IT TAKES MORE THAN A WHISTLE TO COACH BASKETBALL

Introduction

Over the last thirty years I have been fortunate enough to have coached basketball on many levels. My experiences have ranged from my son’s 5^th grade basketball team to disabled athletes in wheelchairs. I have won a state championship as both a high school and a junior college coach. My Massachusetts Bay Community College team was ranked as high as fifth in the National Junior College Poll.

My experiences include being an assistant at the University of Nevada at Reno and Boston University, both Division I NCAA schools.

I recently was the Men’s Assistant Coach at Montclair State University in Montclair, New Jersey. In my first year there, we won the 2003 New Jersey Athletic Conference Championship and progressed to the “Sweet Sixteen” of the Division III NCAA tournament.

All of these experiences have helped me write this book. Aside from two decades of coaching basketball, I have also raised two great sons and lived through hundreds of crises with my players. I have learned how to make little kids have fun and how to console grown men who are dealing with the loss of a loved one. On occasion, I have been fortunate enough to be instrumental in many lives and have cried for a few who never got my message.

Since coaching is not my full-time profession, I am also the president of The Leibowitz Group, a financial services company that I run with my wife. We specialize in the sale of insurance and investment products.

Having my own business allows me the flexibility to enjoy my real love, which is coaching basketball. No boss would ever put up with my schedule, especially during the season. I am lucky to have a partner that is also my wife who loves me and covers for me. Being in sales has also taught me how to deal with players and their parents. Coaches, like salespeople, must always remember to keep the customers happy.

I wanted to put my thoughts about coaching basketball into this book for many reasons. Only professional and major college coaches are paid large sums of money for their abilities. It is their full-time profession. Most basketball coaches are moms and dads or overworked and underpaid school teachers or part time employees who juggle their schedules to do what they love. Many are volunteers.

This book was written to make coaching a little easier for all these people.

Most importantly, it was written for the players. If “It takes more than a whistle” makes one child feel better about him or herself or saves one player from quitting sports because his or her coach was abusive, then I will be happy. This is my goal.

Over the years, I have seen hundreds, if not thousands, of different co