Game Plan

I have been brain storming new ideas and verses for devotions lately. Not only will I incorporate that they should play hard for the glory of God, but they are also playing for a mighty God who loves them. If anyone has any verses comment on this blog. I would love suggestions. I am also going to send out an invitation to the team for the basketball clinic being held at Oakbrook over the break. I'm sure it would be beneficial to the team, but I have to see what the head coach is going to say about it.

Preparing For The Game

^"23 Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters..." Colossians 3:23
I have stated before that I will do devotions with my players before practices. I will do this because I want to keep a positive, christian environment around the team so that they learn to have more fun and not think basketball is the most important thing on the earth. I will encourage them to realize who they are really playing for and who they are representing, Jesus. I want my team to give all the glory to God in practice, in games, in winning, and in losing. So the verse above will be what I use to help encourage them from a biblical stand point and I hope to show the best example possible, so they can learn from me.

Need More Practice

I did not get a chance to talk to the coach this week. I have been so busy this week. I have made some progress on my research paper though. I have also been trying to come up some new drills for my future players. I want to bring something new to the table for my team and bring a "new school" swagger to the team. My ultimate goal is to make sure they have fun and to show Christ through myself so that they can see what he has done in my own life.

Ready For Some Turkey

The basketball season is almost here! After my wonderful Thanksgiving break I am going to attempt to meet with my mentor and see what the schedule looks like. I will also present the new possibilities of the scrimmages to him and see what he wants to do about that. Right now I'm just enjoying my break with family which is always nice! Well I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving and a restful break!

Its All Coming Together

I've been working on my research quite a bit lately. I've given it to other people to read and I have been getting GREAT feed back. After I re-read my rough draft and made all the corrections I have come across a pretty stout paper. With a little more research and adding some more information here and there I will have a finished product worthy of praise (well maybe). I've also been trying to plan some scrimmages with the jv girls basketball team and jv guys team, so we will see if we can get those games planned. My paper and my project have turned into something other than what I originally planned, but the change is for the better!
-Coach Josh

Entering the 4th Quarter

There is less than a month left until the research paper is do. It is getting down to the nitty gritty and my paper is coming along quite nicely. I got the reviews of my paper back this week and had A LOT of mistakes but hey thats why I have a month to work on it and make corrections. I've been working hard at it all week and have been making great progress. My biggest problem was repetition so I've been working on taking all of that out of my paper. Its the 4th quarter of this research paper, it's time to persevere and succeed!

Opportunity Knocks.

I was recently assigned another research paper for my computer class. Mr. Hinds is allowing me to "double dip" and use my research paper for senior project. So now I have another class that I can work on my research paper and hopefully by the end of all this work I will have a very strong position paper. This opportunity is great for me because I am not the best writer in the world. I am hoping to gain a new understanding of how to write great papers by working on this paper for this amount of time. I am sure that by having three different teachers analyze my paper and help me that I will be a master at writing in no time!

It is Finished!

The rough draft for our research paper was due today. I got mine done third period. It ended up being 8 1/4 pages. I've realized though I need to find citations for the information I am using. I have grown up  playing and watching basketball, so I know a lot of random facts about basketball. I have used a lot of these facts for my paper but I do not have sources to back them up. My quest for this next month is to find sources to back up the facts I know. I now have the next month to polish up my draft and have one beast of a research paper!

The Final Thesis

My final thesis is as follows "Having positive reinforcing attitudes rather than negative reinforcing attitudes by coaches in college basketball generates a better winning percentage and sends more players to the NBA because it allows their players to build confidence and better character while developing their players into men and preparing them for the rest of their lives." As I have said before I am finding some very supportive material on my thesis. Not only will I look at how many of college coaches coach positively today but I will also look at past coaches. I will compare the winning percentages of both negative coaches such as Bob Knight with positive coaches such as John Wooden. Both of these men were very good coaches but the question is who was better. These are not the only 2 coaches I will compare, and I will show which is more succesful by each coaches' winning percentage and how many players each of them have sent to the NBA. Other coaches I will compare are Adolph Rupp, John Calipari, Rick Pitino, Mike Krzyzewski, Jim Boeheim, and others.

Doin' Work

I finally got most of my books for my research. The book before got me 29 note cards and I'm finding some really good stuff in these other books I'm looking into. So yet again things could not be going better for this research paper. I talked to Coach Welborn this week and we are going to try to get a scrimmage between Oakbrook and Eddlemon. Everything is coming together very nicely! Also my Oakbrook boys  soccer team will be playing in the state final. GO KNIGHTS! And no matter what happens, win or lose, glory be to God and him alone!

Finding it all out!

So I found out this week that the basketball season will start in January. This is good because it will give me time to work on my paper more. I can't wait to get started with the project and my mentor is very excited. I also started to research for my paper and I couldn't be finding better information. One of the books has a chapter entitled "Always Be Positive." So I'm stoked, but ready to get this all over with.

The Start of My Research

So I started my research for my paper. I think I've got a good start to what could turn out to be a very interesting paper. With the suggestions from the board and some help from Mrs. Steller I think my new thesis will show my point of view more clearly and give a better understanding of what im trying to argue.

The Proposals

Our project proposals were at the beginning of this week. A lot of the seniors were a bit nervous but we all obviously made it through (by the grace of God that is!). My proposal went very well. I went in dressed as the assistant coach which the board liked, so im glad I went throught the trouble of getting the polo. I was given some very good suggestions and good comments on my project and attitude. The approval of my project has made me more excited and ready to take this head on. My project will expand and become a better project with the new suggestions from the board and the new excitement I have.

Doing Hard Things

It occured to me after reading the book "Do Hard Things" that I needed to get my butt in gear and start doing some challenging things. So I made a list of things to do and one that I thought of that stood out the most was praying more often. I started this imediately after I finished the book and I can honestly say that my days became more relaxed and layed back. I began to realize that this was the best stress reliever. So while doing my senior project not only do I want to teach the kids how to do everything with all their might but to also realize that God is always there for them. He is just one prayer away!

Getting Started

"Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with ALL your might; for there is no activity or planning or knowledge or wisdom in Sheol where you are going." (Ecclesiastes 9:10 NASB)
I am planning to have a devotion with the kids before every pracitice and I want this verse to be the basis of my devotions. I want the kids to give their all not only in games and practices but also in everything in their everyday lives. God gave us all talents and it is our calling to use them to his glory. It will be my goal to help the kids find their talents but more importantly show them how to use them for God's glory!

My Senior Project

 As I said before my sernior project will be the assistant coach for Eddlemon Adventist School's basketball team. I want to begin a devotional program with the head coach for before every practice. I think that this will be a great experience for everyone in our spiritually growth. My objective in this project is to not only teach the kids more about basketball but also try and show them, the best way I can, how to have a more Christ like attitude.

My new blog

I am new to the whole blogging thing, but im finding that it is somewhat fun. I follow one blog that is all about the University of Kentucky basketball, so it is nice to do some blogging of my own. Of course I will not be blogging about Kentucky basketball. Instead I will be blogging about my senior project which, if it gets approved, will be about Eddlemon Adventist School's basketball team.