IBCA E-Newsletter

Underwood, Hoover and Hester to be featured at 2019 Clinic

Click here to go to the online form to register for the 2019 IBCA Clinic.

Two NCAA Division I coaches, a 2019 NAIA national quarterfinalist coach and a number of high school coaches highlight the agenda for the 2019 Indiana Basketball Coaches Association Spring Clinic.

University of Illinois men’s coach Brad Underwood is the headliner on an itinerary that also includes Wake Forest women’s coach Jen Hoover and IU East coach Mark Hester. Other featured speakers are Jason Otter of Otter Basketball and Joe Ehrmann, a former NFL player, co-author of “InSideOut Coaching” and co-founder of the InSideOut Initiative.

Sessions begin at noon Friday, April 26 and run through 9:45 p.m. at Lawrence North High School in Indianapolis. Sessions resume at 8:30 a.m. Saturday, April 27 and conclude at 12:30 p.m.

Cost to attend the clinic is $50 for current-year IBCA members and $100 for non-members.

In addition to the featured speakers, 11 of the 12 IBCA Coaches of the Year will offer their secrets to success.

Boys coaches scheduled to speak are J.R. Holmes of Bloomington South, Craig Teagle of Huntington North, Mark Detweiler of Delta, Ryan Osborn of Carmel, Ryan Eakins of East Noble and Brandon Hoffman of Silver Creek. Girls coaches on the itinerary include Chris Huppenthal of Hamilton Southeastern, Larry Winters of Bloomington South, Todd Law of Oak Hill, Jeff Allen of Bedford North Lawrence and Chris Seibert of Crown Point.

More information about the IBCA Coaches of the Year can be found elsewhere in this e-Newsletter.

In addition, a roundtable of retired coaches tips off the clinic agenda. Former coaches Dave Clark, Charles Denbo and Roger Schroder will be on a panel moderated by Indiana SportsTalk host Bob Lovell. The three coaches will discuss steps that they took to make their programs successful for the long run. Questions from those in attendance will be encouraged. (More on these three coaches also can be found elsewhere in this E-newsletter.)

At the end of the evening, D-One Camps is sponsoring a hospitality room at Days Inn, 8300 Craig St., Indianapolis. This will begin about 10 p.m. with complimentary wings and beverages available.

Featured Speakers

Brad Underwood, University of Illinois

Brad Underwood recently completed his second season as the Illinois men’s basketball coach and his 32nd season in college coaching. His Fighting Illini have posted a two-year record of 26-39, including an 11-27 ledger in Big Ten encounters.

Underwood was hired as the 18th Illinois men’s basketball coach in March 2017. Underwood has a 144-66 record in six seasons a Division I head coach, recording four 20-win seasons while making four NCAA Tournament appearances.

The Kansas State graduate became a Division I head coach in 2013-14 at Stephen F. Austin University in Nacagdoches, Texas. He guided the Lumberjacks to an 89-14 mark and three NCAA Tournament appearances in three seasons. His first team went 32-3 and beat Virginia Commonwealth in the NCAA first round, earning Underwood the Joe B. Hall Award as the nation’s top first-year Division I coach. His second team went 29-5 and averaged 80.2 points per game. This third team went 28-6 and defeated West Virginia in the NCAA first round.

Underwood then moved to Oklahoma State, leading the Cowboys to a 20-13 season and an NCAA Tournament berth in his only season in Stillwater.

He then accepted the job at Illinois, where the Illini have gone 14-18 (and 4-14 in the Big Ten) in 2017-18 and 12-21 (and 7-13 in the league) in 2018-19 while the coach has installed an up-tempo style that is attracting fans. Illinois’ improvement in average home attendance of 1,231 fans from 2017 to 2018 marked the largest jump for the program since 1979.

Prior to taking over at Stephen F. Austin, Underwood served the 2012-13 season as associate head coach at South Carolina under Frank Martin. He went to USC with Martin after serving on his bench for five seasons as an assistant at Kansas State, with his final season elevated to associate head coach. Underwood spent his first year at K-State in the role of director of operations for then-head coach Bob Huggins.

Underwood previously had two head coaching stints in the junior college ranks, compiling a 57-63 mark in four years at Dodge City (1989-93) and a 70-24 record in three seasons at Daytona Beach (2003-06). Between those positions, Underwood was an assistant coach at Western Illinois from 1993-2003.

Underwood played at Kansas State for Jack Hartman, K-State’s all-time winningest coach. Underwood began his college playing career at Hardin-Simmons, where he later worked as a graduate assistant in 1987-88. He then was an assistant coach for one season at Dodge City before being named the head coach there.

Underwood and his wife, Susan, have three children – Tyler, Katie and Ashley.

Jen Hoover, Wake Forest

Jen Mitchell Hoover recently completed her seventh season at the helm of the Wake Forest women’s basketball program. In seven seasons with the Demon Deacons, her teams have posted a 98-124 overall record and a 30-84 mark in Atlantic Coast Conference games. Her WFU teams also earned bids to the postseason Women’s NIT in 2016 and 2017.

Hoover is a 1991 graduate of Wake Forest, where she was a three-time all-ACC selection as a player, holds the school record for career field goal accuracy (.606) and stands second on the school’s lists for career points (1,728) and rebounds (1,006). The Virginia native helped WFU to an NCAA Tournament appearance in 1988 and played on the South Team for the U.S. Olympic Festival in 1989. She was inducted into the Wake Forest Athletic Hall of Fame in 2002.

After college, Hoover played professionally overseas for three years before starting her coaching career.

Hoover landed her first coaching job in 1994 at Missouri-Kansas City, where she assisted the Kangaroos’ program for two seasons. She followed by assisting for two years at Virginia Commonwealth, two seasons at East Carolina, two seasons at James Madison, one season at Memphis and four seasons at Virginia. She returned to Memphis for one season as associate head coach and then moved to California for three seasons as an assistant.

Hoover’s first job as a head coach came in 2011-12 at High Point. She was at the North Carolina school for just one season, leading the Panthers to a 20-13 overall record, a 13-5 slate in the Big South and a berth in the postseason Women’s NIT. She was named the 2012 Spalding Maggie Dixon Division I Rookie Coach of the Year after that season.

In the spring of 2012, Hoover was named the 10th coach in the history of Wake Forest women’s basketball.

She and her husband, John, have one daughter – Maggie, 13.

Mark Hester, Indiana University East

Mark Hester recently completed his 12th season at the helm of the Indiana University East men's basketball program, guiding the Red Wolves to the quarterfinals of the NAIA Division II national tournament in Sioux Falls, S.D. IU East is one of two NAIA Division II schools to reach the quarterfinals of the national tournament in each of the past four seasons.

Hester led IU East's transition from club sports to NAIA membership in 2007 with the Richmond-based school growing from three varsity sports in 2007 to 15 varsity sports by 2018-19.

In men's basketball, his teams have compiled a 261-133 record over the past 12 seasons with seven NAIA national tournament appearances, six regular-season conference championships and three conference tournament titles. Those totals include a 26-9 slate and a 15-2 finish in the River States Conference in 2018-19. That was his ninth 20-win season, one year after compiling a program-best 34-3 record – and 17-0 mark in the RSC – in the 2017-18 season that ended in the NAIA national semifinals.

IU East won a share of the conference title and qualified for the NAIA nationals for the first time in 2010-11 when it went 23-10 overall and 11-2 in league play. The Red Wolves returned to the NAIA nationals in 2011-12 and won an outright league title and went back to nationals in 2014-15.

They repeated their league crown and returned to nationals in 2015-16, won the RSC Tournament and went to nationals in 2016-17 to set the stage for yet another league crown and national tournament appearance in 2017-18 when Hester was named RSC Coach of the Year.

IU East three times has received the Buffalo Funds Five Star Award for Division II men's basketball. The award honors teams committed to the NAIA Champions of Character program's core values of respect, responsibility, integrity, servant leadership and sportsmanship.

Hester is a 1992 graduate of Barron County High School in Glasgow, Ky. He went on to Western Kentucky University, where he was a part of the Hilltopper basketball program for two seasons and earned a bachelor’s degree in physical education. He later received a master’s degree in education from Bethel College in McKenzie, Tenn.

He began his coaching career at Warren East High School in Bowling Green, Ky., then spent six years at Bethel (Tenn.) as an assistant coach, head JV coach, intramural director and instructor. Bethel had winning seasons from 2001-06 and made the NAIA Division II nationals in 2002.

Hester and his wife, Rebeckah, have two sons – Bryson and Braxton.

Jason Otter, Otter Basketball (for Shoot-A-Way / The Gun)

Jason Otter is a former NCAA Division I and professional player who has dedicated himself to player development. He will speak about “Game Shooting Drills” at the IBCA Clinic.

He made the commitment to become the best player he could be as a young boy in Saginaw, Mich. He would spend eight hours a day with a basketball in the summer and bought into the idea that “hard work beats talent when talent does not work hard.”

Upon finishing his professional career, Otter quickly realized that “hard and smart work beats talent even when talent does work hard.” And thus the Otter Basketball System was born, helping players all over the country realize their full potential. The work ethic he learned from spending those hours on court spilled over into his personal life off court as well.

Otter earned a bachelor’s degree in health & physical education with an emphasis in exercise science and psychology. He followed that up by earning a master’s degree in educational leadership.

Upon returning from playing overseas, Otter began teaching, coaching and developing players who went on to have successful Division I, Division II and professional careers. He then began holding individual instructional camps, and OtterBasketball Camps have grown to be among the most well known skill development camps in the country.

Otter also has become one of the most published basketball trainers, having put forth 22 instructional DVDs and a top-notch online training curriculum. He has helped to develop more than 1,000 Division I players and has been asked to speak on shooting utilizing “The Gun” by Shoot-A-Way at multiple events.

Known as one of the most passionate instructors in the game with an ability to turn the average kid into a high-level player, Otter works with a variety of players from serious young students of the game to NBA-level professional players.

Joe Ehrmann, InSideOut Initiative

Joe Ehrmann is a former professional football player who is the co-founder of the InSideOut Initiative and co-author of “InSideOut Coaching.”

Ehrmann was named an All-American while a football player at Syracuse University, where he also lettered in lacrosse. He went on to play for the Baltimore Colts and Detroit Lions, was named the Colts’ Man of the Year, Man of the Year by the Frederick Douglass Society and the National Fatherhood Initiative, was co-founder of Coach for America and was co-founder of Building Men and Women for Others, Inc.

The Baltimore resident later was named to the All-Century football team at Syracuse. He was three-year letterman and All-American as a defensive lineman for the Orange and was selected in the first round of the 1973 NFL Draft by the Baltimore Colts. He played eight seasons with the Colts, was chosen to the Pro Bowl in 1978, and finishes his NFL career with the Lions. He later played in the USFL with the Chicago Blitz, Arizona Wranglers and Orlando Renegades.

After his playing career ended, Ehrmann became an ordained minister after earning a degree from Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadephia. He has served as a pastor at the Grace Fellowship Church in Baltimore and he has served as an assistant football coach at Gilman School, an all-boys school in Baltimore.

Coaches have a tremendous platform, says Ehrmann, who is called “the most important coach in America” by Parade magazine. In his inspirational yet practical book, “InSideOut Coaching,” Ehrmann explains how coaches can impact young people as no one else can. Most coaches fail to do the teaching, mentoring, even life-saving intervention that their platform provides, Ehrmann explains. Too many are transactional coaches; they focus solely on winning and meeting their personal needs.

Some coaches, however, use their platform. They teach the Xs and Os, but also teach the Ys of life. They help young people grow into responsible adults; they leave a lasting legacy. These are the transformational coaches. These coaches change lives, and they also change society by helping to develop healthy men and women.

“InSideOut Coaching” explains how to become a transformational coach. Coaches first have to “go inside” and articulate their reasons for coaching. Only those who have taken the InSideOut journey can become transformational. Ehrmann provides examples of coaches in his life who took this journey and taught him how to find something bigger than himself in sports. He describes his own InSideOut experience, starting with the death of his brother, which helped him understand how sports could transcend the playing field. He gives coaches the information and the tools they need to become transformational.

Ehrmann, now 70, has taken his message about the extraordinary power of sports all over the country. It has been warmly endorsed by NFL head coaches, athletic directors at major universities, high school head coaches, business groups and community organizations. Now any coach can read Ehrmann’s message and learn how to make sports a life-changing experience.

2019 IBCA Clinic itinerary

April 26-27 at Lawrence North High School, Indianapolis