When I was growing up in elementary school in the mid-1970s, there was always that uncomfortable moment when the new kid in class was made by the teacher to stand up, give their name and say hello to the class. He/she never wanted to do it and everyone in the room (or at least most of us who had a nice bone in our body) cringed as they got through this time-tested ritual. Well, I’m standing up and leaning down over my keyboard as I type this to you. Thankfully for me, as I told our COO at Graves, Thomas Purvis, I’m that odd duck who actually likes to write and so he invited me to reach out to you and let you know who the new guy at Graves is and what you can maybe expect from me.
I won’t go too deep into my history so that you’ll keep reading but I grew up in a small town near Lake of the Ozarks in Missouri called Eldon. I was the typical small-town athlete, playing basketball and football and they meant everything to me. My eighth-grade coach, Cloyce Klein, started a program whereby he had his players coach the spring 6th grade intramural program to prep those kids to go represent our school in a local tournament after intramurals ended. Well, long story short, I caught the coaching bug….HARD. While I had previously enjoyed writing and public speaking and had thought journalism might be my thing, this experience changed everything. I had helped someone else be successful at something. And if you boil coaching down to one sentence, the one I just typed probably sums it up pretty well.
A few small colleges around Missouri came calling offering to have me lace up my basketball shoes for them but the opportunity to go become a student assistant/manager for the University of Missouri and Hall of Fame Coach Norm Stewart came my way. It was an ego-check for me to go from being on the floor to keeping stats and doing all the dirty jobs but I knew this was my key to learn and have opportunities I’d never have otherwise. My career after graduation from Mizzou and stories too numerous to count (1986-1990 arguably was the most exciting four years in the history of the program for the Tigers—yep, I’m biased!) led me to coach at Central Methodist University as an assistant, then to Elsberry (MO) High School and finally to Marquette High School here in suburban St Louis. I’ve spent the past 27 years at Marquette where I served as a teacher and head basketball coach for 18 years before becoming the school’s activities director for the last nine years of my tenure.
The memories, wins, losses, friendships and relationships, heartbreak from losing players before their time, it all makes for a story that I think any coach could write a novel about. Suffice it to say though, I have no regrets about my decision to become a coach. And while being our school’s AD allowed me the chance to be around more of our athletes and performers and cultivate relationships closer to more of our staff and community, it was nine years that I wasn’t on the court or in the locker room with “my guys” if you get my drift.
In the summer of 2020 in the midst of the early covid months, my extended family was in Washington, DC to attend our long-awaited opportunity to lay my father-in-law to rest at Arlington Cemetery. It was an experience I’ll never forget and I know he knows how proud our family is for his service to our country in Viet Nam. While we were in DC there was quite a bit of downtime and as I’m wont to do, I was cruising the internet trying to search for that “magic pill” to make me a better golfer. This was a search that in essence, I’d been carrying on for 35 years since I first picked up a used, ladies club someone handed me when we snuck onto our local course back when I was in high school. I’d never had any trouble from the get-go getting the ball up and going but I think many of you know the story….it was the “where” that was the issue. Back to DC though, I ran across one of those Graves facebook ads that we’ve all seen. I clicked and thought, “What the heck, what do I have to lose at this point?” I’ll gladly pay the six bucks and change for shipping if this Todd Graves dude could help me.
I’m an impatient guy so at this point, I started doing some youtube searches and found Todd’s and Graves Golf’s channels. As a coach who knows that anytime I tried a quick fix with my teams, it usually blew up in my face, I was more than intrigued that here was a guy who wasn’t making me any “do this and you’re cured” promises. What he was promising was a system that if I followed it, I would eventually become successful if I wanted to put in the time and effort. AND, he backed it up with as his brother, Tim, likes to say, the “why” of the system. Now, the hook was in my gills and I couldn’t get away. ? One of the tenets of my coaching was not being a “do this my way” and ending the conversation there. I ENJOYED the process of helping my players understand why we were defending a perimeter screen away from the ball so that they would buy in. Long story short, this was right down my alley. I couldn’t wait to get home from DC and then wait for my intro pamphlet so I went on Amazon and downloaded Todd’s book “The Single Plane Swing” onto my Fire tablet and zipped through it in no time flat knowing that I would be coming back to reference it again and again.
I can’t tell you the number of times the next couple of years when I had a moment to take my mind from the job I had to think about positions, sequence, limitations, etc. It really became a very guilty pleasure of mine to go in and see if I could find something else to learn. Now, before you think “Wow, Shane must be ready for the tour at this point,” I would tell you instead that I am that guy that Tim refers to often as the “book smart student”. I would try to squeeze in some swings and rotation drills at 5:30 in the morning before going to work and kept my indoor trainer at my desk at school to get a swing or two in before hall, lunch or bus duty but time has been my enemy. My recent retirement from my old job has already opened up such an opportunity to accelerate what I’ve already learned and put it to use. I’m so looking forward to that.
Whether you’re still a working person like I was or if you’re retired, I must tell you how great going to a Graves School was. I was able to go to Oklahoma City in July, 2021 and learn from the really great Graves staff. I’ve put a detailed explanation of those five days in the Graves Single Plane Academy Facebook group and would be happy to share if anyone is interested. What I can tell you over anything else was that I was absolutely, 100% fully engaged that week. I knew what an opportunity I had and I stopped thinking about what I had to do the next week, what emails I needed to reply to and for one of the few times in my life simply “took it all in”. I made some great friends that week and can tell you it took all the excitement and passion I had for the Single Plane Swing and multiplied it.
I told my wife on a weekend trip we took to Branson in the midst of this golfing journey I’m telling you about that when I retire from my then-current job I really didn’t want to go back to that setting but that I missed coaching a lot and helping people. And I told her how much this Graves membership meant to me. Our conversation steered around to reaching out just to see if there was some interest in maybe those two situations could maybe be tied together. I had some preliminary discussions the year prior to when I retired and I’m eternally grateful that the folks at Graves felt good enough about things to continue to talk with me and ramp things up as I got closer to retirement to see where I might fit into their big scheme.
I sit here typing to you now in anticipation of getting a chance to meet some of you at a school in the near future to work with you and also being able to be someone to work with new members to help them navigate through what opportunities they now have given what my experience was. My age stands at 54 so I’m no young pup anymore. But I always told people as I became a “veteran” coach, I think you don’t truly become smart until you realize what you don’t know. That’s why, as a newbie with this company, I’m so excited to learn from everyone on the staff. I have a real desire, and it’s always been the driving force for me in any job I’ve ever had, to be someone that others can count on. I want to be that someone for the folks at Graves and even more importantly, for you our potential and current members.
So, at this point, this article telling you a little bit about myself has been more than enough. It’s time to get to work. Please don’t ever hesitate to reach out if there’s something I can do to be of help to you and your Single Plane journey. My goal is for it to be as meaningful for you as it has been for me.
