SkillTech Basketball

Hi, I'm Coach Dasi! Hauling all the way from Boca Raton, FL, I'm coming to Gainesville as a University of Florida freshman in Fall 2021. I’ve now been coaching basketball lessons since May 2021, but that’s not where my basketball journey started.

​I still remember staying up late at night in the summer of 2009, watching the NBA Finals for the first time. At six years old, I was witnessing big names like Kobe Bryant and Ron Artest. The next thing I knew, I was shooting around on the driveway, trying to beat my older brother just once (I’m sad to inform you that that did not happen, though I’m still waiting for a rematch). When I was in 2nd and 3rd grade, I played two seasons of recreational basketball with JBL or Jewish Basketball League, organized by my local synagogue.

I entered middle school and by the time my 6th grade try-outs came along, I was nervous, but I felt so ready to play basketball. Unfortunately for me, though, after three days of try-outs and majority of my layups missed, the coach told me that I didn’t have a good foundation in fundamental basketball skills. What a shocker it was to me at the time that shooting around my driveway could only get me so far. But the coach was right--I didn’t even know how to do a layup! He told me to practice the drills we’d done during try-outs.

So that year, I learned how to run a layup, handle the ball a bit better, and even dribble with my left hand! When I came back to try out in 7th grade, the coach could not deny that I’d been practicing. A few days later, though, when the roster was posted, my name still wasn’t on it. When I showed up at the coach’s classroom that day, trying to understand why I still hadn’t made it after doing exactly what he said the year before, I learned a big lesson: basketball isn’t just about the skills. You have to know the game, know the plays.

Not making the team in 7th grade hit hard but it was a big test on my perseverance. In fact, at 8th grade try-outs, I’d been the only girl to have tried out all three years. I’m happy to tell you, though, that in 8th grade I finally had the chance to play basketball on an official team. I wasn’t a starter, but at this point the coach was highly impressed with my skills.

It was also in 8th grade when I was in this weird-teenage-transition-moment-thingy where I could no longer see myself being a doctor as my career, which probably played a big factor in me suddenly creating this big plan to play in the WNBA. But at that point, my passion and drive for playing basketball exploded! For a long time I was doing 3-hour practices on the court. One time I even shot free-throws in the rain for 4 hours (I am not endorsing this). My life was so focused on the ball game.

As you can probably tell, I have not gone pro (I’m actually an Engineering student now!) Neither will I play college ball. Thankfully, I had the chance to play on Varsity in middle school and for all four years of high school. But what set me apart on the court?

In my 9th grade year, my new coach told me how important it was for me to show up to practice everyday ready to use those fundamental skills. Coaches only have so much time during the season to pull a team together, and much of that time is needed to learn and practice plays and defenses. By the time you get to play in high school basketball, there’s no time to be practicing layups or ball handling and the coach isn’t going to teach you how to shoot properly. Those things are simply the warm-up.

As the coach at Skill Tech, my first goal is to make sure players develop a solid foundation in fundamental basketball skills and then to push players towards perfecting those skills so that they come into the game prepared.