Origins of a Coach

Video posted December 11, 2017 in Sports by Dylan Coughlin

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Dan Hoff is a Royersford, Pa. resident who has a passion for coaching basketball. Five years ago, Hoff founded the Monstars, a non-profit travel basketball organization has grown into a program that gives over 200 local kids a chance to play basketball in the spring and summer. Hoff says that Monstars originally started with three but teams, but has grown substantially since then, as he expects to have close to 20 teams this summer.

The Monstars have boys and girls teams ranging from third to eleventh grade, according to Hoff. His program features local middle school and high school coaches from across the area, and they travel all around the northeastern area of the United States for tournaments.

In the video, Hoff describes events in his past that have pushed him to pursue a career in coaching. From rallying the neighborhood kids for a football practice to coaching a junior varsity soccer team as a senior in high school, Hoff was primed to become a coach from a young age. He loves having the ability to have a direct influence on so many young athletes.

“Seeing these kids in the program grow from the time they’re in middle school to graduation is really something special,” Hoff said. “You really get to know the player and their family over the years and develop a special bond.”

Hoff is a calm coach that doesn’t say much on the sidelines, but when he does, his players listen. The video shows a recent scrimmage with his junior varsity players that came away with a win for coach Hoff. At times, he lets his personality show during games when he starts joking with parents in the stands, or talking to other players about football.

Shortly after graduating from West Chester University, Hoff became an assistant basketball coach at Pope John Paul II High School for his first paid coaching position. Currently, Hoff serves as the junior varsity basketball coach at Spring Ford High School in Royersford, Pa. and has been with the school for six years. Hoff uses his connections with Spring Ford to help draw a lot of players to the Monstars for the summer. In the video, seven of the players that were in the game play for the Monstars.

About the Contributors

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DCoughlin25

Senior / Communications

Hello, all! I am a 2017 graduate from Penn State with a degree in Broadcast Journalism and a minor in Kinesiology. I am from Boyertown, Pennsylvania and grew up playing all kinds of sports, mainly basketball. This love and passion for the sports world eventually led me to the decision of wanting to stay around the game and pursue my dream job of sports broadcasting.

At Penn State, I wrote for a student-run website called Onward State. As a staff writer, I mainly covered a lot of the sporting events here at the school, writing game recaps. In just a short amount of time, I feel that I have improved tremendously as writer. I believe, that this is helping me become a more well-rounded individual having the ability to do multiple things in regards to the media. I also have experience writing feature articles and breaking news stories that can be seen in the “Blog” section of this site.

In addition to writing for a blog, I am a youth basketball coach. I started my coaching work volunteering for my high school’s varsity team after I graduated. This led me to getting my first paid position at the middle school that I attended as the 7th grade coach for the 2015-16 season. In my first year in State College, I accepted a position as the head coach of the Mount Nittany Middle School program and had a successful season. The success there led me to being promoted the freshman coach at State College High School for the 2017-18 season.

My main career goal is to work for ESPN in any capacity. Everything I’m doing now, I feel can help me tremendously down the road. In the meantime, I plan on working as hard as I can to improve in everything I do in hopes of a successful future.