What do six-time NBA champion Michael Jordan and Cy Young award-winner Orel Hershiser have in common? They were both cut from their high school sports teams.
Every kid that’s ever failed knows those stories like the back of their hand.
Whether it’s elementary school ice hockey, Little League baseball, or Ohio State football, each team hosts its own version of tryouts, where the leaders of each program attempt to pick out the premier talent and superlative qualities of the group of student-athletes that cower there before them. For athletes, it’s a time to put their finest abilities on display for their trainers and managers; for coaches, it can be one of the most frustrating times of the year. After several months of offtime, it’s often necessary to revisit the fundamentals of the game such as footwork, form, and communication.
Here at Geffen Academy at UCLA, basketball tryouts officially began the week of Monday, October 23rd. However, players were preparing far before that date arrived. But not necessarily on the court.
Weeks before the season begins, Strength and Conditioning Coach Jeremy Tan hosts mandatory workouts for all athletes hoping to wiggle their way onto a spot on a fall sports team. Coach Tan tells me that he looks for “energy and players to put forth their best effort. “ He submits that the intensity of an athlete is of far greater importance than their skill or strength level. As a Los Angeles Lakers fan and Kobe Bryant partisan, Coach Tan adopts that “Mamba Mentality” in all aspects of his daily life, and he tells me that he holds the same standards for his trainees. When I asked him about what it takes to go above and beyond, he replied adamantly “Someone that shows up before practice starts, someone that shows up consistently, and someone that’s also there to help out their teammates. ” Of course, Bryant was a consistent embodiment of all of those traits, and his infamous stories about outworking Klay Thompson in the gym at NBA-All Star Weekend and watching film during the 12-15 minute halftime breaks only further show how fully you must be committed in every aspect to succeed in this game.
At Geffen Academy, basketball tryouts for girls and boys are separated. Although the coaches often collaborate with the different teams once they are finalized, it is often more straightforward to evaluate with both sexes and coaches segregated. I chatted with Girls Basketball Head Coach Fernando Duran to see he approached tryouts the way he did. Coach Fernando told me that he attempts to revisit the basic fundamentals of the game, starting with basic footwork, ball handling, and passing. As they start to dive deeper, shooting becomes a more prominent feature of the tryouts. He says that he “tries to fit all of the individualized factors of basketball into the first hour, and the second hour we [the team] try to get more team stuff going on.” As I mentioned earlier, tryouts are often extremely aggravating for coaches, and Coach Fernando says that the hardest part of Week 1 is “trying to identify where we are all at and trying to find common ground.” This year’s team is really split down the middle in terms of incumbent and new players, with six of each group battling for a spot on the squad, so I asked Coach Fernando how he intends to blend the mix and styles of players together. His response: “Trust the process.” He elaborated on the fact that his returning players are key to really show the new players the right way to do things around here, and the mental attitude to display on and off the court. He also told me that the two things that are most important to him during tryouts that he looks for constantly are energy and effort, an answer extremely reminiscent of the one Coach Tan provided me.
Of all dozen players trying out for the girls basketball team, the one who consistently portrays the two unteachable abilities the most is junior Shaya Mossanen, who is the “glue guy (or girl)” in the locker room for the Geffen Academy Girls Team. I talked to her whilst I was enjoying a delicious breakfast of waffles and potatoes in the Geffen dining hall, and she said, “ With the amount of freshmen coming in, I really want to be able to develop a game with them [the freshmen.]” She also told me that despite spending the last two years coming off the bench, she wouldn’t necessarily be opposed to accepting that 6th man role again because she understands the amount of responsibility that comes with being in the first five. I asked her what her plan was to try to mesh the old and new players together, and she responded that she feels she has the responsibility to “roping in the freshmen and show them what we’ve had over the last couple years of us playing.” Either Coach Fernando and Mossanen are on the same page very early in the season, or they spent time together preparing for my interview. Mossanen also told me that she likes how everyone makes the team, and how that makes tryouts feel like a “Week 0.”
On the male side of the tryouts, cuts will have to be made, despite the fact that the boys sport both a varsity and junior varsity team, whereas the girls only have a varsity roster. I talked with Boys Basketball Coach Antony Dunn (Coach Ton), who told me that, “We are taking a little bit of a different approach to tryouts this year. We start each of our practices with passing and passing under pressure because it’s a great way to assess who is actually ready to go right at the start of the day. ” With some players having to be cut from each roster, it is of utter importance for the coaching staff to make sure players are on their “A” Game from tip-off to the final buzzer. When I asked Coach Ton what he looks for during tryouts and what a player can do to stand out, he reiterated that “great energy, great focus, and great attitude “are what makes a player pop out. In other words, all the coaches don’t fret if you miss a three. They care if you don’t run down the loose ball. Coach Ton says that the Kevin Durant popularized quote “Hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard” is very much an important mindset to carry around with you at all times.
With so many new faces at the boys basketball tryouts, I was curious to know their opinion on the way they were being run. So I interviewed sophomore and varsity hopeful Brody Holtzman, who told me that his first thought when he walked out onto the court was, “They look like they have a lot better equipment than me. It was like walking into a Halloween party and you’re the only one without a costume on.” Holtzman, who has not played high school basketball before, is looking to stand out to the entirety of the coaching staff. He expressed his frustration with his teammates (himself included) ability to focus on directions, saying that, “The coaches tell us what to do, we say we’ll do it [the drill], and then we don’t do it.” He recognizes that he didn’t count out loud a couple times, and understands why his team received a punishment for improper communication. I asked him what he would do if he could design his own tryouts, and he told me that, “I wouldn’t. I’m a player. Not a coach.”
With the basketball season starting in early-mid November when the annual De Toledo tournament for the boys varsity side, the Dog House tournament for the boys JV side, and the girls season opening on November 18th against St. Pius, it will be fascinating to see whether or not the strategies coaches and players implemented during tryouts will be helpful during the regular season. Will the players who took tryouts as an opportunity to improve their skills, bond with their teammates, and improve their communication reach a new level of success during the year? We’ll find out, and soon.
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