Treynor Boys Basketball

Scott Rucker, the boy’s basketball coach at Treynor, was the speaker this week.  He teaches chemistry and physics at Treynor High School.

Scott graduated from Shenandoah High School and went to Cornell College.  He coached college basketball for six or seven years, but wanted to teach.  This is his seventh year at Treynor and fifth as a coach.

This is the first year the Treynor boy’s basketball team made it to the state tournament as a 2A school.   They are one of the smallest schools in 2A.

Scott says his main focus is to try to make a difference.  He received a lot of letters and e-mails this year after the State Tournament about what a good example the boys were.  The team spends a lot of time in practice talking about sportsmanship and focusing on the community, not on individuals.  What the boys do affects the entire community.

This is the first year they held a pep rally at the Elementary school.  Scott said that it was the loudest gym he was ever in.  When he started coaching at Treynor they also started competitive basketball for the Elementary students.  With a thriving youth program there, Scott expects to see even greater results in the future.

Treynor is trying to play the best teams during the season, including 4A teams like Thomas Jefferson.  Scott wants to expose his team’s weaknesses early so they can work on them before the State Tournament.

Scott Rucker tries not to coach High School any different than college.  There are some differences.  In High School they have fewer practices before the first game.  They have multi-sport athletes.  Scott tries to practice twice a day before the season starts, doing the strengthening before school and drills afterwards.