Rhody Rants

Wednesday, May 14

Hello from Beaverton, Oregon and the campus of Nike, Inc.

I'm at the Villa 7 Consortium - which is an annual forum where some of the top young assistant coaches gather and share ideas and learn from some of the top head coaches and athletic directors in the country. I've been lucky to attend the Villa 7 event the past few years and it is a fantastic event that continually grows.

I flew into Portland on Monday night and headed to the Nike campus yesterday for the first round of seminars. If you have ever been to the Nike headquarters, you know what an amazing place it is. The landscape is perfect and every building is named after a famous Nike-sponsored athlete. Many of our clinics and talks take place in the Tiger Woods Center - which is ironic, considering my lack of golf skills!

Yesterday, former NBA All-Star John Lucas held an on-court clinic from 1-4 p.m. Following that, we were able to head to the Employee store (I got some early holiday shopping done).

Today, there are some fantastic workshops which are "can't miss." Texas head football coach Mack Brown is holding a "Building a Program" talk from 8-9 a.m., followed by a panel discussion with several prominent AD's. I'm particularly interested in the "Young Guns/First 100 Days" talk, where several young head coaches will talk about their respective first seasons on the job. Guys like Bill Grier, whose San Diego team had a great run in this year's Big Dance, to Sean Miller (Xavier) and Tom Moore (Quinnipiac) were assistant coaches in successful programs and have made the transition to the head chair.

ESPN's Fran Fraschilla will give a pre-lunch session about dealing with the media and, after lunch, we'll have an audience with some outstanding head coaches - Dave Leitao (Virginia), Frank Haith (Miami), and Herb Sendek (Az. State) about some important issues.

Before closing it out at Villa 7 and heading back to Rhody, there is a "Caretaker Panel" with Gene Keady, C.M. Newton, George Raveling, and Dave Odom - that's 1,200+ wins in that room! For a young coach like myself, I find it to be very important to be absorb all the knowledge about the game and the business. It's truly a pleasure to listen and learn from the first-year guys, 10-year vets, and retired legends.

I'll have more for you when I get back from Oregon and as the Summer progresses, I'll be sure to keep up with the updates on Rhody Rants.

Hope everyone is enjoying the nice weather and making their vacation plans...the Summer always seems to fly by and it's getting faster. It'll be October 15 before you know it...

Go Rhody!
Pat Skerry