JV basketball coach puts main emphasis on passing, defense
Coast Union junior varsity basketball coach Michael McAvoy, in his second year mentoring Bronco hoops, appreciates the fact that his seven players are “definitely solid, definitely smart — and they definitely hustle. They’re a good bunch of guys.”
Practices begin Monday through Friday at 6 a.m. sharp. If a player is late, he runs one lap around the gym for every minute he was tardy. In an interview at a coffee shop Friday, Nov. 18, the coach was asked: How do you get teenage boys to show up for practice when it’s still pitch dark and two hours before the start of school?
“They have to do it themselves. It’s not my job to get them there. They have to have the drive, the commitment, to be there. I tell them, ‘You’re working your way to adulthood. Practice starts at 6. If you have a job that starts at 6, you don’t roll in at 6:15.’ Nobody has had to run laps yet,” he reported with a smile.
One fundamental drill that McAvoy stresses above all else is passing.
“We pass the ball,” he said. “We don’t have any dribbling drills, but we have probably six or seven passing drills.
“I don’t want any selfishness, and no player has a single role on the floor. Student athletes will play all positions on the court, so everyone’s interchangeable and everybody’s moving. We emphasize communication, passing and defense. Not everybody can shoot 3-pointers, and not everybody feels comfortable driving the lane and attacking, but everybody can play defense.”
McAvoy’s practices involve running and “more running. Then we have passing drills, some layup drills, shooting drills and then a 3-on-3 scrimmage. During scrimmages, the defense wins. When you’re on offense, the only way you can get on defense is to score. You get points on defense by getting a rebound, a turnover, a steal,” the coach explained.
As to his coaching values, McAvoy uses the metaphor of an etiquette instructor.
“I am putting down the fork, the napkins, the plates, and when the place setting’s done, it’s up to you to eat like a human being.”
It’s the same formula in basketball, he continues. Once players know the basics, and the table is set so to speak, they know that “it’s much easier to pass than to dribble around someone.”
McAvoy began volunteer coaching youth basketball while he was still in high school in the San Fernando Valley. He has also coached baseball and football in California and Colorado.
He notes that junior varsity basketball practices at Coast do not include learning “trick plays” or other schemes embraced by pro or college basketball.
“You don’t practice just so you get it. You practice so you don’t forget it,” the 6-foot-2 McAvoy said.
The basic approach taken by McAvoy is “to get these younger players out of their middle school mentality of dribble, dribble, dribble. Also, they are student athletes, so they have to be students first. I ask, ‘How are your grades?’ I check in with them to see where they are.”
He tells his players — Cameron Castle, David Nolan, Jonah Tamoria, David May, Braiden Beauchene, David Amodei and Nate Markham — “It’s your team, not mine.”
The first home appearance of the season for the JV team is a 3:30 p.m. game Tuesday, Nov. 29, against San Luis Obispo Classic Academy.
This story was originally published November 22, 2016 at 8:10 AM with the headline "JV basketball coach puts main emphasis on passing, defense."