Most of you know that Agent is a high school basketball coach in Virginia. Tonight his team is playing for the Valley District Championship. This is the first time in 10 years that Turner Ashby has played for the title and they are going up against the #1 team in the state on the road. It's going to be an uphill battle as I saw Spotswood take TA behind the woodshed a month ago (87-44). But, on Wednesday night Agent's team beat Harrisonburg 56-44 and had lost to them twice earlier in the season by a combined 24 points.
Last year (Agent's first season) TA was 5-18. This season they are 14-10 and regardless of tonight's game will advance to next week's Regional. This is only the 3rd winning season TA has had in at least a dozen years.
Here is an article from today's paper:
BRIDGEWATER ? Chad Seibert sat a table outside the Turner Ashby High School gymnasium Thursday afternoon and pantomimed the molding of Play-Doh to explain how the TA boys? basketball team has gone from just five wins last season to the Valley District tournament championship game in 2012-13.
The improvement seems sudden. It wasn?t.
?It seemed like it happened overnight, but it didn?t. I know everything that went into it,? said Seibert, in his second season coaching the Knights. ?But it boils down to something I tell them all the time: How you do anything is how you do everything.?
And the Knights ? who face Spotswood at SHS at 8 p.m. today for the district title ? have done everything. Seibert started an AAU program. He?s held offseason workouts, gone to team camps at places like Virginia Tech and recruited elementary schools to build TA basketball into an organization.
?When you put that kind of work in, and you invest blood, sweat and tears into something, you tend not to just roll over and die if the other team hits a big shot or two, or the ref makes a bad call, or the coach gets in your face about something,? Seibert said. ?You tend not to just give up when you come in at 6 in the morning and you went to Virginia Tech and you played 11 games in 2? days and slept in a dorm room that was 100 degrees. When you put in that kind of work, you tend to fight for something.?
Now, the Knights are in the district title game for the first time since 2006. If they win, it will be their first title since they won back-to-back championships in 2002 and 2003.
It?s the result of a program and attitude shift after a down period from 2007 until this season. TA (14-10) also has secured its first regional bid since 2008, when the then 2-21 Knights backdoored their way into regionals by winning a district tournament consolation game.
TA will play Lord Botetourt on Tuesday in the Region III, Division 4 tournament. The location is to be determined.
?You can definitely tell in the locker room and at practice; there?s more positive energy going around,? said senior guard Justin Layman, who leads the Knights, averaging 13.7 points, 6.1 rebounds and 2.8 assists per game. ?? People are glad to be coming out and playing.?
Turner Ashby has made the title game with its defense. The Knights, who play a half-court man, have allowed 50 points in their last seven games and have given up 60 or more only twice this season.
But Spotswood (23-1), led by 18-point-a-game-scorers Hyrum Weiler and Tucker McCoy is as offensive as TA is defensive, shooting 49 percent from the floor. The Trailblazers, who also have a regional bid and are playing for their third district title in five seasons, went 2-0 against TA this season, winning 72-51 and 87-44.
?Obviously, we?ve got to play better against them,? Layman said.
Last year (Agent's first season) TA was 5-18. This season they are 14-10 and regardless of tonight's game will advance to next week's Regional. This is only the 3rd winning season TA has had in at least a dozen years.
Here is an article from today's paper:
BRIDGEWATER ? Chad Seibert sat a table outside the Turner Ashby High School gymnasium Thursday afternoon and pantomimed the molding of Play-Doh to explain how the TA boys? basketball team has gone from just five wins last season to the Valley District tournament championship game in 2012-13.
The improvement seems sudden. It wasn?t.
?It seemed like it happened overnight, but it didn?t. I know everything that went into it,? said Seibert, in his second season coaching the Knights. ?But it boils down to something I tell them all the time: How you do anything is how you do everything.?
And the Knights ? who face Spotswood at SHS at 8 p.m. today for the district title ? have done everything. Seibert started an AAU program. He?s held offseason workouts, gone to team camps at places like Virginia Tech and recruited elementary schools to build TA basketball into an organization.
?When you put that kind of work in, and you invest blood, sweat and tears into something, you tend not to just roll over and die if the other team hits a big shot or two, or the ref makes a bad call, or the coach gets in your face about something,? Seibert said. ?You tend not to just give up when you come in at 6 in the morning and you went to Virginia Tech and you played 11 games in 2? days and slept in a dorm room that was 100 degrees. When you put in that kind of work, you tend to fight for something.?
Now, the Knights are in the district title game for the first time since 2006. If they win, it will be their first title since they won back-to-back championships in 2002 and 2003.
It?s the result of a program and attitude shift after a down period from 2007 until this season. TA (14-10) also has secured its first regional bid since 2008, when the then 2-21 Knights backdoored their way into regionals by winning a district tournament consolation game.
TA will play Lord Botetourt on Tuesday in the Region III, Division 4 tournament. The location is to be determined.
?You can definitely tell in the locker room and at practice; there?s more positive energy going around,? said senior guard Justin Layman, who leads the Knights, averaging 13.7 points, 6.1 rebounds and 2.8 assists per game. ?? People are glad to be coming out and playing.?
Turner Ashby has made the title game with its defense. The Knights, who play a half-court man, have allowed 50 points in their last seven games and have given up 60 or more only twice this season.
But Spotswood (23-1), led by 18-point-a-game-scorers Hyrum Weiler and Tucker McCoy is as offensive as TA is defensive, shooting 49 percent from the floor. The Trailblazers, who also have a regional bid and are playing for their third district title in five seasons, went 2-0 against TA this season, winning 72-51 and 87-44.
?Obviously, we?ve got to play better against them,? Layman said.
