!!!!!!!!!!!! WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

If you are a Viking, you are a champion, because you are part of a champion club. That is the value of our Super League victory.

For many years our juniors would win their divisions, and our seniors would not, and no-one would recognize the greatness of our achievements. Now, we are entering a new era, where our juniors are becoming more dominant, as well as our seniors. All of our teams made the play-offs, a fiete not to be taken lightly. Winning the Super League at Belhar, with so many of our club members there to support and enjoy the experience - has really made it a club achievement. Never underestimate the importance of having our club around to support our guys in those tough games. 

The success achieved at the end of the season was a result of a commitment to the process. This year we took the emphasis of our basketball away from our offense, and focused on a more aggressive man defense. This required a greater effort from everyone in the team, because it involved much more effort and energy on defense. One of the main reasons for this change in emphasis is because this year, the numbers in all our teams were very healthy. In almost all our teams we had more than 12 players. It makes no sense to be playing a passive, reactive game when our teams are loaded with players who can run, and who want to play. 

After only a short implementation and application period, we can already see the benefit of adopting this approach to our games. The challenge for 2012 is for everyone to come to every practice ready to work hard at this level of defense. This would make everyone at practice better, as well make our offense that much more effective. If everyone is not prepared to work hard at every practice, then the team will suffer because we need all 12 ready to play come game time. 

This could be seen in some of our games where we worked hard to overcome a deficit, but then had nothing left to close out the game. In the play-offs many of our teams had to fight back from being more than 10points down, the U/16 Boys, Ladies as well as the Super League managed to do this. Which shows that when we really need to dig deep, we can play a defense that is tough enough to overcome any amount of points difference. My question then is - Why wait till we are 10points down before playing that defense??????? 

In many of our U/14 Boys and Girls games, the players would walk off the court feeling dissappointed, because it did not feel as if they played a game, even after winning by some margin. This indicates the level of ability that we have in our teams, and if everyone works as hard as possible whenever they are on the court, then we need not worry about results, because we are all committed to a process. 

Vikings has had many successful seasons before. What we have always struggled to do, is have consecutive successful seasons, even at Super League level. Make no mistake that every other club will be plotting and planning to beat at least one of our teams next season. So we all need to be aware of our individual importance and responsibility to committing to this process. There can be no half-measures or short cuts. If you have to miss a practice for legitimate reasons - fine, but when we manufacture reasons to miss practice because we do not feel like running hard, then we are allowing the other clubs to have a better shot at beating us. The U/16 Boys and Ladies are proof of this. 

Enjoy your short summer break, as our scrimmages will be starting soon. 

VIKINGS WHOOOOOOO !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!