Check your e-mail

If you don't receive an e-mail with the waiver form, let me know what your address is. Here's what I sent out by e-mail this afternoon. 

Howzit guys. Please have one of your parents sign this waiver form for our league at Palolo (KKB Young Men's League).

Our game this Friday is at 7 p.m. 

Also, there hasn't been strong interest in going to the Big Island for the Kona Stingrays 18U tournament, which is next Thursday. However, if we have 7-8 guys who still want to go, let me know. I'm willing to pay for half the cost, but it's not cheap, probably about $400-450 per player for plane fare, van rental, hotel room, food. If we go and I pay half, then it's roughly $200-225 per player. 

If we don't go, no worries. We've already signed up for the NJB Classic, which is the second week of July. Also, the CAL 15U league begins on Aug. 14. 

See you soon,

Coach Paul

551-1054

Wednesday: Waiver forms

Howzit everybody! Hope you're enjoying summer. It's hot. HOT.

We'll have shooting practice, 3 p.m. at Makiki Park. Everyone who hasn't gotten a waiver form must pick one up and have a parent sign it. If you don't bring it to Friday's game, you will not be able to play.

If you can't make it to practice on Wednesday, let me know (551-1054) and I'll drop it off with you.

Shooting practice Sunday, 4 p.m.

1) Shooting practice Sunday (tomorrow), 4 p.m. at Makiki Park. If you have Father's Day plans, no worries. 

2) If you haven't filled out a waiver form yet, you need to do so and have your mom or dad sign it. I'll bring them tomorrow. See you there!

Great jerrb, Thunder

Thunder 44, Hawaiian Punch 40, OT
That was fun. I'm glad I got to see a great comeback by our Thunder, down 10, win in OT over Hawaiian Punch. We always have great games with them! Really awesome aloha game for Mo! It was Mo and the smurfs tonight, and you guys came through. Great jerrrb!

Clutch shooting? A lot of guys were clutch, including Kawe, who hit an NBA 3-pointer to tie it with less than a minute left in regulation. He also hit a couple of foul shots down the stretch in OT to put the game out of reach. 

It was fun just watching the game as a coach AND as a fan. 

Tonight's game: 7 p.m.

If you missed the message I sent on Facebook, our game (18U) is at Palolo Gym, 7 p.m. Tonight. Get there at 6:15 for registration and warmups. This is a COMBO team of our 17U and 15U. I'll bring the uniforms, as usual. We are scheduled to play Hawaiian Punch.

See you guys there!

Any questions, I'm at 551-1054. I'll be on my way back from Aiea before the game. I'm covering a football combine until about 5 p.m.

Friday's game: 7 or 8 p.m.

Got word from the league and we will play at either 7 or 8 p.m.

They had seven teams at one point, but two didn't come through with entry fee, and another team has dropped out. So they're down to four teams. The plan is to have a double round-robin. The good news is that with only two games on Fridays, the league can start at 7 p.m. and more players who are also in the high school summer league can make it to the games at Palolo.

I'll post more as I get the info.

I lub dis game!

Great afternoon of hoops: Watched the old Mavs dissect the Heat, then solid 90-minute shootaround with JJ, Cody and Tai at Makiki Park. This game been good to me over and over!

Power to the working men

Constructive words to a young athlete — The hungry player devours them like food and turns them into energy for one workout after another, day by day, all summer long. The overconfident, lazy player rebukes the words, turns sour and assumes he will make the team, be a starter and an all-star without making any extra effort.

The hungry player is welcomed by his coach, who always appreciates extra effort, hustle and offseason improvement. The lazy player is cut when his coach notices immediately that he has not improved, grown even lazier, and makes the same mental errors. Yet, the lazy player is shocked when he is cut. The hungry player is thankful to make the team. One was full of excuses. The other was driven by work ethic. 

Power be to the workers.

Sunday shooting practice 5:00 p.m.

Sorry guys, I didn't know the NBA Finals were on TV at 2 p.m., so no sense having shooting practice if I'm the only one there!

Shooting practice today will be at 5 p.m. at Makiki Park.

Still waiting to hear what time Friday's game will begin.

Thunder shooting practice Sunday

Howzit everybody. We're set on a first game in the KKB League this coming Friday at Palolo Gym. Game time will be announced soon.

So we'll have shooting practice Sunday, 3 p.m., Makiki Park. The league is 18U, which allows recent graduates all the way down to freshmen. I know a lot of us are busy with summer league, but the games are 6 to 9 p.m. on Fridays, so that might work for your schedules. I just want to be sure we have at least 5 players.

The league will have six teams, five regular-season games and one playoff game. Short league that will end just when the CAL League (Fall) begins in early August.

See you guys at the park tomorrow!

Got heart?

Observations of an old fart. 

Over the past three decades since I started coaching (and into a fourth decade counting my years as a player), I've seen a lot of hard-working players and a lot of lazy players. Human nature is a fascinating thing, and I've seen some players with limited athletic ability develop into GREAT players because of a humongous internal drive to succeed.

I've also seen physically gifted athletes grind down into mediocre players because they just didn't care. When I see a young player with great potential, it's painful to watch the lack of development due to lack of work ethic. Putting in little to no work on his own time is not enough at this level if a player wants to be consistent. If a player can't be consistent with his skills, no coach will play him. If he fails to work on his shooting, ballhanding and passing skills, he becomes stunted fundamentally.

If he doesn't study the game, watch more of it live or on TV, learn from the mistakes of other players, he becomes hindered intellectually.

If he doesn't play enough pickup basketball, he doesn't sharpen himself competitively.

It's all about work ethic. Either a player puts in the daily work or he/she doesn't. There are no short cuts; that's something I've always instilled in my players since I began coaching 30 years ago. It's what I learned as a player since I was 8. Times change, but persistence and determination still make all the difference. The gyms and parks are all there. Opportunity is available to improve.

The "pressure" of playing with a high school summer league team or outside league team is not really different. For a player who consistently works on his/her skills, the rim is still just 10 feet high, the balance of his/her feet is the same, the floor is still flat and the ball is still round. It's about repetition and confidence. Repetition BUILDS confidence. Not working on skills ERODES confidence. Simple as that, no matter how any player may ACT on the outside. Again, no short cuts.

I can't make anybody do anything. It's up to each individual player. How much heart is inside? We can make up for an off-shooting game by playing great defense, making precise passes and hustling for every loose ball. But in the end, a team is only as good as the consistency of its players. Consistency? Yup, that comes with solid work in the spring, summer and fall. Sometimes it's in a noisy gym. Often times, it's amidst the solitude of an empty outside court.

Ask any player: How many times have you gone to the park or gym to work — on your own time — on your skills in the past year? If the answer is less than 100 (out of 365 days), this is not a dedicated player. If it's less than 10, which is the case for some people, it's someone pretending to be a player.

No heart, no results. There's always hope for a change in attitude, of course. That's the beautiful thing about heart and work ethic. It's all a work in progress.

New league: June 17

Wuzzup everybody! Hope you're enjoy the start of summer vacation. Take a look at these choices and let me know what you guys think. I'm OK with any combination as long as we're playing basketball!

• Kona Stingrays tournament (18U), first week of July. Need full commitment from at least 8 players this week. Cost is est. $350-400 each player/coach/parent for the four-day stay. Not cheap, but a memorable experience. Not all our 18U guys are available due to football, so I want to know if we'll be old enough for this tourney.

• NJB All-Net Tournament (15U), second week of July. This is a five-day tourney in Honolulu. Entry fee is $325, not cheap, but the games are official in length. It's a Wednesday-Sunday tournament.

• NEW: KKB's coach (Wayne) is putting together at 16U league beginning at the end of June. This would be a godsend since we had been hoping to play in CAL 16U, but that got pushed back to August. I'm hoping to get together as many of our recent 15U guys plus our 15U from last year. I was asked about the league today and I left a message with Coach Wayne today, hoping to hear from him soon. Sounds like we're in, though.

After this, the CAL league begins in early August, games on Sundays only. I actually would prefer two leagues in July. Things can get kind of slow with just one game, but it's better than none!

Feed me some comments or call me at 551-1054, let me know what's up.

UPDATE 5 p.m. I just got a call from Coach Wayne. He said his league will begin Friday, June 17, which is just 10 days from now. So get ready! I know most of you are playing summer league, so we'll probably practice this Sunday and the next Sunday, maybe on Wednesdays or whenever you guys don't have school practice/game.

Another thing he said was they had to allow older players, including this year's graduates, to play. That allowed them to have enough teams.

League in 10 days, let's get ready!