Veggie Tales: The Cale Jefferson story

Kris LaFlem

Postby 3manweave » Sat Apr 02, 2016 8:55 pm

[July 19th, 2015 - Kris' office, Kansas City, MO (3:44 PM)]

With the Houston AAU tournament behind us, it was time for us to re-evaluate our board and start narrowing down our targets. Here is our board as of right now:

Point
Chris Burch (Salem, Mo./Salem)
Bryant Roberts (Kansas City, Mo./Center)
Alex Moss (Platte City, Mo./Platte Co.)

Shooting
Mark Qualls (St. Louis, Mo./University High)
Todd Sylla (Marceline, Mo./State Fair (MO) CC)
Chip Duany (St. Joseph, Mo./Benton)
Ezra Smith (Carl Junction, Mo./Carl Junction)
Victor Brady (St. Louis, Mo./Theodore Roosevelt)

Small
Jeremy Lewis (Norborne, Mo./Johnson County (KS) CC)
Terrance Serraville (St. Louis, Mo./Lindbergh)
Adrian Boston (St. Louis, Mo./Theodore Roosevelt)
Walter Williams (Vermillion, S.D./Vermillion)
Dewayne Moncrief (Salina, Kan./South)

Power
Gary McPherson (St. Louis, Mo./Cardinal Ritter)
Joe Freeman (Osceola, Mo./Osceola)
Isaac Wise (Trenton, Mo./Trenton)
Montell Morrison (Brownwood, Tex./Blinn (TX) JC)
Thomas Izzo (Seminole, Okla./Seminole)

Center
Patrick King (Huntsville, Mo./Westran)
Brian Smith (Raymore, Mo./Ray-Pec)
Rahim Palmer (Rapid City, S.D./Iowa Western CC)
Brandon Green (Louisiana, Mo./Louisiana)

There aren't any offers out yet, but we feel like were close to offering two or three of these guys. Just a little more eval.
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William Black, Johnson County CC Head Coach

Postby 3manweave » Sat Apr 02, 2016 9:47 pm

[July 24th, 2015 - William's office, Overland Park, KS (10:25 AM)]

Cale stopped by today and hand-delivered an offer to Jeremy Lewis. That's a pretty nice touch; and a little surprising since that wasn't his style here. Maybe it's part of the show, now that he's on the D-I level.

Regardless, he's been in contact with me over the past few months, and has a very, very good relationship with Jeremy from his time here. He came here to Johnson County as a pretty raw player, but he might be one of the best players in the Jayhawk League this year.

Unfortunately, Jeremy was in class when Cale came around. Later on, I had the pleasure of taking Jeremy the hand-written offer, and as you could imagine, he was pretty thrilled to get one from his previous coach. He wanted to commit right away, but I told him not to. It was his first D-I offer, and that he should give it some time and see if any more come in.
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Aislin Luna, account executive at KC Strategies

Postby 3manweave » Mon Apr 04, 2016 1:04 pm

[July 28th, 2015 - Aislin's apartment, Kansas City, MO (3:33 PM)]

"KC Strategies, this is Aislin." There was a long pause.

"Yes, this is Charles Roast...athletic director at UMKC, we had an interview several weeks ago with you, myself and Cale Jefferson," he said. "Well, the person we hired for the associate AD position fell through...he was supposed to start in a few days, but he up and took another damn job. Is this something you'd still be interested in?"

Honestly, I didn't know how to answer at first. Normally, I don't take well being a second choice to anything, but this was an awesome opportunity. I had always wanted to work in college athletics, and this was a pretty nice entry into the field.

"Yes, but please answer one question - what was it that convinced you to select the other person over me in the first place?" I asked.

"Well, this person has - well, had - a lot of experience, but generally with more experience comes more opportunity," he said. "I don't fault him for wanting what's best for himself, but he's left me in a bind. Please don't take that as if we didn't like you and didn't think you would do a great job, but experience in this field sells." I was surprised by his candor. It's been three or four years since I've had a job interview, but usually prospective employers don't give you the time of day when it comes to reasons why you did or didn't get a job.

He paused before continuing. "Look, if you can start on Monday and sit down with myself and Cale, we'll get you up to speed on what's going on. You do have some great marketing chops, and your references are all solid. The other stuff...you'll come around on with time. I'm assuming the salary we talked about in the interview is still satisfactory?"

"Of course, but I'm going to need a couple of weeks to start handing off my current projects to other people and saying good-byes to my clients," I said. "But I can come in sometime next week and meet with you and Cale to get a feel for what I'm going to be doing."

"Do what you need to do, we'll manage until then," he said. "Just give me a call when you want to set up a time to come in." I thanked him and hung up.

I was in a really frightening spot - I'm leaving the only career I've known the last handful of years, but after conversations with my employer in recent months, the projects are going to be slowing down with no definitive time when business will pick back up. My student loans are piling up, and it would be nice for once to know exactly what I'm going to make in a month, rather than hoping. To top it off, I'm heading into a field I know next to nothing about, but is a great opportunity to expand my skills.
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Cale Jefferson

Postby 3manweave » Mon Apr 04, 2016 1:05 pm

[August 1st, 2015 - Cale's office, Kansas City, MO (9:44 PM)]

I'm working late tonight reviewing Kris' monthly recruiting report, but we're doing pretty well at this juncture. We've begun to narrow down the board a little further after some watchlist targets made their verbal commitments. I'm a pretty aggressive recruiter, but one thing I do differently from most big-time coaches is that I don't pressure kids if they end up committed elsewhere. If they are still open to being recruited, I will. If not, I don't. It might cost me a player or two, but I've always made it a personal choice to not pursue committed players.

The below is our board as it currently stands. We've decided to offer Patrick King, who is a six-foot-ten center. We've re-reviewed his most recent film that came out this past week, and the experts seemed to agree with us that he's helped himself greatly. He was thought of originally as a low-major kind of player, but he's begun to attract the attention of some good Missouri Valley schools like Northern Iowa, Bradley, and Missouri State. However, we were one of the earliest teams on him, and we also found out through conversation that his father is an alumnus of UMKC. He's the fourth offer of the class, meaning that we have one more available scholarship to give. We're hoping to get a point guard with the said scholarship, but will take the best player we can get if it comes to that.

In between now and the last update, we also offered Montell Morrison and Rahim Palmer, a pair of JUCO big men. The offers are in bold below.

Point
Bryant Roberts (Kansas City, Mo./Center)
Alex Moss (Platte City, Mo./Platte Co.)

Shooting
Todd Sylla (Marceline, Mo./State Fair (MO) CC)
Mark Qualls (St. Louis, Mo./University High)
Victor Brady (St. Louis, Mo./Theodore Roosevelt)

Small
Jeremy Lewis (Norborne, Mo./Johnson County (KS) CC)
Terrance Serraville (St. Louis, Mo./Lindbergh)
Walter Williams (Vermillion, S.D./Vermillion)

Power
Montell Morrison (Brownwood, Tex./Blinn (TX) JC)
Thomas Izzo (Seminole, Okla./Seminole)

Center
Patrick King (Huntsville, Mo./Westran)
Rahim Palmer (Rapid City, S.D./Iowa Western CC)
Brian Smith (Raymore, Mo./Ray-Pec)

We also really like Bryant Roberts, but is a grade risk. At this point, he doesn't have the requisite SAT score or GPA to get into UMKC, but it's a situation we're keeping an eye on.
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Betty Jones, AD receptionist at UMKC

Postby 3manweave » Mon Apr 04, 2016 7:55 pm

[August 4th, 2015 - UMKC athletic offices, Kansas City, MO (3:33 PM)]

My, oh my. This department is changing like crazy nowadays. They're hiring all these young, good-looking people, men and women, in all different departments and sports. I guess youth is where it's at nowadays. I've been here thirty some-odd years, and I haven't seen anything like it.

Take for instance; this nice, pretty young lady, I'd say twenty-eight, twenty-nine years old, came in for her employment orientation dressed up real nice and professional in a navy blue blazer, heels, and skirt. After I checked her in, I found out that she's Chuck's new hire for the AD position that will be working with the new basketball coach, whats-his-face....I can't remember. I'm probably not going to be here much longer, anyway...

I tell you what though, I can see why they hired her. Eva Mendes' face, legs up to the ceiling, and a booty you can bounce a coin off of. Shoot, she even had me turning around to look as she walked by. Oh, my...
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Doug Deep, producer at 950 THE FAN

Postby 3manweave » Mon Apr 04, 2016 7:57 pm

[August 18th, 2015 - 950 THE FAN Sports Radio HQ, Kansas City, MO (4:30 PM)]

Our first radio interview with head coach Cale Jefferson has just completed, and we've now posted the transcript and podcast to the website. Enjoy!

On coaching at his alma mater...

"Most people never get the chance to coach at their alma mater throughout twenty, thirty-year coaching careers, and my first Division One job is at UMKC, where I'm proud to say I spent four years of my life. I'm really looking forward to the opportunity."

On recruiting between the junior college and four-year level...

"With junior colleges, you're working with kids that are trying to improve themselves, or didn't get quite the attention that they were hoping for out of high school. There are very, very few requirements to get in. Now, it's more about SAT scores, GPA's, and making sure your kids qualify. That's the biggest difference. Other than that, you still have to sell your program."

On being on the sideline at Municipal instead of on the court...

"It's certainly going to be a different view, that's for sure....I'm looking forward to the challenge."

On how he's going to get the word out about the program...

"Well, the best and easiest way to do it is just win games. We've also brought on an associate athletic director that's going to oversee marketing and promotional efforts for the men's and women's programs, and her name is Aislin Luna. I haven't known her long, but she's incredibly bright and anything promotional regarding the program in print, or on television is going to be her brainchild. She's going to be a great asset to the program."

On how the returning players are doing and their offseason progress..

Well, per NCAA regulations we can't all practice together until October 2nd, but the off-season split-squad workouts have been going well. We're working hard, and hopefully it translates into results on the floor this year."
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Angres Thorpe, UMKC Asst. Coach (Lead)

Postby 3manweave » Tue Apr 05, 2016 11:31 am

[August 25th, 2015 - Angres' office, Kansas City, MO (11:34 AM)]

Over the past few weeks, Cale and I have met for an hour per day going over film from the previous season and the composition of the projected roster to determine what offensive and defensive schemes fit our personnel the best. We have one consistent threat to score on the inside; and several competent shooters, so we're going to gear our offensive attack around the mid-range to outside jumper, while running 60% sets and 40% in transition. Based on our review and findings, we're going to allot our practice time and resources as such:

OFFENSIVE SETS:
Flex: 65
Princeton: 25
Triangle: 10

DEFENSIVE SETS:
M-to-M: 65
1-2-2: 35
FC M-to-M: 100

PRACTICE TIME:
Flex: 20 MIN
Princeton: 10 MIN
Triangle: 5 MIN
1-3-1: 10 MIN
2-3: 10 MIN
1-2-2: 5 MIN

M-to-M: 20 MIN
1-2-2: 10
FC M-to-M: 10
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Kris LaFlem

Postby 3manweave » Tue Apr 05, 2016 4:12 pm

[September 1st, 2015 - Kris' office, Kansas City, MO (5:00 PM)]

There are still no commitments to date, but our fifth and final offer went to Alex Moss over Bryant Roberts. Roberts has had a pretty rough AAU season, and I wonder if his academic situation is weighing on him. Back to Moss - he's a six-foot-six combo guard that has a sweet stroke and is good enough to play the one through three spots in our schemes, but has the natural handles and soft hands that a true point guard must have. We've narrowed down our board to just ten players, so we're hoping that our five signees will come from any of these ten players.

As before, the offered prospects are in bold below.

Point
Alex Moss (Platte City, Mo./Platte Co.)
Bryant Roberts (Kansas City, Mo./Center)

Shooting
Todd Sylla (Marceline, Mo./State Fair (MO) CC)
Mark Qualls (St. Louis, Mo./University High)

Small
Jeremy Lewis (Norborne, Mo./Johnson County (KS) CC)
Terrance Serraville (St. Louis, Mo./Lindbergh)

Power
Montell Morrison (Brownwood, Tex./Blinn (TX) JC)
Thomas Izzo (Seminole, Okla./Seminole)

Center
Patrick King (Huntsville, Mo./Westran)
Rahim Palmer (Rapid City, S.D./Iowa Western CC)
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Aislin Luna

Postby 3manweave » Tue Apr 05, 2016 5:44 pm

[September 8th, 2015 - Aislin's apartment, Kansas City, MO (7:27 PM)]

I've been on the job for roughly a month now. Besides the academic monitoring and the fact I'm chained to a desk most of the day, I love it. Charles has been kind enough to allow me to have a small team of student employees to help execute our ideas, and everything seems to be running smoothly. Except for Betty, the weird receptionist lady that has checks me out every other morning when I come in for work. It's flattering, but a little creepy at the same time. However, she's been nothing but nice to me, so I don't really have the heart to say anything.

The academic monitoring is a different animal, though, from everything else. In addition to tracking study hall hours, I'm also in charge of arranging tutors and tutoring sessions for the players, men's and women's. Why couldn't Charles allow me to hire someone for that? Anyway, for example, Will Bedard came in and needed a tutor for a math class (by the way, he's 6'10" and makes me feel tiny at 5'8"). Of course, he wants me to find him the best-looking tutor I can find. Ah, nothing's changed in the six to seven years since I graduated from college.

Lastly; and I don't think he would admit it, but I think Cale is relieved to have some stuff off his plate. At first, I'm not sure he liked an outsider coming in and stealing some of his responsibility, but when you're Type A like he is, I understand. I should, because I'm like that too.
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Charles Roast

Postby 3manweave » Wed Apr 06, 2016 9:11 am

[September 18th, 2015 - Charles' office, Kansas City, MO]

After weeks of cajoling, negotiating, and copious amounts of coffee, Cale and I finally came through with the schedule that is ready to be released to the public. We have broken it down month-by-month, including conference games that are in bold.

NOVEMBER
11/13/15: at Iowa Hawkeyes - Iowa City, IA
11/16/15: Arkansas-Pine Bluff - Kansas City, MO
11/19/15: Tennessee-Martin - Kansas City, MO
11/23/15: Drake - Kansas City, MO
11/26/15: at Northern Colorado - Greeley, CO
11/30/15: North Dakota State - Kansas City, MO

DECEMBER
12/03/15: at Murray State - Murray, KY
12/07/15: at Mississippi State - Starkville, MS
12/10/15: IUPUI - Kansas City, MO
12/14/15: at IP-Fort Wayne - Fort Wayne, IN
12/17/15: Nebraska-Omaha - Kansas City, MO
12/21/15: at Tennessee - Knoxville, TN
12/24/15: North Alabama - Kansas City, MO

JANUARY
01/04/16: at Grand Canyon - Phoenix, AZ
01/07/16: Texas-Rio Grande Valley - Kansas City, MO
01/11/16: at Seattle University - Seattle, WA
01/14/16: CSU-Bakersfield - Kansas City, MO
01/18/16: at Utah Valley - Orem, UT
01/21/16: at New Mexico State - Las Cruces, NM
01/25/16: Chicago State - Kansas City, MO
01/28/16: Grand Canyon - Kansas City, MO


FEBRUARY
02/01/16: at Texas-Rio Grande Valley - McAllen, TX
02/04/16: Seattle University - Kansas City, MO
02/08/16: at CSU-Bakersfield - Bakersfield, CA
02/11/16: Utah Valley - Kansas City, MO
02/15/16: New Mexico State - Kansas City, MO
02/18/16: at Chicago State - Chicago, IL
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