Summer 2017 Coach of the “Year:” Josh Hersch
Josh Hersch is a fellow who likes to stay busy. As you probably know, he coached 2 teams for the Minnesota Stars this past summer. They were cleverly designated as Stars 11th Hersch and Stars 8th Hersch. Both finished #2…
Access all of Prep Girls Hoops
Continue reading this article and more.
Continue ReadingJosh Hersch is a fellow who likes to stay busy. As you probably know, he coached 2 teams for the Minnesota Stars this past summer. They were cleverly designated as Stars 11th Hersch and Stars 8th Hersch. Both finished #2 in our (Northstar Girls Hoops) team rankings and both had some signature wins.
The 11s lost to North Tartan 3 times, to Hersch’s great regret. “Obviously, the theme is one more time,” Hersch said, “if we could play them one more, and I said, ‘Guys, we got ‘em 3 times and it just did’t happen.’ But if you look at the season, that’s the only thing we didn’t do.”
“Summer Jam was another (loss to North Tartan),” Hersch continued. “But, we did something North Tartan couldn’t do, we beat All Iowa Attack Nike (71-60), and they’re 0-3 against AIA this year.”
Then in July Hersch’s Stars knocked off highly regarded Texas Elite, a team that had lost one other game all year long. “Texas Elite had 6 high D1 kids—2 Oklahoma guards, Arkansas, an Arizona post player,” Hersch said. “They were every bit as good as any team we played all year.” That win capped off a 21-2 June and July.
Meanwhile, Hersch 8s took 2 out of 3 from state champ Tayler Hill and won the #1 seed at the AAU Prelim. There were a couple losses to North Tartan (Coley and West) in June, but the Stars went 3-1 against 3 Tartan teams at the AAU.
In addition to that, Hersch is handling day-to-day operations for the Stars. “It’s been intense,” he said. But, clearly he means to say, intense in a good way.
“Last winter was the first winter that I didn’t coach,” he said, “but that’s not necessarily going to be the case this winter.” In other words, he hopes to be coaching again in the winter as well. “I prefer not to have any extra time and coaching 2 teams kind of cements that. It’s kind of a no brainer. So, yeah, that’s where that’s going.”
Q & A with Josh Hersch
To sum up some of these games and how some of it’s been, it’s been intense. There’s nowhere to hide. You’ve got a target on your back, all the games are intense. Think about the kids, the schedule they play in July and they’ve been going for 4 months.
But, it never sets in when it’s about to end, you have different groups every year and you get to know them so well, and the families. But this group, especially the juniors, you don’t have a group that comes together this well very often, so I’m trying to keep it in perspective and to appreciate just how much they’ve done.
Last winter was the first winter that I didn’t coach, but that’s not necessarily going to be the case this winter. I’ve got some things going on that could be available. But yeah, as of now I’m all in with the Stars and doing the day-to-day operations stuff for Mark and coaching the 2 teams and all of that kind of stuff.
Tell me about your 11s.
In-state we lost 3 games—we lost 3 games to Tartan. The 1st time we jumped ‘em pretty good and had a lead, and at times they have some length and size and it became tough to score in the second half. It became a close game even though we were up 11 in the 1st half, but we weren’t able to finish ‘em.
In the 2nd game, we came off the high of really dismantling the Fury in the semis and came out really flat in the title game. So that one wasn’t a game. We’ve only had a couple of let-downs all year and lost a hand full of games but that was one of them, it wasn’t our greatest effort.
Summer Jam was another one (but) we did something North Tartan couldn’t do, we beat All Iowa Attack Nike (71-60), and (Tartan is) 0-3 against AIA this year.
And until we beat Texas Elite Tuesday that would have been our greatest win of the summer. But then, in that 3rd game, if it’s going to become a rugby or a football game, it’s not going to benefit us very well. And they were able to hold and grab and beat up on us. And we squandered some opportunities early in that game where we should have been up 8-10 points, and they’d tell you the same thing, we just couldn’t finish. And, then, as much as we can battle with them, it’s just tough to score. They have that size.
We run a lot of sets and if you can hold off the ball, that takes away all my slip-screens and player screens. So a little disappointing in that 3rd game.
Somebody put out a top 30 club list (nationally), and we’ve beaten 7 of them including 2 of them in the top 10. And we’re definitely not in the top 30. Time and gain, these kids have really stepped up and they really play together.
You played in the Top Tier at the same time the Meltdown was on, and I wasn’t able to get over there. Tell me about the Top Tier.
The Top Tier tournament—people look at the Meltdown and they say look how much better the Meltdown is because they have more teams. 190 teams to 70 something. But what you really have to look at is, how’s the talent. The teams in our tournament were very good teams, we had college coaches loaded on our side. We brought in these top 3 adidas clubs—TX Elite, Arkansas Banshees, and WI Flight, and they all brought in teams at every age level. So our top pool was as good as anything the Meltdown had to offer. TX Elite had 6 high D1 kids—2 Oklahoma guards, Arkansas, an Arizona post player. They were every bit as good as any team we played all year. And it was one of those games where—we beat AIA and we beat TX Elite, and Claire Orth missed both of those games. And Liz Edinger has been out most of July with some health stuff, so we’re playing with basically playing with 7 kids. And it was one of those games were every kid had to step up and everybody did. And if would have not scored 2 possessions in row, it might have been too much, that’s how talented they are.
It was probably as intense of a game, as back and forth, as well-played of a game as I’ve been a part of. Then down at the end, we called a timeout, down 1 with 18 seconds left under our basket. And Heaven (Hamling) has been a stud, so I drew up a pretty basic picker play, and Heaven caught the ball in the corner and if she’s open she’s going to shoot it and if not I had Taylor Brown come out and set a screen for her. But Heaven’s open so she shoots it and makes it, and we’re up 2.
They come back…7 seconds left. They’ve been going through that AZ post all game, so we just put 2 kids on her. And they got a shot, but it wasn’t a good one, and we held on.
Even from what I expected, (Heaven Hamling) just bought all in and went all in on the system. I let these kids play when we can play, but we have 30 sets that we can run and we all learn ‘em, and Heaven really flourished in this role, and the different ways we can play through her. I didn’t see a kid who can shoot it as well or as deep anywhere we went this summer. And at the same time, her vision in getting others involved is second to none.
So, it even carried over to the Breakdown event with Hutchinson. She’s playing with an unbelievable amount of confidence. And I said, I heard you had like 28 against Hutch, and she said, I didn’t know, we didn’t keep a book. So at the same time, she’s a humble kid.
Tell me about your 8th graders.
There’s no doubt we were ready early in the season and we took advantage of that, and we jumped Tayler Hill in that very first game. We were ready to go and had a plan defensively for Jade (Hill), and we made the shots. We added a couple kids like Cassidy Carson and Katie Liesen, just a couple kids who can help Katie Borowicz score from the outside. And it opened up things up for Tamia (Ugass) inside. And if you played Tayler Hill 10 times, I don’t know what’s going to happen, but you could see right from the start that we had really upgraded.
As things progressed, some of the other kids started to improve.
The only thing they didn’t do at state was we lost to a solid Fury team. But 2 out of 3 against Tayler Hill, (beat) a couple of the North Tartan teams, and in Minnesota right now we have 5 or 6 teams that are pretty much the same—and not to say that some things are going to change in terms of how those teams are made up—and that’s just what it was. And, whoever was shooting a little bit better was going to win. And we only got to play that Fury team once, and they were incredibly hot, so I would have liked to see one more against them.
What are your plans for the Stars next summer?
(Hersch is going to coach 7th and 9th grade Stars teams next summer.)
I’m going to stay with that group (the 8th graders this year, 9th next year). As competitive as quote-unquote free agency has become now, in August with the open gyms and all that, and we’ve heard from a lot of people. I think when you have good hard-working people at an age level, it doesn't matter what uniform you wear, people are attracted to that scenario, and that’s the one thing the Stars have done a good job of is getting people in place at the younger age levels. For example, Kolden at 7th grade, I’ve taken the 8th grade, and Bruce has gone down to the 5th grade now. We attract the kids now, kids from some of those other clubs now are interested in what we’re doing, so that’s where it gets exciting. We’ll definitely keep that core together. I’ll never replace a kid if they don’t flat-out get beat out. But there’s definitely some room to evaluate the roster.
No doubt Tartan has 3 teams right in the mix with everybody. If you look at the West and Kuppe, I’m sure you’ll see some collaboration there, and somebody else will come in and coach that is what I’ve heard. (It has since been announced that Ruth Sinn will coach that Tartan team.) Lotta talent. I think you’ll see them put that together, but it’s not easy to do. Some people aren’t OK with that, so then what happens to those other kids. It will be interesting, especially at that age level.
So, now you get a little bit of a rest?
Have you looked at the Web site? We start open gyms on August 8. That’s the world that this has become. But, yeah, you step away a little bit and find out if the golf clubs still work. But you don’t do this if you don’t love it, so I look forward to August and that new part of assembling teams and the open gyms. But it’ll be OK to be off the road a little bit, especially for the kids sake. When you think about the schedule they play in July, it’s not easy.
I prefer not to have any extra time and coaching 2 teams kind of cements that. It’s kind of a no brainer. So, yeah, that’s where that’s going.