Words from Coach Middlebrooks

Coaching all starts with creating an environment for your program. I believe you must have a philosophy and the atmosphere surrounding your program must reflect that philosophy. Student-athletes, parents, the coaching staff, alumni, boosters and even the school administration must buy into the philosophy and be held accountable based on the philosophy.

As a leader outside of coaching, I learned early on it is impossible to please everyone, therefore you must create a centralized vision that everyone involved can latch on to. Those who buy in stay and those who do not buy in must go. Pretty simple. The biggest mistake a leader can make is trying to please everyone and not having a clearly defined and articulated vision. Without vision, the people perish. A double minded person is unstable in all his ways. Leaders who don’t stand for something you will fall for anything.

Our program philosophy is pretty simple: everything we do is about strengthening the Ribet Academy community. This requires selflessness, sacrifice and teamwork. Everyone involved with our program in any way must embrace this unconditionally. We are a cohesive unit; we are one community. That is what Ribet Basketball is all about; FAMILY!