We want to understand what does this kid want when he comes to Harvard, what are his goals, what are his dreams, what does he want to gain from this experience and where does he want to go and what's successful to him?

Because some kids will be like, I want to go junior college because I think that's the best route and we try to help them with different things.

Or some kids just want to go high academic D3 if you want to play Division 1 and you don't get something early, if you're willing to wait, your chances go up.

It's been a really great experience as a coach and learning that and having an impact on every person's life.

Luke Rudzinski is the Prep National Assistant basketball coach, post grad director of Recruiting and assistant college Counselor at Hargrave Military Academy in Chatham, Virginia.

He previously served as a graduate assistant coach at the Division 1 level with the men's basketball team at the University of North Carolina, Greensboro.

Rosinski played basketball collegiately at the Division I level for four years at the University of New Hampshire, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Kinesiology Sports Studies with minors in Business Administration and Communication.

He is a part of the nations of Coaches, a coaching organization that focuses on coaches making an impact for the glory of God.

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Have a notebook handy as you listen to this episode with Luke Rosinski, prep national assistant basketball coach, postgrad director of recruiting and assistant college counselor at Hargrave Military.

Hello and welcome to the Hoop Heads podcast.

It's Mike Clensing here without my co host Jason Suckle tonight.

But I am pleased to be joined from Hargrave Military Academy, Luke Rudzinski.

Luke, welcome to the Hoop Heads pod.

Great.

It's great to be on Mike.

I appreciate you.

We are thrilled to have you on.

Looking forward to diving into all the things that you've been able to do thus far in your career.

Let's start by going back in time to when you were a kid.

Tell me about your first experiences with the game of basketball.

What made you fall in love with it?

How'd you get introduced to it?

Just how did you get started in the hoop?

Yeah, so I, I first.

It's like a, when I was born, it's like I had a basketball in my hand.

My dad actually I'm a coach's kid.

I was always a gym rat growing up, but my dad, my first vivid memory is when I was probably four years old is when I was really starting to, you know, just pick up a basketball, dribble a little bit, you know, run around the court chasing basketballs and stuff like that.

But so my dad was actually a high school basketball coach at Pinkerton Academy.

It's a high school.

It's actually a big high school.

It's a 3,000 students in Derry, New Hampshire.

So I'm from Derry, New Hampshire, born and raised in the Granite State.

And I was just always going to my dad's practices games.

My, my parents are both teachers so I kind of grew up, you know, in a, in a household where, you know, we go to all those games together and kind of things like that.

So my dad had a lot of camps.

I'd go to all these camps.

I'd play rec basketball in New Hampshire, you know, is not really a state I would say known for, for basketball.

So um, for me growing up, it was kind of like playing, playing Division 1 college basketball was, you know, it was, it was a really special goal of mine and, and it got shot down quite a bit by my friends and, and coaches and different things like, oh, you're from New Hampshire, you know, that's not really a thing.

You should just get into hockey.

That's, that's what people told me, you should get into hockey or something like that.

But I'm, I'm six, eight.

So I had the, the height, so I, I can't skate.

So it didn't, it didn't work out for me there.

But.

But yeah, and then a big year in my life was actually when I was.

Went to middle.

So when I was in middle school, I did sixth, seventh, and eighth grade.

And then my dad kind of sat me down in eighth grade, and he was like, you know, Luke, you're, you know, you're growing.

You're going to be tall.

You know, Are you really serious about this basketball thing?

Because if you want to do this, you, you know, you could, you could reclass in eighth grade if that's something you wanted to do.

So that was a big, that was a big thing for me because my dad let me make, make the choice.

So, you know, when you're, when you're an eighth grader, there's a lot of pressures of, like, your friends going to high school and all that kind of stuff.

But I kind of stuck to it and I, and I made the decision.

So I went to a school called St.

Thomas Aquinas.

I think it actually shut down now.

But it was a small Catholic school in my hometown.

And I reclassified, did eighth grade again, which was great because I was, I mean, I was like six.

I was probably like six two, my first, first eighth grade year.

And then I skyrocketed to six, six, my second eighth grade year.

And I was nice.

So it, and I was, I was growing really fast, so I was breaking a lot of bones, all that.

I broke my arm, broke my foot.

So I was, it was, I was just growing really fast.

So that extra year was really needed.

And I, I mean, I recommend that.

I think, you know, me coaching at prep, I think a post grad year is great, but I also think reclassing in eighth grade is really good because that doesn't start your high school clock.

So I think that was monumental for me and just my development and giving me another year.

But then after that, I played actually for my dad.

So I played for my father at Pinkerton Academy for public school for two years.

And I learned a lot.

I mean, I learned what it was like, you know, to play in an environment where, you know, you're the coach's kid.

So my dad always was like, hey, Luke, you know, as a coach, you're not going to like me because I have to show no favoritism.

I can't, you know, you're not going to call me dad.

You're going to call me Coach, you know, I'm going to be the hardest on you every single day in practice to send a message, you know, like, I don't show favorites, not even to my own kid.

So.

So I definitely got it the hardest at practice.

Every single day.

Whenever someone messed up, it was.

It was.

It was always Luke.

It was like, hey, Luke, you gotta do better.

I'm not involved in the play.

It was always me.

So I.

And I.

And I, you know, I took.

I think I did a really good job with that, but it was a great experience.

I mean, I love playing for my dad.

It was a.

I definitely.

Any coaches that have that opportunity to coach their son or any, you know, sons that can be coached by their father, I think that's a really special experience.

And, you know, one day when I have a family and hopefully a son, you know, that would be something that would be really special for me.

But.

And then really AU started to kind of take off at that time, actually going back a little bit.

Eighth grade, I met a coach.

His name was TJ Thompson.

So TJ played at George Washington, was a great player at gw, and then he went overseas, played professionally overseas.

And he got married to a woman.

Her name's Aleema Thompson.

And they lived in New Hampshire.

So T.J.

was from D.C.

he played for D.C.

blue Devils growing up and stuff like that.

He's from the D.C.

area, and he was the first young, I think, mentor coach that I've had in my life, that he gave me everything.

Like, he.

He put us through workouts, my AU team.

So at that time, it's pretty interesting because I came out at a very interesting time of New Hampshire basketball.

So my group was probably one of the greatest groups of New Hampshire players that came out in a long.

In a long time since, like, Matt Bonner and kind of those guys.

So my AAU team in eighth grade, we had Wenyin Gabriel.

So Wenyon Gabriel is a Manchester, New Hampshire kid.

He's from South Sudan, and he came over to the US and was in Manchester because they had a.

They were bringing a lot of kids from Africa to Manchester and helping them out and giving them opportunity and things like that.

So we had a lot of kids in that area, and it was a hotbed for a lot of great athletes and things.

And I also played with Geo Baker.

So Geo Baker went to Rutgers.

And fast forwarding.

TJ Thompson's an assistant now at Rutgers, so it's just crazy how that stuff happened.

Then I also played with Nate Knight, who played in the NBA.

So but basically that aau, TJ Thompson, he was phenomenal.

He took a lot of New Hampshire kids.

We all played on an AAU team together for 8th grade through 12th grade, and we got better, and we just were in the gym every single day.

We were gym rats.

And that's where I think I really fell in love with the game.

You know, when I was in elementary school, middle school, I really didn't know what it took to.

To play at a Division 1 level.

But then when I met TJ, he kind of said, you know, I played at that level.

I know what it takes.

And at that point, he was like, he was my age, so I'm 28.

He was like 28, 29, 30.

He was in that range.

And it was like he was an older brother kind of figure of like, you know, I'm gonna hold you accountable, but, you know, I still like to joke with you and.

And play you one on one and play pickup.

And he would.

He'd definitely play pickup, and he would show us he was still the best player on the floor.

So going against a bunch of high school kids and stuff.

But it was a great.

I mean, it was a great experience.

And we were non.

We were a non shoe deal team.

So it was, you know, we played at the hoop group tournaments, you know, and we.

That's how we got recruited.

And it was really a special experience because we beat a lot of EYBL teams.

Like, we were turning a lot of heads of coaches that were coming to see us play.

And that's how.

That's how, you know, I mean, we had a kid, Caleb Green, he ended up going to Holy Cross, really good point guard, and then he transferred to Fairfield.

We had a really good wing.

His name was Chef Galagoulandi.

He ended up committing to St.

Bonaventure, another New Hampshire product, and then also transferred to Fairfield.

A lot of really great talent on that team.

And to finish it off my junior and senior year, I got my first Division 1 offer when I went to Kimball Union Academy.

So I played in the knapsack in the Double A under coach Mike Olson.

So I did that for two years.

I thought that was in my best interest.

So it was tough leaving my dad.

So that was the biggest thing.

And in recruiting at Hargrave, when we recruit players, I actually come across a lot of, believe it or not, coaches, kids that play for their dad sometimes, and I tell him my situation, and I'm.

I'm.

It's really a blessing and honor that my dad, you know, because that's a hard thing when you were.

You and your son, you.

Because that's, it's fun when you're coaching your kid and stuff.

But my dad said, Luke, you know, because all these Division 1 coaches were coming in and they said, you know, you're playing in New Hampshire, you're six, eight, you're dominating, but you're playing against a bunch of six, two kids.

So it's like, we need to see you against high level competition.

And I think the knapsack at that time was at really.

It was at a really high level.

I remember playing against Bruce Brown, like Tyreek Jones, I mean, all these Donovan Mitchell, Jalen Adams at Brewster, like there was, there were some really high.

Tyler Lydon at New Hampton, like there were some really high level guys.

Every game it was like, I mean, now looking back, it was like every game it was an NBA player.

So it was really high level basketball for high school.

And I actually got an offer my junior year, towards the end of my junior year by Bill Harrian.

And Coach Koontz was the assistant at that time.

Now he's at Post University.

And then now Coach Dempsey, who's now an AD at unh.

But they offered me a full scholarship to unh.

So I actually, I looked at it and I was getting recruited by similar schools, the same level, and I committed like I went on a visit, committed probably within three weeks because I was like, this is my home state.

My dream in going there was to bring UNH to their first NCAA tournament, which I wasn't able to do.

So hopefully, maybe, maybe if they're not, if they don't do it in the next couple years here, maybe someday as a coach, you know, maybe we could do it someday as a coach.

That would be a, that would be a phenomenal dream to come true if I was able to do that.

So I love New Hampshire.

I'm a, I'm a live free or die Granite State guy through and through.

I love my state.

I have great pride in it.

So.

But yeah, so that's, that's kind of the path leading of my playing career.

And then I graduated from UNH.

So when I was at UNH, I'm a big.

So I'm a 4, 5.

So in high school I play a little bit of the four, but unh, we played, I would say more small ball my first year.

We were really, really good.

We had two really great bigs, 2,000 point scorer, all time leading scorer, Tanner Leisner.

And then who was a four man and then an all time leading rebounder at UNH Iba Kamara.

So I was kind of behind them.

And in my playing career, I learned a lot.

I was a, like, more of a role player.

I was kind of like the.

The eighth, ninth man on the roster.

And, you know, I learned a lot through that experience, like going from high school playing, you know, 20, 30 minutes a game.

And then when you go to college, you know, sometimes you think you have it all figured out, oh, I'm going to play this much and that.

But you got to work for everything.

You know, it's such a high level Division 1 at any.

Any level.

It's very competitive.

And learned a lot of, you know, how to.

How to.

And being a coach's kid, my dad, I think, did a great job of, you know, you know, you put your head down, you.

You let your work show, you know, you don't complain and all that kind of stuff.

So, I mean, it was a great experience.

I have a great relationship with those coaches.

They're no longer there now, but they're.

They're all, you know, different positions, different jobs, are retired.

So.

But I still talk to them all the time.

And.

And they're great people.

So I had a great experience, loved the school.

And I graduated with a sports management degree and a minor in communication and business.

And I actually started to.

When I graduated, it was 2020.

So Covid, I remember being mad because I didn't get another year because I was like, my fast.

So the cutoff.

Yeah, the junior class got another year, but I didn't.

My senior year, I didn't get another year.

And I was like, why didn't I.

I would have used it.

I would have definitely used it stayed or went somewhere for a graduate program or, you know, something like that.

But when covet happened, it, life hit me quick.

You know, I think when you do something as a player, you.

You play basketball your whole life.

And I think that's something a lot of athletes can struggle with when they're done is like, you know, you're.

And I tell people all the time, especially young players and players on our team, you know, your identity is not your sport.

Um, and that's something I had to learn as a player when I graduated is like, you know, I'm Luke Ruzinski.

I'm not, you know, just a basketball player.

You know, there's more to me than just the game.

But that was.

That was something that was really hard for me because I was like, man, Covid, happened.

School closed.

And it was like, I Just entered the real world like, like that.

So it was definitely a real.

It was a real shock and awe and it was very hard.

I was thinking about, you know, what am I going to do do?

So originally, it's funny, I started.

My dad, I was talking to my dad about it and he was like, Luke, you know, you'd be great.

You know, you're.

You got your head on straight.

You'd be a great school counselor.

And I, I thought about that and I started actually getting my master's degree in school counseling.

And I was like, you know what?

I'll be a high school coach and I'll do school counseling and I'll kind of go that route.

And.

But I wanted to be in Division 1.

So my goal was, I was sending emails out.

I was, you know, using the coaches that coached me at UNH as a network and branching out and stuff.

And I actually started.

I worked for a year or just under a year at ups because I was like, it's during COVID I need to do something, make some money and, and figure out a way to just, you know, just work and stuff.

So I did that.

And I was applying for jobs and while I was getting my.

I was starting halfway through my master's program at Fitchburg State, getting my school counseling degree for my first year.

It was a two year program.

And I remember sending emails out, trying to get grad assistant positions.

And everyone was like, Luke, we don't know where the money, like, if there's any money.

We don't know about any job opportunities like this.

We don't know what's going to happen with COVID And I'm someone like, I'm very locked in with my faith and stuff.

That's something that's really important to me and stuff.

And praying about that and my, my path and, and destination and things.

And, And I remember being in UPS one day.

I've had prayers answered before, but I've never had a man this quick.

And I remember being UPS work and just moving boxes and I was, I was like praying.

I was like, God, please, like, if there's any way, you know, you know my heart, you know what I want to do, um, you know, the impact I can have on, on young people.

And I do not want to move boxes.

That's not what I want to do.

And I, I was, I liked school counseling, but it wasn't where my heart was.

And believe it or not, 30 minutes later, Donnie Lind was an assistant at UNCG.

Mike Jones just got the job and Donnie Lind called me out of nowhere.

Didn't have his number, didn't know who he was.

He called me.

He said, is this Luke?

I said, yep.

He said, where?

I was like, I'm at work right now.

But he was like, hey, I heard your name through the grapevine.

I heard you played at unh.

I heard you're looking for a graduate assistant position.

We want to offer you the job.

And I was like, I'm in.

Oh, I was right then and there, I was like, this is.

This is a sign.

I'm in.

I'm taking it.

And I.

So it's funny.

My family, we drive.

My whole family basically drives minivans.

So we.

I.

I had a.

I have a van.

To this day, I have a van, a Dodge Grand Carry.

Nice.

And I kid my kid.

My.

My kids would love you, Luke.

Yeah.

Every time.

Every time we go on vacation, they're like, dad, can we rent.

Can we rent a minivan?

Can we rent a minivan?

I'm like, oh, sure, yeah, we could do great.

I gotta go and go.

I can put all this.

There you go.

Put all my stuff in.

So that's what I did.

I put.

I put all the seats down.

I loaded up.

I loaded up my bed.

I loaded up everything, and I drove down to North Carolina, like, the next week.

So I changed the whole trajectory.

I told the school counseling program, I'm getting out.

And I went.

I went down to work under Donny Lind and Mike Jones at uncg.

And that was a phenomenal experience for two years.

I really learned a lot that's impacted me as a coach now and then, so I did that.

We had two successful seasons.

Unfortunately, we didn't go to the tournament, but we had two.

We had one 18 win season my first year.

In the second season, we won 20 wins.

We had some really good players.

Kobe Langley, Keyshawn Langley, Mikhail Brown Jones, who's now at Ole Miss.

But yeah, some really, really talented, talented guys.

And during that GA position, I was able to do a lot, you know, video, be on the court, help with scouts.

I played a lot.

That was one of the biggest things is because I played, they wanted me to play on scout and play against those guys and doing big man development, guard development, you know, a lot of player development and putting guys through workouts and things like that.

I'm.

I'm one of the.

One of the kind of coaches of.

My coaching style is I'm really good on the court and things of that nature, so.

But basically what led me to get to Hargrave is my second year as a ga.

And it's funny, because being at the Final Four now, it's.

It's a little different for me now than it was, you know, two years ago, because I feel like GA is when you're.

When you're on the second year, you're ga.

It's like, okay, now what do I do?

You're looking.

Pressure.

Yeah.

And so I was.

I was looking and looking for opportunities and breaking down every door, it felt like.

And Ahmad Thomas was on our.

Our staff.

He was our recruiting and player development coach at uncg.

He joined my second year there, and he was like, luke, I played at Hargrave, and I know you played at prep school.

You played Division One.

You're here.

And he was like, I'm connected with all the coaches at Hargrave.

You know, Tommy messenger is about to take a job at njit.

It looks like Ben Vesci is going to get the job.

He's looking for an assistant.

You'd be great.

I'll tell him to hire you.

And I was like, at first, it's funny.

I tell Coach Vechi this all the time, but at first I was like, I'm not doing it.

I was like, I want to be in Division 1.

I don't want to go to prep.

I know what prep is.

I don't want to do it.

And I turn.

I was like, no, no, no.

I was very adamant, and I was looking at different opportunities.

When Griff Aldrich was at Longwood, I was looking at a video spot there, and just different opportunities here and there, like D2, juco, all different kinds of things.

And I was talking with the mod more, and then, you know, I really thought about it and talked to some coaching mentors of mine, and they were like, luke, are you crazy?

Like, you got to go to Hargrave.

Like, what are you.

What are you doing?

Like, you need to take this.

So I remember talking with Coach Beshi, and I was like, I'm in.

I'm.

You know, he's just.

I learned more about the program.

And it's actually funny because when I graduated from Kimball Union in 2016, Hargrave won their third national prep championship.

And I remember seeing in 2016 that they won.

And I saw the name, and I was like, that.

That's the first time I ever heard of Hargrave was 2016, when I was playing in high school, at prep school.

And I was like, man, Hargrave Military Academy, these guys are like, they're soldiers that play basketball.

What is going on?

I didn't understand.

I didn't get it right.

So.

And it's funny, when a model first told me about it, I knew a little bit more about it, but I didn't understand the history and the tradition and 29 NBA players and like all the, the coaching connections and the how.

The just how much respect and.

And how it's such a prestigious program at Hargrave.

And, you know, it's been.

It's been amazing.

It's been a great experience.

So now I'm in my second year at Hargrave.

I'm sure Coach Vesh probably talked about it, but, you know, so I came in with him and another coach who I'm actually with at the Final Four, he's in the.

I think he's in the living room over there.

But he.

He is great as well.

Coach Jonathan Mebben.

And so it's a staff of.

Of three right now, but we've been doing, I think, a great job.

So year one, we were.

We made it to the National Prep tournament, you know, 30, I think it was 36 plus wins.

Year two, same thing.

So, you know, I'm currently an assistant coach and I do all of our.

I'm our director of recruiting, so I do all of our.

Basically the majority of our recruiting.

I also cover our.

I really anchor our defense.

So a lot of our defensive principles and things I actually took from Coach Jones at uncg.

So we do a lot of things like icing ball screens, you know, our practice planning every single day.

Defense is a lot of what he does, and I like a lot of his stuff.

We're a no middle team.

We're having the gap, you know, high hand touch on closeouts.

Really physical.

We play really, really physical.

And then offensively, Coach Jonathan Mebben has been really great at that.

He was at Charlotte and he learned the Princeton.

So this year we kind of did a lot of Princeton action, a lot of point action, throwing it to the elbow and doing different split cuts and meeting 50, 50 and going back door and things like that.

So it's been, I mean, it's been a great experience.

It's a lot different from being a GA because, you know, I'm on the court, I'm coaching right?

You know, having a whistle, having a voice every single day.

So I'm a big accountability guy.

So I like to, you know, I'm an.

I would say I'm an intense coach.

You know, my coach at unh, Bill Herring, he was, he was an Intense coach.

I get that from him.

And then Mike Jones is.

It's funny because Mike Jones is like his players love him.

They'll run through walls for him and he's like kind of laid back and he's like kind of a more mellow coach.

So I think I got kind of the best of both worlds and found that, found that balance in my coaching style.

So it's, I mean, it's been a great experience at Hargrave and I think I've really grown as a coach and coming to my own, especially recruiting.

You know, I do the majority of our video as well, and sending out emails and highlights and clipping up film and getting everyone's best raw game film games and sending them out.

And what that's been a, that's been tremendous in just networking and, and that's the greatest reward is helping kids achieve their dreams.

So, you know, when kids sign scholarships or they go the level where they feel they can succeed, it's been, that's the most important part.

But now, you know, I'm going in my third year, you know, so looking to have another, another great year at Hargrave and then like being down at the Final Four, you know, just continuing to knock on doors and looking at other opportunities and my dream, you know, I go back and forth, but I think my ultimate dream is to be a Division 1 head coach or try to dominate the prep landscape and be a prep head coach.

So I kind of go back and forth with either one of those.

So.

All right, tell me I'm going to go backwards and we'll just kind of jump around to some things that, as you were talking, kind of popped in my head.

So let's start with.

Let's start with Hargrave and being the director of recruiting for people who maybe aren't familiar with how prep school recruiting works.

Give us an idea of where's your list of players come from.

What are the initial conversations look like?

Obviously you have the military component, which is something that some people maybe are familiar with, depending on their family background.

Maybe other people have no idea what that even entails.

So just what does recruiting look like from beginning to end as you guys identify potential players that might be interested and then eventually get them to, to commit and get, get them on campus with, you know, with your team?

Yeah, it's actually, it's actually really intricate.

So I think the prep, especially at Hargrave, I think the prep landscape, in some ways, I don't want to say it's harder than division.

Well, I Yeah, I guess I would say that.

I think the.

The one thing, and it's starting to enter our landscape is the nil.

I think that's one thing we don't need to really deal with right now, but it's beginning to enter.

And we've been talking about that as a staff of trying to figure out, you know, because we do have some big names that are starting to climb in the rankings and things.

So it's like, you know, we got to think of some ways to, you know, combat people trying to poach our kids.

But.

But yeah.

So I would say the number one thing in recruiting is relationships.

I think that's the most important thing.

You know, where we get the majority of, I think our players is with placements from division ones of saying, hey, you know, you should take this kid.

He's really good.

We'd be interested in recruiting him.

We want to see him at a higher level.

Or let's say a kid that's committed to like, let's say hypothetically, a kid's committed to Duquesne and he needs one more year.

Or let's say he's a credit short and he needs to become qualified.

You know, he can come do that at Hargrave Military Academy, so.

And do a post grad year.

So.

And another thing about Hargrave is historically we've been just a post grad program, so we've only done pgs.

But this past year, our president, which is, I think is phenomenal, he made a change in the rule for our school that on our national prep program, our PG program, we can take ninth through postgrad now.

So we're looking at avenues of taking younger guys and kind of developing them through our program, which I think will give us higher.

Higher recruited players that we can get younger and things like that.

But yeah, I would say relationships, placements, AAU grassroots.

I'm actually currently trying to get involved with, you know, some different teams in the 3SSB and getting more in the grassroots circuit and recruiting guys that way.

I think, you know, relationships with AAU programs is really important and kind of getting those close ties with AAU programs.

I would also say, you know, there's a lot of agencies out there that like to help out families and place kids at prep schools.

So that's another.

That's another avenue of recruiting and something I'm kind of giving away my.

My golden nugget here, but something I do, and it's really intricate.

Something I do is I have.

I have a bunch of recruiting and ranking subscriptions to all these prep hoops, 2, 4, 7, all these different ranking services.

And what I do is I go through basically every ranking of every state and I go through basically all the kids and I go on Twitter and I find their Twitters and I'll message them about Hargrave and I do, you know, our video.

So I'll have like videos of like our program guys that we've sent division one a prompt of what we're about and things like that and I'll message them directly on Twitter.

So.

And actually like for example, our four star kid, Shane Pendergrass, that's how we got Shane was from a Twitter DM for me.

So.

So that's how it started.

So.

And then capitalizing on that, building a relationship with his mom and dad, you know, showing, I think being genuine is so important.

You know, a lot of kids can see if you're a genuine coach, if you have their best interests in heart.

And like one thing we tell our guys is we tell them we love them every single day.

So you know, I think telling your players you love them, you care about them, and showing you know, they're, they're more than just a player, like they'll run through a wall for you or they'll want to play for you.

And like that's like you said earlier, like the military part.

Like one thing I think we've really talked about as a staff is I think we've changed the whole mindset of Hargrave in the military.

You know, when I came in, I think the notion was like, man, this is so hard to recruit because kids got to cut their hair.

You know, kids gotta march, kids gotta wear a military uniform.

They got a parade rifle, they wake up at 6am like it's, it gets real deep, right?

So, but what one thing I think I've really brought to the table is changing that ideology.

So it's kind of like a mentality of like, you know, this is an opportunity.

Like this is an opportunity to challenge yourself.

This is, this is not, you know, a bad thing.

This is a good thing.

You know, you come to Hargrave, there's a reason why we have 29 NBA players.

And, and the thing about that number that's so special is 29 NBA players is the second most of any high school or prep school produced in the United States of America.

So the number one question I ask players in recruitment is, what's your dream?

And most times most kids say the NBA.

My goal is to go to the NBA.

Well, there's no better place, you know, so come to Hargrave Military Academy.

It's going to be tough.

It's going to be, you know, it's going to challenge you.

But if you want to achieve your dreams and you want to go to the NBA, you got to do the path that no one else is willing to do.

You got to.

You got to push yourself.

You got to be willing to sacrifice for the game.

And I think that's something that kids like.

After we have that conversation, they're like, all fired up.

They're like.

They're like, I'll shave my head.

Let's do it.

Let's do it, man.

I'm ready.

Yeah.

Like, it's like, all right.

You can keep 2 inches on the topic.

Like, the haircut's kind of like mine right now.

You can.

They require a fade.

But it can be tough because some kids, you know, we've lost kids in the past because they just don't feel comfortable cutting their hair, and that's fine, you know, and something.

Something we tell guys is like, your hair grows back, but your dreams don't.

So, you know, it's.

It's in life, and that's something that really helps.

I think college coaches recruit Hargrave guys because they know the sacrifices were made.

You know, I think about Bryant, like, Khalil Williams.

Shout out Khalil Williams.

He was on our team last year.

And the head coach at Bryant, who's now at vcu, he called me late, like, after the Portal, and Khalil had some d.

Run recruitment and things.

And I remember he asked about him, and he said, you know, why Khalil Williams?

And is he good enough?

I said, he's definitely good enough.

No, he's a redshirt freshman at Bryant right now.

We'll see, you know, if he goes on to be and things like that.

But I said, you know, he's definitely good enough.

And he just said, you know, what's his character?

Is he a good kid?

And I said, you know, I don't know who else you're looking at, but I said, if you're looking at a prep.

A high school or prep school kid.

I said, khalil Williams had.

Had dreads when he came here.

He cut his hair.

He never had a problem with the military.

He Woke up at 6am he wore a uniform.

He, you know, got disciplined by.

Because we have TAC officers.

We have military, you know, and they'll.

And they'll.

If you're not doing what you're supposed to do, they'll set you straight and make sure you're doing it right.

And I said, you know, he never, he never showed his tail in the eyes of adversity.

You know, he showed up every day, he worked hard.

And I said, a public school kid's not doing that, you know, so, you know, that's, that's all I had to say.

And he was like, all right, we're taking him.

So that's, that's, that's the biggest thing is like, if you come to Hargrave, you're showing, you know, hey, I sacrificed for the game, you know, I, I put myself because a lot of the times the kids, you know, the kids aren't coming to Hargrave, at least from the basketball side to be in the military.

They're coming to Hargrave because they want to play ball.

But it just shows how, you know, what they're willing to do to play the game they love.

It's like, man.

And I tell college coaches all the time, if you want to know if you're commitment is mentally tough, send them to Hargrave Military Academy.

Send them to Fork Union.

You know, send them, send them to the military prep schools because you'll, you'll know if you have high character, kid, if you send them to a military academy because.

And truthfully, those are the kids that make it, you know, And I think that's why Hargrave's had so much success.

I think the secret sauce is not, you know, yeah, we get talented players.

I think we do a great job with our player development.

We have a lot of connections.

You know, we find diamonds in the rough.

I think that's something that Hargrave has been known for for a while.

But I think the secret sauce is the character development.

You know, when you come to Hargrave, it's a one stoplight town.

You got a weight room, you got a gym and you got the school.

And it's like, hey, it's time to just work.

It's time to focus on yourself.

Block out the outside noise, you know, block out anything going on, any stresses outside the basketball court, and let's get in the gym and work.

And we do two days.

Every single day we're in the weight room four to five times a week.

Our guys add like 10 pounds of muscle on average per year.

Like, they eat well.

You know, when we play a national schedule, we play all college rules.

We play 40 games a year and we play against the best competition, I would say, in the U.S.

so it's definitely been a great Experience for me.

And I think every young man I see changes not only as a basketball player, everyone improves, but just the young men that come to Hargrave.

It's.

It's unbelievable.

Just their character development.

Think from a standpoint of the discipline that's required just to be in that environment.

Right.

As a student, then you take that.

And clearly we all know that the self discipline that it takes to be a good athlete.

So I'm guessing that that translates pretty well, that once you get past the initial of.

Does a guy want to be in that type of environment?

Once you find the people that want to be that in that environment, it seems like it's.

It's set up for them to thrive.

Right.

Because I know that the discipline that it takes for me to succeed on campus, in the classroom, with the military aspect of it now, you translate to the basketball court those same qualities of self discipline and hard work and all the things that go along with what you're talking about from an academic and military standpoint, all that stuff translates to the basketball floor.

And then I'm sure it helps you guys to put a better product on the floor and also to help those guys continue to improve because, you know, the work ethic is there and, you know, the discipline's there, and that really is what it takes.

And then that leads to.

I'm guessing, and I talked with Ben a little bit about this on his episode, but just in terms of you've got the recruiting coming in on the one end, right.

You're trying to get guys into the program, but then you're also involved in.

Then you sort of reverse roles when your guys are done.

And now you're playing the role of the parent or the high school coach of trying to help that player get to the next level to be able to play.

So talk a little bit about that.

Part of what your role is in helping your guys to be able to find a place to play as a college basketball player.

Yeah, So I, I actually, I'll definitely be doing that down here at the Final Four for sure, but I do a lot of that.

That's something, you know, as the director of recruiting, that's.

I do a lot of that, that, that switch role.

And it's.

And it's definitely hard work because, you know, you have to, you really have to multitask because as you're, as you're promoting your kids to go on to college, you have to be recruiting kids.

So, you know, one thing we do in recruiting is we do Google Meets and we do all those kind of things.

And we, then we go to campus visits and we get kids to campus and we, I do goal planning with our recruits that come in.

And then with the goal planning, we find out, okay, these are their target schools.

These are, this is their major.

This is what they want to do.

This is, you know, the level they can play at.

These are the coaches that like them.

These are their options.

And we communicate with the parents, we're super transparent with all the parents all the time on the kids recruitment and kind of like where their landing spot can be.

And we, we really, you know, we really advocate for our kids.

You know, we're super high on letting the kid, you know, ultimately he makes the final decision.

But we always give our professional advice of, you know, hey, you know, this is a school we believe you can play because you see today with the transfer portal, there's a lot of kids that go places they don't play, then they have to go down a level, then they go back up a level and then they go down.

So it's kind of like as a young, young men they don't always see.

And that's something I, I think I wish I could have foreseen more in even my playing career as well is like, hey, like, I wish I could see kind of ahead or wish I knew what I knew now of like how the game works, especially today in the business it is today.

I think it's more cutthroat than ever.

But with that there's, you know, it's because there's money involved and there's nil and players are able to make more.

So it's almost, it's really like, almost like professional sports and strictly a business at the next level.

So we really, you know, we really promote our guys.

I mean, we send out, we make early season highlights, mid season highlights, full season highlights, and we have actually a recruiting email database of every single.

And we have to update it every single year.

It's a lot, it takes a lot of time, but that's a lot of work.

That's some research.

Yeah, yeah.

It's so a lot of going to every.

Go to every single D1 school's page, look up their coaching staff, copy and paste all their emails.

And then as a staff, we put all the phone numbers that we collect throughout our career in there.

So we have contacts directly of coaches, personal phone numbers and things.

So I've built my network.

It's unbelievably because it's, it's that that database has been around For a while.

So it's been a unbelievable resource for coaches and.

And our players dramatically.

But.

And then we also do it for division two, we also do it for division three.

We also do it for Juco Naive.

So it's really intricate.

And what we do is we blast out emails.

Coach Vesci has a software, but we also send them.

We split up conferences and we build our own relationships and blast out emails of our players with their top, you know, raw game, film games, their highlights.

And then I like to do a little write up of the player, kind of like, you know, what their kind of caliber is, you know, are they high academic, you know, just different kinds of things, like how they're best used and just things like that.

And then our contact information and the players contact information and things.

Things of that nature.

But it's.

Yeah, it's pretty intricate.

There's a lot of.

A lot of emails.

I'm an email warrior.

So there's a lot of emails that go back and forth, a lot of texts, a lot of coaches calling.

And it.

Can I tell our guys, you know, in today's day and age, if you're willing to wait, if you want to play Division 1 and you don't get something early, if you're willing to wait, your chances go up.

But there's kind of always a certain cutoff.

I would probably say June.

I would say June is kind of like, all right.

If a D1, you know, the portal's been, well, closed.

If someone doesn't come around, then like, if you're.

If that's.

If you want to wait that long, you know, it's completely up to the kid.

But we tell them all the time, you know, if the shoe fits.

If there's a D2 or there's a juco and they're, you know, giving you a scholarship and they have what you want and it's.

And it's a good fit.

Your parents are all in and you're like, hey, you know what?

I think I can thrive here.

We say take it like if that's.

If you.

If that's.

It's ultimately up to what the kid wants.

And that's what we.

Where we do our goal planning at the beginning of the year in recruiting because we, you know, we want to understand what does this kid want when he comes to Harvard?

What are his goals, what are his dreams, what does he want to gain from this experience and where does he want to go and what's successful to him?

Because some kids, you know, some kids will be Like I want to go junior college because I think that's the best route and we try to help them with different things.

Or some kids just want to go High Academic D3.

So it's been a really great experience as a coach and learning that and having an impact on every person's life.

So.

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Is this for you to find out more when you think about yourself and your growth from your time when you get that GA job at uncg, right.

And now you've been in a couple different spots.

You've worked with several different coaching staffs.

What's an area that you feel like from that first day that you started to where you are now that you feel like you've improved the most?

And then in that area, what advice would you give to other young coaches to be able to have the same kind of growth that you had in that particular area?

I would, I would say the number one thing is confidence.

I think it's.

I think I'm a totally different coach.

I think when I first got the GA job at uncg, I was kind of.

I was, I was quiet because I did not know what I didn't know.

And I was, I.

I was really listening a lot.

Really listening a lot, following directions a lot.

And two, I remember two people, one of my co workers, he's working at a juco right now in Florida.

His name's Emmanuel Miles.

Manny goes by Manny.

Manny told me he's A man.

I've been a manager at UNCG for four years, and he just became a GA with me.

And he said, luke, the best of best ability is availability.

I'll never forget Manny said that.

And that was.

That's very true.

Being available, that's one major thing.

And then Donnie Lind, who's now the head coach at Mount Saint Mary's, I was his GA at UNCG directly.

And he told me.

He said, luke, cause I would always ask you, what do I need to do this and that?

I would always wait for tasks and things.

And he would say, luke, don't always wait for tasks.

He said, just be proactive.

Everything you do, be proactive.

Find tasks, recruit, do this, do that.

If you don't have something you're doing, don't wait.

Just go and start doing things.

So I think that's.

That was huge for me when I first got the job at Hargrave.

I think it helped me a lot with just, you know, earning Coach Veshey's respect is just like, I just started doing things, like, I just started, like, all right, I was done with this, and I just started doing, like, this, this, this.

Right, right.

Just started doing a bunch of things, recruiting and video and just trying to find things to do.

So I think that's definitely.

I think my first year as a GA at uncg, I kind of went into it, and I was like.

It was year one, so I was like, you know, I was kind of feeling it out.

Do I want to coach?

For sure.

Is it?

And then year two, as a G, I was like, all right, I'm all in.

I'm giving everything I got.

And then coming to Hargrave, I.

I've.

I've almost become, like a workaholic, so.

So now I.

Now I feel like I work all the time.

I'm just constantly working.

My phone's always going down and always doing stuff, but.

But I love it and I enjoy it.

And I would say, yeah, I would say looking at.

For young coaches, I would say the best ability is availability.

I would say be proactive in everything you do and do everything to the best of your ability, and find.

Find ways to help make your head coach or whoever you work under make their lives easier.

Be proactive with all that kind of stuff.

And I would also say, find your niche.

Find what you're good at.

You know, find.

Like, for me, it was.

It's recruiting.

It's.

I love defense, and I love post development, and I love doing video.

I think those are Four things that I'm.

I really do at a high level.

So those are things that I really like, and those are things that I'm really growing at, but also to sharpen my skills, you know, with guard development and things that are different, just to be well rounded, but definitely look for things that you're a lead at and really sharpen those skills.

And relationships, I think relationships beyond all those things is arguably also one of the most important things, because, you know, you can be qualified for a job and searching for a job, but, you know, knowing the right people helps a lot, especially in this business.

And, you know, coming to Hargrave, I.

I would say being on the court, being on the floor, because as a ga, you know, you're on the floor, but you don't, you know, you're not coaching as much usually, you know, the head coach, the top assistants.

So I would say, if you're a young coach, go to a level where you can build confidence, where you can, you know, really take control.

I think Coach Vesh, he's done a great job of empowering us as assistants, and he's kind of just given us the keys at some point and been like, hey, it's yours.

Run with it.

You know, you're going to do practice today.

You're going to coach this game, or you're going to, you know, control the defense or the offense, or, you know, you're going to talk in this timeout.

Here's the board.

You know, stuff like that.

And he's been phenomenal at just helping our growth.

So I would say, you know, go as a coach where you feel like you can grow and gain that confidence, because it's been.

I mean, I'm a totally different coach from.

From UNCG to now, for sure.

Sure.

I mean, you start looking at it, and even though you grew up with your dad as a coach, so you had some knowledge, or at least more knowledge than most players have in terms of what the life of a coach looks like beyond just what the player sees.

So just going back to that time of your life, were you ever thinking about following your dad's footsteps in coaching?

When you're in middle school, high school, was that ever a thought, or were you just strictly, at that point, focused on being a player?

So I thought about it.

I definitely thought about it.

I think I was like every other kid.

I was like, oh, I want to go to the NBA.

And that was the number one goal.

But I always thought about, this is what my dad does.

I'm interested in coaching But I never.

It never really hit me until, you know, I'd probably say towards the end of my senior year, playing at unh, that's when it kind of like, you know, this is what I really want to do.

And it started to really grow on me a lot.

But, yeah, I would say I had a little interest growing up, but, I mean, I saw my dad.

Dad.

Do it firsthand.

I know it's.

It's definitely not an easy profession.

You know, it's not.

Especially if you have a family.

You know, I'm.

I'm.

I.

I guess lucky in some way because I'm single right now, but.

But so it's.

It's.

It's easy for me right now because, you know, I only have myself to worry about.

So, you know, I can go here and there and not have to worry about, you know, wife or a kid or anything, and I have all the free time I need, and I just can work.

So for me, it's easy.

But I know, you know, even as a high school coach, I remember my dad.

You know, he'd always be busy and things, trying to, you know, go to practice and things like that.

So I'd be with my mom sometimes.

So.

I know, definitely.

It's definitely something.

It'll be.

It'll be.

That will be a next stage of life that will be exciting for me and figuring.

Navigating that.

So what's something that you took from your dad that is still a part of you today as a coach?

When you think about yourself and you either see yourself doing something or you think something, you're like, oh, yeah, that's.

That's the influence of my dad.

Does anything stick out when that.

When I say that?

Like, yeah, like 50% of my whole coaching.

Yeah.

No, I love my dad.

My dad's my best friend.

I talk to my dad every day.

Um, so he.

He's made a huge impact.

So my dad, I think a father, son experience.

You know, my dad is like.

He is like Superman.

Like, he.

He.

Like, I'm grateful to have the opportunity to have my dad as my dad, because he.

I remember growing up, I was like, man, this guy's a machine.

Like.

Like, he's just.

He.

He would sit me down.

He would sit me down and all the time.

And there's so many times I do this with our guys.

Oh, my gosh.

But of my dad, you know, every day.

Luke, I love.

And that's.

That's something I.

I mean, I tell my players all the time.

I love you.

I love you.

Guys, and I really mean it.

And my dad all the time tell me he loves me every day.

It could be anything, doing whatever, all the time.

And, like, he used to sit me down as a kid and he'd be like, luke, look in my eyes.

And, like, I'd be sitting right in front of him.

Look in my eyes.

He'd be like, luke, you're Rosinski.

Your name means something.

You never quit.

You're mentally tough.

You never quit.

You never give up.

You're.

You're an overcomer.

You're an overachiever.

And he would just do, like, stuff like that.

When I was a kid, I was like, what is he talking about?

Like, what is he.

You know, he.

It's so much pride.

My dad has so much pride in our.

And our family name and, like, all that kind of stuff.

So that's something.

And he used to say that to his players, Be like, you know, you're.

You know, if their last name was park, he'd be like, you're a Park.

Like, you are special.

Like, you are significant.

You mean something.

You do not quit.

You don't give up.

You know, you.

You in the eyes of adversity, you overcome.

Like, you're mentally tough.

You know, so that's something that I got from my dad that I really harp on with our guys, is like, you know, being mentally tough.

You know, being able to, you know, the righteous man falls seven times arises again.

Like being able to answer the call every time, you know, you might make a.

Make a mistake, you know, you might fail, but if you can get back up and you can keep going, like, you'll learn, you'll get better, you know, And I think those are.

That was huge.

My dad also used to say all the time, and I.

And I use it on our guys, too.

Is.

Is.

You know, my dad.

This is.

This is a powerful line.

But my dad always used to say to his players, and I used to see it because I was.

I was at practice because I was a gym rat, I was a coach's kid.

I would go to see my dad's practice and you.

And sometimes kids would complain and you know how kids get sometimes if they're running and this and that.

And my dad would say, you know, or they'd miss a shot if they get down.

And my dad would always say, like, you know, one day you're going to be the man of the house.

One day you are going to be someone.

You're going to be a father, and you're going to be a husband.

To your wife, you're going to be a dad.

What are you going to do?

Are you going to quit?

Like, he used to be, like, really direct.

Like, are you going to give up?

Like, if.

If you go into work one day and they fire you, what are you going to go home and tell your kids and your wife?

Are you going to throw in the towel?

Like, you are a man?

And, like, that is something that I really.

I say that to our guys all the time.

I'm like, be a man.

Like, be a man.

What is a man?

A man is someone who they.

You.

You don't get credit.

You show up, you fail.

You show up.

The bill's not paid.

You show up like, you're on time.

You do what you need to do, you get the job done, you know?

You know.

You know, like, the.

My dad's super into, like, hey, you're not a victim.

You overcome.

You know, things aren't going to go your way.

It's life.

You know what I mean?

So that's something.

As a coach as I am, I'm very much like that.

And I think our players love it.

I mean, I think, you know, it kind of.

It's kind of.

I think our players see, like, okay, Coach Luke, like, he really believes in me.

He sees, you know, and it's.

And it's accountable.

Like, you know, I think when I look at our players, you know, I really love them, I really care about them, and I see, you know, grown men, it's like.

And that's the thing about Hargrave is our.

Literally, our mission statement is Hargrave builds young.

Young characters or young men to be characters of lifelong success.

So that's.

Leaders of characters of success, you know, to be grown men and things like that.

And.

And, like, that's the whole mission of what Hargrave is.

Is developing young men.

And, like, that's beyond, like, I think.

I think beyond basketball.

But in life, you know, that's.

That's the real game that you win.

If you can be mentally tough, if you can show up every day and you can give your all and try your best and, you know, be able to take adversity and not lose effort or enthusiasm, that's, I think, where you succeed on the court and off the court.

So that's something I definitely get from my dad.

You look back at the time when you played for your dad, what do you think that you and him did?

Well, in terms of your relationship.

And then the second part, I'm not going to ask you what you did Badly.

But I'm going to ask you what was the most challenging part of it, maybe from your perspective, and I don't know if you ever talked to him, asked him what the most challenging part was from his perspective.

So what did you guys do?

Well.

And then what was a challenging aspect of that?

Player, coach, father, son relationship.

Yeah.

So I think what went really well is, as a player, when you play for your dad, I would say it's very calming because, you know, your dad knows you, so it's.

It's.

You're never worried about, like, okay, I'm trying to prove.

Because when you're a player and you don't, You.

You're new to a team or you're new to a coach, you're like, oh, I have to show him what I'm able to do.

So it's this constant of, okay, I need to prove myself.

Where it's like, okay, my dad's seen me my whole life.

Like, he knows what I can do.

He knows my right.

Exactly.

So it's like, I don't need to show him, try to be something I'm not.

So I was always.

I wasn't ever anxious or worried about, okay, if I missed this or that.

Because I know he's seen me make a million shots.

I know he's seen me miss a million shots.

I know he's seen me dunk the ball and, like, all that kind of stuff.

So I think it was very calming as a player for my dad, and I think that that went really well.

I think also something that went really well is, like, just our dynamic.

I think as a.

As him being my dad, but as a coach and then me as a player.

Like, our agreements in practice, like, he was very like, hey, Luke, you don't call me dad.

You call me coach.

You.

You act like you don't know who I am.

Every.

Every practice, you literally act like I'm a random coach that you play for.

You're not.

You know, there's no extra bonus.

You don't get any extra love.

Like, it's just, I'm your coach.

It's strictly business.

And I thought we did really well with that.

And, like, I earned a lot of my friends respect and my peers respect, and I think they, you know, and I knew, like, my dad was, like, he was really hard on me as a player.

Like, really hard.

Like, like, and, like, looking back, like, I was.

I was.

I was a freshman in my sophomore year as well, my freshman year.

I mean, I started my freshman year and that as a Freshman at a school with 3,000 kids.

Like, that's like.

Like, I personally got a lot of flack from my peers from that.

But looking at it, me and my dad worked really well because he.

He didn't give me anything.

So, like, when I went to tryouts, he made me play like, oh, my gosh, just to make the team.

I had to, like, beat all these returning guys in one on one, like, consecutively.

I had to play like five one on one games in a row and win.

And I was exhausted.

And then I had to do all these drills and I had to dunk the ball like 20 times in a row.

Like, it was like.

It was like some crazy.

And like, he made everyone on the team watch.

So it was like, all right, Luke, you need to show me, but you need to show everyone that you're working, worthy of starting or you're worthy of.

You need to beat these kids in front of me, in front of the staff, in front of everyone, and everyone's gonna watch like, like.

And it was.

There was pressure with that, but I was like, yeah, bring it on.

Because I knew I was good enough and I knew I deserved it.

So I was like, yeah, I'll do whatever's needed.

Like, I'll jump through any hoop to prove that I'm able to do it.

So I think we, we.

And I understood, you know, I understood the logic behind it of him always being like, I need to be the hardest on you.

And that made me better like that really.

And I.

And I kind of understand it now as a coach, because when the best player on the team can take the accountability, then someone who's lower on the depth chart, they can't say anything because it's like, okay, you know, I never agreed with, personally with me, I never agree with, you know, you need to hold everyone player accountable.

But I think the person that should be, you know, held the most accountable is the best player on the team.

I think you.

The best player on the team should be, you know, that's the kid you should probably be the hardest on.

Because if people can see, hey, okay, the top 100 kid or the five star kid or four star kid, coaches on him every day and tell him, telling him he's got to go harder, he's got to play harder, you know, he's got to run, he's got to do this.

Like when.

When kids who are like the 5, 6 man, 7th man, 10th man, they see that, they're like, wow.

And if.

And if the best player responds and he's like, yes, coach, I'll do better.

Yes, coach.

And he runs and he does this.

Then that's how.

Like, the culture.

And I think that's.

When I was a player, I responded for my dad, and I was like, yes, yes, coach.

Like, I just.

Yes, coach.

I just look him in the eyes, yes, coach.

And I would do it, whatever he had me do.

And I think people.

I think it earned respect from my peers.

And then as a team, I think it built a good culture where it's like, wow, this is.

You know, there's.

There's.

This is something special here.

So.

And then I would.

So secondly, I would say I was still a kid, so I wasn't superhuman.

And there was a lot of days where there would be arguments, like.

And we had one rule.

It was always, never in front of anyone.

Never.

If you have something to say, we wait till we get to the car.

And there was a lot of times when we would get to the car and I would be like, you didn't need to yell at me doing this.

I didn't do anything wrong because I was, you know, 16, 17, and I was.

I was.

I'm.

You know, I'm going through this, this and this, and my friends, this, saying this, and you're on me, and I'm not the problem.

And.

And then obviously, like, as a player, too, there's also the dynamic of.

Of where I would say to him, like, you know, he would drop a play or something, and I would always wait till after the game, obviously wait till we got in the car or something like that.

And I would always be like, I need the ball.

Like, I.

Like, why did you not give me the ball?

Like, I went, like, stuff like that, for sure.

Like.

Like, I need to score that this is the last play of the game.

Like, I need the ball.

Like, clear people out.

Like, he'd be like, no.

Like, you need to just.

Like, there's.

It's deeper.

You need to understand.

So, yeah, I would say that there were.

There are definitely times of that.

But looking back, it was.

I mean, it was always fun.

Like, I never.

I never once was, like, man, that wasn't enjoyable.

Even the.

Even the conversations where we talk in the car and go back and forth, like, of why this, why that, or anything like that.

Like, it always was, like, a great experience.

And I would recommend.

I mean, if any coach is able to coach their son at any level, you know, it's definitely a special bonding experience.

And it teaches a lot.

It teaches a lot.

I think as a young man playing for my dad, I learned a lot about, you know, how to.

How.

What.

What's not favoritism, you know, how to earn respect when it might look like, you know, oh, it's someone's kid or something like that.

I remember games like.

It was like every game we played, there would be student sections chanting Daddy's boy and yelling and holding pictures up of me and my dad.

Oh, yeah, it was.

I love that stuff, though.

So it was.

It was always a lot of fun.

So I was thinking again, I didn't ever coach any of my kids at the high school level, but spent a lot of time coaching their teams at various.

Whether it's rec league or whether it's travel basketball or whether it's aaud.

And one of the best parts of that for me.

And maybe my kids would echo this.

I don't know, Luke.

We'd have to see.

I'd probably have to.

Probably have to ask him.

I'd like to think I know what the answer is.

But one of the best things for me was just the opportunity to spend time, right?

Because it's like, as a coach.

So for your dad, right, he's.

He's coaching anyway, whether you're there or not.

But then the fact that you're there and you get to be a part of it makes it even more special that you're being able to spend time on something that is so important to both of you.

And that's one of the things that I most enjoyed, is that I get to spend some time doing something that I love, okay, Coaching basketball, being around the game.

But then not only that, but I also get to spend time with my kids while I'm doing it.

And so to me, it's kind of a double bonus that, hey, it works out for everybody that we're getting to do something we love.

And right over there, there's my dad or there's my son or there's my daughter, whatever.

And to be able to do that, I think, as you said many times, the opportunity to be able to have that kind of relationship, father, son, player, coach, it's not one that every kid gets a chance to be able to do.

And sometimes it can be difficult to navigate.

And as you said, there's always challenges.

It's not a perfect scenario because the parent knows the kind of scrutiny that the kid is going to face.

And the kid, obviously, at times can feel that scrutiny or feel all those eyes on them.

Like, you know, man, you know, people.

Do people think I'm just getting this because my dad's the coach.

And so it's kind of that chip on your shoulder.

Right.

You always got to prove yourself.

But I think ultimately for me, it still comes down to just when you think about the time that you get to spend and, and how time consuming and all consuming.

You know, you talked about it with your job right now.

Right.

You're.

You're just, you're a workaholic.

You're doing it all the time.

And I think so many coaches, it's not just, you know, your perception of what a coach did.

I know, at least mine was back when I was playing, is coach shows up five minutes before practice starts, practice ends, and coach gets in the car and goes home and sees his family and eats dinner and whatever.

And I had no idea as a player what all the things that, you know, my coaches were, you know, you have no, you have no idea.

You have no idea.

And, you know, my, my dad coached me, but not in a, not in a formal setting and wasn't a coach in that same way.

So I didn't see it from the, from the inside the way you were able to see it.

But it's definitely when you start talking about that dynamic of, of coaching your own kids, there's a lot of things to be able to navigate, and it sounds like you guys were able to navigate it pretty well.

So kudos to you guys for that.

Let's talk about where you are in your career.

And I know one of the things that I always like to ask guys who are assistants who have a dream of eventually heading up their own program, and you talked about your dream of maybe being able to go back to New Hampshire and get them to the tournament.

So obviously, at some point, being a head coach is on your radar.

So I always think it's instructive to ask the question of what are you doing now to prepare to gather ideas, thoughts, notes, X's and O's.

How are you kind of putting that all together with the idea that it can be some type of coherent vision of what you might think your program would be?

Now, obviously, right now you're at the prep level.

We're talking about being a Division 1 head coach.

Who knows where you're going to end up, what direction it's going to take.

But just how are you kind of preparing yourself for that next opportunity in terms of putting together a coaching portfolio, if that makes sense.

Yeah, so I was actually going to say that.

So I actually completed my first coaching portfolio at the beginning of this year.

I mean, I guess I've had previous coaching portfolios, but not to this extreme.

So my coaching portfolio is 66 pages and it's everything.

It's my plays, my coaching philosophy, my mission statement, you know, statement of my faith, who I am, my core values, my lingo for the program.

I'm going to have, you know, offensive and defensive terminology, my practice plans.

It's.

It's really intricate.

My.

To my game card, my play call card.

Like, it's, it's.

It's my recruiting prompts, my videos, my player development.

I have YouTube videos of player development in there with links.

Like, it's pretty intricate.

So I would say to young coaches specifically to like, do that for sure, keep everything.

That's one thing I've been really good at.

I'm great at every person that text me, call me, I save their contact.

Keeping relationships going.

Really good at checking in on people, building more relationships, getting involved with grassroots, getting involved with all varieties of.

Because you never know where anyway.

And it's important to be genuine, to, you know, build genuine relationships because, you know, if.

If it's not genuine, people can see through that.

So it's important to really care and really help people in this profession and really, you know, help each other grow and things and great minds, you know, bounce.

Bounce off each other and to ask questions and to grow your, you know, your coaching portfolio and to learn more.

So I think that's what I've been consistently doing, especially these last two years and putting myself out there.

You know, I think, you know, my coaching portfolio specifically, I think has put me in, you know, running for opportunities this year and things like that.

So, uh, I think, you know, that's huge, is getting everything down, jotting everything down, you like plays, you know, studying the game.

I think being a student of the game is important and trying different things.

You know, if.

If something doesn't work, you can scratch it off and say, hey, you know, maybe I didn't do that, right?

Or if you run a certain drill in practice and you didn't do it, it's.

It's great.

Like at Hargrave, you know, we have basically almost a new team every year.

So it's like you can build a culture every year and you can find out, okay, this didn't work.

We're going to have a whole new team.

Besides, we have two kids returning this coming year.

But basically you're building a culture from scratch again.

So you're like, okay, let's keep the things that we did well and let's look at the things that maybe as A staff we could have improved upon and let's get better and let's keep the things we did well and then add to it and just keep getting sharper and sharper.

So I think Hargrave's a phenomenal spot to be.

Just to grow as a coach.

It's unbelievable.

So that's kind of how I've been.

How I've been going about it so far.

Yeah, it makes sense.

I mean, from a team building culture standpoint, you get to kind of redo it every year.

Hey, let's have another experiment.

Let's.

Let's try this.

All right, that worked really well.

Let's do that again.

And then obviously, you know, with different teams, right, and different personalities, something that works one year you could turn around and be like, all right, we got to figure it out.

And then let's do that same thing next year.

And then all of a sudden it's a different group of guys.

And it doesn't take or it doesn't in the same way.

It's just.

It's interesting.

That's what makes coaching as much science as there.

As much science as there is.

That's where the art of.

Of coaching and knowing what works and knowing which buttons to push and knowing what your team needs in a given moment, that.

That's really where the rubber meets the road in terms of.

In terms of coaching knowledge and understanding.

Again, how to get the most out of.

How to get the most out of your team.

When you're talking about learning and growing as an assistant coach, where do you like to go to check out new X's and O stuff?

Do you jump around all over the place?

Are you looking at.

Are you looking at Europe?

Are you looking at college basketball?

Are you looking at pro level?

Are you jumping all around when it comes to kind of studying and looking at the game and ways to grow yourself as an X's nose tactician.

So I like.

I like Europe a lot.

I like the European game.

I love stuff out of the Spain action.

I would also say so when I was at uncg, coach Mike Jones, he'd run, he called it flow.

So it was a double big continuity offense.

And you can run it with kind of twin tower.

You could run it with two fives, really.

My first year, we had two fives on the floor pretty much at all times.

And we just pounded teams inside and did a lot of different things that way.

And, um, I love it.

I mean, I'm a big.

So I.

I'm a little biased towards that, but I Love that kind.

And so Coach Jones, he worked for Shaka Smart at vcu, so Shaka Smart runs a lot of flow.

Coach Donnie Lynn, now at Mount Saint Mary's.

You know, he worked with me and under Mike Jones.

Uh, now he's at Mount St.

Mary's and he runs a lot of flow as well.

So I like kind of seeing what they do.

I like to add my own kind of wrinkles and, and different things, but I like.

I really like that continuity, specifically, and different things that you can do out of that.

The Princeton's also grown on me a lot because I think.

I think talking with people is really important.

I think I learned a lot when, like, I'm.

I'm.

I think I do great.

Like, I'm an audio learner.

Like, I.

I learn really well through talking with people, but also visually, so I love being on the court.

Like, me and Coach Meb will like, put a trash can somewhere and, like, we'll be.

And we'll do it for like an hour after practice and we'll have a ball and, like, we'll walk around the court and be like, okay, if we're running the Princeton, he catches it here, and I run off you like this, and he does this and that.

We'll just.

Just talk and we'll just walk through a bunch of different actions together.

So, like, I love doing stuff like that, and I think learning from other people that way and, and just bouncing your minds off each other is important.

And just watching college, too.

If I see a quick hitter or play I really like, that works that I think can fit within the continuity of what I like, then that's something I'll mark down.

Or if I see something on Twitter, I think Twitter's great.

I love Twitter.

So it's amazing just what's out there.

Like, as.

As a coach, it's funny.

So my daughter's a freshman in high school, and so we have.

There's.

We have nine girls in our team.

We have four dad coaches that all help to coach the team.

But we'll go back and forth and like, what about this set?

You know, you'll see some.

We just were trying to figure out some stuff just this week of, hey, we want to get a couple quick hitters.

And so you go and you look and you're on Twitter and you're like, well, I just found 75 quick hitters that I like.

I don't think we're going to be able to install 75 of those with our.

With our team.

So then you start Trying to narrow it down.

And there's just so much good stuff.

There's so much what.

And it goes back to what you talked about in terms of relationships and just the willingness of the coaching profession to share.

I always find to be something that, I guess before I started the podcast, I kind of felt like that, that coaches shared, but I had no idea.

I don't think of the extent that guys are willing to talk about what they do.

Well, part of that is because you can't hide anything anymore.

Maybe 30 years ago, you could have tried to hide stuff and say, ah, I'm not going to share because, you know, my.

Whatever, whatever.

I'm doing this one three, one zone trap.

I got nobody else.

I can't.

I can't let anybody else know my principles of you, how I'm teaching it.

Well now everything.

You can't.

You can't hide anything even if you wanted to.

So I think it's really opened up just people being willing to share.

And then when you talk about people being willing to share, then the people who are the Shees or the Steelers, as the case might be, you know, you just, you just put all that together, and I think there's.

It's just a tremendous way to be able to grow as a coach.

Definitely.

No, I agree.

All right, final two, part question, part one, when you look ahead over the next year, what do you see as being your biggest challenge?

And then the second part of the question, when you think about what you get to do every day, what brings you the most joy?

So start with your biggest challenge and then follow that up with your biggest joy.

Biggest challenge.

I would just say.

I would just say the path, you know, the biggest challenges.

You know, as a coach, I think is one thing I've learned over my time and short time being a coach.

I would say, you know, coaching is something I want to do lifelong.

So I think I've realized, you know, there's not.

I have my goals, but I think the journey is more valuable than the destination.

So it's kind of like I used to be so set on, oh, I want to be here by this age or get to this point by this time.

And I think the biggest challenge for me has been, you know, just, it's okay if you take slow steps, just take the right steps.

You know, just do what's best for you and your development.

You know, don't try to rush something or go to a level or go do something just because, you know, it looks good.

You know, do stuff to really help you Grow as a coach and to impact lives.

And I think that's the tough challenge.

Every day is just, you know, we live in a social media world, instant gratification world.

And it's kind of like, you know, doing what is, you know, will push myself, but will grow me as a coach and to serve others.

And then I'd also say with that also challenges work life balance.

Finding that work life balance, you know, because I love to work, but make sure I, you know, can balance my relationships, my family, my friends.

I think that's a constant challenge every day.

And I try my best to get.

And I'm definitely learning as a young coach.

I'm learning on figuring out that balance.

For sure.

I do.

I think I do a great job on the work side.

Work on the relationship piece, but understood.

Yeah, but I would say.

And then also, yeah, the thing that really gets.

Keeps me going every day is, you know, I would say my most enjoyable part is I would say my faith, you know, my relationship with Jesus Christ is.

Is my motor.

Like, that's what wires me.

That's what keeps me going every single day.

But also, like, I see coaching as a servant job.

I see it as like, you know, like when I talked about T.J.

thompson, like, T.J.

thompson, he.

He literally changed my life, you know, for.

Through the sacrifice and the time he put in.

And since that was, you know, I experienced that.

That's something I want to reciprocate to young men who I coach and work with is, you know, I want to be a tool that they can use to propel them to their dreams so they can succeed and achieve their goals.

So that's something that's really rewarding.

Every single day is like, you know, just spending time with these young men and helping make an impact and building that relationship because, you know, I want to win, I'm competitive, and I want to get players better and I want to recruit the best players and, you know, all that kind of stuff.

And I want to grow in the profession.

But the number one thing I would say is the relationship with the young men that I coach and that like, like, if they stop playing basketball tomorrow, like, I would still love them.

Like, I would still care about them.

I'd still go get them.

They're Bojangles up at Chatham at the one stoplight still.

I'd still go do it because it's.

They're more to me than just a basketball player.

They're, you know, they're.

I see them as, you know, young men.

They're human beings.

And like, I love them, so it's definitely special.

And that's something that I really love.

And it keeps me young.

I mean, I'm still, I'm young.

I'm 28, so I'm getting close to 30.

I'm still young, but it keeps me, it definitely keeps me hip.

So I, I like that as well.

Well, you're definitely young.

I can vouch for you there.

And you're gonna, you're gonna love it in 10 years when the guys that you're coaching now are getting married or calling you up and saying, hey coach, I just got a new job or I had a kid or whatever.

Those, those kinds of conversations and calls.

When you start talking about impact, right, that's really what it's all about is, yeah, the basketball, especially in the moment, the basketball is really important.

But in the long term, it's the life and the impact and the things that the game can teach you and that you can use the game to be able to have an impact.

I think that's where, that's where the power in coaching really lies.

To be able to have the impact on young people using something that you love in order to be able to do it, the game of basketball.

And to me, I mean, that's really what, that's really what it comes down to with coaching is you, you get to use the game of basketball that you love to be able to have, be able to have a huge impact on, on the people around you.

So before we get out, Luke, I want to give you a chance to share.

How can people get in touch with you, connect with you, share social media, email, website, whatever you feel comfortable with.

And then after you do that, I'll jump back in and wrap things up.

Yeah, I mean, if they look up my, you know my name on Twitter, it's at Coach Rusinski.

Or if they type in Luke Rudzinski, it should come up.

Same thing with Instagram.

Luke Rudzinski.

Or my email is my, my school email is Luke Rosinski Hargrave Edu.

So, you know, feel free to reach out any, any way and I happy to exchange phone numbers or anything like that as well.

So I'm, I'm an open book and I'm always happy to help players, coaches, you know, anyone ever.

So I'm definitely grateful to build more relationships.

Luke, cannot thank you enough for taking the time out of your schedule, taking the time out of your final four trip in San Antonio to jump on and be a part of the hoop heads pod.

Really appreciate it.

And to everyone out there.

Thanks for listening and we will catch you on our next episode.

Thanks.

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