 1-point game and the fans were thrilled.

FAMILY AND FRIENDS DINNER
Speaking of the fans, it was the largest Blue-Gold event we have ever had with close to 100 people coming for the day's festivities and food. At the dinner afterwards all the players introduced the people that came to the event, which I like to do because it creates that family atmosphere I want to promote. We are together so much that we are a family. And we want parents and friends to feel like they are a part of that also. That's why this event is so important to us and our program.

All in all, it was a great day of fun, food, family, and friends. And days like that are what these guys will remember the most once their playing days are long gone. This program is about much more than wins and losses. This program is about creating the best experience we can for our student-athletes and preparing them for life. We hope when they leave here that they leave here ready to take on the world, while also having a close group of friends to experience life with them!

Yours in Hoops,
Coach Strick

Preseason stuff.....yeah, I know....little late......

Ok, Ok, I know we are 1/3 of the way into our season and I'm WAAAYYYYY behind on this Blog!! But I'm still gonna try and catch up a little, so I have to get some credit for that, right??

Our preseason consisted of some fun stuff and some cool stuff. We started it out the first weekend with some bowling fun. Now, we had some guys that were bad bowlers.....some guys that were bad bowlers, but talked like they were good bowlers.....and some guys that just talked about bowling. haha  Overall, it was definitely a fun time and something we will do again!

Not sure if the videos will come out right, but you will get the gist of who the bowlers were and who the talkers were. Pearson seems to fit both molds......