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By Randy Griffith
January 11th, 2008
A team of lanky 13-year-olds trails Coach Mike Del Valle into a hallway outside a Canisius College gymnasium.
“You played hard. You never quit. You can be proud,” Del Valle assures the Niagara Rapids girls. Their defeat – to the powerhouse Blessed Sacrament Yellow Jackets of Hamilton, Ontario – came in the opening round of an Amateur Athletic Union super-regional basketball tournament in Buffalo, N.Y.
Del Valle asks his players to stretch, as he draws upon experience and knowledge that tell him conditioning after a game prevents sprains and joint problems in growing muscles.
Del Valle, who has coached youth sports for 40 years, has more training than most of his peers. While AAU has no specific training requirements for coaches, he also is head coach of the North High School Lady Spartans in Williamsville, N.Y. As a scholastic coach in New York, he must complete some of the most rigorous certification requirements in the the country for coaches.
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