With the NEPSAC season starting in less than two months, teams are already busy conducting open gyms and building chemistry. New Rivers girls coach Kenny Small has had to expedite his process.
Rivers announced Small's hiring on Sept. 17, and in the days since, he's worked quickly to familiarize himself with players and and staff, and set the tone for his coaching style. One of his first tasks was to gather staff across all levels of the program, as well as some of the captains and returning players, and have everyone introduce each other and describe how they approach their day-to-day basketball lives.
"It was important for me to have them understand that I'm going to be a support system," Small said. "I'm going to be someone that is going to be teaching-first. Obviously, I'm a player development coach, so I'm very involved in the player development world, so you're going to see a lot of that. And then let them know that, it isn't just basketball for me. I'm very big on character-building. I like to see myself as a role model, someone that the girls can look to and talk to, and always lean on for any type of questions that they may have about the game, on and off the court."
Small replaces Chantel Jordan as head coach and spent the last two seasons leading Middlesex. He said that when he saw the job posting, he knew about Rivers' sustained success in girls basketball and as an overall athletic program, and wanted the opportunity of coaching under those high standards.
