HUMANSVILLE PUBLIC SCHOOLS

HUMANSVILLE, MISSOURI

LOUIS E. RILEY, SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS
F. M. SHEFFER, SECRETARY BOARD OF EDUCATION

Mareh <5, 1940

Mr. Forrest ©.-Allen
Kansas University Coach
Lawerence, Kansas

Dear Mr. Ailen:

I need some advise on coaching and I would like to get
it from you. 1 want to Know whether 1 should train a High
School team on set plays or on unorthodox offense.

i have had courses under A. J. McDonald Springfield
Teachers College and "Little Bill" Miller of Tulsa.
McDonald teaches us to coach set plays with lots of
variations and Miller says the offense should be unorthodox.
ft also have read your “"Basket-Ball Bible" and Nat Holman's
"Winning Basket-Ball." :

I have coached 10 years and tried severai plans. I
have had some good teams and some poor ones. From 1935
to 1938 I had exceptionally good teams, for a small town.
In "35 I used a simgle pivot imithe lahe. In '36 and
'37 I used the double pivot and in '38 I used 3 men in
(Similar to McDonalds teachers), Of coursé all those
boys were well drilled on fundamentals. The last two
seasons I have been located here and have had awfully
poor teams. JI have tried several set systems and also no
system. All have failed. Of course there/were no good
players and very few of any kind here when I came. I am
now conducting a spring practise and have twenty boys all of
whom will be eligible next year. All are fairly well
drilled in -fundamentals and all have had a little playing
experience. So of course the teams next year will be better
but I want good teams.

whould I rely on experience, fundamentals, and a few
general instructions for my offense or should I teach set
plays? If set plays then what do you think of the ones I
have used? The best teams in this section use no set plays
on offense. In fact, about all they do is to put their best
five boys on the floor and let them fight it out. they
usually win and the fans like it so I am beginning to wonder
if it is the best. ‘Some of our opponents use a shifting zone,