Marysville Getchell boys, girls hoops teams focus on building a program

MARYSVILLE — Starting from scratch.

That is the challenge that faces the Marysville Getchell boys and girls basketball teams this season. Both programs are fielding varsity teams for the first time in the school’s history.

That challenge of establishing the programs belongs to Corby Schuh, who is the varsity boys head coach and Shannon Grandbois, who will coach the varsity girls. While it could be easy to get carried away with thinking about wins and losses each team is going to have this season, both coaches are taking quite a different approach. The focus is on building a program and each coach stressed having good people on their team, not just players. The programs may be separate, but the value system that both coaches are trying to implement is quite similar.

“I think it just started with some core values of mine,” Schuh said. “Work-ethic, accountability, you know, making sure you come to practice on time, making sure you have good grades, making sure you wear your practice jersey, stuff like that.”

Schuh also said competitiveness and being a good teammate are two qualities he is looking for before he makes final decisions on his roster on Wednesday.

“Being a good teammate, treating each other with respect, supporting each other,” Schuh said. “Your aren’t going to win every game. It’s not going to be happy all the time, you have to be able to support each other when things get down.”

When it comes to the on-floor product for both programs, at least early on, the focus will not be on wins and losses either.

“If we measure our success by wins and losses, we might be disappointed,” Schuh said.

Instead of wins, both coaches want their teams to get better each day.

“You just bank everything on improvement,” Grandbois said. “That’s all we’re looking for.”

The ability to improve often means the athlete needs to be coachable, something both coaches are looking for before they make their final cuts.

“I would take kids with half the ability with 100 percent heart over anybody,” Grandbois said. “That will go out there and we leave the floor or leave the gym people will look at my team and say that is a respectable group. They are well-rounded, great sportsmanship, always maintains positive attitudes, I really want that.”

Granbois said providing a core value system, while also providing an activity for the girls is one of the goals of the program.

“These girls need role models,” Grandbois said. “They really need something that is going to make them stronger because I’m seeing the trend of girls dipping back to that low self-esteem, making poor decisions type of thing and I don’t want to see that for my own child or any of these other girls. They are just great girls.

“So I think they need some empowerment. They need something to believe in and I think that they can get that here.”

The wins might not be easy for either program to come by this season, but both coaches say that isn’t how they are measuring success.

Grandbois had an opportunity to see how the fall sports programs performed and got to see it closer than most. Her husband Rudy is the defensive coordinator for the varisty football team. Despite the team going winless, Shannon Grandbois says that she most certainly saw improvement throughout the season, something that her and Schuh are looking for within the basketball program.

“I watched his season,” Grandbois said. “If you watched those kids from day one through the end of the season, the gains were huge. Anyone who looked at scores would never believe that. But if you looked at the actual growth of the kids with as much film as I watched with my husband, it was huge, leaps and bounds.”

Learning how to follow the values of his program is how Schuh measures success.

“That’s how I want to measure success,” Schuh said. “Are we getting it done in the classroom? Are we good citizens? Are we establishing the program where we can build on something for the future?”

Whatever happens for both the boys and girls basketball teams this season, one thing is for sure, it will make history.

“The first lay-in you make in this gym is history,” Grandbois said. “We’ve never done it before. The first home game is history. Those are the positives that we are just going to have to play on.

Based on her experiences watching her husband’s football games and other fall sports, Grandbois also expects to have a very supportive community no matter how many wins or losses the teams have.

“The fan base and everyone was so great throughout that first season,” Granbois said. “Even with the losses, they were still strong and really there.”

When the season ends, Grandbois doesn’t need to count wins to measure success — she only needs to look at the growth of her team.

“That the girls feel good about what they’ve done,” Grandbois said. “That they have put it all out there and don’t feel like they held anything back.

“If they can leave with a sense that they accomplished something and felt a part of something that was great then I am happy.”

Aaron Lommers covers prep sports for The Herald. Follow him on twitter @aaronlommers and contact him aaronlommers@gmail.com.