Cork basketball coach Paul Manning on working with NBA stars
Cork native Paul Manning who is Associate Head Coach and High School Director with Westtown School which id based in Chester County in South Pennsylvania.
Cork's Paul Manning is now regarded as the most successful coach who left these shores to work in the USA.
He currently serves as associate head coach for the Westtown School, which is one of the top programs in the nation where he has coached NBA players such as Mo Bamba (LA Clippers), Cam Reddish (LA Lakers) and Dereck Lively (Dallas Mavericks), as well as over 40 other players who are now playing Division 1 college or professional basketball in Europe. He has won two Pennsylvania State Championships in the last five years.
On top of this, Manning is the High School Director for PA Hoops Academy, an AAU and development program in Pennsylvania. He focuses on skill development for younger athletes and helping High School players get recruited to play in college by playing in the Hoop Group Showcase League.
PA Hoops Academy has over 20 teams playing at all ages from U10 to U17 and has another 100 kids in development programs.
Of last year’s U17 team, Manning has helped 10 of the players get recruited to play basketball in college at Division 1, Division 2 and Division 3 levels.
Paul explains the differences between the level of the game in the US to here in Ireland and he points out what the players should look out for before they make a decision to come to the States.
“There are a lot of differences between playing high school or college basketball in Ireland and the US," Paul said.
“First and foremost, from a playing perspective, the levels of athleticism, the size of the athletes and the speed of the game are the hardest things to adapt to.
"In the US you have 12- and 13-years-olds, who play above the rim and a lot of teams in high school will have guys who can really move and are close to seven foot tall.
"It is a lot harder to get your shot off, to make good decisions with players of that size running at you.
“Another major difference is the level of commitment needed, training twice per week with your club it is not!
"Again for example, at Westtown we practice as a team or play games six days per week, the team does strength and conditioning three times per week.
"The players who want to play at the higher levels of college are expected to do one extra weights session per week on their own and each of the players will work on individual skills at least another three times per week during the season and five days in the off-season.
"Add to this the need to stretch and take care of your body, keep up on your studies and it is a full-time job with very little time left for anything else.
“My main advice to players that want to come play in the States is to do your research on the schools and coaches you are talking to.
"There is a large group of Irish players who have or are playing in high school and college in the US, reach out to them and ask about their experiences and get their advice.
"There are also a lot of people in Ireland like Pat Price, Kieran Quinn, Emer Howard, Niall Berry, Terry Kennedy, myself and others who have a large network of contacts here who can help point in the right direction.
"Lastly, good grades help as we have had to walk away from future NBA players because their grades were not good enough to get into our school. Before we will look at film on a player we want to see their grades first.
“I would also ask all players, coaches, parents and clubs in Ireland to push Basketball Ireland to create a role as a national recruiting director to help Irish kids and families as they start on this journey.
"We have more athletes than ever journeying across the sea and the majority will end up back playing in Ireland so being mature enough to let them go and then come back will help basketball in Ireland get better.
"It will also reduce the number of 'agents' who will try make money off families to help them come across,” Manning added.
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