Champlin Park Boys Basketball

Rebels Basketball Training 2008

Velocity Sports Performance is a unique sports performance training company designed to assist athletes of all levels to maximize and achieve their athletic goals. Elite performance specialists work with athletes in a small group environment, teaching them how to become more explosive, faster, stronger, and more powerful through specific athletic enhancing and career extending training programs.

Why do you train? It all starts with desire. You have to want it. Need it. Crave it. Because exhaustion can’t be bribed, reasoned with, or told to come back later. Desire starts quietly, inspired by love of the sport and enthusiasm for every second of the performance.

With our program your athletes will notice an increase in the following areas:

Improve speed and quickness up and down the court

Increase agility and ability to change directions

Gain strength to go strong to the basket

Increase explosiveness and vertical jump

Reduce injury by developing flexibility, stability and strength

The Champlin Park Rebels Basketball Booster Club has paired with Velocity Sports Performance to offer all CPHS boys basketball players who are enrolled in our programs FREE access to “The Gun”. This exciting opportunity is only possible thanks to the hard work and dedication by all CPHS basketball players, parents and coaches through their fundraising efforts. Velocity Sports Performance would like to invite all players to come and take advantage of this unique opportunity by offering an exclusive pre-season team training opportunity to all CPHS boys basketball players.

Rebel Basketball Pre-season Team Training 2008

This will be a 2 month program, leading up to the start of the 2008-09 high school boys basketball season.

There will be two, 90 minute team sessions per week for every athlete, with the option to train an additional 2 times per week on an individual basis with our semi-private groups.

CPHS Boys Basketball players will have unlimited access to “The Gun” based on the reserved court time…”The Gun” can be used on both training and non-training days.

Training will focus on speed development, multi-directional movement, explosive strength training, conditioning and injury prevention.

Cost: $299 ($12.45 an hour!!)

This package will be available to all CPHS Boys Basketball players 9^th-12^th grade. After the 2 month pre-season program, each individual athlete will have the option to roll into our in-season maintenance program. Additional pre-season training can be arranged for those athletes looking for it. Start date, training days and times will be determined… approximately 2 months before the start of tryouts/practices.

Contact Zach Seraphine at (763) 390-6625 or zseraphine@velocitysp.com to schedule!

Desire. Belief. Character. Determination. Heart. Pride.

August 4, 2008

Past Varsity Coach and Assistant Principal Ryan Laager moves on

By ANDREW WALLMEYER
awallmeyer@acnpapers.com
(Last modified: Monday, August 4, 2008 2:55 PM CDT)

It may have taken District 834 Superintendent Keith Ryskoski longer than he would have liked to find a new principal for Stillwater Area High School, but he said he believes the wait was worth it, and he is confident he has found the kind of leader he was looking for in former Champlin Park High School Assistant Principal Ryan Laager.

"Ryan's got experience working as an administrator at a very large, suburban high school in the largest district in the state, and I think he's got the intellect, the energy, and the enthusiasm to help lead us, not only this year, but well into the future," Ryskoski said late last week. "I think his experiences working in a large high school and his focus on continuous improvement will help propel us to even greater heights at the high school."

If formally hired by the school board, which next meets Aug. 14, Laager will replace former SAHS Principal Chris Lennox, who was promoted to assistant superintendent in May.

Laager, 31, has for the past five years been one of six assistant principals at Champlin Park, which enrolls 3,200 students in four grades in the Anoka-Hennepin School District. Apart from having general responsibility for one-fifth of the student population, he worked extensively with the school's staff development and student assessment programs. Before moving into administration, Laager also coached the varsity boys basketball team.

Prior to working at Champlin Park, Laager taught fifth-grade and middle school technology in the Spring Lake Park School District. He received his bachelor's degree in education from St. Cloud State University and holds a master's and a Ph.D. in educational leadership from St. Mary's University.

Seated Thursday afternoon in what will likely become his new office, Laager said he wasn't looking to leave Champlin Park when a former colleague tipped him off to the Stillwater opening, but he couldn't resist the opportunity to apply.

"I had a great job. I enjoyed where I was and what I was doing immensely, but the opportunity to come to Stillwater and work in a school and a school district like this was too good to pass up," he said.

"Obviously, the scores here are very good, as are the number of students who go on to college, their performance there, and the overall graduation rates. And I think that's largely a reflection of the community, which I just love," he continued. "I view it, as many others do, as one of the top schools and top places to be in the state."

Raising the bar

While he said his first year would be focused on getting the lay of the land, Laager said he looks forward to working with staff, students and community members to push for even greater achievement.

"I just need to spend time gathering information on where we're at, and then work with the staff to develop a vision and a mission for the future: where do we want to be in three years? In five years? What does that look like?" he said. "The basis for that, in my opinion, is looking at student achievement. We have high levels of achievement already, but I think we can always do better."

Though he wasn't prepared to comment on Stillwater specifically, Laager said he sees the greatest challenge facing Minnesota schools as preparing students to succeed in an increasingly competitive global society that will be far different than the world their parents and grandparents knew.

"I think we need to open our eyes to the fact that the world is changing very rapidly right in front of us, and with that the kind of education we provide to our kids also has to change and evolve. Of course, the core elements are much the same, but we need to ask ourselves how we can ramp up the rigor, the relevance, and those kind of things that allow us to provide the right kind of education for all of our kids," he said. "I think my passion to learn, to understand those things, is a strength, and I think that if you ask the people I've worked with in the past, they would say I'm a very visionary thinker."

Champlin Park High School Principal Rhoda Mhiripiri described Laager as "an analytical thinker, but one who definitely values input from others and recognizes the need for a collaborative process."

In the three years she supervised him at Champlin Park, Mhiripiri said Laager typified a new generation of assistant principal by focusing as much on the teaching process as he did on discipline and student management.

"He did a very good job in that area. He's very personable, and very focused on instruction," she said. "I think he's more than ready to be principal at a school like Stillwater."

For his part, Laager said he is eager to start, and he, his wife Verla and their 3-year-old son plan to jump into the school and the community with both feet.

"We love the area out here and would love to move out this way," the Blaine resident said. "I think the St. Croix Valley is so beautiful, and we come out here often. We were just out here two weeks ago for Summer Tuesdays and it was outstanding. Our ultimate goal is to come out here and be a part of the community."

Laager said he knows that will involve attending a lot of school events, but he sees that as one of the job's greatest perks.

"I've made it a way of life. My entertainment is going to these kinds of school activities, and I really enjoy it," he said. "I always tell people they're missing out if they don't check out what's going on at the high school - all the arts, athletics and activities - it's some of the cheapest entertainment you can get, and the students are often very, very talented."

Still, Laager said he knows his performance will largely be evaluated on how well those students do in the classroom, both at Stillwater and beyond, and he can't wait to tackle the challenge of improving what is already one of the best public high schools in the state.

"If I'm going to be a part of something, I want to be a part of something great," he said. "When you're starting from a position of strength, it can be even harder to raise achievement. I know I'm coming into a situation where things are already very good, and I'm excited to try and take it to the next level. It's a different kind of challenge than some of the ones I've faced before, but I'm ready for it."

We all wish you well in your new endeavor Ryan!

Brett Carlson takes new position at his hometown High School, White Bear Lake

Sophomore basketball coach, Brett Carlson, is ending his coaching tenure at Champlin Park to pursue professional growth opportunities in both coaching and administration.

Coach Carlson was also the Varsity Football Special Teams Coordinator and Assistant Coach, Track Coach while teaching Social Studies.

Everyone at Champlin Park will miss Coach Carlson and we wish him well at White Bear Lake High School.