Four nights. Hundreds of coaches. Some of the best minds in basketball. One shared purpose: becoming better coaches for the people we have the privilege to lead.
From August 24–27, Soldiers to Sidelines brought together members of the military community for the 2026 Virtual Basketball Coaching Certification Seminar, providing four evenings of coaching education, leadership development, and connection at no cost to those we serve.
More than 260 participants joined the opening night of the seminar, which featured coaches and basketball leaders from across the game sharing lessons that extended far beyond X’s and O’s.
Throughout the week, conversations covered everything from team defense, offensive systems, practice planning, player development, and fundamentals to culture, communication, accountability, relationships, and the lasting influence a coach can have on an athlete.
And while every presenter brought a different perspective, a common message emerged throughout the seminar:
Great coaching is ultimately about people.
The Lasting Influence of a Coach
Former NBA player Kyle Korver helped set the tone on opening night by reflecting on the coaches who influenced him throughout his playing career.
Drawing from lessons learned from coaches including Dana Altman, Jerry Sloan, Ty Lue, and Quin Snyder, Korver spoke about preparation, visualization, accountability, authenticity, and creating an environment where players can thrive.
His message served as an important reminder of something at the heart of the Soldiers to Sidelines mission: athletes may eventually forget a play or a final score, but the influence of a coach can remain with them for a lifetime.
That idea continued with Seth Davis, who shared lessons gathered from years of studying successful coaches. Davis introduced four characteristics that help define effective coaching through the PEAK profile:
Persistence. Empathy. Authenticity. Knowledge.
In a sports environment that can increasingly feel transactional, his message challenged coaches to continue investing in relationships, developing their knowledge, and creating cultures centered on growth.
Building an Identity That Players Can Live
Knowing what your team stands for was another recurring theme throughout the seminar.
Steve Forbes challenged coaches to clearly define their team identity—and then structure practices in a way that reinforces it every day.
Playing hard, sharing the basketball, defensive toughness, execution, communication, and securing the ball were among the principles he discussed. But defining those principles is only the beginning.
Players need to understand them, articulate them, and ultimately live them.
Forbes also emphasized creating practices that are competitive, fast-paced, challenging, and intentionally designed to prepare athletes for the unpredictability of games. Accountability plays a major role in that environment, including the willingness to hold the best players to the same—or even higher—standards.
That connection between identity and culture surfaced again when Jake Diebler of Ohio State discussed his program’s approach to early offense.
Diebler shared four values central to Ohio State Basketball: playing with urgency, dominating hustle plays, putting the team above self, and being at your best late in games.
But one of the strongest lessons extended beyond offensive basketball.
Culture reveals itself during adversity.
Culture cannot simply live on a locker-room wall. Coaches have to reinforce it through expectations, accountability, communication, and their actions every day.
Five Players Moving as One
On the defensive side of the ball, Andrew Curtis of BYU Women’s Basketball gave coaches a detailed look at building a connected team defense.
Curtis discussed disrupting an opponent’s timing and space through ball pressure, positioning, help defense, rotations, communication, and disciplined physicality.
One phrase captured the larger philosophy:
“When one moves, we all move.”
Effective defense requires all five players to remain connected. When one defender is forced to adjust, everyone else must understand how their responsibilities change.
Curtis also demonstrated “no middle” principles, defensive positioning, shell concepts, transition responsibilities, and techniques for creating pressure without unnecessary fouls.
Whether teaching man-to-man defense, zone concepts, pressing, transition defense, or rebounding, the fundamentals remain essential. His recommendation to consistently incorporate box-out work into practice reinforced another theme heard throughout the week: fundamentals cannot be assumed—they have to be continually taught.
Creating Players Who Can Make Decisions
The offensive side of the game brought another perspective on player development.
Chris Oliver, founder of Basketball Immersion, challenged coaches to think beyond memorized plays and isolated drills.
His conceptual offensive approach focuses on spacing, creating advantages, reading situations, and empowering players to make decisions.
Oliver encouraged coaches to develop a “go-score mentality,” helping athletes recognize scoring opportunities while understanding how their decisions affect teammates and defenders.
Rather than constantly directing every movement, coaches can create environments where players learn through game-like situations, experimentation, and decision-making.
Sometimes, he noted, the correct basketball decision is not to move at all. Holding space can be just as important as cutting or screening when it creates an advantage elsewhere on the floor.
The larger lesson was about giving players enough structure to understand the game while still allowing them the freedom to actually play it.
Fundamentals Still Matter
While basketball continues to evolve, Emma Hess of Liberty University reminded coaches that development still begins with fundamentals.
Using examples from elite players, Hess demonstrated how even the best athletes continually return to basic skills.
Her presentation covered footwork, pivoting, passing, ball handling, shooting, defensive movement, and decision-making. She also shared practical drills coaches can incorporate into individual development and team practices.
For Hess, player development is not built around finding a shortcut.
It is about consistently pursuing 1% improvement every day.
That philosophy becomes especially important as athletes move to higher levels of competition, where increased physicality and faster decision-making leave less room for fundamental mistakes.
Player Development Requires Patience
On the final night, three-time NBA champion and longtime player development coach Phil Handy continued that conversation.
Handy discussed how technology, film, and training methods have changed player development while emphasizing that one thing has not changed:
Development takes time.
In a sports culture that often expects immediate results, coaches can become impatient with the development process. Handy encouraged coaches to remain consistent, teach fundamentals before advanced skills, communicate honestly with athletes, and make sure training translates to actual basketball situations.
Film can also become an important teaching tool, allowing players to see the game differently and better understand how their individual development connects to team performance.
The goal is not simply to create impressive workouts. It is to help athletes become better basketball players.
Relationships Build Cohesive Teams
Niele Ivey of Notre Dame Women’s Basketball brought the conversation back to relationships and team cohesion.
Ivey discussed the importance of understanding players individually through regular communication, one-on-one conversations, shared experiences, and intentional relationship building.
Accountability remains essential, but accountability works best when expectations and roles are clear.
She also discussed staff leadership and the importance of surrounding yourself with people who understand their responsibilities, complement one another, remain loyal to the program’s values, and contribute to a healthy culture.
For coaches moving into new roles, her message emphasized authenticity, establishing core values, continuing to learn, and understanding that different teams may require different approaches.
There is no single formula for building a cohesive team. Coaches must understand the people they are leading.
Communication Is More Than Talking
Throughout the seminar, Soldiers to Sidelines founder Harrison Bernstein repeatedly brought coaching back to influence.
One working definition shared during the seminar described coaching as influencing others to do what we want them to do because they want to do it.
That requires far more than knowing basketball.
It requires coaches to understand motivation, build trust, listen, communicate clearly, and develop themselves mentally and physically so they are prepared to lead others.
During the final night, Bernstein focused specifically on communication. Effective communication requires understanding not only what we intend to say, but what the other person actually hears.
Active listening, paraphrasing, understanding context, reading the room, and recognizing common communication barriers can strengthen the coach-athlete relationship.
Words matter. Timing matters. Intent matters.
And sometimes effective coaching requires listening more than speaking.
Going “All In”
Sherri Coale closed the seminar by taking coaches beyond basketball strategy and into the larger responsibility that comes with choosing to coach.
Drawing from experiences throughout her career—from high school basketball through her time leading the University of Oklahoma—Coale reflected on lessons learned through both success and failure.
Her message centered on what it means to go “all in.”
Coaching asks a great deal from those who choose it. There will be victories, setbacks, difficult seasons, unexpected challenges, and moments when coaches question whether their message is getting through.
But those experiences are also where some of the greatest lessons live.
The opportunity to influence another person makes the commitment worthwhile.
More Knowledge. Better Coaches. Better Lives.
Over four nights, the 2026 Basketball Coaching Certification Seminar covered a tremendous amount of basketball.
Coaches learned about team defense, early offense, offensive systems, practice organization, fundamentals, player development, team cohesion, communication, leadership, motivation, culture, and much more.
But the biggest lessons were not confined to a whiteboard.
Know who you are as a coach.
Build relationships before you need them.
Establish standards and live them consistently.
Teach fundamentals.
Create environments where athletes can learn and make decisions.
Hold people accountable because you care about their development.
Keep learning.
And never underestimate the influence you can have on another person.
For the veterans, service members, military spouses, Gold Star Families, and members of the Soldiers to Sidelines community who spent four nights investing in their development, certification is another step in a much longer coaching journey.
The lessons now move from the seminar to the sidelines—and ultimately to the athletes and communities our Soldier Coaches have the opportunity to impact.
Thank you to every coach and basketball leader who gave their time and knowledge throughout the seminar, and to Wounded Warrior Project for helping make this opportunity available to the military community.
Most importantly, thank you to every Soldier Coach who showed up ready to learn.
Now it’s time to put that knowledge to work.
Better Coaching. Better Lives.