We are in the midst of a downward spiral and I’m not sure how to stop it. In no way do I intend to disrespect any of our league opponents because they have beaten us and they deserve their successes, but we can’t find the basket and neither the opponent nor the defense seem to be the issue.

Our Tuesday game against Reynolds was hard to believe.  The Raiders’ strategy appears to have been “don’t guard the Eagles,” and it worked as we shot 7-40 on basically wide open 3 pointers. This is a sharp contrast to what David Douglas did last Friday which was “guard the heck out of them everywhere they go.” Both strategies worked—for the other team.   

Statistics can be deceptive and it’s easy to manipulate them to show what a coach wants to show, so take these with a grain of salt, but here are some interesting points of interest.

• We had fewer turnovers than David Douglas did, and lost.  That is usually not the case. But they crushed us on the boards and that proved to be the difference.
• We took 14 more shots and had 5 fewer turnovers and a couple more rebounds than Reynolds. And lost.  That is hard to do.

There were some bright spots in the Reynolds game as sophomores Naomi Daychild and Trinity Miller came off the bench to spark a ferocious comeback.  Each hit multiple 3 pointers to put us in a position to win, but overall missed FT’s and a couple bad decisions cost us the victory.

So, what does a coach do?   In this case, we just need to keep at it and things will eventually turn around.  The shots we are getting are not bad shots, and the kids who are taking them are not bad shooters.  

We are just getting bad results.  When we finally break out of this, we are capable of beating every team we’ve lost to in this slide.

Tonight we play my second favorite team in the state: The Sandy Pioneers.   There was a strange chain of events when I “retired” from coaching at CHS in 2015 that ended with me coaching the Pioneers for two years.  

The on-court part of coaching there was great, but coaching and teaching in separate districts was really difficult as I found myself rushing out of CHS to get to a practice or game, then rushing back to CHS late at night in order to fulfill my duties here.

And that does even account for the feeling of betrayal I felt for not coaching kids in my own school.   I believe coaching in the school you work at is important, and I was never comfortable leaving CHS to work with kids in a different district.   I guess I’m a bit old school in that regard.

A couple of days after I left Sandy, CHS Athletic Director Brent Child stopped by my room, and, well, here we go again.

The point is, the eight seniors currently playing at Sandy were all freshmen when I got there, and I like those kids a lot.  The only player on their roster I did not coach is the sophomore, Brooklyn Adams.

I know that team will be fired up to go against us, so I hope we match that intensity.

I’ve had this feeling before as my third game at Sandy was against Centennial.  It was weird sitting on the visitor side for that one, and it will be strange doing that with the tables turned tonight at Sandy.  But at least I’ll be on the right side tonight.

Finally, to “Anonymous,” breakfast on me…McCrae’s in Gresham at 8:45 am Saturday.  I’ll be there. Let’s talk.