Tom Curtiss said he wasn't much of a shooter in his prep days at Santa Cruz High. However, in the late 1960s when he began coaching the junior varsity team at the now-defunct Holy Cross High in Santa Cruz, it was time to get with it.
Thus began his six-decade quest to learn and teach the fundamentals of the basketball shot. Recently he was honored with a plaque at Soquel High for his years as both head coach of the program and more recently assistant to Stu Walters and shot doctor extraordinaire.
"He started the first AAU team in Santa Cruz County in the early 1990s, so he coached a lot of the players from all the different schools also," Walters said via e-mail. "He actually worked with me when I was in junior high - that was a long time ago! My dad taught with him when he was the coach at Soquel and I would go down to the gym to work with him. He does a great job with the fundamentals and mechanics of shooting."
Curtiss, 75, via his Shot Science enterprise, has tutored scores of budding shooters from Santa Cruz County and beyond. One Southern California dad, after seeing Curtiss's instructional videos on Youtube.com, brought the former Knight coach down to Malilbu for a week to tutor his three young sons in the art of putting a 9 1/2-inch ball through an 18-inch hoop.
"Not very many people understand shooting and so it's either under-coached or the kids are mid-led," Curtiss said by phone from the Santa Cruz area. "I teach a new routine of the universally accepted way to shoot."
Curtiss breaks it all down in his work with Soquel High, the various travel teams he's been affiliated with and in his private instruction. The affable senior has been teaching fledgling shooters privately for decades, even back to when he was in construction and a teacher/coach at Soquel before that.
In informative videos, many of which can be viewed for free, Curtiss covers such topics as the proper footwork for the shot, where to aim, the release, the follow-through, the lay-up, etc.
Curtiss knew he was on the right track back in 1968 when an article he wrote on shooting appeared in a publication called "Athletic Journal" and was well-received by coaches. He didn't have a copy of the article for many years but eventually tracked it down at the University of New Hampshire library.
So can an expert coach make great shooters out of good ones? Or average shooters out of below-average?
"A lot of it has to do with how much effort the kid puts into it," Curtiss said. "Shooting is not as well developed in America as it is in the Europe. We're more into athleticism and dunking and that sort of thing."
He mentioned the Dallas Mavericks' Dirk Nowitzki as a shining example of the best Europe has produced.
Closer to home, Curtiss has molded plenty of fine marksmen, including Stu Walters' son Sam, a current member of the Knight varsity. Last season Soquel won the league title, came within a basket of beating Archbishop Mitty in the Central Coast Section Open Division playoffs and made the NorCal Regionals.
Also dotting the list of dead-eye shooters Curtiss has tutored are his own sons Casey, Connor and Chase who played at Soquel in the 1990s and early 2000s; Kyle Sharp of San Benito High and the University of Montana; Shane Perryman of Monterey Peninsula College; Keith and Keenan Williams of Santa Cruz High; and young Michaela Thornton of Soquel.
He's also worked with coach Bob Bramlett's West Valley Basketball Club of Saratoga.
Given all the kids Curtiss coaches, there is bound to be some crossover - such as when Soquel is bedeviled by a player Curtiss has instructed privately.
"I get a little delight out of it," Curtiss agreed. "Of course I don't want to see our guys get beat and I want us to do as well as we can, but I get an inner glow."
More information on Tom Curtiss and Shot Science: tomcurtiss@me.com or 831-332-0508.
PUMAS' GREEN DONE FOR SEASON: Pacific Collegiate senior girls basketball star Morgan Green will have surgery on her right shoulder soon and her season is finished, Green said Wednesday.
“I tore my labrum in late September,” said Green, who noted that she has been playing with the injury but decided earlier this month to stop competing and get the surgery.
Green, also an outstanding scholar, is committed to play at Northwestern University. She averaged 30 points per game as both a junior and sophomore.
WESTMONT'S SCOTT TO NORTHERN COLORADO: Westmont girls basketball star Savannah Scott has committed to Northern Colorado, said Warriors coach Brent Duren.
“Savannah Scott is by far the most talented player other than Joeseta (Fatuesi) of Wilcox and Kelli Hayes of Mitty,” Duren said. “Everybody’s game plan is to try to stop her; they send two or three defenders at her all of the time.”
Scott is averaging 17.8 points, 13.1 rebounds, 6.2 assists and 5.5 steals per game. She has made all-league first team three times in both basketball and volleyball.
Briefly: Former Leland girls lacrosse player Chanel Nimeh is the new Archbishop Riordan lacrosse coach, according to Crusaders athletic director Jesse West. ... Ex-Oceana High basketball star Corey Cafferata is the new women's badminton coach at Mission College, where he also coaches women's basketball ... Palo Alto alumnus Peter Hansen (son of athletic director Earl Hansen) is the new inside linebackers coach for Stanford ... Scotts Valley girls basketball star Nadene Hart has committed to Cal Poly Pomona, she tweeted.
