By Carol McGowan
Argo’s Head Girls Basketball Coach, Dan McCarthy, has been busy getting area students ready for their upcoming season, as well as ready for Argonaut basketball.
McCarthy recently hosted two basketball clinics. One was at Heritage Middle School in Summit, and one was held at Argo High School in Summit.
The first, a Coaching Clinic, was held at Heritage on August 24. It was geared toward junior high coaches in the area, specifically the staff at Heritage, Wilkins, and Willow Springs.
“I brought my varsity players there and demonstrated some of our most important drills we run at the high school level. It also gave the coaches an opportunity to ask questions on how we coach our players. When I was a young coach, attending coaching clinics helped me become a better coach,” said McCarthy.
The second, a Shooting Clinic, was held at Argo High School on Saturday, September 30.
“This was a free event, and the message is that we want to be a community resource for our families.”
“I want to give back to our community. I am extremely grateful for the run that I have had at Argo and so as I prioritize my goals for the back end of my career at Argo, I want to make sure giving back to the community is front and center. Of course, we have offered our Junior Argonaut feeder program for the last 18 years. Our Jr Argo program is local and affordable, yet another way we want to give back to our community.”
Five area coaches were registered for the coaching clinic, and 20 players were registered for the shooting clinic.
Three coaches that took part in the Coaching Clinic were from Heritage Middle School, and two were from Argo.
Students at the shooting clinic ranged from the fifth- to eighth-grades.
“We had players from 7 different schools in our feeder district: 5 from Wilkins, 4 from Heritage, 2 from Willow Springs, 5 from Graves, 1 from Brodnicki, 1 from Lyle, and 2 from Walsh School.
Each clinic was an hour and a half.
Besides McCarthy, Coach James Pino from Argo, and Coach Carolina Tovar (Wilkins and 2017 Argo grad) also helped with the shooting clinic.
McCarthy ran the Coaching Clinic himself.
These clinics aren’t new for McCarthy.
“I have run these clinics in the past. The last coaching clinic I hosted was in 2018. I usually like to run them every other year. But the pandemic came, so it’s been a few years. I would say this was my fifth coaching clinic I have run at Argo during my tenure.”
“I ran a shooting clinic this past April and moving forward, I plan to offer a free shooting clinic at least 2-3 times a year.”
As for the Coaching Clinic, the goal is to help young coaches develop into effective coaching leaders.
“Beyond the drills, I want to teach coaches how to be role models and how to effectively motivate young athletes.”
“For the shooting clinic, I want to teach young players the correct mechanics of shooting. Shooting is the name of the game in high school basketball. If you are not a good shooter, you will have a limited role on the team. I’m not saying you won’t make the team, but you need players that can spread the floor and shoot the three-ball. If you look at some of our best teams over the years, we had excellent shooters on the team. Teaching the jump shot is very similar to the golf swing—in that the mechanics are very scientific. And mechanics must be developed at a young age so that natural body strength and thousands of shot repetitions will help a player develop into an excellent high school jump shooter. I want to make sure the players that attend the shooting clinics are taught the correct form of shooting. And I want to give them some drills that they can continue to work on at home or in the gym. I would compare the shooting clinic to getting a golf swing lesson at the local gold course. But it’s free!”
Argo girls basketball has had many award-winning seasons with McCarthy as head coach. They’ve won 13 conference championships combined among all three levels. Five for varsity, six for sophomore, and two for freshmen.
In addition to that, they have had one Regional title (2020), three varsity holiday tournament titles (two Thanksgiving, one Christmas), and a 42-game varsity conference winning streak (2017-2020).
As far as Head Coach McCarthy and his team’s upcoming basketball season at Argo, “We will be rebuilding this year. We have a very young program, and we are excited about what the future holds. We will be doing a lot of teaching this year with young, inexperienced players.”
This is McCarthy’s 20th year coaching at Argo High School.
Dan McCarthy told one of his student athletes that a panic attack wasn’t a valid excuse for missing practice and benched them. Dan doesn’t care about the students, just his image.