Indians' success extends to court

NEW ULM -- When a coach turns a program around, especially a program that has not had the traditional success of other sports programs, one tends to wonder how he does it.

What is the secret that this coach has that others that preceded him did not have?

If you ask Sleepy Eye High head boys basketball coach Ted Critchley, there is no secret.

"The work that the kids have put in during the off-season is one reason (for our success)," said Critchley, now in his third season at the helm of the Indians. "We knew that we had a good group of players coming up, but this off-season we worked almost every day over the months of June and July from eight in the morning and worked until 10. Some days were individual skills and some were team formation type of skills, and even though we went late in the football season, this really gave us a jump start (into basketball). But it is a credit to the kids who really put a lot of work into basketball."

Last year in Critchley's first season, the Indians finished 6-18. Compared to seasons prior to that, it was a huge success in regards to wins, losses and playing competitive basketball.

During the summer, Critchley would work with his players on fundamentals.

'We would work on individual moves -- how go get open, how to clear yourself away from your man to give you some space ... a lot of shooting. And then we went into the weight room and they used the same program used by the football team."

Critchley also taught his team some new offensive sets that his team has used this year. And used very successfully as the Indians are now 4-1 in the Tomahawk Conference and 6-2 overall following a road loss to Cedar Mountain Tuesday -- their first conference loss of the season.

And the summer program that has aided in the Indians' success has been fine-tuned by Critchley, whose father, Tom, is in the Minnesota Basketball Coaches Hall of Fame.

His father coached 16 years at Hawley High School before taking over in Roseville High School.

"A lot of the things that we are using now were not in place," he said. "I need to give a lot of credit to Bruce Belseth and Scott Hadley for their work. A lot of these kids developed their skills in the elementary program long before I was here, and those (two) guys did a good job of developing players. I think that primarily until then they basically went and played games a lot. But this was the year that we said 'OK, now it is time to break down into specifics.'"

And one of those specifics has been the attitude that the basketball players now carry. In years past, losing became a habit for the Indians in basketball despite the success that they had in both football and baseball.

"That is the one thing as a coaching staff that we wanted to change," commented Critchley. "We wanted to make it known that we are not just a filler sport to stay in shape between football and baseball. We wanted to some day be at the level of success that our football and baseball programs are at. This is not YMCA basketball; this is organized high school basketball and you are not just here to stay in shape -- you are here because you want to be successful."

He said changing that was "hard at first. At times, I can be a little demanding and I don't think that that is always bad. But at first it can be like 'who is this new guy coming in?' Through the course of the year, I found out that they want to win here in basketball; I recognized that right away. They are starting to know that our coach expects a lot out of us and our program expects a lot out of us, so we have to step up."

Critchley said that his team gained a lot of confidence beginning last year and continuing over this past summer.

"We had a lot of close games last year (in conference) and this summer we played in a tough league in Mankato," he said. "The kids are more comfortable with me and I am more comfortable with them. They know their roles and things are clicking right now."

And part of that clicking is due in large part to what Ted learned from his father Tom as a coach.

"I'd be lying if I didn't say that I learned pretty much the whole bag of coaching from him." said Ted. "We open up the offense a little bit more and spread the floor more than he would. Pretty much everything that we do revolves around him.

"There are still times when I will call him and he is the best assistant coach that I can have. He comes to games when he can and he sees a lot of what we do. The intensity is the biggest thing that he has helped me bring to Sleepy Eye."

And that intensity has transformed into a solid defense that keyed one of the Indians biggest basketball wins in school history when they knocked off MVL at MVL earlier in the season.

"The defense can always be a focal point," he said. "Your offense can vary but you can always play solid defense and that was probably the hardest thing to change here. When you say 'man-to-man', the kids think it is me against that man when it should be us versus them in a man-to-man set, which is hard to explain but they have caught on."

And basketball has started to catch on with the fans.

'The big joke around town is that baseball and football have been to the state tournament and now it is your turn," said Critchley. "Against GFW the other night (at Sleepy Eye) people told me that that was the biggest crowd that they have seen at a basketball game in a long time, and the kids appreciate the crowds. Our gym can get really loud; last year, I would yell and that is all that you heard. This year, they think that I am a nicer guy because they cannot hear me but that is because of the crowd noise."

Critchley said that the kids set some goals this season.

"I hope that we don't sound arrogant but the kids want to win the Tomahawk Conference and we want to make the state tournament. The kids realistically can see themselves playing in the state. It will be hard because we have one of the toughest sub-sections around and sections around. The kids can see that dream.

"Last year, we wanted to beat those top teams. Now, they want to be one of those top teams and be one of the first to play in the Xcel Energy Center for the state tournament."

Column by Jim Bastian, Journal sports writer