Although they failed to make the Canada West Playoffs, the Thompson Rivers University WolfPack men’s basketball team made some improvements in the area of respectability in 2010-11. Head coach Scott Clark says despite setting a franchise best four victories, it was a learning year for all involved including himself.  “ It is a building process.  I thought the first half of the year was a big learning curve for everyone.  From Christmas on, we played some reasonable basketball. I thought we had a pretty good grip of what the guys could do and couldn’t do, get accomplished and how things would be run for both the athletes and myself.” Greg Stewart Clark says progress was made on how he wants his team to play technically and defensively.  “It takes time to develop the habits required to execute what you want to do offensively and defensively. There is no way to rush that. I thought you want to establish standards and expectations of training, conducting yourself in practice and in the game and how you conduct yourself in the classroom and community. They take time as well.  You have to enforce and demonstrate what is important as the coach and as the program.  The athletes responded.   The challenge will be to build on that almost immediately.” Chas Kok The WolfPack had three players who had great individual seasons.  Greg Stewart (5^th year, post, Kamloops, BC)  led the Canada West in blocked shots and rebounds,  Kevin Pribilsky (3^rd year, guard, Victoria, BC) led the league in minutes played and was among the leaders inthree point shot percentage.   Chas Kok (4^th year, forward, Lynden, WA) was among the leaders in scoring and minutes played. “It is nice to see them enjoy some individual success,”the coach explains. “ Those successes are just a by product of hard work.  Kevin and Chas are particularly hard working kids.  Their success is not a surprise to me because I knew them more than I knew Greg.  Greg is a very talented guy. From Christmas on, he was one of the most dominant players in our league once he was in shape. But it took him a while to get there.” Brett Rouault Clark wound up having two first year players starting at guard for most of the second half of the Canada West season.  Brett Parker (first year, Langley, BC) and Brett Rouault (first year, Vernon, BC) logged a lot of court time. Brett Parker “It is tough on freshmen to come in and play extended minutes. They both responded.  Towards the end of the season both of them struggled a bit.  Mainly because they haven’t played that much basketball. They had never had to compete daily. In a high school situation, they are usually the best player so they could be dominant without extending themselves in practice. That wasn’t the case here. In games, they were playing at a quicker, stronger pace.  They got a lot of minutes which provided them with some experience. Hopefully it will spur them onto want to get better, train and develop in the off season individually.” Tim Unaegbu Clark says that is the step that he wants to move to in 2011-12: with more individual development rather than as a team.   “I want our athletes getting bigger, stronger and faster and trying to develop their skills.  That is the phase we move into after we take a couple of weeks off to heal.  Being an athlete here isn’t a seasonal thing. It is a 365 day commitment.” Brett Parker, Eric D'Andrea and Travis Beck at Toys for Kids The WolfPack basketball team was one of the front runners in community involvement during Clark’s first year.  Their activities ranged from volunteering at the New Life Mission, to Wendy’s Dreamlift, to Terry Fox Run’s in the elementary schools and even CanWest Raise A Reader. Joseph Tubbs, Greg Stewart, Tim Unaegbu and Eric D' Andrea helping at the New Life Mission “The first reason you want to do that is supporting your community,” said Clark about his team’s commitment for community service. “ Its one of the cool things about being in Kamloops is that it is a close knit community. When we are recruiting a player to come here it is one of the things we are saying: “You won’t be swallowed up by a big community like Vancouver where there is so much going on.”  Here, people know who you are and you need to go out and support those people because they will come out and support you.  I thought after Christmas when we played good basketball our crowds got bigger and we appreciated that.   The second part is that when we recruit people to come play at TRU, our job as coaches is to develop them.  We need to develop them as an athlete but also academically and we want to create productive citizens in the community. We are providing them with opportunities to  provide support.  It is part and parcel of becoming an athlete here. I thought the guys really responded well.  It is just the beginning, we need to continue to develop in all those areas.” Crystal Lilly of 97.5 The River with Chas Kok and Travis Beck Looking forward, Clark is hoping to instil a hard work ethic on his players for the summer.  “ We have to make huge strides in the summertime. We are not good enough right now.  There are two ways for us to get better: the first is to develop through working in the summer.  The athletes need to understand that not only are they on the team, but they have to work to make their breaks.  They have to understand that they can’t work themselves into shape,  it will be a requirement.  We have to put a development program in place to help them improve.  The other way to improve is to recruit. I have to be out getting new talent in and creating a competitive situation where it is intense every day in practice. People are forced to get better.” Connor Agnew with the shot Clark will be scouring Western Canada looking for players to improve the WolfPack for the future.  “Really, we are looking for kids who are athletes who are willing to work.  Few freshman coming in is good enough to make an immediate impact.  If they have the correct neck up approach, if they can understand and are workers in both the classroom, the weight room and the floor they have the ability to get better.  Physically and athletically they need to have the potential to grow.  There are a lot of people who have the potential to grow but for some reason they don’t.  Our job is to try and determine which kids want to be workers  and which kids are willing to pay the price to improve individually and for us as a collective unit. Greg Stewart DOUBLE DRIBBLES:  Clark says the first year of his Junior Wolves boys basketball and mentorship programs were successful and he plans to run them in 2011-12. The WolfPack will also be running some camps during the summer . The first one is July 11-15 th.  It’s a half day camp for 8-12 year old boys. The cost is $90.00. The ‘Pack will also run three our camps from August 22-26 th.  Boys aged 9-12 will go from 9 am to noon. Boys from 12 to 14 will go 1-4 pm with the camp for players aged 15-19 set for 6-9 pm.  The cost of those camps will be $85.00 per person.   Clark plans to run a full day camp for boys aged 10 to 17 years old on August 29-September 2^nd.  It’ll go from 9 am to 3 pm and the cost is $ 160.00.  More information and to register, you can call the coach at (250) 852-7229 or email him at sclark@tru.ca.