In The Huddle
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In The Huddle
EP#53: Unpacking Junior College Basketball with Dodge City Community College Women's Basketball Coach Landon Steele
In this episode, Claire sits down with Junior College Division 1 Women's Basketball coach Landon Steele, from Dodge City Community College. They discuss a wide range of topics from what Coach Steele looks for in a recruit, why he enjoys recruiting Aussies and the challenges of basketball recruiting on both the men's and womens' side. Coach Steele also debunks myths about Junior College, speaking about why someone would choose a junior college over an NCAA school, how JUCO prepares you for the next step in your sport, tips for any Australia basketballer looking to come to America and his excitement as the women's game grows in popularity across the globe.
In the Huddle was created to give student-athletes, parents and coaches an inside look at the journey through US college sport and all that comes with it the demands, the experiences, the excitement and the opportunities available to our student-athletes from around the world. Study and Play. Usa facilitates a comprehensive, customised approach for student-athletes and families for their whole journey, from their high school preparation years right through to US college graduation.
Speaker 2:Hello everyone and welcome to another episode of In the Huddle. I am your host, claire Mulligan, recruitment mentor here at Study and Play USA. We have a very special guest with us today, coach Landon Steele from Dodge City Community College in Kansas. He's the head women's basketball coach going into his fourth season. Welcome to the podcast, coach Steele.
Speaker 3:Well, thanks, claire. I'm looking forward to it and hopefully I give you some good information and we have a little bit of fun as well.
Speaker 2:Yeah, sounds good, so let's hop right into it. Well, yeah, sounds good, so let's hop right into it. We have a lot of athletes that inquire with us, wanting to know more about junior college. We have athletes from all over Australia. We have athletes from all over the world that want to come to the US. Not everyone knows about junior college. So why do you think not everyone knows about junior college and knows how great it can be? Why do you think not everyone?
Speaker 3:knows about junior college and knows how great it can be. I think the biggest reason that it's a hidden gem, if you will, is because we are not getting the same amount of exposure that an NCAA Division I would get in Australia or Europe or anywhere for that matter. It's when you turn on the TV and you watch a basketball game from from America, you're seeing division one, you're seeing WNBA, you're seeing NBA. You know so a lot of times when that's all you see, that's all you know and that's all you think about. But junior college is great.
Speaker 3:You know, I grew up in Kansas, here in Kansas, and we have one of the best junior college conferences in the entire country. There's, you know, we have 13 just in the Division I side on women's and men's basketball, and then we have a Division II side as well. So it's a great way to jumpstart your career, if you will, if you're not getting recruited to the level that you would like to be. But again, I think the more our game grows, grows, the more you're going to see it. For instance, our national tournament was broadcast on ESPN plus last year. That was the first time it's ever been broadcast on ESPN plus. So I know that we don't get that in Australia yet, but we're working on that, working on ways to you live stream games so that people can see and watch the product that we're putting on the floor.
Speaker 2:That's awesome that you guys were filmed on ESPN. I think there are people that can access ESPN sometimes in Australia through different methods, but I do wish that in the future it's more accessible. Usually if you do see college games on here in Australia, it's Division One and it's all the big name schools and it's usually American football. So that's also quite funny to see that in a bar here, because it's just a bit unusual to see that. But with junior college, for those people who don't know, can you explain the different divisions within junior college? Absolutely.
Speaker 3:So we are just like the NCAA. We have three tiers, if you will. There's NJCAA Division 1, njcaa Division 2, and NJCAA Division II and NJCAA Division III. The most major difference that you'll find between the three is just the scholarships that they're allowed to offer. At a Division I junior college like Dodge City, we are able to offer full scholarships. At a Division II junior college, they're only able to cover books and tuition. So if you would live on campus there, you would have to pay for dorms. And then Division III is all academic money. There is no athletic aid allowed to be offered at those institutions. So, just like there's different levels of the NCAA, there's different levels for us as well.
Speaker 2:Awesome, that was very clear and easy to understand. Thank you for that. So hopefully everyone listening gets more of an idea about how junior college scholarships are allocated and knowing that this conversation is with the junior college division one women's basketball coach. So just to recap, that's who we're talking to and with the different divisions of competition. I know that you recruit a lot of Australians, so how would you say that your women's basketball junior college division one team, what kind of divisions or competitions of play in Australia? Would you kind of compare that level to?
Speaker 3:You know, I'm one of those crazy guys. So like we have some girls from Queensland that play NBL One North and they have played NBL One North, and then we've had a girl from Perth that you know played a little bit of NBL One before she came over. So I'm the crazy guy that wakes up at two o'clock in the morning our time and watches that stuff live, you know, on the NBL One app. They, you know. We, for us, okay, we are trying to compete to get to the national tournament every single year, which we've done the last two years. We made it to the NJCAA Division I, sweet 16 last year and we lost by one point to the number two ranked team in the country, you know. So we are trying to win and win at a high level level, and we're trying to do that with really good, high character kids and really good basketball players as well, and so when I'm watching an australian kid, first thing I look at is their skill level, because I think, regardless of height, that a lot of Aussie girls are really skilled, you know they, we have one. Uh, if she listens to this, she's gonna get mad. But I call her, I say she's six, three, and she's like there's no way.
Speaker 3:I'm six, three, I'm not that tall, but she's very tall and she can shoot the three and she can handle the basketball and she can pass and she runs and she does all these things. So we, I look for skill level first, you know, and that doesn't mean that you have to average 10 points on the nbo1 team. That's that's not really what I'm looking for. But you see a lot of girls that are playing nBL one, that are coming to junior college and doing very well.
Speaker 3:But for me in particular, it's going to be all about skill. Skill level. You know we led the country, we led the NJCAA Division one last year and made three pointers. You know we averaged almost eleven and a half, made threes a game. We had one game where we made 23 uh in a single match and uh. So we really we and we're not just firing them all up we're shooting a high percentage which a lot of our aussie girls in the previous couple years here have really been able to do and help us with wow, that's a huge number of threes and and one game.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah we were 23 of 35 and the coaching staff against from the other team has not let me forget that the entire summer love that.
Speaker 2:So why is it that you like recruiting a lot of australian girls to your team?
Speaker 3:There's a couple of reasons, I think the first one, the first reason that I like them is I've never had one that's had a bad, bad attitude. I've never had one that's been a bad student. You know they've been genuinely good people. You know I have four children that are under the age of eight and every single Aussie girl that's come over I would trust my, my kids, to be with them for hours, with me not being around, you know. So they're they. They have good hearts, I think they're. They're tough, they work hard.
Speaker 3:Um, and I think the other thing, probably the biggest thing, the biggest draw for me, on international students, if you are making the commitment to come over here, then I know that you are about your business. Good teammate, because of the developmental model that is in Australia and how team first, team first, team first right play. You see way more 1v1 in American basketball and you know everybody go to spread out and let me do my thing and you guys don't do that over there and I love it, you know. And so if we blend, you know, the two concepts together we get a pretty good, functioning offensive team, which is where my mind goes a lot of the time is to the offensive side of the ball. So we get a couple of kids that can really break you down off the bounce, get a couple of really good skilled players, long lengthy wing players and big forwards that can shoot, and you become pretty hard to guard.
Speaker 2:I think there'll be a lot of Australians listening to this smiling and nodding their head with everything that you were saying about why you like recruiting Australians and that's what we say to a lot of people when we do presentations is that, generally speaking, a lot of Australians have a really good reputation in the US college system for being hard workers and team players and good people, and I think some people think that's like a sales technique of us that we're like oh yes, everyone is really highly regarded, but it's nice to hear it from a coach's mouth as well and I think it's very, very clear that you are very genuine in what you're saying and, for everyone listening, we have not paid Coach Steele to say that.
Speaker 3:So the very first two girls that we had we had one from Brisbane and we had one from Mackay and that was my second year as a head coach in junior college and I mean I still talk to those two. This is, you know, nine years ago. I still talk to them once in a while and keep up with their lives on, you know, instagram and all that stuff, and make fun of them when they do silly stuff. But I love those kids and they came over and they trusted me. You know, my second year I took over a team that was not very good and my second year we're coming off of eight wins and it's hard to recruit players to programs that haven't won a lot of games and they trusted me and trusted what I was telling them selling them, if you will and both of them did really really well here Not here, if you will and you know, both of them did really really well here or not here, but with me.
Speaker 3:And and then we went a year without them and then after that I was like, hey, we got to get some more, more Australian girls that are tough and committed and you know, to help us, help to be honest with you. It's helped propel my career more than I can ever thank them for. You know, just getting them over here and blending them into what we've been doing has made you know the the game. The winning games go on my record, but the players are the ones that win the games. I haven't made a basket in 20 years, so the players are the ones that win the games. I haven't made a basket in 20 years.
Speaker 2:So what do you think that a really strong element of your team culture would be?
Speaker 3:I think I think with where we are at now in college athletics in the U? S where, you know, at division one, two and three they have the transfer portal, uh, with junior college only being a two year, um, you know education and a lot of. I will tell you this too A lot of people don't know that if you are an academic qualifier and you go to a junior college, you can leave after one year. You don't have to stay the two years. But the culture piece is tough because your roster changes so frequently now and I think it's really hard to build teamness, you know, and some togetherness when you know we had our very first workout of the year today and all we did was play four on four. And you talk to the girls after and they're like, hey, she's cutting, you know, I'm trying to drive and she's cutting in front of me. Well, yeah, you guys have never played together before. You have no idea what each other's doing yet and me personally I'm watching, you know, them together to see how we can blend some of that stuff together.
Speaker 3:But it is very hard and you know, fortunately junior colleges are predominantly in smaller cities, or you know towns, or you know there's not a whole lot to do so, fortunately for us. You know, when they go back to the, the dormitories, you know they all live together, they're all right there, they, they get to spend a ton of time together. You know they're roommates. They go to the same classes. The class sizes are small. Uh, you know.
Speaker 3:I mean, I think that's the best way to do it is just to to build the relationships and being around each other and then understanding that. You know, one of the things that people will think is weird, but I tell our kids I love them all the time like not love in the funny way, right, but like love is is also an action of how you treat people, how you, how you respect people's privacy, how you respect their space. You know what you say about them when they're not around or when they are around, and you know just being patient, being kind and being a good human. You know just being patient, being kind and being a good human, so that I think that is a big aspect of it, you know, and just keeping them around each other and relaying that message over and over and over again.
Speaker 2:Well, I love that. I love that philosophy of how love is an action. I feel like I'm going to get all deep here, but I really like that. And I think that there's a lot of athletes who look to go to the U? S and they don't always consider who the person is, who's going to be coaching them and what their life philosophy is and what their coaching philosophy is and the philosophy of the team. And there's definitely some teams out there that are a bit more cutthroat and will do whatever it takes to get playing time and if that means throwing other athletes under the bus, then they'll do that, and so it's really nice to hear the team culture is really important and being a good person is really important, and I think that going to a new country in general like coming from Australia to America in a new environment, playing for someone they've never played for before, and I think a lot of coaches that I speak to say they want their players to come out the other side better people and to be able to contribute to the community and go on to their next journey of life as good people, and I think that that's really important to make sure that parents listening and athletes listening understand that that's really important for some coaches and then other coaches that that's not always the case, and I think that some people listening might not realize how stressful it can be for a coach to have a winning record and to make sure that they're producing results every year and that their job might be on the line. And yeah, I think it's.
Speaker 2:It's definitely a world that not everyone here is familiar with, for sure, but there are a lot of people that say they enjoy the US college sport as a whole and they love watching and they love hearing about it, and there's merchandise being sold in Australia as well at random stores of all. Again, like you're saying, the big D1 names schools that everyone knows about. But I think it's awesome that there's so many gems across the whole US for junior colleges and I think, just because an athlete's never heard of a junior college before, that it's still a great opportunity and I'm a huge fan of junior college. That's me, having lived in the US, really close to a junior college as well as having lots of friends who went through junior college, teammates who went through junior college.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we're huge fans of it here at study and play and we do get a lot of dms on instagram and a lot of podcast topic requests about junior college, and the interesting thing as well is what we get other schools that we do presentations at, where parents and kids will come up and say, oh, we've never heard of junior college, because it's just not as discussed with people that are familiar with the us pathway, they really focus on ncaa one, two and three and that's kind of it, and they don't talk about any other options, which is a bit of a shame because there's like, yeah, so many, so many gems out there across the whole u.
Speaker 2:But I also wanted to ask your comment on. We get a lot of people that say to us I'm really excited to go to the US, I just don't want to be in the middle of nowhere, and I really encourage people to think about okay, why? What is it about being quote unquote in the middle of nowhere? That scares you or makes you nervous in general. So what would you say to Australians listening who are saying do not put me in the middle of nowhere, in the middle of the United States.
Speaker 3:Well, dodge City is about as middle as we can get. Dodge City is about as middle as we can get. So before I'll come right back to that, but before you know one of the things too, and you almost got there a lot of people, even in America to, to some extent, a lot of people view junior college like you go to a junior college if your grades are really bad or if you have really bad attitudes or you know all these kind of things, and that's not anywhere close to what our program is trying to be. You know we. You know academics is one of the pathways to help get you to the next spot. One of the pathways to help get you to the next spot. And we've had a couple not a ton, but a couple, you know girls that have had Division I offers, that have turned those down and came here and gone on to somewhere that's better, that's not in the middle of the United States, you know, and so I think that mindset needs to be changed as well. Like you don't have to come here. You know you can be a really good student. Most of our kids are. You know we had a. We were number two in our conference last year in team GPA and you know we had a. Our sid is great, he puts out graphics all the time and he had a great academic uh graphic for us with all the academic, all americans, the team gpas, all these things. So that mindset needs to flip a little bit. We, we don't try to bring a ton of kids with bad attitudes. We don't try to bring a bunch of not good students, you know. So that's part of the stigma too, I guess, around junior colleges. There's got to be something wrong with you to go, and that is the furthest thing from the case. But back to don't put me in the middle of nowhere. I I would say that the question you're asking is great. Why? Why does that matter? Okay, so to me, if you are making the commitment to come to america from australia or from england or, or you know there's a lot of africans that come to junior colleges as well If you're trying to get to the next level, does it matter if you're on a beach or does it matter what else is happening?
Speaker 3:You know, like that is good. I'm not a big beach person, but if I was, I'd want to be close to close to one and still get everything I could. Out of my experience, I get it. I'm not. I didn't grow up around water. I grew up around mountains and wide open plains, and that's OK.
Speaker 3:But the biggest question is what's your end goal? Right, what is your end goal? If your end goal is to have a great experience with somebody that cares about you, that can get you to the next level, make you, you know, not make you, but help you become a better player, because none of us can make somebody a better player. It's a two-way street. But if somebody can help you do that and you're going to get to where you want to be at the end of it, does it matter if you're in the middle of the United States or Southeast or you know it shouldn't matter.
Speaker 3:The biggest thing that should matter and a lot of people don't talk about it enough is you know, just like if you were in the workforce right, who you work for matters. What's your, how your boss treats you, how, how your companies ran. All of that stuff matters. What's no different here. You know how, how, how I treat you as a coach, how I hold you accountable, may be completely different than you know somebody down the road, and that's OK, that's their style and this is my style. But if, if we're doing the same thing, it doesn't matter.
Speaker 3:If we're, you know, in Florida, texas, kansas, you know North Carolina, it shouldn't matter. So I think the best way to you know attack that is to just say what really matters. Because if that lifestyle matters the most, that's okay, and I tell kids that all the time. If you want the beach and you want the nightlife, that's okay. You're not going to find it here. I'll cheer you on wherever you go and you know, hopefully we'll see you in the national tournament. But if you want to get better, if you want to make a nine or 18 month commitment to academics and basketball and being a good person, we would love to have you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I like that mindset as well, and I think that it's interesting for me, having lived in the US for a long time and now here, for this is my 12th year in Australia, and it's really interesting when people talk about geography and climate, because the city that our company is headquartered in is Brisbane, and Brisbane has really really great weather all the time. It's, yeah, amazing basically all the time, in my opinion, and I'm from California, so I had a very easy transition to Brisbane because the weather is so similar. I was close to beaches where I was living in California as well and here close to beaches as well. And then we have people that will say to us oh, I don't want to go anywhere's cold. And then my thought is well, if you're from pretty much anywhere in Queensland, anywhere else you go is going to be colder, even if you go to down south, to Melbourne, that's colder.
Speaker 2:So I think I really try and implore people to think about you're going to be out of your comfort zone anyway. You're going to be in a new place anyway, new country anyway, new accents, new style of basketball, everything's going to be out of your comfort zone anyway. You're going to be in a new place anyway. New country anyway. New accents, new style of basketball everything's going to be new anyway. So if it's like slightly colder than your hometown of Australia, is that the end of the world? I definitely don't think so, and for a lot of Aussies that seems to be a very big thing. Is the weather? And um, yeah, it just cracks me up. I think actually sometimes of how focused australians can be on weather in the us us there.
Speaker 3:There's some, you know, there's some things that I I get with that too. Like I'm, I'm not a big, I don't want it to be snow on the ground and cold and freezing all the time either, but a little bit I'm okay with. You know, in here it may snow a foot and in two days it's going to melt away and be gone anyways. But I will say this it is amazing to see the Aussie girls come over that have never seen snow. You know, we had a training session last year and we I mean girls that are never late for anything come roll it in like 15 minutes late and their faces are just red and they've been outside and it was snowing.
Speaker 3:What are you guys doing, coach? Coach, we've never seen snow. We were making snow angels. They were trying to catch it in their mouth as it came down, like all these things, and you just, you just kind of like, shake your head and like, okay, well, okay, now you can play in the snow. After let's go ahead and do this, and then you could do whatever you want out there, yeah, and then, you know, the fifth or sixth time they do it. Then it's like, coach, we're done with the, we're done with the cold, but I get it to an extent. But also, like you said, you need to make yourself uncomfortable anyways. You know that's the only way you're going to push yourself to get better at anything. You know basketball academics move into a different climate. It's all part of the deal of self-improvement and getting to the next step.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I love that athletes listening to this that are basketball players men or women listening thinking, okay, I'm in grade 10, grade 11, maybe they're in grade 12, and they're trying to figure out how to come to the US for basketball, and maybe they're only been focusing on big, well-known name schools and likely a lot of these people that I'm positioning with this question will probably never have gone and played in front of coaches in the US. What kind of recruiting tips would you give people listening that are struggling to get basketball interest from Australia?
Speaker 3:I think the biggest thing is to have an open mindset. You know, like we talked about earlier, we had a girl that came that she had turned down a small Division One offer to come and play for us and trusted what I was telling her and trusted my plan for her, us and trusted what I was telling her and trusted my plan for her. And she got here and she sat behind a third year point guard as a freshman and you know it was frustrating to her, but every day that she was here she was working extremely hard. You couldn't keep her out of the gym. And then she came back as a sophomore and was as a national All-American and got her quote unquote dream school and if she had only set her sights on Division One or bust, she probably would not have ended up where she is. She may have ended up somewhere better than where she would have gone initially through the transfer portal and all those things now, but the biggest thing for her was the work behind what she was doing. So having an open mindset, having a goal and an understanding of what it takes to get there and having a relationship with somebody that understands your goal and understands the pathway for you to get to where you want to go is very, very important.
Speaker 3:I will tell you that every email that comes to my inbox with a link from an international student, I pull that thing up and watch it. Every single one, you know, and they could be from anywhere, but I'm going to watch it and I'm going to, you know, do my due diligence to see if I have any kind of connection to them on social media, through Twitter, through Instagram, you know, but it's a lot of self-promotion now, um, you know, and junior colleges are not like division ones where, you know, I've gone to one exposure event myself in the last two years, maybe three, um, that wasn't in kansas, that my buddy wasn't running, you know. So I've gone to one and so I'm not. When I did that, when I went, I wasn't going to go see all these kids, I was going to talk to more coaches because word of mouth, recruiting is huge.
Speaker 3:Just because you, if you email me, and I don't think that you fit what we do as an athlete, that doesn't mean that I don't know five people that are looking for another player and I have no problem forwarding those on to a bunch of my buddies at Coach Junior College and saying, hey, I don't think that this kid is athletically what I'm looking for, you know, but go ahead and check her out. So word of mouth is big. Having an open mindset is big. Having a goal, having a relationship, you know, having somebody that's helping you with the process is big. Somebody that's helped other people with the process, you know, that has a track record of placing kids and whether it's junior college, d2, d1, it doesn't matter Having somebody that will help you and that you trust is huge.
Speaker 2:Yeah, definitely agree. I think the biggest thing for sure is open mind. Lots of D1 or bus across the whole world, I would say, and something that I say, which I'm sure now, chatting with you for this long, you'd probably agree with, is when athletes are getting a bit sad, potentially, about their recruiting journey, whether they've started the process too late or they're not quite what coaches are looking for if they're doing this journey on their own, I think a really important thing is for people to be open and excited for what the future can hold, instead of being a bit sad and deflated. Sad and deflated and I think as well, something I think about a lot, actually probably on a weekly basis, is there's a lot of athletes around the world who might be feeling discouraged because basketball recruiting can be tough, and I think it's also important for those parents and athletes to sit and acknowledge wow, it is so awesome that I'm actually able to be speaking to US college coaches, I have an opportunity to go over to the US, I am good enough to be able to go over to the US, like, how lucky am I and how much hard work has this taken to get to this point.
Speaker 2:I think people get caught up in the whole recruitment journey and all the different ups and downs, and I think not enough people will actually take a moment and be like, wow, this is amazing that I get the chance to even explore what this could be for me growing up, as well as just be really appreciative for everything that life throws your way and to pat yourself on the back for hard work that you've done in your life to get you to that point. And there's so many people that I would say even that the guy was telling you about off camera before who came up to us at the career expo and was really quite deflated trying to do basketball recruiting on his own. I wanted to just give him a hug and say it's all going to be fine and you're going to have a great experience, no matter where you go, and just keep going, don't give up. So I feel like that's my message, especially to the men's basketball players that are out there looking to go to America.
Speaker 3:I think it's super competitive. I mean it really is. There's, there are a ton of schools so there and there's a lot of spots and even to this day, like we started school yesterday here and you know, I know some schools that start on Monday and they're like still looking for roster players. You know so it's very competitive, but there's, there's gotta be the work ethic behind it too. You know so it's very competitive, but there's there's got to be the work ethic behind it too. You know, and there's got to be the. You have to have some drive and you have to have some want to to really do this. Like it's especially coming that far, like you don't want to come that far and say I just want to go try it. No, it's too much of an investment for the coach, the school that you're going to your parents for sending you here the. You know all of the things behind the scenes that go just into getting somebody here, the.
Speaker 3:The absolute worst time of the year for me is the three days of move in weekend, and I don't want to say this too loudly because I don't want to scare a bunch of people, but we had at one point seven international students all traveling at the same time and six of them had flight delays or cancellations. Or you know, all these things happen. And when you send your daughter here to play for me, like I'm stressing out about, are they getting here, are they getting food in the airports, are they taken care of? Or, you know, I'm checking on them constantly. Are we going to lose their bags? You know, because we've had that happen. We've had a girl get pulled aside in customs and questioned like what are you doing in America? Like why Dodge City? What's their mascot? And you know it's like, well, none of that matters, what I'm doing is like it's all here on the paper. So that point for me is like the worst part of the entire year.
Speaker 3:But it is super competitive, and especially on the men's side, not to say that ours isn't, but there are so many more men's players that will go to the middle of nowhere, you know. And just for a shot. You know, because even myself, at one point we all thought we were way better than we are and we were going to go do all these great things. And then you know, then you figure out hey, I'm only 6'2". You know there's giants. You know our men's team just brought in a guy that's 7'3", you know, and like he wears shoes. That's so big you can't find shoes to fit him. You can't find socks, like they've been searching on Amazon and all the websites trying to find socks to fit him and there's just so many more men's players.
Speaker 3:So I would say to them, and to the girls players as well, if you're not a, if you don't have the prototypical body, right, if you're not a, you know, if you're a inside player, but you're only six, four, there's still a spot for you somewhere. But you better have like a unreal motor and I'm talking about the mid side of here like an unreal motor, like you better play harder than anybody else, like that part of it's going to catch somebody's eye and you'll find a spot. But you know, if you, uh, tammy Etheridge, who's the head coach at Washington state, one year we were talking and she, I was talking to her about a little point guard, cause this kid that I liked was only five, three and she goes well, landon, I'm only five, five and I played at the University of Texas and I'm like, yeah, but you know that was ages ago and she, she goes. Listen, if they don't, if they aren't the prototypical build for you at that position. They need to do something really really well. At that position. They need to do something really really well. So what is it that she does really well? Does she have unbelievable speed? Because now she can go by people. Can she shoot 40% from three? And is she quick enough to get it off? Because now, even if she's 5'3", if she can shoot that they got to come out. Now they got to go by them and good things can happen.
Speaker 3:You just got to, like you said, said right, you were looking for the positives in every situation. So if it's not the ideal body type and ideal size and height and all those things, what else can they do? Because everybody I think a lot of people, a lot of coaches' mindset is we don't do this very well or we can't get that done. Well, what can you do? You know what can you do to help you get to where you want to go. So super competitive on the men's side, women's side as well. But there is spots for everybody. You, just like we've been talking about, you, got to open up your, your mindset. It's got to be open. You got to think outside the box a little bit and you know probably you got to be willing to go to a place that not a lot of people are willing to go to and be willing to put in the extra work in high school to get to a stage where you can be speaking to coaches in the US and having different offers and conversations.
Speaker 2:I think that's something I noticed. From a cultural perspective, I think is a bit different, having lived in America, and here I would say that in the US there's a lot of one-on-one private coaches that you can book sessions with. Strength and conditioning is like so, so, so important in high school and the focus on like, knowing where you stand compared to other people. I've always remember having quite a clear idea of like, where I fit in my sport and I think for Australians there's not.
Speaker 2:Not everyone is doing the extra bit of work to stand out Cause I just don't see it being as much of a I guess the right word would be maybe a service that's widely available for people to go and do extra strength and conditioning or do agility work or do one-on-one private coaching, like. I don't see that being advertised as much, whereas I remember in the US there's lots of different people all around the US offering extra services and some of them are great, some of them not so great, but in Australia there just seems to be a bit of a gap in the market with that. So we're really fortunate that we've partnered with Acceleration Australia here in Brisbane and they work with a lot of athletes across different sports with agility and strength and conditioning and yeah, it's really good to see, because that's what I grew up with, and I just wish that there was like hundreds of acceleration Australia places everywhere in Australia so that athletes can access those services more readily.
Speaker 3:I think uh, I think you're seeing that a lot more at the division one level now, um, where you know they used to. They used to want their players there all summer long because they had the weight room, they had eight hours a week of contact where they could be with them on the floor. They had the GAs that were there all summer long. They could work with them as well. And I think you're seeing it now where every kid in America has a trainer. You know everybody can go home and the coaches aren't worried as much anymore about what they're doing, because everybody's going home and working out with their guy, you know, and putting some work in and getting in the weight room and doing those things. And you know social media is so big now that you can check and find out real quick if they're actually there. And people are posting workout highlights and all those things and that's cool. I love them because then it gives me some ideas of what we can do in our workouts as well.
Speaker 3:Um, but you know, when I was growing up, we this is going to date me really, really bad. But it used to be like, hey, you know you can go to the gym and it's you and a ball and you shoot it. Then you got to go rebound and you were hoping that you weren't missing too bad Cause. Then you'd have to run to the other side of the gym and now we got the shooting machines that you can get 300 shots in 15 minutes. You know, and we, we I didn't have access to that. Um, you know a lot of people around our. You know where I grew up didn't have access to it, but the technology and just availability, like you were saying, just the availability is so high right now here that everybody's got a spot, Everybody's got a trainer, Everybody's got a workout guy and it's, it's great and I think that's why you're seeing. You know higher skill levels, you know across all divisions.
Speaker 2:Now, yeah, the game is definitely ramped up for everyone and I say that it's been great to see the exposure that, especially on the women's side that's a lot of momentum has come as a result of a lot of players and a lot of the internationals are watching all the social media and watching games and trying to go on YouTube and watch highlights, because we don't have ESPN a lot of us.
Speaker 2:So I think it's been really great to see how competitive it's all becoming and I think that it's good so that a lot of the Australian females in particular can look at really, really high level basketball and go, ok, I'm watching these players, I know I need to get to, as opposed to if this was like years ago, of hoping that you have a spot, not really knowing what the level is in the US and just hoping that you're good enough, whereas now athletes can see it. They can see what these athletes are doing outside of training, what they're doing during training. There's lots of day in the life videos and things like that. So I think it's really great that there's more exposure of what goes on behind the scenes for women's basketball in the US as well.
Speaker 3:Absolutely, and it's a great tool too. We took a player this year and I asked her about her skill workouts and she told me she goes, coach we. We don't have it. We didn't have it. I said well, what did you do to get better? She goes.
Speaker 3:I put my phone and I got on YouTube and I'd search a player and I'd watch their their stuff and watch them work out, and then I'd go and try to do it and I'd film myself. You know why she was doing it. And then I'd go and try to do it and I'd film myself. You know why she was doing it. And then I'd go back and watch it and I'd try to make adjustments and critique it and see where I you know if I was traveling on a spin move or you know where my elbow was on a jump shot and she was basically coaching herself. And I said well, girl, if you're doing that, I can't wait to get you over here, like I can't wait to work out with you and just see. You know how much improvement you can make when we sit down and make a plan and you know attack it and you know see your work ethic and what the results it can produce.
Speaker 2:Wow, that's great. I wish every recruit was like that and really just trying to figure out ways that they can get better with whatever it takes. And I think that not everyone. Obviously, as you would know as well, not everyone has that mindset and I've coached here as well, and I've been a coach for many years and not everyone has that innate drive to really go on YouTube, go to the gym, go watch professional games like take notes. Yeah, it's, that's really good. I wish everyone in the whole recruiting world did that for sure.
Speaker 3:Yeah, no, it's, it's good man. I'm telling you, technology is great and it could be a really good tool for everybody. You just got to think about it too. I didn't have YouTube, I didn't have Twitter. I told somebody this the other day I was out of college before Facebook was a thing, so we didn't have any of that stuff. And now we're players don't necessarily need they need coaches. They do need coaches, but they don't need us for information, like they used to.
Speaker 3:You know, it used to be whatever your coach said. That was that because there was no way to critique or find out if they were telling the truth or lying or any of that stuff. And now you know I I could say, hey, I'll tell you this one we had a girl getting upset. She's missing a couple of threes today. So we came to an agreement Steph Curry was the best shooter in the NBA.
Speaker 3:And Steph Curry you know we use Siri real quick and I say, hey, what's his career three point field goal percentage? And it's 43. And and I said you know what that means? She goes no. And I said, well, that means he's missing 57 out of 100 and you're getting upset because you're missing two. You know Steph Curry's missed tons, but used to be. I could say, oh, steph Curry, you know he shoots whatever 48, and then they'll go and Google it and then you'll be off by five and they'll never let you live it down. So now the information you present to them had better be accurate, because now there's so many ways to go and check. You know so, the information is so available and just at their fingertips and they could get it so fast that you better know what you're talking about and not inflate numbers or, you know, exaggerate too much, because they're going to check you really fast yeah, that's interesting.
Speaker 2:I never really thought about it like that because I'm I'm obviously younger than you, but I, when I was um teaching because I used to be a teacher I'd say, like what do you guys want to be when you grow up? And 90% of my class would say YouTubers. And then I would always hit them with uh, youtube didn't exist when I was your age and they were all horrified, horrified.
Speaker 2:I know so funny yeah but, yeah, technology is great resource and I think recruiting has gotten easier, like our boss was doing the recruiting process through a phone and had no internet, nothing, and couldn't do virtual tours, couldn't talk to current athletes on the team, was just very much phone call and would have to pay per minute for international calls and things like that. But yeah, it's great how much it's changed and I think that, like I said before, I think a lot of athletes can be open-minded as well, because there's so much information now available that they can see a wide range of what's available instead of just a few huge D1 name schools that they randomly hear about every now and then. So I feel like that's really good. But I wanted to ask you a final question that I asked quite a few of the coaches that I interview and it's really interesting to hear everyone's different response. So my final question is if there is someone who says if I don't get a Division One offer, I'm staying in Australia, what would you say to that person?
Speaker 3:My first question would probably be this would probably be this Would you rather go to a Division I be the 15th player on the roster and play 15 minutes the entire season, or would you rather come here and play? That would be the first thing that I would ask. And most of the kids are going to say I want to play. You know, I would think most kids say that Because I've seen it happen and it's okay. Everybody's path is different. There are kids that just being there and getting the gear and being involved, that's good enough for them and that's fine. If you're a competitor, I don't necessarily think that's fine. It shouldn't be fine for you. And I would also say why does, why does you? Why do you not have a scholarship now? What can you do to get there Right? Ok, so there's options. You can promote yourself more. You can come to a junior college like us and get more exposure. You know we went to the national tournament last year. There was probably one hundred and twenty NCAA Division one coaches there and there's Division two coaches and it's like this side of the stadium is all parents and teams and this side of the stadium is all coaches. And the other thing is, you know there's not.
Speaker 3:Like me personally, I've never been to australia. I want to. You know I I'm getting to the point where I think if I come over there I can get to almost every major city and know somebody there. But I don't get that opportunity to come and evaluate all the time, you know. So maybe you don't have that because nobody's seen you yet. Maybe maybe you haven't been in front of the right people, right, because it's pretty cliche, but it's true, it only takes one person to really believe in what you're doing and to give you a shot that can propel you to the next spot. You know, we talked off air for a while and I started out as a high school coach and somebody was gracious enough and I was lucky enough to get one job. You know I've had a couple, but to get one job where you come from high school to go straight to a junior college head coaching job, that's pretty tough, like not a lot of people get that opportunity, and so that one person believes in the fact that I could get it done and that helped move me to the next spot, to the next spot, to the next spot which got me to where I am now and that's what we are.
Speaker 3:We're a springboard to the next spot. You know nobody is coming. It's nobody's dream to play college basketball at Dodge City, like it's not the dream school. You know it's a stepping stone for you to get to where you want to go and how you get. You know everybody gets there differently. It could be straight out of high school, division I. It could be a junior college, you know, you see a couple people now going from Division II to Division I, but they're really good All-Americans at Division II. You know so.
Speaker 3:But my first question would be you know, like I said, would you rather go there and sit or come here and play, and then after that, that's fine, use this as a springboard, you know, and then after that, that's fine, use this as a springboard. You know I'm one of those people. I think that I tell the kids all the time, like I'm not naive, to the fact of what you are trying to do. Your goal is to get to the next step. My goal is to get you there, and you know what it helps both. It helps us both. When you get to the next spot, when I help you get to the next spot, you help me get the next player that's going to walk in your shoes, that's trying to do the same thing you are, and they're going to see you have success. And now we're going to have some evidence that it's been able to happen here to get the next person there. So it works both ways.
Speaker 2:I will say I know you said Dodge City is not everyone's dream school, but I think what you've described is how you operate as a coach and how your team operates together.
Speaker 2:That genuinely sounds like a dream, and I think people going through the recruitment process need to think about what is most important to them in a team and in a coach and in a school, and I think, from what you've said, a lot of that stuff is a dream.
Speaker 2:So I think everyone listening needs to remember to think internally about what is important to them in their journey, their recruiting journey and their sporting journey. And yeah, yeah, I think springboard is a really great word for junior college as well. And I'm glad that you were here with us today busting lots of myths and answering questions, and I really appreciate your time and I'm really glad that you have such great memories of the Australians that you've coached in the past as well as such great experiences now with your current Australians on your team, and hopefully more people listening will explore dodge city for other sports as well. And maybe dodge city will ultimately become a huge australian market. Like um the schools in california, like saint mary's with patty mills, his big legacy there, like maybe dodge city will become the next saint mary's with Patty Mills his big legacy there, like maybe Dodge City will become the next St Mary's with the Australian legacy absolutely we.
Speaker 3:You know when I will tell you this. Uh, when I first got the the job here, we, we had gone a couple years without any Aussie girls. We'd had a couple New Zealand, zealand girls at my school in Colorado and then we came here and I told everybody I said, hey, I want, if there is a Australian girl that needs to, wants to go junior college, I want to be that spot and I want them to come here. I want them to have a good experience. You know, I want them to use this as a springboard and I want it to get around there. That you could do that from here. You know, and we've. I'm going to do a short, shameless plug here.
Speaker 3:So in the last, in the last two years, we've sent nine girls to Vision One and we've had a girl from melbourne go to the university of idaho they go transferred to athlaptic state. Had a girl from townsville go to central arkansas. Had a girl from mckay go to the university of san diego, like it's happening and it happens other places too, don't get me wrong. But I, that was my goal, my mindset, you know, was coming here, we're going to be half australian all the time and I've got people that that joke with me all the time they at the national tournament last year, the uh espn commentator was right by our bench and the tv timeouts were two and a half minutes long. I don't have two and a half minutes of coaching to do a timeout. So I go and talk to him and he goes coach, you have six, seven Australian kids on your team, how do you do that? And I made this joke to him and he took it and ran with it and I said well, my great granddad is from Australia and he goes. Oh my God, that makes so much sense. And a couple of people heard that. And now that's the joke is my great granddad's from Australia? So that's the pipeline, all those things.
Speaker 3:So, but that that was kind of the goal. That still is one of the goals. You know, I've got a recruiting board to my right over here and I'll bet you there's 15 australian girls names out of the 20 that's up there right now. So just kids that we've watched in the under 18s, under 20s, all the things. Um, you know, seen some nbl one games and wrote them down. So, um, australia has been very good to me. I hope to hope it continues to be, and I hope that the girls that come to dodge city continue to achieve their goals, the ones that they came here to achieve, and we just continue to help them what a great way to finish off.
Speaker 2:Thank you very much for your time, Coach Steele All right, thank you, claire.
Speaker 3:Thanks so much for having me.