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One Way Hoops

Presents

The Best of Playing for Coach Meyer

And Thoughts from Coach Todd O’Neal

Foreword- If You Are Just A Coach

Coach Meyer embodies servant leadership. He would be the first one to tell you that he is receiving far more than he is giving. Coach Meyer was just a coach. But if you are just a coach, that is all you are. If you are just a coach, the team is all you have and they consume your thoughts. If you are just a coach, you cherish every moment with the team and never take a teachable moment for granted. If you are just a coach, you can’t get your natural high by golfing, hunting, or fishing. If you are just a coach, the journey of building a team is always greater than the destination. If you are just a coach, you are easy to please but hard to satisfy. If you are just a coach that is who you are. If you are just a coach and coaching is what you love, then you are blessed; and if you are blessed in your work, you need no other blessing.

Everybody always wants to be someone else or be somewhere else, but sometimes the place where you are is where you are meant to be. Coach Meyer was the best at teaching the game of basketball as it relates to life. He was a blessing to many including myself.

Pride in the Pack,

Sundance Wicks

Coach O’Neals Thoughts

- Every season we sit with our coaches and explain what kind of leaders we want with the program. The players are not here to serve us, we are here to serve the players.

- We ask our coaches to be just coaches, we do not want them focusing on a lot of things outside of what we are doing. We want them to spend time with God and Family first, but we want our team on their mind.

- We explain that God put us together for more than just winning games. We love to win and we want to win, but winning is not the end all, be all for our program. We want winning to stay the by product from what we are doing in practice.

- You can’t ever outplay your practices. - We want all of our coaching staff and players to be practice players and coaches FIRST.

AN INTRODUCTION

Coach Meyer was a teacher. He wanted to teach the game to any and everyone, from the first grade campers to college athletes, who would come to Coach for advice on all aspects of the game. He was obsessed about the fundamentals of the game, down to the very smallest details, and because of this obsession , it was very difficult at times to play for Coach Meyer. He always demanded perfection, realizing that we would not be able to ever obtain it, but always pushing us to search for it in everything that we did. Perfection did not stop once we left the basketball floor. Coach demanded perfection in all parts of our lives.

Coach had no problem reinforcing the message in a variety of different manners. In demanding perfection from us in everything that we did, Coach made us reach for higher ground and he made us try to be the best possible people that we possibly could be. He cared and loved us and that is why I believe we played so hard for him.


- Our coaching staff must have a passion for teaching the game of basketball, not winning.

- Demand Perfection- Accept excellence.- Help each player reach his potential on and off the court.- We have to show how much we care before they will play at their highest level. - Where there is no trust there is no team. - Our coaches must be absolutely obsessed with teaching the fundamentals. - Do the right things for the right reasons. - We must have a singleness of purpose.- Everyone on the coaching staff must understand who we are and what their job is. - Don’t let winning get in the way of success. - Success softens deludes weakens.

- Practice like you are on a two game losing streak, that ensures you will be hungry to get better ,

ODE TO A CHAMPION

He is dry yet sly, obvious and stealth, open yet inward, giving but frugal, serving and demanding, poor and wealthy, a confidant and confider, leader of bisons and slave to coaches (especially his own), the busiest man I know yet the one with the most time if we need it, brilliant, energetic, fanatical, disciplined, funny, obsessed, strange, bald, sometimes fat and sometimes skinny, a great laugher and a loud barker, the master clinician.

He was base and bald and drove a chevette strange and quiet and seemed always to fret “Do you want to be a Bison?” In a growly voice “If basketballs not your life, Lipscomb isn’t your choice.” You will play hard and smart and nothing fancy to show. No loafing, dribbling, high fiving or even shooting or you will have to go. Sounds great when so we start? The day of your high school graduation from civilization you will depart.

Why, I don’t know we chose this man ranting and raving and demanding his plan. But aren’t we all better because this nut threatening our mamas and dads and even our butts. He made us believe that we were quite good that teamwork, service and hard work would allow us some wins and much much more developing champions regardless the score so now we return to honor the man who had given his life to his all important plan.

That giving one’s best is by God required and anything less is not part of Coach Meyer. Thank you Coach for this lesson on life. You are a huge part of me, my children, and wife. Carry on with the mission through detractors abound. We are all much better because you are around. You have improved your dress no more double knits. No polyester, bell bottoms, or even wing tips. You drive a nice car and your house is a haven and heaven knows why Captain D’s you are still craven. You seemed to have mellowed in all your old age. You might want to change back to that nasty unpredictable sage. For back when suicides were run everyday, we kicked Belmont’s but in everyway.

Do you remember driving us until we were sick and then from behind giving us a kick. Camps are bigger now and lawyers advise your old ways were barbaric and not very wise. But might we remind you that pride is on the line. Hey, do what it takes to beat all the other swine. Money and image and correctness and such beat and beat um bad; instill Chucks favorite touch. So for all of us that have gone on before, keep pressing and driving regardless of the score. Pressure the ball and get in their face. Increase the tempo, intensify the pace. It is the bison way to always attack. Get every loose ball and start all with a stack. Don’t change it at all just keep on refining. Holding the edge and mastering timing. Good luck in 96 it is the year for a ring. A decade long enough without a Championship fling.

By Ricky Bowers, Former Player, David Lipscomb University

MEETING COACH FOR THE FIRST TIME

One of coach’s cardinal rules was to have something with you at all times to write with, so after we found some loose paper and a couple of pens in the office, we sat down and started taking notes. He only had one real “rule” being that no player was allowed to do anything that would hurt themselves or the team. However, he did have three overriding rules for the program and they were as follows:

1. Everybody takes notes. 2. Every body says yes sir, no sir. Everybody is courteous. 3. Everybody picks up trash.

Everybody in the program including the managers and coaches took notes all the time. Some people probably think that writing during halftime of a college basketball game sounds a little ridiculous, but for our program, taking notes was simply a way of capturing moments and memories and learning from our experiences, and being able to reflect on those experiences.

By writing things down we were gaining an advantage over our competition, and we were learning a valuable life lesson. Coach Meyer would always tell us about a study that was conducted of the fifty or hundred wealthiest businessmen in this country, and the findings showed that they only thing they had in common were they were prolific note takers. He believed that successful people were good note takers and he made sure that by the time we left his program we were able to take great notes.

The second rule was be courteous. He wanted us to be courteous to people who could do nothing for you like children and the elderly. There is nothing fancy about this rule, it is just the right thing to do. On the third rule, Coach Meyer led by example and picked up trash everywhere. In our locker room he wanted us to take a lot of pride. Our locker room was like our home away from home, the place where we spent countless hours meeting and getting ready for games.

I am really thankful that Coach Meyer made us take the extra step and clean up things, because it reflects on our program. At Northern, we take a lot of pride in all aspects of the program, and cleaning the locker room was no different. We believed that the little things were the big things, and we at least tried to go the extra mile in everything we did.


- We must hit every day in every practice with a singleness of purpose.- Any sign of selfishness, we must get rid of. Selfishness is the cancer that can stop

growth and trust. - I have never met a happy selfish person, nor an unhappy unselfish person. - People don’t pay for average, if they do they wont pay it for long. - We don’t just want fans to our product. We want fanatics. Guys that are sold out to

what we do and how we do it. - It’s not about what we do that matters. It is about what we learn. If we do and don’t

learn, than the process has no meaning. In order for the process to be the process, we must learn something along the way.

- It is great for you to write down what you learn every day, not what you did. - Don’t get bogged down with too many rules for the team. Have an overriding purpose

outside of rules. The less rules the better. - Note taking is a great enhancer for what the player is learning. It is more effective in the

learning process than handouts or just reading. - Note taking develops mental toughness and that will in turn give our players a

competitive edge during the game. - Physical errors don’t get you beat, mental ones do. Chris Webber- A great service project for the team would be to pick up trash in the community for one

day. - Leave every place you have been better than you find it. - Take pride in excellence not in performance. - Ordinary people obtain extraordinary results by giving a little extra.

20 MINUTES OF PAIN

Coach Meyer would have us sit in a defensive stance for a certain period of time. The drill was simply enough; each guy had to maintain a stance for however long Coach Meyer said, with all of the assistant coaches walking around making sure we did not straighten our legs.

After running sprints for about an half an hour or so, it was time to go. We were allowed a couple of minutes to loosen the legs back up and it was go time. During those twenty minutes of pain, the only break we got was Coach Meyer letting everybody stand up for ten seconds at the ten minute mark.

Everyone of us wanted to quit, the pain was excruciating, but we all knew that if we fell to that ground or stood up, every guy on the floor would have to go through it all over again. We were all yelling at each other, encouraging our teammates and just finding a

way to get it done. At the end we were all hugging and celebrating lie we had just won the national championship. We survived the twenty minutes of pain. Coach Meyer was building our mental strength and teaching us how to rely on our teammates.

Coach O’Neals Thoughts- We must increase tension through our conditioning. - We want to be able to step on the floor and play at a level of intensity that will not be

met by the teams we play. We can only do that through conditioning. - We make sure our team suffers together. There is something about them going through

something very tough together that makes them into a much tighter team and unit. - Everyone is responsible for everyone on our team. Vets teach the rookies and will help

them through the tough times of the season. - Our vets are teachers of what we want in the program. - There must be a collective responsibility that we have as a team. - Without discipline, the team will not reach its’ potential. - Discipline is doing the right thing the right way all the time.

THE FIRST DAY OF PRACTICE…

Basketball players have about six weeks of individual workouts before our first practice. When the player steps on campus his journey to becoming a great player starts. Coach Meyer is like Coach John Wooden in that he is very precise in his practice planning, meaning that he has our whole practice mapped out from the second we step onto the floor. When we moved from drill to drill, we ran. There was absolutely no wasted time and if Coach felt we were not moving at the speed he wanted us to he put us on the line.


- We need to focus more on individual workouts in the pre season and off season. - With our camps there are very few off days during the summer. - If you can have someone taping your practices that would be great because we need to

look at film to get better. You as a coach will be able to see things that you did not see during practice on the film.

- We want to be a skill team NOT only a drill team. We must show our players how every drill is a breakdown of the 5 on 5 set.

- There are some times in practice to work on 5 on 5 situations, but the breakdowns are where we get better on fundamentals.

- We want player that will do what is required for the betterment of the team. - We have to increase the skill level of our players every year. They will improve or they

will leave. We know if our players work hard enough they will improve

ROUGH SPOTS IN THE ROAD

Under Coach Meyer’s beliefs, if you did not work in practice you did not play in the games, no matter how talented you were. Coach believed they did not deserve time on the floor because their work ethic in practice did not justify playing time. Coach believed that the hardest workers should be on the floor. All of his teams had that characteristic of playing very hard the entire game.

We had a few players quit Coach Meyer’s first season, but the nine that were left by the end of the season were very close and we went on an 8 game winning streak. What this taught me was that a man should stick with his commitments even through the tough times. I also realized how selfish I was. My whole focus was on myself, when my best friend was willing to do anything for me. I decided at that point to stick it out and totally immerse myself in the concept of the team and stop worrying about myself.


- If our players don’t earn it in practice; they wont get it during the games. - All great programs must get rid of the dead weight. Our program is not designed for

everyone. It is designed for those who have a passion for their teammates and want to learn more about the great game of basketball.

- True Teammates say “If you hurt, I hurt. I am with you every step of the way. You will not walk this alone.”

- Get your focus off yourself and on the TEAM. - It is about how the team plays together. It’s not putting the five best on the floor, it is

about putting the best five on the floor. - Where selfishness begins, the team’s growth ends.

IN THEIR WORDS

By Houston read from Northern State University in 2002

Coach is a hard-nosed competitive man and is a coach that is easy to play hard for because he leads by example. He puts all his energy heart and passion into his players. I came from a junior college and Coach said one time if you don't play hard I'll kill you. I believed him when he had that look where one eyebrow I was raised over the other coach is a magnificent motivator and knows how to challenge each player to get the most out of them. His closest friends seem to be janitors bus drivers and blue collar workers. He appreciates the work ethic of blue-collar people he recognizes not what people do he recognizes how they do it and what they do. He shows respect and dignity to people regardless of their social or economic status. His passion for the game and for life rubs off onto you. We are connected to it as players are virtues and talents were all put into motion by her friend mentor and coach Coach Meyer.

Coach O'Neal's Thoughts

It's all a process we wanted to find out where the kid performs best and then get them to their best in their performance each game and each practice.

We must be on a constant state of improvement in order to be the team that we should be in February we don't care about wins early in the season we want to win late in the season because that shows a progression of our team and what we are about is that constant daily improvement.

As coaches we must not just tell our players that we love him we must show them how much we love them every day there is sometime in life that you have to find someone that expects greatness out of you other than your mother or father.

The players don't care how much you know until they know how much you care it's all a process building to trust relationships take time.

The following is from Barbara Anderson from David Lipscomb University from 1983 to 1999

He made me part of the team he respected my opinion and valued my thoughts and ideas he made me believe that I could do anything that needed to be done. Coach has a tremendous work ethic in this desire to do things the right way made our basketball camp the largest and best in the country. They learned a lot of basketball a lot more about life they all came into our program his kids but they left as men. I've seen him go to nose to nose with some of our guys but I've also seen the hugs and smiles. Coach cares about his players cares about their families cares about the jobs and he cares about their lives he cares about them coach is a man who truly cares about people. He is a great friend.

Coach O'Neals Thoughts

We all have a role to fill with our team we must think of the team first and foremost.

We have a responsibility to develop our players and upstanding leaders on and off the court.

Expecting great things can't stop just on the court we must expect great things in the classroom and in life.

The following is from Brian Ayres David Lipscomb University - Senior 1993

Coach believed in team attitude it was a bye in the last if he has a player we had to buy into it. For those who left with a desire to be a better team hate to play more and selfishly to work harder and smarter at the fundamentals Coach had reached. From a camper to recruit to a player the philosophy remain the same but the team before yourself always be willing to learn and be coached and strive for excellence in everything you do I just want someone who will challenge and push them someone who demand what seems to be the unattainable someone

reasons someone like Coach Meyer.


We want our players to buy in or go home.

They are three things that are player controls that is attitude effort and how good of teammate that player wants to become.

The character issues are the toughest to deal with tough because the change only comes inside out.

Coaching while expecting greatness from every player is a tough way to coach it's a very high energy coaching style but I wouldn't coach any other way I must expect greatness from everyone of our players on and off the court when I don't have the energy to do it anymore I will quit.

There are three goals of our philosophy team over self be coachable and be excellent in everything that we do.

For champions there are no days off every day is an opportunity to get better on the Sabbath day I read I spent time in the word I spend time with God I do relax but I get better because I read.

The following is from Dustin Hellman Northern State University player senior in 2005

Coach Meyer taught me many life lessons, it was more than the Xs & Os. It was always some "or a Bible verse that would help us learn how to treat other people we focused on doing stuff the right way and we focused on constant proven always trying to make ourselves the best we can be. I'm still thinking in the back of my mind how much he really must love me for him to care enough to challenge me that hard just after watching for a day and the outsider can see how much the team means to him and how he's always trying to make the team better being a team is the single most satisfying thing anyone can ever be a part of to be involved in something greater than you I always ask myself what can I do to help others. What can we do to make the season last longer so we can be to gather as a team just a little bit longer Coach Myers living example of how there are no shortcuts in life and how doing the right thing but picking up trash will pay off for you in the in our leader serves us every day thank you Coach.


Everything in our program can be a life lesson.

We need to focus on doing things right all the time.

We must continue to show our players how much they mean to us on a daily basis.

I want to coaches that like to work like to grind it out with the players like to be there working every day.

Nothing great happens alone or without hard work.

As a Christian you weren't designed to do it alone.

The reason we want to get to the championship game is to extend our season until the very last game because we love each other.

The following is from Tom Kelsey David Lipscomb University senior 1986

Imitation is a sincere form of flattery for sure in there of been numerous former players and coaches of Coach Meyer have tried to imitate his coaching styles. In my opinion here a few things that make Coach Meyer so good and what so many of us try to emulate.

1. He has the ability to instill confidence in his players. If I stop giving you instruction getting on you, you better be worried .

2. he has the fascinating ability to teach the fundamentals of the game of basketball. Properly and quickly execute the fundamentals of the game.

3. He has an ability to make it really about the people. That is a choice between you and the program the choice is already been made.

4. his ability to look at the big picture. It's not what you achieve its what you become. Coach Meyer always said “ You have to be what you is, because if you ain’t what you is, you is what you ain’t. “

ROLES: DEFINE, UNDERSTAND, ACCEPT, FULFILL- FRESHMAN YEAR

For Coach Meyer, camp was an opportunity for players to get better and he made them work. Coach Meyer, the other top instructors, and all of us workers in general took the camp very serious, and the campers loved the intense approach.

With a gym full of interested campers, Coach Meyer always had the perfect opportunity to challenge the players and see how they would handle his intensity an yelling. I would take what coach would say and listen and became committed to becoming a better player. I noticed before Coach Meyer I would play hard when things were going well, but would not compete as hard when it was not going well. I believe that it was during camp that Coach realized that I was really committed to being a good player and more importantly , a team player.

I understood that I was only a very small part of a much bigger team, and I was excited to start the year. Roles: Define, Understand, Accept, Fulfill. What Coach Meyer meant was for each person individually on the team, he would define a specific role. The players had to understand what their role was and accept their role on the team. Then they had to go onto the floor to fulfil their role. Some players did not like their role but had to fulfil it because it is what our team needed at that time. It took me another year to really see the big picture and understand what my role on this team was. I started to understand what Coach Meyer wanted from me as a point guard in this program.

Coach Meyer wanted his point guards to truly be an extension of himself on the court. It took at least a year to be comfortable in Coach’s system of play. That is why many freshman redshirted.

TAKING NOTES

Coach Meyer had his players keep a notebook full of practice notes, theories, game concepts and life lessons. At the beginning of each season the coaching staff would hand each player a notebook with a stack of blank paper and we were required to have our notebooks with us every time we practiced or met as a team with Coach Meyer.

If we have a team meeting and a player forgot his notebook Coach was not happy. We mainly use the notebooks either before or after every practice. Usually after we finish the practice we would all go up in the locker room with our chairs in the shape of a circle with everybody face and Coach Meyer. We would discuss his notes from practice what he felt we did well what we needed to work on.

I can remember him saying mistakes: recognize, admit, learn, and forget. We practice and play with the poise of a national championship team. Roles: learn, define, understand, accept. There comes a time when the winter ask what you've done all summer. You can't fake the harvest and countless others I could go one repeating some of the quotes Coach Meyer would say to us and he expected us to write everything down.

Coach Meyers message was for more than basketball he was preaching about life he was teaching us about life. Also and by forcing us to write things down he was giving us an invaluable tool that we could refer back to for the rest of our lives there was no way that we would have remembered even a fraction of the things that Coach told us during our eight days as players on memory alone but by writing everything down we had in essence a basketball Bible full of the ideas of one of the most knowledgeable coaches in America and we also had a personal book full of life lessons I was learning so much more than basketball I was learning about life.


We need to define our roles for all of our players.

Players win championships not please.

We want to do more notes and less handouts with our program notes after games and pregame.

You win championships in the summer and I'm not talking about AAU.

The notebook helps with mental memory and muscle memory through repetition.

Repetition is the mother of success.

You learn discipline third note taking it is easy to sit and soak champions don't take the easy path.

I might not be the best coach but I will outwork every coach.

Our teams will never be out worked.

The team always takes on the personality of the coach.

Discipline Coach equals disciplined team.

Post season meetings

Every year about two weeks after our last game Coach Meyer would schedule individual meetings for each one of the players he wanted to talk with each one of us about our strengths and weaknesses what we need to work on in the spring and summer to improve our names and how life was going outside to basketball coach at Myer was very blunt in these meetings as he was all the time if you needed to get stronger coach was going to let you know

Coach is approach was to be honest and to the point not worrying about the feelings of the player because he wanted to see improvement coach knew that sometimes medicine is hard to swallow but need for the body to repair coach was going to tell the player what type of medicine he needed to improve his game because he was a competitor and wanted great players


Your meetings with players need to be honest upfront and to the point

When you meet with players you must focus on improvement how can I get this player to play at his highest level of potential.

Don't put hard meetings off.

If it is an attitude meeting you must deal with that immediately let the players know that the team comes before the player.

SUMMER CAMPS

There was never really an end to our season at Northern. Coach Meyer took summer camps very seriously and after the first couple of years the only people that would come to our camps were those players that were extremely serious about learning and improving their skills in basketball.

Coach Meyer required every camper and every coach and every instructor to have a notebook and always be writing when we gathered as a group. It did not matter if the camper was a second grader or a coach that had been in the business for 20 years, everybody took notes. There were no games played in our camps with the whole day comprised of individual skill development and fundamental work. Camp usually started at 6 AM for the early birds in campers were released back to their dorms until just before 10 PM so it was work but the end of the three day session the campers and the players were extremely tired. You know though a lot of them complained throughout the week that the camp was too hard and that they wanted to play games, but when they left for home they all felt that they had the tools to start to become better players. That was exactly Coach Myers goal.

Coach Meyer took so much pride in camps and he wasn't about to let his players slack during them. After we realize what kind of impact we could make on younger players that looked up to us as college players, we took a great deal of pride in the camps as well whenever Coach Meyer made us demonstrated drill for the campers. We wanted to do it as near perfect as possible because we had pride in doing it well.


Great summer basketball camps aren't designed around games, they are design around drills that will help the individual player get better.

Some players like to play the game, but not many players like to work at the game. the players who love to work are the players that excel.

Being great at anything requires time.

Everything has a price to it. It only matters if you're willing to pay it the price to being great is much time in that arena.

Great shooters aren't born, great shooters they stay in a gym and shoot thousands of shots building their stroke shot by shot by shot.

It's great to have a dream, but you got to have a plan in order to get to that dream.

IN THEIR WORDS

John Pierce David Lipscomb University, senior 1994-

Coach Meyer was obsessed about the little things -how you caught the ball, how you pivoted in the post, your hand position in the post, your foot position when defending the ball, your routine at the free-throw line. He was also obsessed about the little things of life. I learned the beauty of helping someone who could give you nothing in return he was constantly surrounding himself with people who would not and could not advance his career.

Coach taught me the art of being involved in community. Our community consisted not just of the coaches and players, but also the student assistance the secretaries in the managers it was very important to him that we were 18 new person on the team himself included was more important than any other team member.

Needless to say I owe a great deal to Coach Meyer I honestly feel his knowledge of the game of basketball is unsurpassed and I appreciate the Rich education and I got about the game.

Tony Birmingham northern state university player in 2005

Coach Meyer is a teacher above all else. He does this by what some may referred to as the Socratic method. He gives the player assignments and then he test the player on those assignments. He teaches his players the fundamentals of the game and then he test his players in numerous ways to see they are keeping up on their progress. Coach Meyer is someone who excepts nothing but someone's best attitude and effort he does not care what the final score of the game was. He does not worry about who won or lost. His main concern is that the effort and attitude of the players are the best they had to give he will not except anything less. He is extremely wise and sharp and is always looking for new and more proficient ways to keep his age there is a saying that goes something like this “you can tell the character of a man by the company he keeps.”

Coach expects greatness from you and expects you to expect it from yourself. The true test of a man's character is how he responds to a challenge Coach Meyer challenges me every day and even though when I am done he will no longer physically be there his lessons and challenges will continue to be an intricate part of my life.

Greg Glynn David Lipscomb University senior in 1986

Somewhere between the intensity in which coach lives each day and the sincerity in which he treats each person that is Fortunate to have crossed paths with him is what makes him so special. He motivates all those around him to be at their best on and off the court. I've never been around anyone motivated me more to be my best in every area of my life then Coach because of his insatiable desire to improve his methods might change but his message stays the same leave the place better than you found it Coach continues to do that in his own special way.

Bob Olsen athletic director Northern State University

When I think of Coach Meyer I really don't know where to start: I think these thoughts team loyalty, coaching for all the right reasons, developing players and young men, and a passion for the game of basketball. Coach Meyer has the conviction and strength to run a program as it should be run his athletes are very disciplined on and off the court as well as around the campus and in the Community . Coach is a student of the game and always on the cutting-edge of his profession. Coach Meyer is strong enough to do the right thing no matter how it affects the scoreboard athletic ability is important but not at the expense of a reasonable chance of academic and social success.

Coach O'Neal’s Thoughts

Winning is in how well we will do the little things.

The player controls three things his attitude is effort and his willingness to be a great teammate.

Usually effort will follow attitude if I have a bad attitude usually I will have a bad effort.

I will except nothing but the best effort and attitude of each and every player the scoreboard does not matter we will not be scoreboard driven we will be driven by excellence.

I want to be there at one person that expected greatness out of all of our players we all need someone like that throughout our lives mom and dad expect greatness from us but we have to find that one other person that does also.

Live every day with purpose.

Every day you should look to improve on something.

Our team has the 1% rule we want to improve every practice by 1%.

Our team talks about winning the practice we feel that if we give a great effort and have a great attitude and or very coachable and win the practice that we will win the game.

Practices have to be more like games and games have to be more like practices that doesn't mean five on five work the entire practice that means the intensity that we hit the game with we must hit practice with.

Excellence starts with passion for what you are doing.

There is a method behind the madness of every coach they have a motive of inspiring and helping your team play at their best.

If a team is playing as a team on defense there will be multiple charges called in the game.

We are going to push the offense to her help side and trust our teammate a great defense of team believes and trust in their teammates.

Winning is in the details timing of movements and plays preparation and practice no wasted movements on offense or defense the discipline to stay in a defensive stance the entire offense of possession.

We don't want to be reactive on defense we want to be proactive.

FINALLY FEELING COMFORTABLE MY SOPHOMORE SEASON- COACH’S HEART SURGERY

I could see a row with stitches and that went all the way up his leg and I could see that he was in bad shape, but the only thing he was concerned about at that time was me. Coach Meyer had just undergone a life-threatening surgery a couple of days earlier and in all honesty he probably should not have been walking outside at all, but he knew that he needed to talk with me and comfort me. That is why Coach Meyer wasn't just my coach he was my friend.

We weren't just teammates, we were all best friends in our program. When one of us had a problem it was everybody's problem, and that is why we were so incredibly strong as a group.

THE FIRST MEETING OF THE YEAR

By the time Coach Meyer started speaking we all were writing. I believe that the first meeting of the year dictates that expectations and attitudes of the program for the entire season, and so when Coach Meyer begin to talk he wasn't smiling even though I'm sure he was excited to finally get the season started. He always had a scowl on his face and the glare in his eyes.

During that first meeting Coach Meyer would tell us his three rules: take notes, pick up trash, and be polite and he would talk about the upcoming season. He would stress leadership- who would be our leader this year. He would talk about getting in the gym when we weren't required to anyway talk about the importance of the next six weeks of preseason conditioning and training.

THE FIRE DRILL

I'm not sure where Coach Meyer picked up this conditioning drill and called it the fire drill, but it was tough. Anytime we were having a bad practice or sometimes just to finish off the practice, Coach Meyer would call for two lines of the half-court facing opposite ends with the lines containing have the players the player at the beginning of each line would have a ball in their hands. When the whistle blew both lines had to start running toward the hoop that that they faced with the first player tossing the ball off the backboard. Once the balls hit the backboard on both ends of the floor the next player would have to get to the ball before it hit the floor again, toss the ball off the backboard and so on until the drill was over.

Coach Meyer wanted to go a little further with the drill make it tougher on us and he certainly did. Not only did we have to run to each end of the floor from line to line before the bulls horns on the floor. Coach Meyer created some more guidelines to make it tougher on us and make us more discipline. First during the entire to ration of the drill he made us run with our arms pointed straight up and with our hands toward the ceiling. If Coach Meyer or one of the assistant coaches saw anybody on the team bend their arms at all during the drill we started over. It would last 3 to 5 minutes, everybody on the team had to be talking and encouraging their fellow teammates for the duration of the drill and we had to be loud.

Coach Meyer required us to have the ball hit above the top of the top of the square on the backboard . Coach Meyer wanted us to simulate a fast break situation where we ran the four wide, so he wouldn't have us players run outside the wolf ears. He was teaching us to play through pain, but when a player gets fatigue here they can't quit talking or doing a little things like running outside the wolf ears. He was also teaching us pure discipline. We had to do a lot of things in the drill perfectly . He was also teaching us individual responsibility and collective dependency on one another. If one guy didn't feel like talking we all suffered. If one guy dropped his hands for a second, one of the assistant coaches was going to see it and help him do it perfectly. The drill taught that you had to do it with and for the guy standing next to you. The fire drill wasn't even a conditioning drill it was a team building drill. There are 1 million different drills a coach can run to get his players in shape, but how many coaches take that extra step and demand that their players do the little things show discipline and learn to count on one another during a drill like that.


Being a great teammate requires a commitment and friendship on and off the court.

The best teams are the teams that have chemistry. Chemistry is nothing more than being a good teammate.

On all of your decisions put the team before yourself.

A team is a collective group of players that are Imperfect, but together they can give a perfect effort.

Our team is family. Win or lose together we have total team effort.

We want to start out the year like we will end it working extremely hard.

The little things separate the good from the great. We don't want to be a good program we want to be a great program.

The team will take on the characteristics of their leader, if their leader is not intense the team will not be intense.

We must have intensity from the beginning of our practices and games. Our phrase is get comfortable with the uncomfortable.

I love the fire drill. I think we could go a couple of steps more and we could use a weighted ball to go against the backboard for the guys to work on their upper body strength and we could use a tennis ball where the players have to focus on catching a ball we could also have the players dribbling with their outside hand and pitch off the backboard with their inside hand a tennis ball.

Don't do it for you, do it for the man standing next to you. Love your team so much that you are willing to give all you have for your teammate.

The extraordinary player gives an extraordinary effort.

The problem isn't the desire to be great , the problem is the desire to prepare to be great.

Many players just won't work for it, they won't develop their talent or other potential to their absolute best and that requires a constant stretching to get to that point.

There is no such thing as an overnight success.

All true success takes time and effort and energy and passion and persistence. You have to be willing to go the extra mile in order to receive that extra.

You only have a little while with your team so enjoy it. Enjoy the process , enjoy the journey, understand there will be obstacles, but the joy is in the journey.

My high school team won the state championship my senior season it's not the trophy that makes me proud. It's not the trophy that I remember. It's all of the relationships that were

built. It's guys that I am still friends with today that went through something with me that was very special it's a time that I'm sure all of us will never forget.

Life is a lot of how you deal with loss. Early on in high school it is a loss of a game, but as you get older it's loss of friends, loss of family members, also things and you have to deal with those losses like a champion many times you don't see it but the losses are not just obstacles they are opportunities. My father who died 13 years ago and his funeral was a glory to life and glory to God opportunity that many came to the Lord I was sad that I lost my father but I was much happier to tell the congregation how my father lived who is loved and what is life represented see in the end you're not going to wish you work more I think you wish you love more and you risk more.

ECHO CALLS

Coach Meyer demands from every player on our team a constant communication on the floor. A quiet team is a scared team. A quiet gym is a scared gym, and that always made a lot of sense to me. We always were communicating on the floor from the first day in the first time we set foot on it.

On a good team one or two of the players do the dirty jobs, but a great team everybody does them. On a good team one or two of the players do all the communicating . On a great team everybody communicates . Echo calls simply meant that whenever a coach or player yelled out for the team to change drills that we would change drills and all of us would begin to talk. Every single player on the team had to echo that call if we heard a whistle, partner passing we all started Jan partner passing and got to the drill

By doing this Coach Meyer was it just teaching us how to simply talk as a team , he was teaching us how to be good teammates has he always said if one of us fails we all fail.

When Coach Meyer and the other coaches came into the locker room, the first thing he did was calmed us down . He made it clear that we were going out in the second half to win a ball game nothing more nothing less. He told us that the crowd would be crazy and the intensity in the gym would be very hot so we were going to have to do a much better job of intensity step for step. He never liked to bring emotion on the battlefield. He felt that it would hurt our focus. He made it clear that nobody takes a cheap shot at one of our guys and he made it clear that this was one of those times where we had to take a stand as a team and it was up to us.

Coach Meyer always like to say we played with cold blooded execution we were process and everything we did and we won the game.

Coach Meyer always cared much more about the way we played whenever if we won or lost a game.

Coach O'Neal’s Thoughts

Sometimes a win is not a win and a loss is not a loss. Don't let the scoreboard dictate what kind of effort and attitude that you were team plays with.

We want to play with it and intensity that cannot be matched by the other team.

Communication is the key to team success.

Communication is at the core of every successful relationship.

Communication will set your team apart from the rest if they do it well.

We will not be a quiet team.

The great part with echo calls is everybody communicates and that puts responsibility on every body that is the type of collective responsibility that we want for every team member.

The disease of we is me.

Emotion hurts focus and sometimes it kills focus.

Take a cheap shot at one of us all of us will respond together.

Match intensity at beginning of halves.

We want players that can get it done at the hardest parts of the game.

In order to learn you have to listen and in order to learn you have to have a great coachable attitude.

It's not what you did that is important it's what you learned.

The journey is always more important in the destination.

THE LEARNING PROGRAM

Coach Meyer was always making us think about basketball instead of just playing it. It is truly a learning program in players, we were constantly focused and forced to take notes and study the game we did a lot more than take notes. Coach Meyer would also bring his articles inspirational papers or thoughts from other coaches and players in the profession periodically throughout the year.

Piece by piece or notebook would begin to fill with all types of information on the game from motivational topics, to articles on shooting form, to papers discussing playing as a team. Coach Meyer would never give us too much information at once just enough for all of us to read at the end of the meeting or practice coach would also bring books to practice find copies of books for the whole team.

Coach Meyers simply love the game of basketball any love to teach in whenever you found any type of useful information about basketball you wanted to share it with his players just as a teacher would share information with his or her class.

Coach Meyer was giving us a huge competitive edge because we begin to learn the game not just play the game but actually learn the game but riding in our notebooks reading articles from different experts of the game and continually studying every aspect of the game we eventually would become a smart team.

One of our teammates Sundance Wicks wrote an article that compares the basketball court to the classroom and a basketball player to a student. To a basketball player the test is the game and also the practices that lead to the game. se Meyer has done for many many years with a lot of success when I have my own team we will continually take notes and study the game because it is an area of the game that will give us a competitive advantage it will help lead a team to success.

Sometimes we were unprepared going in in our workouts. Coach Meyer would always say I don't want satisfied players we had to send a message whenever we came with an unacceptable effort or attitude and he never had a problem sending it I never wanted him to? Desire to be a better player ever again.


In order to get better at the game , we must think about the game, we must play the game, we must love the game.

Many players love to play the game few players love to work at the game be one of the players that love to work at this game.

When you don't have to coach effort something special can happen.

Great teams have to learn how to play the game together this builds team chemistry.

I as a coach one every competitive advantage that I can get taking notes is a huge competitive advantage that I will always take advantage of don't be lukewarm.

Play with passion or don't play at all.

The only way we can be perfect is to play with a perfect effort.

Don't get satisfied getting to the top it's hard staying on top is harder don't let past success contribute to your future failure.

Success softens glutes and often makes week because players aren't as hungry to get better as they were before the success.

IN THEIR OWN WORDS

Rob Brown - Lipscomb University- senior in 1992

Storytelling is a great way to impress the truth upon people . The greatest teacher of all history was a storyteller. While Coach would never call himself the greatest anything he did, we've had a five-year storyline into the tapestry of my life that continues to challenge review bear fruit and influence me many years later.

Picking up trash, treating others the way you want to be treated, saying please and thank you and taking notes will always be a part of anything I do. The truth is that greatness is found in the details.

Coach built a platform of mutual trust and respect that coach now stands on his friends. To know him as coach had its challenges . To know him as teacher had its rewards. To know him as Friend is the highest and biggest blessing of all.

Jared Obering northern state university player senior in 2005

A lot can be claimed by an individual, but how others react is directly determined by their level of faith. Coach Meyer is genuine if you doubt him once he will never make the mistake twice because he will prove it over and over again. He really wants to develop his players on the basketball floor, and it is easy for them to trust his knowledge of the game and heed his advice after players and learn to trust Coach Meyers knowledge of basketball they begin to understand that his coaching knowledge is second to none.

Coach believes in meeting as a team after practice to discuss and take notes on what the team is trying to accomplish it is the best time to review practice and what was emphasized that particular day. Most of it covers important areas in basketball, but all of it covers important areas in life. He takes the time to interpret it with you and shine his light on the areas that applies specially to the team.

The truly great ones whether it's coaches teachers businessman, or most importantly parents live the example they preach. There can be no happiness if the things we believe in our different from the things that we do every day Coach Meyer continually improve himself. Coach Meyer also set a pace is all leader did leaders do and lived at that pace.

Richard Taylor, David Lipscomb University, senior in 1987

Coach Meyer uses basketball to transform boys into exceptional man. Not a day goes by that I don't reflect on my days as a bison. Whether it's doing the next right thing right or execute the fundamentals of the game for the welfare of the team, or leave the locker room cleaner then we arrived. I depend on the bison paradigm to guide me through my life coach is all about the pursuit of excellence on and off the court is about being a student, is about service , is about the journey, and most importantly is about Jesus every person to their role executed the road and it was only focused on the success of the team when I play for Coach Meyer we had a singleness of purpose every person knew their rule executed the road and was only focused on that road. Winning the right way what is as important as winning. I was a remember how Coach made Chuck a significant member of our family. Chuck is the same age as Coach. He is mentally challenged and the biggest bison van I have ever been around. He

thought of the Coach as his brother and Coach included him in everything. There is no doubt in my mind that Coach Meyer is the best at what he does.

Andy Forster Northern State University player senior in 2002

Everybody knows these rules: everybody takes notes, everybody picks up trash, and everybody will say yes sir no sir yes ma'am no ma'am, please and thank you. Great men do great things and Coach Meyer is a great man that does great things every day. He works on giving his gift of knowing the game basketball and player development away to anyone who will listen. Anybody who ask him he will never set you up for failure, he will maximize your talents and praise you. Every chance you get with Coach Meyer and his players, it is more than just becoming a good basketball player, it's a becoming a good person, student, brother, father, and husband. Coach Meyer wants to see people succeed and if you can play a role in their success you will do whatever he can.

Coach O'Neal’s thoughts

If we can see it we can do it. If you know the way, show the way , so everyone can go the way then you are a leader.

Being your best has nothing to do with comparison to another player.

I want to challenge our players to reach for their potential on a daily basis.

We must trust each coach on the staff that he wants the absolute best for in from every player on the team.

Have daily goals and have daily meetings.

It's not what you teach it's what you emphasize that matters.

The fundamentals of basketball are the fundamentals of life. A few of the fundamentals are :

stay balanced

work as a team

don't reach wildly

do your job to the best of your ability

have faith and believe

Success is helping others walk the walk.

Great teams are built on love trust and understanding.

Do the right thing for the right reason the right way at the right time all the time. We are in pursuit of excellence. We are about being students. We are about service .

We are about the journey and most important we are about Jesus it we are one with hoops

Know and do your role to the best of your ability.

We are a program of inclusion.

The journey is so much more than basketball is about the family we have made during our season once you're with the team and you will always be with that team.

The only way to get better every day is to push yourself past what you think is good.

Confidence comes from demonstrated ability- Junior year

No one player was more important than the program regardless of his skill level the only way that this worked with our program was there was a great deal of trust and honesty within the program and we knew that we could be honest with Coach Meyer and that he would be honest with us.

Coach Meyer gave Coach the full authority with our strength and conditioning program and after about two weeks of training with Coach B we all knew he was the real deal. could be made this work order in the weight room in in conditioning then we ever worked . Our team were for the most part very self driven and wanted to be the best. It was impossible not to work card for Coach B because he had more energy than probably anybody I've ever met. We knew that we want we had to match his intensity or he would kill us. So we were also ready to go he was always barking out encouragement instruction jogging forgot a guy bringing energy to the group it was really amazing to watch.

Coach be created weeklong worksheets for each guy on Sunday and then we would go off of that sheet for the entire week each week. Coach B would incorporate different lives different reps to keep it fresh that was the thing about Coach be just like all of his workouts he was always fresh.

Energy givers versus energy drainers

Each player is contributing and either a positive or negative way to the entire group. As a player you are always doing one or two things- you're either bring in energy to the team or you're sucking energy away from the team. On our team we want energy givers to bring energy to the group. Was I energy giver or energy drainer during the last practice. Did I make the team more energetic or did I bring the team down it was there a couple questions to each player must ask himself every practice.

Some people bring energy to a group whether it is through there talking her through their actions and other people drainage from the group whether negative attitudes or the laziness. Coach Meyer news at it if we could get the majority of the guys on the team to be energy givers the few remaining drainers would have no choice but to change their attitudes or get left behind.

Coach would always force the player to eventually choose between the welfare of his team or the players own selfish motives. If you brought energy to the team it benefited everybody involved. One of the reasons we were so successful during my years and when I Coach Meyer is success whatever years because he finds players that want to bring energy to the group. Two are better than one as long as two act like one. Imagine the power of five acting as one. That is what being an energy giver is all about . Everybody on the team bringing the energy to the team so that the team is in harmony acting as one. It's amazing what a team can accomplish when everybody brings as much energy as possible to the overall goal of the team, then unbelievable things can happen.

Coach O'Neal's thoughts

Trust and honesty are the cornerstones great programs.

We want our players to hit the weight room with the same intensity as we do practice.

Nothing special couldn't happen without an unlimited amount of energy effort and enthusiasm.

Energy does not require talent.

In order to have the necessary energy to be a great teammate you must fuel up correctly and that means no junk food no carbonated beverages and getting the proper amount of rest every night you can't be at your best if you're not getting enough rest.

We ask our players to be competitively great every day and that means being at your best when you were best is required.

We want to make excellence more than just a word to the program we want to make excellence a habit daily in practice.

Excellence is attainable perfection is not in the areas of performance.

Perfection is attainable in two areas you can have a perfect effort and a perfect attitude and you choose it every day.

We want everyone on our team to buy in or sell out leave.

It's funny how this works most energy drainers are selfish players.

We need more players to ask what can I do for the team.

If you want to win championships you must have energy givers as coaches and players within the program.

There is only one true way to go from good to great and that is a relentless pursuit to be your best it takes years of hard work and dedication to become great and leave a legacy of greatness.

Hey relentless pursuit does not stop at any injury it does not stop at no it does not stop at negative comments it does not stop because you're tired it does not stop at anything it does not quit it pushes pass the pain and works constantly to get the best.

Does a relentless pursuit describe you if not why. The top performers and most intense competitors in the sport Business and life are described by this phrase.

A relentless pursuit is a chase for the best it is a state of mind they can give you the strength to move past what you think is good it means moving toward a goal and not letting anything get in your way.

SOME PLAYERS HAVE HEART, SOME DON’T…

Coach Meyer believed that for our team to have the best chance to win, the guys that were the best distributors of the basketball needed to do the distributing, and the guys that were the best shooters needed to do the shooting.

The purpose of the game is to win and I believe, just like Coach Meyer, that a team should do whatever is necessary even if that means that some players don’t shoot a lot or in some cases, none at all.

REDEFINING MY ROLE- D AND D

I knew that if I wasn’t going to be a scorer, I had to be a contributor to the team in other ways and I decided that I had to do everything else as a player as well as possible if I was going to help our team succeed and if I was going to continue to get the minutes I had been playing in the past, I had to do something well. This is when I created the concept of D and D. That stands for Defending and Distributing.

TAKING JOY IN DOING THE LITTLE THINGS

The older guys were starting to teach the younger guys what our program was all about and everybody began to understand what their role on the team was supposed to be. We started to know who was supposed to get the majority of our outside shots, who was supposed to initiated the offense, which players we wanted to have the ball late in the game. Our team was beginning to come together. All of us players finally became willing to lose ourselves in the group for the welfare of the team.

COACH O’NEALS THOUGHTS

In order to have a great team you cant have guys who like basketball, you have to have guys who love basketball and love each other.

We need players with a passion for basketball and a passion for each other.

Everyday we need these questions answered: Do you have a heart for basketball? Do you have a heart for your teammates?

This game is pretty simple when you think about it: passers pass, scorers score, rebounders rebound, shooters shoot, screeners screen, and every one of us defends and rebounds.

Our purpose is to play hard, smart, well, and together. Let winning take care of itself. It is a by product.

You can’t control winning.

Only a small part of winning has to do with the score. We do not want to be scoreboard driven. We want to be driven by excellence.

Point Guard mentality needs to be to defend, distribute, and lead.

Veterans teach the rookies.

All of us become one of us.

The Warriors are a few but the battlefields are plenty.

Your actions will show your heart.

Do you take action for what you truly believe in?

When a team is living on borrowed time it means that they are in their last tournament together. At any point with a loss in their careers would be over.

The greatest is the least and the least is the greatest.

Teams multiply the joys and divide the sorrows.

The attitude of the team reflects the leadership of the team.

It's all right to have an ego but it better be a team EGO.

Your best lies within a team.

THE WOLF DOG FESTIVAL

The great thing about the wolf dog festival is that it is a special event that brings together every member that helps out the basketball program Coach Meyer makes sure to invite everybody that contributes to our program and it's always nice to bring the players and the outsiders together.

In so many programs the players are singing as untouchable and they never interact with the people in the community. Coach Meyer made it a point in our program however to always interact with all of the people in the community and to treat everybody with respect.

Basketball was much more than winning basketball games it was about developing relationships and being a good person.


Treat everyone with respect.

We as coaches have to know who we are teaching.You have to know more in the subject you will teach you have to know how you will teach.

The players don't care how much you know until they know how much you care.

The best teams prepare to be the best.

We will outwork everyone.

There is no such thing as over preparation.

CAMP SEASON

The campers could see how much Coach Meyer cared about making them better players and they responded with their best efforts. That is why he will undoubtedly be a great coach in the coming years, he also could teach the game. Because of his organizational skills, he knew exactly what he wanted to teach, how do you he was going to teach it, and who he was teaching it to you.

Coach Meyer spoke to me about what I needed to do to continue to improve my game. I just finished my second season as league leader and assist and I felt that I had had a pretty good year. Coach Meyer made sure that I continue to get better by telling me straightforward that I wasn't a naturally talented player. Steve you have to go out and work every day and working harder than the next guy because you have an 82 mph fastball. You don't have a 95 mile an hour fastball so you have to at work the other guy.


Part of my job as a coach is to keep our players humble and hungry. If a player passes through our system does not improve I have not done my job if a player passes through our system and does not understand how much I love him and want the best for him I have not done my job.

True team basketball has no individuals.

Every time we step onto the court we can play and live as a team for God's glory.

Always lead with love.

Being a Christian coach makes you more passionate about the things that matter it is all about the relationships.

Roles and goals defined them every day.

In order to get the best out of every player it takes perseverance and patience and intensity overtime it won't happen in one day but it will happen one day.

Our success as coaches is based in the players success.

A reporter wants ask Coach John wooden who was the greatest coach that he coached against Coach wooden said something very profound he said it was the coach with the greatest amount of talent.

I and basketball it's all about the fundamentals.

If enough people work to be their best we will be our best.

You can never say thank you enough but you can try

If you don't have a passion for basketball don't play it

If you don't have a passion to teach young men the fundamentals of basketball and life don't coach it

IN THEIR OWN WORDS

Derik Budig, Strength and Conditioning Coach, Northern State University- Present

What impresses me about Coach is his humble servant attitude. It reminds me of the first chapter in The Purpose Driven Life, by Rick Warren. The opening chapter states “It’s not about me.” Well with coach it is not about him, it is about the team and his ability to communicate and live it out each day.

Coach always gives credit to everyone else but himself, which reflects the attitude of no one being bigger than the team.

He is dedicated to Jesus Christ . He embraces the opportunity to exploit Jesus for the sake of others. Being a Christian man does not make you soft and timid, but instead the Holy Spirit fills your soul with a love that is unconditional. He will always show you his love. That love may be in a form of discipline or calling you on the carpet with regards to your play or actions, but it is still his love that drives you to be a better person.

Marcus Bodie, David Lipscomb University, Senior in 1990

During the beginning of the season Coach was breaking down everybody’s role on the team, the “what you can do and what you cannot do.” He had a vision for our talents even before we realized it. I have that same vision for the kids that I coach now. I understand why it had to start with me first: Meyer is a great teacher who has the patience and tenacity to get the best out of his players. The things I have learned from coach are embedded in my soul for eternity. Coach Meyer is a bonafide COACH- C- Caring, O- Overachiever, A- Arete, C- Christ like, H- Humble. Thanks big guy.

Brad Christenson, Assistant Coach, Northern State University

If only people could see… - the way coach teaches life through the game of basketball. – the way he pushes people to be the best they can be. – the passion he has for teaching and for the team.

So often in life we don’t appreciate what we have in our lives until it is too late. We also way too often don’t tell someone how we feel about them or thank them for what they do. Coach Meyer has taught me not to wait.

Paul Sather , Northern State Assistant Coach, 1999-2004

Fundamentals and team attitude are the building blocks for his basketball teams. He wants to help young people get ready for life after basketball, and he uses the game of basketball as a vehicle to do just that. No one has more fun at what they do than Coach Meyer. He loves to laugh.

When it was time to practice, it was time to stop jacking around. Our practices were planned with great detail, fundamentals, and competition were the two important areas. Our practices were very demanding and there was not much time for rest.

Individual skill development was the life blood of our program because we didn’t always have the most athletic players. We had to play harder, smarter, and together to give ourselves a chance to have success. Coach spent time on shooting, passing, and ballhandling in practice everyday. Even if it were only a few minutes…it was important. Coach Meyer looked to challenge our players both physically and mentally making practices harder than games. As a coach, he is totally selfless when it comes to the team.

Ricky Bowers, David Lipscomb University, Senior in 1996

I sleep less, work smarter, read more, say please and thank you often, obsess the little things, study with greater desire, ask why, give more, compliment the weak, criticize the strong, run farther, laugh at myself and love more deeply because of Coach Meyer’s lasting influence.

Philip Hutcheson, David Lipscomb University, Senior in 1990

Coach’s camps were about fundamentals pushing yourself farther than you thought possible and learning that the most important lessons basketball taught were the ones that helped you more off the court than on it. All I remember about camps were doing pushups, snake rolls, and sitting on the wall. I loved camp and went away wanting more.

He taught by example. How we’re supposed to treat those who cannot do anything for us in return. I have seen coach Meyer send a note, share a meal, give a ride, or in some other way make feel important a person to whom he owed nothing and from whom he expected nothing in return.

Coach Meyer loved notes. On the first page of my notes in college it says “Taking responsibility, Team Attitude, and Common Courtesy” Learning the fundamentals of the game in order to be a good player was important, but learning the fundamentals of life in order to be a good person was even more important.

Some of his phrases included- Do the nest right thing right, say please and thank you, leave a place better than you found it. Very few people demand greatness out of you and fewer still

will actually help you achieve it. Albert Schweitzer once said “I’d rather see a good sermon than hear one anyday.” Coach Meyer lives a good sermon.

Meyer was the type of coach who was constantly learning, who was constantly expanding his borders, and who was constantly demanding greatness from you. But Coach earned the right to do so by demanding greatness from himself as well. Thanks to Coach with his teams everyone cares about the other person more than himself, where everyone is focused on a common goal and where to those who mattered the most to you- your teammates and coaches- the effort really does matter more than the outcome. Being a Bison was more important than winning and losing.

Even though they did not know it, Northern’s players had just been enrolled in the best class they would every take while in school. And although they will certainly learn many of the same lessons I did from Coach, when their time as a player is up, I bet they, like me, will walk away wanting more.


Winning is in the details.

We need to spend more time with individual offensive skill time on a daily basis.

Everyone needs to be totally selfless on our team.

The star of the team is the team.

We will always make practices harder than games. What you accept in practice you will accept in games. Win the championship first in practice.

Push yourself to be your best everyday. Stretching yourself physically and mentally is tough, but everything worthwhile is.

Great players desire discipline.

Give with no expectation of getting anything back.

Demand greatness from our players.

Improvement from every team member is possible and expected.

The journey is much more important than the destination.

The classroom that our players will learn the most in will be on the court.

GROUP HUDDLE

Before every one of their practices or games the whole team would get in a huddle without any coaches or managers, just the players, and they would take a minute to talk as a team and get ready for the practice.

Before every lifting session, and especially before every conditioning session, the whole team would circle up and every guy in the circle would have to commit to the task at hand, saying that they were ready to go. After everybody in the circle had given their personal commitment we stacked up and said our trademark “Pride in the Pack” and it was time to work.

It is funny how when a person seems like they are unbelievably busy they usually get the most done.

PRESEASON CONDITIONING

In our program the most exciting, but also the most dreaded time of year has to be the fall. It was really exciting to get everybody back to start doing our individual workouts with Coach Meyer twice a week. One excruciating part about the preseason was the conditioning with our strength coach, Coach Budig. He put us through twelve of the hardest hour long sessions that I have ever been through. We had at least one guy vomit per session, and it was just because the sessions were that hard.

The majority of the time we did our conditioning in the gym and we would start with a lot of agility and plyometric work, but the last twenty minutes is what we all feared. Sometimes we would do station work, sometimes we would do full sprints the whole time, and sometimes we did not have a clue what we were doing, but the only constant was that by the end of the day there was absolutely no gas left in the tank. When the first day of practice hit around October 15 each year, we were already in great shape.


In order to have a great team, we have to have great leadership.

The team will go as far as the leadership will carry it.

The team will only grow as far as the leadership carries it.

If our leadership is selfish the team will not grow, if it is selfless the team can grow.

Mental Preparation- The leader of the team has to step up and lead his team before practices. Preparation is the key to success.

Buy into the system. We need to stack it up before practice and get everyone in to let us know we are ready to work hard.

Huddling lets us know all of us are in this thing TOGETHER. It is also great for COMMUNICATION.

Physical preparation in preseason is vital for a great season.

Individual workouts two times a week for our team starting in early summer is a great way to improve.

We need a one hour long conditioning session in the preseason. We will work until the muscles to full exhaustion. Don’t have anything left in the tank. If we do this thing our way our guys will be in great shape by the first practice.

Summer is where you improve as an individual player. The team will improve during the season.

Help those who cant help you.

At practice we need sustained effort and enthusiasm.

We need to play up in our schedule early in the season.

Each player must ask- can he bring 100% effort every day to practice? It is the only way the team improves.

Every practice is a chance for every player to increase their skill level and get better at their role for our team.

Great teams find ways to win. Great teams know how to win.

GREAT START TO PRACTICE…

Everybody worked hard and as a team our strength, stamina, and skill level all improved in the preseason. It is easy to practice hard on day 1, but the test of a real team is how they practice on day 2,3,4, and so on. I think that everyone on the team took that speech to heart, and our first few weeks of practice were excellent. Practices were always an opportunity to improve.

We want our players to be practice players first. We also want our coaches to be practice coaches first.

MEYERISMS…SOME OF COACH MEYER’S FAVORITE SAYINGS

(MORE THAN A FEW OF THESE HE SURELY TOOK FROM OTHER COACHES AND LEADERS)

You can measure somebody’s character by how they treat people that can do them any good or can’t fight back.

You don’t have to win a championship to be a champion.

A fool despises instruction.

People don’t like you for what they see in you but for what you see in them.

The greatest feelings are expressed in silence.

You can play with all the intensity of a mad dog in a meat house but if you are not smart, sooner or later you will get a bullet between your eyes.

Start slow, get a rhythm, then go fast enough to make a mistake.

Make practices tougher than games.

Confidence comes from demonstrated ability.

Champions don’t look at it as sacrifice; champions do what needs to be done.

When the pupil is ready the teacher will appear.

It’s not what you achieve, it’s what you become.

Know who you are and what your game is.

What you accept in victory, you accept in defeat.

Do the ordinary things extraordinarily well.

Make practices like games and games like practices.

Happiness begins when selfishness ends.

We have met the enemy and he is us.

We must practice and play with the intensity and poise of a national championship team.

Sometimes a good enemy is better than a good friend.

It’s not what you teach it’s what you emphasize.

COACH ONEALISMS

These are a few of Coach O’Neals favorite sayings:

Selfishness begins where the team ends.

Being your best requires you expecting your best.

Be content, but not satisfied.

The whole is greater than the part.

Get comfortable with the uncomfortable.

Great players do great things in the middle of the court.

The team that controls the middle wins.

The ball is more important than your man.

If we can’t stop the ball, we can’t be good defensively.

Fatigue makes cowards of us all.

Our practices aren’t designed for your enjoyment.

Our practices are closed to outsiders, they don’t need any distractions from spectators.

SOME OF COACH MEYER’S ACCOMPLISHMENTS

- The fastest coach in the history of college basketball to reach the 700 win plateau. - Winner of the NAIA Championship at Lipscomb University in 1986. - During the 1990’s Coach Meyer’s teams average more than 32 wins per season, more

than any other team in the country. - NAIA National Coach of the Year in 1989 and 1990

- Assistant Coach for Mike Krzewski with the Olympic Sports Festival South Team in 1983.

- Coach’s team led the nation in scoring in 1989, 1990, 1992, 1993, and 1995 averaging more than 100 points per game.

- Coach Meyer’s System has produced 3 National Players of the Year and 22 All Americans.

- Coach’s 1989-1990 team set the college basketball record for wins in a season with 41. - Coach Meyer’s son, Jerry, played for his father at Lipscomb and broke the college

basketball career assist record. - Two of Coach’s former post players, John Pierce and Phillip Hutcheson both score over

4000 points in their careers. - At Northern State, the Wolves have won either the conference regular season title or

the conference tournament in the last four years. - Coach Meyer has coached three North Central All Region players at Northern. - Coach’s system has produced two NSIC Conference MVPs. - In December 2005, Coach Meyer won is 800th career game vs Minnesota Duluth.- Coach Meyer produces the 30 tape series “Building a Championship Program” which is

one of the tope selling series of its kind and has been used by some of the major D I schools such as Kansas, Kentucky, North Carolina, and Duke.

SOME OF COACH O’NEALS ACCOMPLISHMENTS

- Won NACA National Championship at Gabriel Christian Prep Academy in 2013- From 2009-2013 averaged 34 wins a season, more than any other team in Tennessee- 2013 set Tennessee State Record for wins- 51 at Gabriel Christian Prep Academy- 2013- set Tennessee state record for highest combined score in single game. Gabriel

Christian Prep Academy defeated Ensworth Academy 100-95. At that time Ensworth was #1 ranked high school in Tennessee

- Coach O’Neal’s system has produced over 15 college basketball players over any four year period

- In 2009 led Lancaster Christian Academy to Tennessee State Championship.- In 2009 led Lancaster Christian Academy to 33 wins and 3 losses a record for wins in

Tennessee that year. It is still a school record for wins. - In 2010 led Gabriel Christian Prep Academy to the Tennessee Athletic Christian

Conference Region and State Championship. - In 2010 and 2011 was National Runners Up at the NACA National Tournament with

Gabriel Christian Prep Academy- Coach O’Neal has over 455 High School wins over his 15 year career

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