Had the chance to watch John Groce’s press conference last month when he took over at Illinois.  Groce will do a terrific job at U of I and his preparation for this opportunity blows me away.  Here’s some notes from the presser that I thought could help anyone give a good press conference:

• Started off by thanking Ohio University, where he left.
• Opened statement by referencing “Flyin’ Illini”, a historical school/program reference.  If my memory serves correct, he did a similar thing when he took over at OU.  This is a great principle to pick-up, appeal to the fanbase in such a way that you know the history and what the place could be.
• When asked about his doubters at University of Illinois (there were a lot of them): “If you don’t have thick skin in this profession, you’re in trouble”
• “Life is 70% stormy, 30% smooth – how you handle both determines your outcome in life.”
• He talked a lot about getting the right people on the bus (A “Good to Great” by Jim Collins reference).  Which led into getting “Illinois guys” to play for him.  He describes this as guys who: desire to get a degree, have a strong work ethic, integrity, motor, energy, length, guys who attack the paint, guys who can shoot the 3, and force turnovers on defense.
• Lastly, Groce defines himself as a “fit guy” and described the Illinois job as a once in a lifetime opportunity.

Cedarville University won it’s first ever NCCAA National Championship, winning it’s 3 games at the National Tournament by an average of 18 ppg.  For more information on the season and on the championship, check out VCU Center for Sport Leadership’s article on me being an alum:  http://blog.vcu.edu/sportleadership/2012/04/csl_alumni_helps_coach_his_tea.html

We have to wait until Saturday for our seed and pairings, but the tournament starts Wednesday, March 14 and includes 8 teams.  The Championship is Saturday, March 17.  We will spending the week in Lake Winona, Indiana, home of Grace College.  There will be some really good teams involved in this tournament, I’ll add the bracket when it comes out and update this site and Twitter with pictures and more during the week.    For more information:  http://www.grace.edu/athletics/nccaa

I was a FIJI (Phi Gamma Delta) at Ohio University, one of the biggest fraternities on campus.  God lead me there and changed my life while living in the house my Sophomore year.  I got involved in the Greek Ministry on campus and became a leader, helping lead a Bible study of men and women in the Greek community at OU for 3 years.  I loved every second of it and God did some incredible things.  For a group that started no more than 8 years ago with a few Christians wanting to change lives to get to that huge of a group in the picture above is nothing short of amazing.  Ohio University, the nation’s #1 party school, was one of the most abundantly represented groups at the event.  The speakers and the community time was fantastic, it was refreshing for me and I’ve been out of college for years.  I will always have a heart for that ministry and for those guys.  If you want to know more I will gladly provide more information.

NCCAA National Tournament:

Wednesday, March 14 — #1 Cedarville 88, #8 Truett-McConnell 68

Final Four: Thursday, March 15 — #1 Cedarville 74, #4 SW Assemblies of God 56

National Championship:  Saturday, March 17 — #1 Cedarville vs. #6 Emmanuel @ 5pm @ Grace College (Lake Winona, Indiana)

In the book, Batterson describes a time in his life where he had a rare couple of hours off and spent it writing out what it meant to be successful for himself. It had dawned on him that he had never defined the word in his own life. He talks about how we oftentimes inherit definitions through family or culture, but if you don’t spell it out for yourself, you have no way of knowing if you achieved it.

It’s got to be personal to you and your story and what you believe.  I’ve spent some time in the past week in prayer and in thought about this subject and came up with my own personal definition of success. This is a working definition, subject to change as my life and experiences change.  Here’s what I came up with:

Success to Ryan Neises means…

1. Being the best I can be with the resources I have.  My life hasn’t always been full of great circumstances or health or financial resources, but God’s love and grace is enough. I am not defined by those circumstances, I am defined by God’s Word and truth. The Lord will battle for me.

2. Reaching full potential a.) in myself, and b.) in everyone I lead or have the ability to influence.  We all have potential, that’s a gift to us. We have to decide what we do with that gift. As a coach and a leader in different areas of my life, I know the importance of reaching one’s full potential, and most of the time it takes a leader to look at a person and say “I won’t give up on you” and help that person be who they were intended to be through encouragement.

3. Reflecting God’s story of redemption and persistent love in my life, and inspire others to live out their own stories of redemption and perseverance. God desires to reflect His story through our own stories and lives. Redemption and true grit is His story. Psalm 130 says that with the Lord is unfailing love and full redemption. We all have areas of our lives that need restoring, and the point of life is to reflect that beautiful truth. It’s not about my glory or fame, but to have people live a life of love, joy, completeness in Christ.

4. Living a life of authentic integrity. Probably should be #1, because it’s the backbone of success. I want to be famous and respected with the people that know me best.

5. Knowing what I want and the agenda God has for the world and not letting anything getting in the way of achieving that. I am a firm believer in persistence. I will face adversity and trials, but I will be successful if I don’t let those things get in between my goals and the goals that God has ordained for me.

So that’s what I came up with for now. What is success to you? 

Location:  Cedarville University

Tonight, we try and bounce back from a very disappointing loss at Walsh Saturday when University of Rio Grande comes into Cedarville.  I love game days and I’m excited to see how the guys will respond.  We had a competitive practice yesterday and the intensity was through the roof.  Now we’ll see if they can have the same energy tonight against an NAIA opponent.  We have a couple of common opponents with Rio Grande this season: Wilberforce (a local NAIA school) and Miami-Middletown (one of the best regional campuses in Ohio).  We won against both of these teams, Rio won 2 close games with Wilberforce and lost to Miami-Middletown.  Should be another fun one!

Watch live:  http://client.stretchinternet.com/client/cedarville.portal#

Each week I try to give my JV team a focus to work on individually and as a team.  We break the huddle with the “ultimate” focus word and we use it as a building block to build something great.  It’s not just about basketball, it’s about more than that.  Quotes and bible verses adhere to this character quality and I try to reward it when I see it.  Last week’s focus was energy.

This week’s ultimate focus:  Unselfishness (break the huddle with “team”)

Bible verse:  1 John 3:16 – “This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down His life for us. And we ought to lay our lives down for our brothers and sisters”.

Quote:  “When your organization operates like a strong family, you can’t be knocked out by one punch.” – Mike Krzyzewski

Offensive focus:  Movement with a purpose off the ball

Defensive focus:  Encouragement and talking

Transition focus:  Sprint the floor

This can be seen a lot of different ways:  love, encouragement, sacrifice.  I’ll expand more on these things throughout the week on here.  Have a great week!