When the Iowa Falls-Alden girls basketball team begins practice on Monday, it’ll have a new head coach. Michael Collison has taken over the program, replacing Brandon Uhlenberg. Collison previously served as the head coach of the Cadet boys basketball program for seven seasons.
Collison on the decision to take the girls head coaching position.
“The change really is pretty simple,” Collison says. “I have three daughters and I could feel myself having the pull to help that program. I’d been connected to it. I actually coached with the girls my first year back in Iowa Falls when my wife and I moved back to town, and had always followed the program and had done a lot with our youth girls basketball, just kind of as a overall umbrella encompassing our youth sports program. And I just kind of felt in my heart, the pull to continue to help that program grow. And so I knew no matter what, that I was going to be done coaching the boys, to really just put my focus area into the girls program. It happened to be open, and I still enjoyed being a head coach, so decided to apply for it and was really fortunate to get the position.”
Collison will assume a program that has made steady improvement over the last two seasons, including an 11-11 campaign last year. He says the first week of practice will set the tone for the season.
“The start of a season, it’s really about establishing the norms and standards for what practice is going to be like and what kind of team we’re going to be like. I was listening to a coach talk the other day about how you’ve got to coach behaviors first and what practice is like, what is the standard, before you can start with the X’s and O’s. And really, if we can establish that stuff, establish what our culture is going to be like and our core values of toughness, focus and togetherness, if we could do those things early, we can really start diving in levels deeper. But we’ve gotta make sure right from the get go, like what’s practice gonna be like? What’s the intensity gonna be like? What’s our level of effort gonna be like? And if we can do that well in that first week, then I know that we can commit to trying to get a little bit better X’s and O’s wise each week throughout the season.”
The Cadets are projected to return four starters, and three others with significant varsity experience.
They’ll begin the season on Friday, November 22 at South Hardin.
Michael Collison interview:
