Sports

Athletics holds coaching clinic

Grambling hosted the first coaching clinic in Tiger Athletics history with new arrival, Nadine Domond at the reigns. The clinic was held on Saturday.
Domond, head coach of women’s basketball, held an open practice for visiting coaches, which, once registered, allowed them to get an insider’s view of team drills, the newly implemented offense and the general flow of a Lady Tiger practice in its new era.
Clinic attendees, high school coaches from Ferriday, Gibsland and Natchez, Miss., sat on the sidelines of the Intramural Center court watching intently as their team progressed through a loaded workout.
The clinic began with introductions of the team, trainers, and the other pieces of the coaching staff Chauncey Harris, Brittanie Taylor-James and David Smith. With a few short breaks for either water or teaching points for both the team and guest coaches, the clinic was a learning day for everyone involved.
Nadine Domond
“I think coaching clinics are a great way for us to grow the game,” said Domond, “I think if you want to be a learner of the game, you have to be a teacher.”
“It’s very important be- cause you can never learn everything, it [the game] changes year to year. There’s always something new out there that you can gather to better your girls or boys,” said Scherwanda Boston of Gibsland-Coleman High School.
An event designed to share ideas and perspectives, Alphaka Moore, whose team won their state championship last season, thought the occasion was a good opportunity to stay ahead of the learning curve.
“It’s about the focus; being able to come and bring new ideas and keep the same mindset," said Moore, the Natchez High coach of freshman player Kiana Jones.
“You always have to keep
the same mindset. You can’t just come in thinking this is our year again,” he said.
The ability for a team to perform in that focused mindset is a key factor in growing to a champion’s standard of excellence, a platform Domond is attempting to elevate her own team to. With season be- ginning in less than a month in a road opener versus the ladies of Ole Miss on Nov. 14 Domond aims to bring intensity and ingenuity to every practice.
“They say your team resembles your coach,” said Domond, “I know I’m going to give everything I have and that’s what we do with the kids. We’re blue collar workers that come to work every day.”
In the end, Domond considered the clinic a success, not only from a coaching stand- point but as a way to branch out to the community and reach coaches in the surrounding area. She views her first clinic as a building block and is confident of its increased success in years to come.