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Love's goal: straight shooters

Jeff MacKinnon, For Neighbours
- October 21, 2004

Josh Feist met Dave Love the summer following his first year at Mount Royal College.

Feist had just averaged 10 points a game as a freshman point guard for the Cougars. A good number too be sure.

Then, he was introduced to Love.

In his second season, Feist's average jumped to 20 points per game and his free throw percentage shot up by between 15 and 20 per cent. In between the two seasons, during weekly sessions in the gym, Love helped Feist learn to shoot a basketball properly.

"It was noticeable," Feist says.

"People in the stands and opponents would come up to me after games and say 'Where did you learn to shoot?'

"I hope my shot wasn't bad before that, but the improvement was drastic."

After two years with the Cougars, Feist is now a member of the University of Calgary Dinos men's team. He and Love continue to meet each week to work on both the mechanics and mental aspects of shooting.

"Dave knows what a good shot is supposed to look like. If I have a hitch in my shot, he can break it down and correct it," Feist says.

"With Dave, everything's active. Everything's moving. It's not just him standing around talking the whole time."

The question remains, where did someone who wasn't good enough to play beyond high school become so knowledgeable about getting the roundball through the net?

The answer: Chip Engelland.

Love met the former Duke University star when Engelland came to Calgary to play for the World Basketball League's 88s in the late 1980s.

A ball boy and equipment manager for the 88s while also a member of the Lord Beaverbrook High School team, Love struck up a friendship withEngelland, who's now an assistant coach with the NBA's Denver Nuggets.

Engelland graciously spent hours each week working with Love on his shooting form. Love would later work as an instructor at Engelland's youth camps in both Calgary and Chicago.

Love is now taking what he learned from Engelland and passing it on. He offers individual, clinic (no more than eight people per session, he says) or team instruction.

Shooting lots of baskets is great, Love says, but it's often just aimless practice.

"You can take 400 shots at the basket and if you do it 400 different ways you're not going to get better," Love says.

Feist got better over the course of one summer and his teammates at Mount Royal noticed. Three of them called Love shortly after the Cougars reconvened practice for the 2003-04 season asking for help with their shots.

The list of players he's now helped include Cougars' Chuck Sterling, Jamie Brown, Jessica Binder, Mark Lynch, Josh Forester, Jordan Sulker, Kalem Edlund and Ashley Guise, plus former Cougar Robyn Middlestead, who is pursuing a professional career in Europe, and former Dino Chantal Corbett.

Love cautions that it's never a quick fix.

"In the beginning, the player may see a small decline in their accuracy. It takes time to break old habits. You'll see an improvement after a couple of weeks or a couple of months, depending on body type, hand-eye coordination and worth ethic," he says.

For more information, go to Love's website at www.theloveofthegame.com or call 829-7529.