The Bison girls basketball team has had a rocky start to the season, but Coach Don Readance is optimistic.
Readance explained his goals before the start of the season.
“[My] hopes are that we are able to get some good development with many of our younger and inexperienced players, as well as develop a consistent sense of being competitive game in, game out,” he said.
Given the number of underclassmen on the team, Readance looks to the most experienced players to demonstrate leadership.
“[Juniors] Lexi Jaffe and Goldi Aschkenasy jump to mind because they really understand the importance of their roles as leaders, especially since there are so many underclassmen players who have not played varsity basketball before.”
Readance feels that the young players on the team this year will need guidance from good role models.
“We lost a lot of experience,” he said. “I think we can hopefully fill the gap of lost experience by focusing on being better leaders for our younger players, with the hopes that they get their experience as the season goes on and things can click for them sooner rather than later based on some strong leadership.”
Junior Co-Captain Lexi Jaffe feels she has an important role to fulfill as a vital leader of the team.
“Since all of our seniors left, a lot of our team is freshmen, so the captains need to be able to help people who don’t really understand what’s going on or where to be,” she said.
Readance believes leadership carries great value in a team sport.
“[Leadership] can come from various individuals,” he said. “A lot of times people think it’s just from seniors, but I think it’s just the players that take the approach of coming to practice, working hard and encouraging their teammates.”
“I’m looking for people who are consistent with that approach… to play hard and be a good teammate,” Readance said.
Strong leadership can be shown in many different ways, but the general concept remains the same.
“Good leadership is consistent,” Readance said. “It is giving an encouraging voice to a not-so-confident player. A good leader should be one of the hardest working players and also someone who communicates well with all of the players as well as understands the importance of respecting and valuing everybody on the team.”
Readance explained that the pace of a basketball game makes on-court leadership more important.
“The game is so fast and trying to coach play by play really doesn’t work,” he said. “There are a lot of decisions that need to be made on the fly, and the players are the ones that typically need to communicate and adapt on the fly with each other on the court, so it is extremely important to be able to speak to each other in a tone that is received well by your teammates and to do it with clarity is extremely important.”
Jaffe feels that advice from a teammate might have more of a meaningful impact on a player.
“From a teammate, especially if you’re close with that person, you take that more to heart and actually do it more than if a coach tells you to,” she said.
Readance explained the lessons that he hopes his team leaders can help teach the underclassmen.
“I emphasize the importance of preparing for every game,” he said. “When you step onto the court, play as hard as you can with effort, energy, and enthusiasm.”
Jaffe adds that leaders should set good examples for the less experienced players and have a positive impact on the rest of the team.
Practices are a critical time to show leadership.
“In practice, it’s important to give more energy…especially with games coming up,” she said.
There are many styles of leadership, but there are certain things that a leader should not do when trying to communicate.
“Being a good leader does not mean to bark at others, to tell them where to go or what to do,” Readance said. “There is a way you should be able to communicate to your teammates on how they can be more successful.”
“You have to figure out how to help the team in a positive way,” Jaffe added.
Jaffe feels that she can be a role model to teammates through the level of effort she puts in.
“[I try to learn] more and [be] more determined to get better throughout the season,” she said.
Readance emphasizes the value of having a strong work ethic.
“The best player I ever coached who played professionally overseas for nine years, was also my hardest worker,” he said. “She would play hard and practice hard every day, and she had the desire to just be better.”
Readance explains that it’s important to learn as the season progresses.
“We need to show improvement in a variety of ways,” he said. “Our ball skill development is going to need another offseason, but we can still improve upon that.”
“We also need to just understand the game more in practice and then be able to transfer that into games as the season goes on so there’s more of a flow to the game and ability to understand concepts.”
