Some Thoughts on Leadership/Work Ethic

THE DEFINITE DOZEN OF SENECA BASKETBALL

To Stay In The Program:
1. BE COMMITTED TO YOUR ACADEMICS
2. BE COMMITTED TO HAVING CLASS
3. BE COMMITTED TO DOING THE RIGHT THING
4. BE COMMITTED TO THE PROGRAM

To Play Here:
1. BE COMMITTED TO HARD WORK
2. BE COMMITTED TO BECOMING A SMART PLAYER
3. BE COMMITTED TO OUR TEAM ATTITUDE CONCEPT
4. COMMIT YOURSELF TO A WINNING ATTITUDE

To WIN Here:
1. BELIEVE IN OUR SYSTEM OF PLAY
2. BELIEVE IN YOURSELF
3. BELIEVE IN YOUR TEAMMATES
4. BELIEVE IN YOUR COACHES

I do not mean to sound pessimistic but I have been thinking about the lack of true leadership in my Town lately. While there are a select few in my former high school who truly bust ass in everything they do, whether it is athletics or academics, it seems like hard working athletes who lead by example are a dying breed. I feel like I was a successful leader in my days of high school athletics due in part to what I learned from my Dad and my two brothers, who were all incredible leaders.

My Dad having over 250 wins in his coaching career at Calvert, he was a very successful leader who was not afraid to tell players what they needed to hear, not what they wanted to hear. My oldest brother was the Point Guard on a the top ranked team in the state and an undefeated season. He holds the record for steals in a career and would most likely have shattered the career assists record despite having to overcome two very serious injuries throughout his 3-year varsity career. My second oldest brother was a great Center at Calvert who was the leading scorer and rebounder on a team that won back to back League, Sectional, and District Titles. He was the league player of the year and was one of five players on that team to get all-league honors. That year my brother was player of the year, Ryan Kommick also made first team, Brad Walliser and Josh Graham each made second team, and Corey Debarbrie made Honorable Mention. Five Senecas with all league honors. That was my freshman year.

My freshman year was a crucial time in my life. I had grown up admiring the Calvert athletes that came before and hearing stories about them. From hearing stories about Denny Wyss, Ryan Shultz, Dan Hammer, and Dan Walter to watching guys from the class of 2000 to the class of 2005, I picked up many things. My freshman year was a great wake up call for me. I played JV and did not have a particularly good year. I started, but I was an very average player. However, I learned an incredible amount from my brother Aaron and his fellow seniors that year, including Wally, Kommick, and Graham. From them I was given visual proof of the "winning formula" my Dad refers to. "Great kids will make the Great Plays" my Dad would tell me. My JV Coach my sophomore year always told us "Good things happen to Good people." Same concept. It worked for the four seniors and their team my freshman year and I took what I learned from them and incorporated it into my life.

Ryan Kommick played 3 sports yet was always in the gym before school started shooting free throws or threes. Aaron and Wally would lift AFTER going to AAU practice and busting their asses. And I guarantee their lifting was a little more intense than some of the stuff that they call a "workout" at Calvert. As I said before, this does not apply to everyone, but for most it is true. How many basketball players are shooting in the gym before school starts since I have graduated? I am gonna guess zero. Those four guys also NEVER missed open gyms, yet today we got guys who do not play any other sports other than basketball and yet do not come to open gyms, shoot, lift, or do anything to prepare for the upcoming season.

"Failing to Prepare is Preparing to Fail." - John Wooden

"Basketball is played in the winter, but players are made in the summer"

"The will to win is nothing compared to the will to prepare" - Bog Knight

I can recall a few things that I have been told that have stuck with me. When I played a bad game and missed a lot of shots in a fifth or sixth grade game, I was playing video games an hour after the game. My Dad came in and said "Playing video games? That should help you with your Free Throws." Hit me like a kick in the nuts but it was what I needed to hear, NOT what I wanted to hear. Another instance was when Aaron and Wally's team lost in the Regional Finals, making themselves only the second team to make it that far in the playoffs, and everyone was just distraught. Coach Frank, the assistant varsity coach came up to me in the gym after the game and told me "Now is YOUR time to work." From that point forward I can honestly say I did everything I could humanly do to prepare for my varsity career. Within a week I was on an AAU team, waking up at 5 AM to play basketball against guys who I learned a lot from, then going to Calvert to shoot before school. I would then shower in the locker room, grab my things and go to classes for the day. After school I would lift weights religiously then usually head home and then to the YMCA to get more shots in.

Summers did not change anything. While many people see summer as a "time off", I made sure I was working harder than everybody else. LEADERSHIP BY EXAMPLE. A leader unites others in working together towards a common goal. It was easy to unite my team when they saw what I was doing. I wanted to win. I wanted to dominate games. So I worked countless hours to make sure that every weakness I had became a strength. I played as often as I could against guys who were better than me. That's "Playing Up" as my Dad would call it. That is how you get better. I learned how to be a perimeter player from my brother Tony and how to be a post player from Aaron. I got the best of both worlds. I worked on becoming faster, quicker, a better jumper, stronger, a better ballhandler, a better shooter, and a better penetrater and passer. By the end of summer, the players on our team were supposed to have shot over 20,000 shots on THE GUN in our gym. I had achieved that by the first week of August. I was the only player who got over 20k in but we had other guys commit to working hard as well. Tyler Wise became an all league and all district point guard/wing man and Mike Ruhlen went from being a JV player his junior year to a 2nd team league and district player and Honorable Mention Northwest Ohio player.

There is also mental preparation that goes into being a good leader. Obviously I am writing this from a basketball players perspective, but the same can be said for any type of competition. You may be the best player on the team, but if you can't be a moral and mental leader as well, you are not worth a damn. Now many people who have ever played with me will make the argument that I have some extreme anger issues at time, which I won't ever disagree with. I have gotten incredibly angry at open gyms, weight lifting sessions, etc merely because I demand excellence out of myself and out of those who were going to play on the same team as me. However, when it was time to play games, I never lost my cool on the court ever.

Once again, LEADERSHIP BY EXAMPLE. It is the only way to lead. I feel that I carried on a tradition that dates back to before I was born. I learned to lead from Aaron, Wally, Graham, and Kommick. They learned to lead from my brother Tony's class. They learned to lead from the 2000 class and so on and so forth.

To continue on about Moral leadership, Coach Mason always told us "good things happen to good people." My group of guys my senior year were good guys. We stayed away from the temptations of high school. Partying, women, booze, tobacco, drugs, and everything else were never an issue with us. While we would occasionally get involved in minor mischief, it was never anything that you could classify us as "bad people." I will take it to my grave that that is a big part of why we accomplished what we did.

In conclusion, I am somewhat disgusted with guys at the school now that are not willing to make the sacrifices that the people before them made. I had the simple goal of leaving Calvert Basketball better than it was when I started there. When I graduated in 2008, we had the most league titles (8), the highest winning percentage, and the most wins. We beat Ottawa Hills and they now do not play us anymore. We set a record for the best ever defensive average by a Calvert Team. We won the sectionals my junior year and went undefeated in the league my senior year. I got to see two of my best friends win all league and all district honors as well as see my Coach win District and League COACH OF THE YEAR awards. As for me, I ended up making it All-State to go with a district and league PLAYER OF THE YEAR award. I became the the 7th highest scorer at Calvert since 1985. I was the first player to score over 30 in a game since Phillip Borer in 2003. I also became the third player to win to MVP awards from my Junior and Senior year, the other's being Jeff Waltz and Phillip Borer. I was player of the week once my junior year and once my senior year (both times against Hopewell Loudon haha). I played in two very fun all star games, one with my good buddy and teammate Mike.

Am I saying all this to brag? Obviously not. I am merely showing proof that the "Winning Formula" works. It worked for me. It worked for Aaron and his team. It worked for Tony and his team. It is so easy it is stupid. You do EVERYTHING YOU CAN BY ALL MEANS NECESSARY to OUTWORK the competition. You stay physically, mentally, and morally sharp. You turn your weaknesses into strengths. You have fun while you do it. Tony always told me that I have the rest of my life to do other stuff, enjoy High School while you can, because it ends sometime and the sports are things you will never forget. I will never forget the incredible noise in the gym for home games, the fans rushing onto the floor after clinching a league title, the adrenaline rush of scoring 30+ points and beating Ottawa Hills, or the ruckus we would cause in the locker room listening to "Kickstart My Heart" and "Glory Days" while showering. When you work hard, play hard, and make good decisions, you have nothing to regret. Even though my career ended in a very sad way, it was out of my control. I have no regrets and I never will...