SE: O'Donnell Out for Big Gains as Strength Coach for Men's Basketball
Jul 13, 2016 | Men's Basketball
If it were up to Ben O’Donnell, the Ice Family Basketball
Center wouldn’t be just a place of work. It would be his home.
O’Donnell, hired as the Kansas State men’s basketball team’s
strength and conditioning coach in June, embraced his passion for training
athletes shortly before his senior year at Central Florida. An internship with
UCF soon led to a graduate assistant position, which then led to a full-time
spot. Before long, O’Donnell was training five different teams. At one point, he
was in charge of seven.
“It’s been a whirlwind, but if it was up to me, I’d live in
here. I love the training aspect of it,” O’Donnell said while sitting in his
new office inside the IBC. “I love developing guys, both mentally and
physically, because of a lot of these guys don’t really, truly understand
accountability, punctuality, how to work hard and how to be consistent. So
those are things we want to make sure I emphasize in here every day.”
O’Donnell knows the mind of a student-athlete because not
long ago he was one. The former point guard played one season at Florida State
(2007-08) and another at UCF (2009-10).
At UCF, O’Donnell realized what he wanted to do with his
life: train athletes. He also met Drew Speraw — now the director of operations
for the K-State men’s basketball team.
Once he heard of the opening at K-State, O’Donnell jumped at
it. Once he visited Manhattan for an interview, his desire for the job
skyrocketed.
“Obviously, the facilities are unreal, but more so the
people,” O’Donnell said of what sold him on K-State. “I’m big on making sure
who I’m working with would be a good situation, and I really, really liked the
people up here. Coach (Bruce) Weber is incredible, and the whole staff is
incredible.”
To sell Weber and his staff on himself, O’Donnell pointed to
a few main points. On top of the list, O’Donnell said, was his ability to
relate every exercise to basketball.
“There has to be a reason for what I’m doing and it can’t be
nonsense just to kill time,” he said. “It has to be specific to basketball
movement patterns, energy system demands and the overall physical demands of
the entire game.”
In order for O’Donnell’s system to work, he said he must set
the tone from an energy standpoint.
“If I don’t have energy every day, how could I expect them
to have energy every day? So I have to be passionate about what I do,” he said.
“I want to get that relationship where they want to come in here, they want to
get after it and it’s a positive environment where we’re all getting better
collectively.”
If O’Donnell has the intended impact on Weber’s players,
their rewards will include better performances on the court. For O’Donnell, however,
seeing student-athletes break through their own expectations is all the satisfaction
he needs.
“A lot of these guys have never truly been pushed or have
pushed themselves enough, so I like it when guys start to buy in,” O’Donnell said.
“I love to see the buy-in effect — when guys buy in and they’re holding each
other accountable.”
With only a few weeks of work with the team in the books, O’Donnell
said he’s in the beginning stages of creating relationships. So far, he added,
it’s been a good start.
“I’m not sitting here trying to be their friend, but I want
to make sure they know that I’m here for them with whatever they would ever
need — if they would ever want to talk about something other than basketball,”
he said. “It’s going really well right now.”
As for adjusting to life in Kansas, the Florida native said
all is well there too.
“When I came up here and interviewed, I actually fell in
love with the place. I was blown away by the facilities,” O’Donnell said. “I
really liked the area because I come from a very congested area, which I’ve
never been a fan of, so getting into an area where it’s not as congested,
there’s not traffic literally every single hour of the day, I’m super happy
about that.
