Western Plains High School Lady Bobcats head coach Travis Schafer didn’t have a lot of notice before he took over the program for the 2009-10 basketball season, but he said he was glad he got the opportunity.
“It was a rush,” he said. “I loved doing it.”
Schafer said he learned a lot, despite a regular season record of 2-18 and a regional loss to end the season that saw the Lady Cats only put seven points on the board.
“I learned that it takes more than me wanting to win,” he said. “It takes the whole team. I learned I have to be the one to get them into that mindset so they do have the desire to be a good team.”
Understanding this role didn’t happen right away for Schafer though. In his first season ever coaching, he didn’t clearly see what he needed to do until midway through the year, and Schafer said he experienced mixed emotions when the realization dawned on him.
“It sucked because I knew there was nothing I could do on the court for them, but it was also good because then I knew what I needed to do,” he said.
Part of the difficulty was adjusting from being a player to a coach, which Schafer said got easier as the season progressed.
“I played for years, and I knew how to get pumped up for a game,” he said. “Being a coach is completely different. You have to be the calm one and get your players ready to go.”
Schafer said getting his team excited to play wasn’t always easy since the season wasn’t full of victories and the student-athletes weren’t used to winning a lot of games based upon previous season records.
“I tried to build their confidence in practice,” he said. “Losing the first couple games doesn’t help. That just shoots their confidence down. We’d hang with good teams during the first half of games, which helped too. I just tried to keep positive and encourage them to stay positive as well.”
Even though outsiders might not see a two-win season in a favorable light, Schafer said the girls got quite a bit better through the 21 games they played.
“We made progress in the right direction,” he said. “We still need to get the knowledge of the game, and we have to learn how to win and how to compete.”
Specifically, Schafer said the girls bettered themselves by leaps and bounds defensively and in how well they took care of the ball.
“Those are important,” he said, “but when we can’t run an offense and shoot better than we do, it’s hard. We’re a team that has to put everything together. We can’t depend on just one part of our game.”
Even so, Schafer said he is looking forward to next season because he said he feels the team now has a good base to build from.
“I feel we made some strides where we can get to learning more parts of the game,” he said. “The girls know my coaching style now, and I know what they are capable of. So I’m going to expect more out of them next season.”
It won’t hurt that the team will only be losing one senior, Trista Jenner, next year. It will help maintain a lot of consistency; however, Jenner’s absence from the court next year won’t go unnoticed, Schafer said.
“Trista has a good future ahead of her,” he said. “She’s very coachable and willing to put herself out there.”
When Schafer is coaching his players, he said he doesn’t just teach basketball skills. He aims to teach them things they can use every day.
“My coaching style teaches them to create opportunities on their own and not have to depend on someone else to do it for them,” he said. “It’s not just a basketball concept. It’s a life skill also.”
On life skill Schafer is a big advocate of is having a strong work ethic, which he said is something he hopes to build this summer as he works with his players a few times each week.
“If you really want to be a part of something, you’ll put in the time and effort to reach your goals,” he said.
