Tuesday, November 14
2:00 Leave office located in Center City
3:00 Arrive at Samuel Pennypacker Elementary School
3:05 Greet PYB student-Athletes – I arrive dressed up in business casual clothing and student-athletes suspect I have a date with a nice young lady later on this evening. I’m actually dressed for our community meal and board meeting at Harold O. Davis Church located on the Logan Triangle.
3:10 Huddle – PYB flow of day & ice breakers – Our kids are excited to get back to working on their fundamental skills after a rough 0-2 outing during last Saturday’s competitive gameplay at Central High School. Boys and Girls are split up with boys going to the academic piece first while girls stay in the gym for the first hour.
3:20 Warm-Up and Stretch – During warm ups, our female student-athletes are excited to get loose by doing 5 laps around the gym. They are then led by one of their fellow program participants through a series of stretches.
3:30 Dribbling Drill – Each day of program, our student-athletes start the session by working on a fundamental skill. Dribbling has been of more focus this week because our student-athletes haven’t honed these skills just yet but the more practice they get, the higher their chances are in perfecting their skills.
3:40 Shooting Competition – Our student-athletes love to compete against each other every day. They get to choose their own teams and compete for bragging rights.
3:50 Competitive Play – The most basic skills for playing a 4-on-4 full court game is understood by our girls. As a result, the girls get to compete for the remaining time before they transition to the classroom.
4:05 Halftime/Transition – Student-athletes rotate (girls go to the academic piece and boys come to the gym)
4:15 Warm-Ups and Stretch – With our male student-athletes, I usually let them get everything started because they are used to the flow of the day and on point with the PYB mission. The quicker we get loose and stretched, the more time we have to developing our skills.
4:25 Defensive Slides – I try to get our young people to understand that defense is one of the most important aspects of the game and if we can stop our opponents from putting the ball in the basket one less time, then we will most likely win the game.
4:35 More Defensive Drills – The introduction of the foot fire defensive drill gets the young men pretty excited for the first minute but once we go through it 3 times, they are pretty exhausted. Not to mention, they are pretty banged up from having to dive on the floor when they see a loose ball. But hey, I have to keep them ready *shoulder shrug*
4:45 Competitive Play – Just like our young ladies, the boys get to wrap up the day with a little 5-on-5 action which they love. Teams are split up evenly and the ball is rolled out. The first 5 minutes are really brutal with fouling and travel violations. I won’t even mention the air balls. After that, they are settled and begin to play composed basketball for the remaining time of the day.
5:10 Regroup and Dismissal – After every day of programming, I am filled with a sense of joy that our young people are showing signs of development. They are beginning to understand why we do what we do and turning practice into play. It gives me something to look forward to each day I am with them.
Thank you for following a day in my PYB life. I hope you enjoyed learning about my experience as a Middle School Partnership Program Head Coach at Pennypacker!