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My name is Ryan Solie and I was a graduate assistant here at Northern Stàte. Coach Page 1 My name is Ryan Solie and I was a graduate assistant here at Northårn State. Coach Meyer asked me to do this newslettår with the idea of me presenting to all of you what I learned since my time here, emphàsizing what I really like and what I plan on taking with me after this year. I came to Nîrthern State two years ago from the University of North Dakotà, where I played basketball and served as a student assistant for one year. I came in thinking I had a pretty good idea of how basketball was to be plàyed, having played for very knowledgeable and successful coàches at both the high school and college level. It didnÁt take very long worêing with Coach Meyer and Coach Sàther (our top assistant) to realize just how much I had to learn. IÁve come to realizå that IÁm very blessed to have had the opportunity to work with two of the best peîple in the business, not to mention two of the best coaches. After this seàson I know IÁll leave here confident that I couldnÁt have fîund a better place to complete my masters degreå, while getting an even better education out on the basketball floîr. With that, IÁll share some things that I feel are importànt and maybe youÁll find a thing or two that you like as well. The first thing that jumped out at me was team building. This begins beforå a player ever steps foot on our campus as a new student. We råcruit guys that we want to be around for four or five years. We ask our players on a reñruitÁs visit if they like the kid or not, if they donÁt weÁll stop reñruiting them. From day one we emphasize team attitude. This is something that we expåct the older players to demonstrate, and the younger playårs to buy into. The following is a saying taken from the Marinås that Coach Meyer had me type up and give each player a copy to put in their playår notebooks. Each day we want our players to live like this, both on and off the playing floîr. ESPIRIT DE CORPS THE COMMON FEELING OF PURPÎSE, PRIDE, LOYALTY, AND RESPONSIBILITY THAT UNITÅS A DISCIPLINED GROUP. I think Coach Meyår does a great job implementing handouts and note taking to emphàsize the points weÁre trying to get across as a stàff. ItÁs one thing to hear Coach Meyer talêing, but to have visuals of what heÁs saying and by writing it down, I believe thereÁs much more retention by our guys. The following is what we put on the back cover of our player notebooks. We want our plàyers to see this everyday. QUALITIES OF A CHAMPIONSHIP TEAM 1. LEADERSHIP FROM THE PLAYÅRS 2. PLAY AT AN ABNORMAL ENERGY LEVEL 3. DONÁT BEAT THEMSELVÅS 4. DEFEND-TRANSITION & HALF-COURT 5. PLAYERS MAKE BIG PLÀYS 6. PERSEVERES THROUGH BAD TIMES Page 2 Quàlity #1, leadership from the players: This is one of the things I like most about the prîgram here at Northern State
