#First Day October 15

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I had a twenty-five year stretch from 1972 to 1997 where October 15th meant the FIRST DAY of basketball practice. For decades that was the day when college basketball teams could officially begin practice. As a coach I looked forward to that FIRST DAY. I am sure that the same is true for many others including John Haskins, Rob Burke, Drew Richards, Ben Miller, Bart Lundy, Kelvin Sampson, Russ Bergman, Mel Gibson, John Thurston, Greg Domecq, Rick Walrond, Ken Spencer, and Mark Peeler. Like each of them I would spend months and weeks planning all of the details of that FIRST DAY.

Sometimes the planning doesn’t take in to consideration unexpected events. I have several vivid memories of the FIRST DAY of practice that were not scripted. Kelly Lampkin a 6’6″ forward from Kenly NC tearing his patella tendon on the first drill on the first practice for one of my first UNC Pembroke teams.

Then there was Dwayne “Sup” Watson from Fairmont NC dunking minutes before the FIRST PRACTICE was to begin at UNC Pembroke and shattering the backboard. That pre-practice dunk caused us to cancel practice and added to his UNCP Hall of Fame mystique.

I remember the somber news I received in 1994 after our first practice at Winthrop University that Mike Randall had died. I did a post on Mike and his friend David Angel several years ago.

One of the transferrable leadership lessons I have learned is the FIRST DAY of a meeting with any team is important.

I would say that anyone who gets the leadership opportunity to lead a team, committee, a class, or organization has fretted over that FIRST Day. Anxiety on what to cover, what to say, how much or how little to cover related to goals or objectives. My advice is use the FIRST DAY to build trust. Trust is what holds any team together.

Two pieces of advice for building FIRST DAY trust would include 1. Learn about who you leading. 2. Share your leadership philosophy.

To learn about people you have to listen and observe. I have found that the majority of great FIRST DAY interactions don’t involve the leader doing the talking but the team does that.

To accomplish that it might be a good idea to start with questions that let people share something about themselves. Here is a link to 25 questions that might be helpful. When your team responds take good notes and see if you can utilize their answer later on. That will demonstrate trust because you pay attention to their needs.

Leadership philosophy is important to convey to begin the foundation of what you will accomplish as a group. This can be done in a number of ways. You can outline what you value. You can share who your role models are. You can share what excites you.

Finally I truly believe in the power of visualization. Can you as the leader visualize what the LAST DAY is going to look like. Can you visualize cutting down nets, do you visualize your team achieving a specific result, can you see individuals succeeding later in life, and most importantly can you visualize the last act.

Learn a lesson from the great film directors. The end of fantastic films always ties back to the opening scene. The FIRST DAY needs to be your opening scene and it needs to be connected to what you want to see happen in the end.

For many basketball teams that last act can be on display in CBS Sports segment called “One Shining Moment”. Here is the clip from the 2019 Season.

I will close that planning for that FIRST DAY is important. Sometimes in life we are not afforded that time but when we you have it use it wisely it can lead us to a great place.