{"id":114466,"date":"2025-10-31T10:59:37","date_gmt":"2025-10-31T15:59:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/snapraise.com\/?p=114466"},"modified":"2025-10-31T10:59:37","modified_gmt":"2025-10-31T15:59:37","slug":"coach-don-showalter-3-tips-for-program-building-success","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.snapraise.com\/blog\/coach-don-showalter-3-tips-for-program-building-success\/","title":{"rendered":"Coach Don Showalter\u2019s 3 Tips for Program Building Success"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>Tips and stories straight from the 8-time USA Basketball Developmental Coach of the Year.<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Enthusiasm and passion are important to success, and it\u2019s the leader&#8217;s job to build that culture.<\/li>\n<li>Do whatever you can to bridge the gap between your team and your students\u2019 parents, and really get to know them.<\/li>\n<li>Encourage and promote student leadership. This helps everyone in the program build trust and grow together.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<p>Don Showalter is no stranger to success. He was the USA Basketball Developmental Coach of the Year for eight consecutive years between 2009-16, and won gold at both the FIBA Under-17 Basketball World Cup and the FIBA Under-16 Americas Championship four times, each. And that\u2019s not to mention his nine Coach of the Year awards from the Iowa Basketball Coaches Association.<\/p>\n<p>Clearly, Coach Showalter knows what it takes to build a winning program; what to look for, what to avoid, how to navigate potentially tricky situations, etc. He is a walking treasure trove of leadership advice, and we were fortunate enough to talk with him and learn three program-building tips that have helped him find success time and time again.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h3>1. Inspire peer-to-peer leadership among students<\/h3>\n<p>Coach Showalter always invites his players to speak their minds and take on a leadership role. The way he sees it, it\u2019s their team.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHow do you want your team to be perceived? We\u2019ll talk about that. \u2018This is really your team, so what are you gonna do if one of your teammates doesn\u2019t buy into what we\u2019re doing?\u2019 And so we\u2019ll have a lot of discussion in a team setting like that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Showalter says it helps build communication and encourages development, as seen in one instance with three now-NBA players.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDuring one of our games, Scotty Barnes got the rebound, and he was pushing it down the court. Jalen Suggs did a great job of running the corner, where he was supposed to \u2013 Jalen Green, to the other corner, where he was supposed to.<\/p>\n<p>And they didn\u2019t get the ball. Neither one of them got the ball \u2014 not that it was a bad decision. So Jalen Suggs comes over to me and says, \u2018Hey, Scotty didn\u2019t give me the ball when he was supposed to.\u2019 I go, \u2018You know what, don\u2019t tell me, you tell Scotty.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p>At the end of the day, the players are the ones out there playing the game. There will be times where they will have to navigate tight moments among themselves, using their own judgment. When that time comes, Showalter\u2019s players will already have experience that others may not.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h3>2. Set the tone and guide the culture<\/h3>\n<p>Another tip that sets Showalter\u2019s teams apart is the genuine care the players and the staff have for each other.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think the word &#8216;care&#8217; has a lot to do with being a program builder. Do you really care about the players? If you care about them, they\u2019re gonna sense that,\u201d Coach Showalter says.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere\u2019s two things that coaches have to come with every day. You better come with some enthusiasm, and some passion. If you have enthusiasm and passion, your practices will be off the charts, I would say, about every day. Sometimes you think, \u2018oh no, my players gotta bring that.\u2019 No, you have to start it. That\u2019s up to you as a coach to start it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Showalter lists coaches Jay Wright, Tom Izzo, and Coach K as greats who bring enthusiasm and passion to the game. \u201cTheir players just feed off that, you can just tell the atmosphere is off the charts. That\u2019s a program builder because every day they\u2019re getting better because of your enthusiasm, your passion. And the players see that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In Showalter\u2019s gyms, coaches watching a drill from the sidelines with your arms crossed is off-limits.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou\u2019re fired. You can\u2019t do that. You gotta get in there, and you gotta sweat with them. Players love coaches who sweat with them. And I think that\u2019s really a program builder.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Coach Showalter\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.verywellmind.com\/ways-to-become-a-better-leader-2795324\">passion is a common thread between successful leaders.<\/a><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h3>3. Visit your students and get to know the parents<\/h3>\n<p>In modern times, parents are more engaged in their child\u2019s teams and clubs. As a result, it\u2019s important to have a warm and open dialogue with them.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI tell coaches, understand that when you talk to a parent, you\u2019re not talking about the same person. As a coach, I\u2019m talking to them about a player on my team that\u2019s playing with 15 other guys. As a parent, I\u2019m talking to you about my son or daughter and that\u2019s it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Coaches need to remember that their players are complex individuals and try to understand them as people. Coach Showalter does this by individually visiting each player\u2019s family in their own home.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI felt it [was] really important. I had to make a house visit and explain our program, where I was coming from. And that probably did more good than anything I could have ever done to help me bridge the gap between parents,\u201d says Coach Showalter.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat allowed them to know me. So I think coaches, when you don\u2019t allow parents to get to know you, I think you\u2019re only setting the bar [to] where the parent can get out of control, because they don\u2019t know you.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It may be a laborious task, but Coach Showalter means it when he says this is his true key to program building success. However you decide to do it, find a way to build a healthy relationship with your students\u2019 parents.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tips and stories straight from the 8-time USA Basketball Developmental Coach of the Year. Enthusiasm and passion are important to success, and it\u2019s the leader&#8217;s job to build that culture. Do whatever you can to bridge the gap between your team and your students\u2019 parents, and really get to know them. Encourage and promote student&#8230;","protected":false},"author":400,"featured_media":114469,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false},"categories":[145],"tags":[142,157,162],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Coach Don Showalter\u2019s 3 Tips for Program Building Success | Snap! 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