Motivational & Inspiring Speech by Deon Hunter at McCarroll MS (FCA)

Build Em Up Coach-Build Your Players Up | Hoop Hunter TM

Playing for Jimmy Gales at NTSU in 87-88

My Failed Test Playing for My College Coach Jimmy Gales at UNT

~My failed test as a player~

One week in practices coach Gales put me with a group that I didn’t think was very good, but rather than play to make them better, I spent the entire week pouting because I thought he’d given up on me; but later in the week he called me into his office and said, “Hunter, you got to quit pouting, all I was trying to do was help you become a better leader my making others around you better.”

Deon

What Not To Focus On As a Young Player

Don’t Focus on How A Coach Delivers His/Her Message but Focus on What They’re Trying to Get You To Do:

“As a young player, I didn’t always like the way my high school & college coach (Jimmy Gales) got his message across, but I had to learn “Not to Focus on the Delivery of The Message” but to “Focus on What He Was Telling Me To Do.””

Deon

What Life Was Like Playing Coach Jimmy Gales?

Life for me playing for a coach like Jimmy Gales (former S.O.C. & North Texas State Univ.) was like a marriage. You see, when a person gets married they are bound by a covenant (for better or worse, rich or poor, in sickness or good health) and once I signed my name on the dotted line, Coach Gales and I become teammates (the student & the teacher) bound by a covenant letter.

~Early in my college basketball career at NTSU, I had to learn how to follow, how to lead and how to win. I had to also learn "How Not" to take words personally~

Coach Gales was one of the most fierce competitive coaches I had ever played for. He enjoyed winning, and to him, losing was for players who [just to be nice] "didn't give a darn."

[Coach G would always say tell us that if we let opponents take advantage of us on the court, it's just like letting a stranger walk into our house and take our wife & kids]

Battle Tested:
One day during one of our practices, Coach Gales wanted me to "check the oil" of one of our senior guards (DA), so he asked that I guard (play defense) him 94' (baseline to baseline), and to say the least, he asked that I "Not Allow" him to catch the ball. We'll, if you knew DA, he was tough, fierce, extremely competitive and he knew how to match whatever intensity I or anybody brought to the table. And on another note, he wasn't going to be embarrassed by new sophmore guard!

So, I did exactly what my coach asked, but little did I know that this back court competition would become a daily wrestling and almost boxing match that my teammates couldn't wait to see (for them it was like being at the movies, they just didn't have the popcorn). We competed back and fort, pulling, pushing, turning and literally smelling each others breath because of the fierce level of competition that Coach Jimmy Gales wanted all of his team members to play daily.

Life for me playing for Coach Jimmy Gales was like a marriage, a covenant relationship! I learned to take the good with the bad and roll with the punches but in the end, we're still family!

Thanks, Coach G! My Best Coach Ever!

Deon 

Sometimes A Hug & Some Love Is All A Player Needs

~A hug without words is an expression of unconditional love~

“After a loss or a bad game sometimes all a player needs is a hug and a litttle bit of love, parents you gotta capture those moments, they’re priceless”-DH