Scobel Wiggins Photography

As a coach I bring in a lot of intangible goals, both for teams and individuals, to the beginning of a year. I've always been of the mindset that next season starts as soon as you're eliminated this season. For that reason, we always elected captains and committee members to help in team guidance in late spring.

In the fall, we used to have a returner's meeting which would be the main goal setting meeting. I would always bring a blank copy of Coach Wooden's pyramid of excellence for the team to fill out. We would leave the top block the same as the UCLA teams of old: Competitive Greatness. The others would be filled by each player individually. The building blocks would usually be things like fitness, buy-in, friendship, honesty, dedication and trust. This technique allows each person to contribute individually in a discussion about what will lead to the eventual team goal at the top. I know some players printed these out and posted them above their beds.

After tryouts in the winter, new players were basically given the goals pyramid from the fall. We would discuss what each block meant and this would usually fire up the rookies even more. Even though rookies are part of the complete goal setting process, they could see clearly what kind of team they had just made.