Men's Head Baskebtall Coach Dave Balza - Division I Men's Basketball Naples High School Football - Football

Balza, selected from more than 200 candidates to be the first coach of the program, is now in his seventh season at FGCU. The program quickly made its move to become an official NCAA Division II contender in 2000 and most recently finished with a 10-21 record last season in Division I. Name: Florida Gulf Coast University Sport: Men's Basketball Conference: Atlantic Sun sportsDrive Product: SPI Advanced and sD Athlete Management Recent Record: 10-21 record last season in Division I Hometown: Estero, FL

Florida Gulf Coast University-Atlantic Sun Conference

If you were a gambler, putting money on Coach Dave Balza and his men's basketball team at Florida Gulf Coast University would be a wise bet.

Balza, selected from more than 200 candidates to be the first coach of the program, is now in his seventh season at FGCU. The program quickly made its move to become an official NCAA Division II contender in 2000 and most recently finished with a 10-21 record last season in Division I. The Eagles, led by Balza's reputation for playing an "exciting, up-tempo, hard-nosed basketball," are officially soaring with an overall record 124-60 (.674 winning percentage).

As a head coach of FGCU, Balza can take advantage of sportsDrive's athlete assessment test, the Sports Performance Indicator. Not only can he use it to develop his current roster, but also to narrow the field of new recruits, which will be crucial if he wants to keep his winning record.

In his first six years of coaching, Balza's team has averaged 72 points per game, have outscored the opposition by 12 points per game, and have won an average of 18.3 games per season.

In order to keep such high standards from his players, Balza, like other athletic coaches, can examine areas of team building, evaluate talent, uncover strengths and weaknesses, and measure 16 other dimensions of an athlete by using the SPI. By utilizing the SPI, Balza can select players for his team that he knows he can rely upon not only on the court, but also off.

After leading the St. Joseph's (Indiana) team in the Great Lakes Valley Conference, Balza took on the challenge of building FGCU's program from scratch. He also was an assistant at Division II Ashland (Ohio) and spent some time as an assistant at Division I Cleveland State. In both instances, Balza was part of the coaching staff which took over programs that had been placed on probation and was instrumental in turning them around and making them successful.

Balza's desire to "build a first-class tradition" at FGCU has molded the Eagles into a program other colleges and universities strive for. His desire to connect integrity on the basketball floor and to the classroom and the community are vital to the team's success. Because of this creed, Balza's Eagles have never had a semester team GPA below a 2.7 and have bragged a 3.0 cumulative GPA for most of his tenure.

By using sportsDrive's SPI athlete assessment test, Balza and the FGCU program will not only benefit from the feedback it provides about individual players on the team, but will also provide feedback on the team as a whole-something that will only help the Eagles to have more winning seasons on the scoreboard and in the classroom.

Source: www.fgcuathletics.com