Basketball Coaches Clinics - September 2023
"Busy season" might be an understatement.
September, October, November, and even December are all ramp up to the basketball season at the middle school, high school, and college levels.
This leads to tons of travel and promoting Grip Spritz to basketball coaches and school athletic directors all over the country.
Most states have either a basketball coaches association or an athletic director association, or both! This makes our lives much easier by bringing all the decision-makers under one roof.
Our other blog posts talk about some of our other travel this year but a few weeks back was really like anything else!
September 14th - Missouri Basketball Coaches Clinic - Columbia, MO
September 15th - Tennessee Basketball Coaches Clinic - Nashville, TN
September 16th - Pennsylvania Basketball Coaches Clinic - Pittsburgh, PA
September 17th - The Legend's Coaches Clinic - Atlanta, GA
September 17-18th - Ohio Basketball Coach Clinic - Columbus, OH
Over 2000 miles, a whole lot of driving, and thousands of coaches!
Missouri Basketball Coaches Clinic
This is our second year attending the Missouri Coaches Clinic and it is one of the biggest events in the country! Over 1,200 coaches from all over the state came in.
Some of the speakers included Mizzou's men's and women's coaches, Nebraska's women's basketball coach, and legendary coach, Tom Crean!
We were about to talk to so many coaches there and let them know how Grip Spritz can save their program money and give their players better grip!
Tennessee Basketball Coaches Clinic
After driving through the night to Nashville, it was time for the second event in as many days!
But first, we had to catch up with our guy Kenny Anderson! Kenny obviously was one of the best players on that Georgia Tech roster before being drafted second overall by the New Jersey Nets! More importantly, just a great guy and friend!
In terms of the coaches clinic, it was another great event! Much like Missouri, it was our second year attending the event. It was smaller than the crowd we saw the day before, but that can be better sometimes! You get a much more intimate feeling with the few hundred coaches due to it being so much less crowded.
Pennsylvania Basketball Coaches Clinic
We wrapped up in Nashville and drove through the night again to Pittsburgh! Pennsylvania's clinic took place at Duquesne University and it was awesome! Such a great gym and overall athletic facility.
We didn't attend this clinic last year, however, we did go all the back in 2021!
A bit smaller than Tennessee, we were able to talk to every single coach in attendance.
Throughout all of these events, it's always awesome when coaches are familiar with our brand before even talking. It speaks volumes both about word of mouth from other coaches in the area as well as our footprint through social media!
The Legend's Coaches Clinic
Some states have private clinics in addition to their state associations. The Legend's clinic is hosted by Kevin Furtado, a hugely successful girl's high school basketball coach just outside of Atlanta!
Last year they unfortunately had to cancel the event and it led to a scheduling conflict this year.
Thankfully, Kevin made sure to still have Grip Spritz represented at his clinic. He's used our Grip Spritz Traction Mat for a while now and that made it easy for him to have his girl's team explain to the coaches how to use it!
Ideally next year we can finally get down there in person!
Ohio Basketball Coaches Clinic
This is the original event that started the ball rolling to all of these other state-wide events. This was our third time heading down to Columbus and it is always one of our best events!
Over 600 coaches from across the state and thankfully, tons of them already use Grip Spritz! Word of mouth at this event is always key. We constantly have coaches coming up and saying another coach had this and recommended it or will have a coach walk by and say they love Grip Spritz while we're talking to other coaches!
In addition to the clinic, we were also one of the sponsors of the first annual OHSBCA Golf Outing!
What do we tell these basketball coaches?
First, the vast majority of them use those courtside basketball sticky pads. When they find out that there is an alternative, they are ecstatic!
Coaches have grown stale on these sticky mats. They've become increasingly more expensive each year. For teams that play on dusty courts, they don't do much. Sticky residue just picks up more dust and dirt. Lastly, coaches don't want to tear off sticky sheets while the game is going on.
Grip Spritz was created as an alternative to that but as a spray at first! Basically, if your team had a sticky pad but you actually wanted grip on your basketball shoes, you could use our traction spray!
Then we realized, why not also make a traction mat and make it even easier for the teams.
We kept our traction mat affordable so teams could get two for the price of one sticky mat.
We didn't use adhesives so dusty courts don't make your basketball shoes slippery all over again after using the product.
Lastly, since it lasts all game long, coaches aren't dealing with peeling off sticky sheets while they're trying to coach. Just pour some pregame, maybe halftime and your team's shoes are good to go all night!
As we said, busy season! To say the least!
But, it's only the beginning. We have more travel right around the corner and already looking forward to it!
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