Coaches Corner with Basketball Coach Lucas Chapman

The ReSporter: What are your thoughts as you look over the first third of your season and what are some things that need work and what are pleasant surprises?

Coach Chapman: Obviously, we started off slow, going 0-4, but since then we have played a lot better and are improving each time we go out.

We still need to work on executing better on offense, especially when it gets late in a game, and we need a bucket.

Our patience and shot selection will help that a bunch.

I have been really pleased with our defensive effort. The guys have bought in to playing defense and rebounding and those two things are what have turned our season around.

The ReSporter: Will you use a small and big lineup against certain type of teams?

Coach Champman: Basketball is a game of match-ups. If we play a team where we think we have an advantage going big, then we will do that and the same goes with using a small lineup.

We are fortunate to have a few guys that can play multiple positions and that helps us mix and match who we have on the floor. The more versatile we can be, the better.

The ReSporter: Your team seems to be meshing well at this time, compared to the first of the season, is it just first of the year jitters or what?

Coach Chapman: When we really just started focusing on defense and rebounding, that’s what turned our season around.

We have simplified some things and narrowed our focus, which makes it easier for all of us to know what we have to do going into a game.

At the beginning, I was trying to figure out our team and what to run, personnel, etc. Now I feel I have a much better grasp of those things, so it helps our players as well.

The ReSporter: How do you work with the older players that have had a bad ending to a season as that part of the season gets closer? Do you think that is even an issue?

Coach Chapman: The good thing about kids is that they are resilient. Another good thing is that we only have two guys that have gone through that in the past.

The rest of the team are all new to this stuff, so I don’t really thnk this is an issue.

Each season is new and each team is different. Obviously, we know what has happened in the past, and we will try to take that and learn from it.

The ReSporter: What are your goals team wise as you prepare for the start of District 27-3A after this New Year’s break?

Coach Chapman: We talked about this as a team a few weeks ago. Obviously, our first goal is to win a district ball-game, which we haven’t done since 2010. Once we get that out of the way, we are going to scratch and claw to get into the playoffs.

Making the playoffs is a big goal of ours.

The ReSporter: Tell us what is going on with your JV and Freshman teams and what you are noticing from those future players?

Coach Chapman: Both of our sub-varsity teams have had great starts to the season.

The freshman are currently 4-4 and the JV isn 6-3.

Both teams are playing hard and have made some great strides so far.

I really like how our young guys work and how passionate they are about basketball.

Coach Barthels and Coach Hooper have done a great job with them. We are certainly excited about the future of Canyon Lake Basketball.

The ReSporter: Thanks Coach, now go see if you can make the third time a charm against Randolph this week.