BASKETBALL: Catching up with Coach E - 11/1/2012
BRADENTON, Fla. - The regular season is only a few days away. While my thoughts are with my family and friends whose lives are forever changed in the northeast, I am excited to begin the challenges of my first season as the head coach of the State College of Florida. We start the season off with 3 home games starting this Saturday afternoon at 4pm against IMG Academy. I have known their head coach Loren Jackson for a long time and he is a close friend. I could not ask for better challenge for game 1. He is known throughout basketball as one of the best amateur coaches in the country. As many of you know, IMG is located right up the street…. Myself and our staff have dubbed this first game: The Thrilla for 34th street!
The regular season is only a few days away. While my thoughts are with my family and friends whose lives are forever changed in the northeast, I am excited to begin the challenges of my first season as the head coach of the State College of Florida. We start the season off with 3 home games starting this Saturday afternoon at 4pm against IMG Academy. I have known their head coach Loren Jackson for a long time and he is a close friend. I could not ask for a better challenge for game 1. He is known throughout basketball as one of the best amateur coaches in the country. As many of you know, the east side of campus and IMG are both located on 34th St. W.….myself and the staff have dubbed this first game: "The Thrilla for 34th street"!
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We follow the IMG game Wednesday, November 7th at 7pm against
Impact Academy, then we have Daytona State College visiting the Hal
Chasey Gymnasium on Saturday, November 10th at 4pm. This will be a
good early test as the Falcons are ranked #12 in the preseason
Florida poll. We then have a tough week on the road. For an
inexperienced team like ours, traveling to Central Florida then
Broward will be a true test to see exactly how good we really are.
CCF head coach, Tim Ryan, is coming off his 7th consecutive 20 win
season where he lost in the state tournament final. His team is
ranked #4 in the state. We then have to travel to Broward on
Saturday November 17th. Head Coach Bob Starkman and I have had a
relationship for many years and he has another great team with one
of the best players in the country returning. We then travel to
Webber before returning home for our last home game in November, a
Thanksgiving weekend battle against Santa Fe which will be Saturday
November 24th. They were Mid-Florida co-Conference champions a year
ago with CCF as they finished 25-4. We finish up November at Indian
River and then go to Chipola for a 2 game tournament. We will
face 2 teams ranked in the top 10 in the state, Pensacola State
College (#10) and Gulf Coast (#5). These 2 Panhandle Conference
schools will round out a very difficult November for our team. With
only 1 returning scholarship player from last year’s team,
combined with the fact that I have never coached any of these
players, this November will really test our team. The team has been
dedicated to what we are trying to accomplish. Their effort
both on and off the court has been tremendous. Our team saying for
the year is, “ALL IN ALL THE
TIME”. The team has demonstrated that
throughout our preseason conditioning, in the classroom and the
community. Saturday afternoon at 4pm is something that we have all
been looking forward to.
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