Former Vermont Frost Heaves coach Will Voigt is now out in Bakersfield, Calif., in the middle of putting his team together for the upcoming NBA Developmental League season. Scott Caulfield, who was the team's strength and conditioning specialist for the first two seasons and who has continued to help the team with summer camps and the recent Vermont tryout for new head coach Jeff Strohm, has not only traveled out to California to help Voigt this week, he has agreed to send along blog pieces about his experiences on the West Coast. (Many, many, many thanks to Scott for doing this!) Scott currently works at the River Valley Club in the Lebanon/Hanover area of New Hampshire and competes in strongman competitions.
I think Vermont fans will be interested to see what Voigt (and some other familiar faces) are up to as the basketball season approaches. Feel free to send me an email (anna.grearson@timesargus.com) or post a comment at the bottom of these posts with questions for Will and/or Scott, and I will pass them along.
So here's Part 1:
"Walking into a middle school gym in Bakersfield, Calif., things don't look that different from one in Barre or Burlington, Vt. However, as you start to look a bit closer, you notice that the players are bigger, stronger and more athletic than the ones I've seen over the past few years in the PBL/ABA. The Jam don't have their own home court yet; they are in the midst of building a brand new arena for this season. It's going to be a pioneer in professional sports with only 500 seats in the arena and all seats will be held by season ticket holders and therefore virtually guaranteeing a sellout every game.
Frost Heaves Nation will be happy to know that two players from last season (John Williams and Benson Callier) are out here trying out for a spot on the final roster. Also this roster is loaded with athletes including two former NBA lottery picks, Reese Gaines (Louisville) and Robert Swift, who was drafted directly out of high school. Additionally, Coach Voigt is grooming future NBA assistant coaches here and has two former NBA players on his coaching staff (Greg Minor and Mark Strickland).
Coach V is in his element here with instruction, teaching, coaching and making sure it's done to perfection. He stresses over and over to these guys why they do things, "because that's how they do it in the League" (NBA). He's also coaching while hobbling around the court in a "boot," a three-month long reminder of his Achilles tendon rupture just prior to leaving Vermont.
Yesterday (Sunday) was Day 3 of twice-a-day practice sessions and guys are definitely feeling the pain of being on the court for 6 hours per day. We ended the evening session a bit early so hopefully everyone is well rested today (Monday). Today's agenda has us practicing at Cal State Bakersfield (home of former FH championship MVP Duwan Rice), and then our first lifting session this afternoon. Coach V has still kept 19 guys around this long, but he mentioned cutting the roster down pretty soon. I'm looking forward to working with them in the weight room this afternoon and see how dedicated some of them are in there as well as on the court. And I know Coach V will be inquiring the same thing...
More to follow, thanks,
Scott."
Thanks again, and check back soon for more updates from Bakersfield.
-Anna Grearson
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