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STUDENTS GET ADVICE FROM SONNY SMITH
11-29-2007
 It was 9:00 a.m. on Tuesday, November 6th, when several VCU SportsCenter students had the opportunity to meet former collegiate basketball coach Sonny Smith. Smith is a former head coach at Auburn University and at VCU. He coached NBA greats Charles Barkley, Chris Morris, and Chuck Person.
Nine students came together to listen to a top coach talk about how he has come to be regarded as one of the most known and most respected offensive minds in basketball. Smith discussed his journey of individual and team success and the path that he took to get there. He gave great insight and advice to a group of aspiring basketball coaches.
Topics that were discussed included developing a coaching philosophy, offensive and defensive strategies, and skill development. Smith spoke about his individual experiences and was very interactive with the class using his quick wit and humor. Tomas Polak, from the Czech Republic, said “I have never seen such a successful coach as Sonny with such an eccentric personality.”
Sonny stressed that as an aspiring coach you must assess where you are and see what you have to do to get there. Early in his coaching career Smith watched coaches that were successful and picked up techniques that he knew he could teach. He then developed his philosophy based on his coaching fears. He stressed to make sure that your philosophy takes care of those fears. This was one of the overall themes of the conversation and all of us walked out laughing and inspired at the same time.
By: Davina Bell, Jeff Champigny, Gia Colombo, Andy Farrell, Fernando Malaman, Tomas Polak, Austin Shaver, and Ben Thompson
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