WHAT DIRECTION ARE YOU HEADED IN

Pay Attention To The Road

Rev Run said, “If you are going the wrong direction, turn the car around!” I thought that not only was a great quote but a simple core principle of life and basketball. When players are young and immature, sometimes they try to score at the opponent’s basket. The coach then has to try to get the players attention before they put the ball in the basket, which would give points to the other team.

Life is like a coach. If we are paying attention and sober minded, not operating out of emotion, life gives us all the warning signs of going in the wrong direction and likewise affirms when we are heading in the right direction. If your finances are low, that is a clear sign you are headed in the wrong direction. 

Obesity (and I can speak because I am fat…lol) tells us we are headed in the wrong direction. When things are just not going right, it is a good sign that you are going in the wrong direction. I always have believed that good things happen to good people; so if good things are not happening then it is a telling sign that our karma is not quite right and we need to get it right. 

The good thing about life is we always have a chance to get things right, as long as we are not dead. So if there is something you need to get right, use this blog as a sign to you that it is time to get things right!

From Coach Middlebrooks...

Choice Is Power

Empowering The Student Athlete Within

Middlebrooks Academy Power Forward Idrissa Diallo

CHS Phantom Point Guard Josh Brown 

  A theme I have had recently with everyone I talk to is the reality that we all have power and that power is the ability to choose. Our bodies only do what our minds tell it to do, therefore every action is the result of choice. Even though they are young, I try to get our players to recognize that how hard they work, on and off the court, is a choice that comes from the personal power they have within. While external factors such as coaches, parents, teachers, mentors and other can influence choice, the ultimate power to actually choose lies within the individual player. No one can literally make you do anything. 

As a result of this power and the choices one makes, action are indicators of who a person is on the inside. The quality of work you do in the classroom, the effort you demonstrate on the court, the girl you decide to be attracted to, the friends that you hang around...all are the result of this power called choice. And as a coach, I make decisions about who you are as a person, not by what you say but rather by the actions you demonstrate. And I dare to say the colleges that recruit our guys make decisions based on the actions they see in our program, which has produced 192 visits from college coaches this past season.

Talk To Coach Middlebrooks! Post Your Blog Thoughts And Reactions!!!

 Stronger Faster Better

Protecting Student Athlete's Futures

When Louisville guard, Kevin Wear went down during the Louisville vs. Duke game last Sunday, several key things went through my mind. The first defined the issues that kept him from being at his strongest, such as nutrition and water. The next was the lack of conditioning that may have taken place throughout the year prior to the tournament. The last is the one thought that no one wants to believe can or will come to fruition, that the injury could have easily ended his career.

There is nothing more important than the need for student athletes to be the best at all times. What we allow them to put in their bodies is one of the things that will either keep them cutting edge or set them up for failure.  The only thing standing in the way of injury is our insistence that these student athletes learn how to care for their bodies in such a way that would help them to protect their tool instead of advocating the abuse of it. It is the most important thing that we can do. If done correctly they will have the ability to do things that are “supernatural.” If done wrong, their careers will be in jeopardy.

 Featured above: Josh Brown, Point Guard Cathedral High School Varsity Basketball Team

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My Blog Is Back

Transitioning from Ribet to Cathedral was more than a notion. I had forgotten the immense amount of work it takes to launch a new program. Therefore I have not blogged until now simply due to literally no time. But now I am back and you will hear from me as often as possible. Stay connected and I will do the same, providing you with as much information and insight into our program as I can!!!!!!

Delivering Results

At some point people must understand, life is about delivering results. PERIOD. I see people trying to hustle, get over and take short cuts. The rich and the poor. Bernie Madoff, in all his pseudo-success, ultimately was a guy trying to hustle and take a short cut. It backfired on him. It will always backfire. There are no short cuts to long term, stable success. I sit and watch American Greed on CNBC constantly. Why does that show exist? Because there is so much content that can be created about people who tried to beat the system and failed. The next person always thinks they are smarter than the last person, only to find they were not smarter.

We try to really teach our guys this through basketball. We want them to commit themselves to delivering results at a level of excellence in every area of their life. We believe this is a habit that is developed and one of our jobs is to help our players develop this habit. Vince Lombardi said, “Perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection we can catch excellence.” We agree with this quote and try to make this part of our mission as a program everyday. Chasing the ring is another way of saying chase perfection; we will find excellence that way!

Excuses

We are entering that point of the season where we find out what our team is really made of. And more importantly, all these games impact whether we earn an automatic bid to the playoffs. Injuries and distractions have riddled our season thus far. And we enter the “make it or break it” points of the season looking to overcome these obstacles.

There is a poem that I require every member of our team to learn and it is a mantra by which I live. “Excuses are tools of incompetence, that build monuments of nothingness. And those that specialize in them, seldom succeed at anything else.” (Author Unknown).

Injuries and distractions or not, we will not make excuses. We will compete hard and give 100%. We will do everything possible to win. We know that we can win and if our entire team, coaches and players, trusts in each other and feeds off the chemistry we have together, we have the full potential to be successful. If one guy goes down, another guy needs to step up. That is what a TEAM is all about. We are young and the next two weeks offers us a chance to grow up individually and as a unit.

Taking the show on the road...

Returning from our showcase game in Las Vegas at UNLV, the experience made a major impression on me. Sitting in an arena where 8000 people came out for a high school basketball game was absolutely eye opening. I have not seen that here in Los Angeles at any event, including CIF Championship games. It showed me what can happen when you are in a community that genuinely cares. Businesses support. Fans support. Schools support. The whole community was engaged and involved. The energy was electric in that arena and the fact that the game sold out in only 3 days was amazing. Being a part of such a wonderful event was definitely good for our kids and clearly had a major educational impact on them about what high school basketball should really be all about. I am not sure kids get an opportunity to learn that in California, unless they are part of the fortunate few programs that get invited to an event like that. I am humbled and thankful that we were asked to be a part of such a tremendous event.

What really blew my mind was walking up to the arena that night and the radio station outside announced our arrival to about 3000 people. How they even spotted us I have no idea but that was on another level. The love we felt and the appreciation was crazy. We don’t get that at our own school so to get that in another state was absolutely great. It makes everything I do and the major sacrifices I make feel worth it. I am trying to bring that culture to our school and our community. And I believe that in time, we will have a packed gym every night that represents the fact that we have been able to bring together a community through basketball. That is what basketball is all about; bringing people together. ITS CALLED FAMILY!