Ben D'Alessandro
Ben D'Alessandro
Executive Director, Director of Coaching
ben@playvaba.org
Highlights
- Coaching youth since 1990
- Coached seven years at the Division I level (Clemson University, James Madison University, University of Virginia)
- Played in the Big East Conference for Providence College ('95)
- Three-time Virginia VIC State Coach of the year
- Director and Founder since 1998
Experienced, Tested, Trained
Ben D’Alessandro is a board certified teacher who possesses seven-years of Division I college coaching experience. He is a professional teacher and coach. Teaching the game is not a hobby or a side interest he does in his spare time. He has dedicated his life to learning and teaching the game of basketball. During his coaching and teaching career, he has developed “basketball curricula” (teaching progressions) that are implemented in all VABA’s camps, clinics, and coaches training.
Over the years, he has spent literally hundreds of hours studying and breaking down innumerable facets of the game in an effort to improve his trade and knowledge base. In addition, he has a tremendous level of experience in preparing teams for opponents through video analysis and on-court scouting sessions, evaluating athletes of all abilities, organizing and devising workout plans for high-caliber athletes to beginners, and planning and coordinating practice sessions. All such duties were performed while under the professional mentorship, guidance and collaboration of respective Division I coaching staffs.
Furthermore, Coach D’Alessandro has experience organizing and overseeing pre-season and post-season workout plans for guards, wings and post-players. Of those seven years, three were spent in the Atlantic Coast Conference (at the University of Virginia and Clemson University) competing against the best coaches and players in the country. He began coaching youth in the Charlottesville area in 1990, has served as Youth Minister at a Charlottesville area church, and has earned his teaching degree in elementary education. He now focuses his energies entirely to running VABA, striving to teach and improve coaches, and basketball players of all ages and ability-levels.
CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT / TEACHING METHODS
Over the years, Coach D’Alessandro has developed extremely thorough, detailed and systematic teaching progressions, specifically addressing each particular facet of the game of basketball for each stage of development. The overall curriculum identifies key areas of skill development (both individual and team), and implements step-by-step teaching methodologies aimed at (1) Explanation (2) Demonstration (3) Imitation (4) Correction and (5) Repetition, with the ultimate goal being proper execution in a game setting.
For each particular “skill area,” a set of drill progressions has been created and designed for adaptability depending on the athlete’s particular level of proficiency and rate of improvement. Each of these drills and teaching tools has been tested and retested numerous times, again, all the while evaluating comprehension, retention and proper execution.
The least effective way to teach the game of basketball is to gather together a group of young people, and just “let them play” while the adult tries to instruct “on the fly.” All too often, young players are short-changed by a disorganized, irresponsible approach that does nothing but reinforce bad habits, causing confusion and frustration. Off-season training and focused skill development takes time and repetition; and, it is regularly sacrificed for games and 5-on-5 scrimmages in today's culture of American basketball. The growing AAU basketball culture promotes games rather than skill development and instruction. Unfortunately, while young players believe they are benfitting, they are often skipping vital steps in reaching their full potential.
For this reason, Coach D’Alessandro has also developed a specific basketball curriculum that addresses these deficiencies, leaving little to chance and ensuring understanding. Developing skills takes time, repetition, discipline and patience. Within each VABA teaching program the curriculum incorporates these methods as the key building blocks to developing the complete player and person.
The Virginia Basketball Academy is the pursuit of a calling. Coach D’Alessandro aims to prayerfully follow the Lord's calling upon his life by developing basketball teaching programs in order to positively impact young people’s lives. To be successful, he depends on his faith, and on others who share in that dream.
“Words cannot express how honored and blessed I feel to have the opportunity, through the sport of basketball and these unique teaching programs, to be involved in so many young people’s lives. I believe for those people who are associated with this organization, and by way of their belief and commitment to its mission, real change can take place in the lives of our youth.
”Young people love being challenged...and then succeeding. By helping youngsters to define success and then, within a consistently disciplined environment, attempting to equip them with the values, skills and habits to achieve it, each student-athlete may begin to understand the idea that all too often life on the court represents life off of it.”
Biography
Following his graduation from Providence, D’Alessandro spent the 1995-96 academic year serving as a member of the Jesuit Volunteer Corps in Houston, Texas, working for a drop-out prevention agency as a caseworker/ counselor for at-risk, inner-city children. As a caseworker, he founded Houston’s Wesley Athletic Club with the purpose of providing a positive structured environment for young boys without solid, family support. During this time and the subsequent academic year, he completed his teaching certification and also taught fourth grade at Wesley Elementary School in Houston.
D’Alessandro served as youth minister/youth director at Charlottesville’s Church of the Incarnation from 1997-98. He worked with 600 middle and high school youth, coordinating volunteer efforts, counseling and advising, and developing youth programs.
From 1998 - 99, D'Alessandro attended UVA's Curry School of Education as he pursued his master's degree in Administration in Education. He also served as graduate assistant for his college coach, Pete Gillen, who was in his first year as head coach at the University of Virginia. From 1999 - 2003, D'Alessandro was an assistant coach at James Madison University under head coach, Sherman Dillard. In 2003, D'Alessandro was hired at Clemson University, where he worked for Oliver Purnell for two years until 2005. During this period (1998 - 2005), D'Alessandro founded the "Ben D'Alessandro Basketball Camp" and then the "BD Basketball School" and he continued to return to his hometown of Charlottesville, VA, each summer, to run a unique camp designed for the most committed basketball players.
In May of 2005, D'Alessandro took a leap of faith. He decided to leave his college coaching career to return home to pursue a calling - to establish a non-profit organization in his community, in order to serve youth, through the game of basketball, teaching the values necessary to succeed on the court and in life. In 2007, the Virginia Basketball Academy became a non-profit organization, and has continues to grow in popularity as it now includes leagues, private and group instruction, coaches training, clinics, summer camps and skills academies.
From 2007 - 2011, D'Alessandro served as the head coach at The Covenant School, a small, Christian school. He helped lead his team to three post-season appearances, a #3 state ranking and was honored as VIC Coach of the Year three times.
D’Alessandro also has experience working with a number of high-profile basketball camps. During the summer of 1999, he was a counselor-coach for Five Star basketball camps at Hampden-Sydney College and Robert Morris College. He was the head counselor and resident coach at the PITT I and Post-Man camps and head camp director of the Five-Star Development Youth Camp in Richmond, Virginia. He has also worked/coached at basketball camps at the University of Virginia, Richmond and Manhattan College.
D’Alessandro is a Charlottesville, Virginia native and a 1991 graduate of Western Albemarle High School where he participated in basketball, football, soccer and tennis.
