About
Beyond The Hoop
Coach Steven Hopkins has loved basketball for as long as he can remember. During his high school years, when he wasn’t tall enough to make the basketball team, coaching was a way to participate in the game he loved. A career in coaching was never on his radar. That is until a chance request by a good friend to help coach a girls’ senior team brought back his love of the game and of the process of coaching.
This role lasted for several years until Coach Hopkins moved into the education programs of Ontario Basketball and coaching at Don Bosco High School in Toronto. He found he loved coaching and mentoring his students, but something was missing. He struggled with learning from scratch without a mentor. A big learning curve existed with coaching at-risk youth from differing socio-economic backgrounds. This was far more than the X’s and O’s of his youth coaching experiences.
This experience taught Coach Hopkins invaluable lessons. He learned to develop a solid basketball program, one that not only supported athletes, but engaged students. Despite low school graduation numbers and being categorized as at-risk, all of his players, who he coached throughout their high school career, graduated. Some went on to play for college and professional teams and many even started their own basketball programs.
From there, Coach Hopkins went on to become an assistant coach at the collegiate level. He began to talk to other coaches who work with athletes from diverse backgrounds. He has spent the last eight years in Sweden, coaching at the professional level. In this role, he’s mentored many amateur level coaches and has observed the areas many new coaches struggle in and often neglect.
How do I design my year?
How do I stay organized?
How do I work smarter?
How do I stay connected to my players?
Answering these questions for individual coaches has led Coach Hopkins to create a comprehensive coaching resource. Up until now there hasn’t been one singular in-depth and comprehensive place where coaches can access answers to all of these questions. That’s the mission of Beyond the Hoop — providing the insight and experience that has taken Coach Hopkins decades to attain — all in one easy-to-use destination.
A Note from Coach Hopkins
Like you, I had to learn not only coaching skills, but the leadership strategies, the mentoring dynamics and the organization methodology to become a calm, collected and organized coach. Through years of trial and error, I figured out the best coaching practices. Now I have all my plans, potential plays, player stats and skill development in one place. Everything is mapped out through the entire year in one, easy to find, adaptable system.
I want to be able to provide coaches with access to all the resources they need in one spot. Here you can get everything you need to grow and achieve the balance to allow you to progress in your career and life.
As a coach, you probably find some parts of your job tedious and time-consuming: Constantly scanning 40 to 50 websites, trying to remember what you use each site for. Scoring the internet for that one specific play, system, strategy or thought that you vaguely remember stumbling upon.
Trying to devise the most efficient and useful organization system, but then running out of time in the pre-season and having to make do with disorganization once the season starts.
Beyond the Hoop gives you access to the following, all in one place:
Season Plans
Sticky Notes
Scout Pads
For coaches who prefer hardcopies, we offer physical copies.
For coaches who prefer to work digitally, we offer digital copies.
Organize player information
Create your season plan
Organize daily practice plans
Draw and organize your plays
There’s so much information online for coaches it can be overwhelming. Beyond the Hoop not only centralizes the content you need, but presents it in a scaffolded manner so you're never overwhelmed, but always learning. We do this by keeping coaches in their zone of proximal development.