About
Inspiring basketball coaches to build their own powerhouse program.
Find me on social media HERE
12 years of coaching experience, 9 years as a varsity head coach
-5 sectional, 4 district, and 1 Regional championships... 1 x State Runner-Up
My Most Popular Free Content
⭕️ Zone Motion (YouTube)
⭕️ Wave Offense (YouTube)
⭕️ WAR Rebounding Drill (TikTok)
⭕️ Circle Motion Offense (YouTube)
⭕️ Clear Out Sets That Work! (Fastmodel Blog)
⭕️ 6 Team Defense Drills for YOUR Team (Twitter)
⭕️ Do you want to run a first class program? (Twitter)
⭕️ Controlling Pace: Delay Concepts (FastModel Blog)
⭕️ 307 Downloadable Sets/Drills (Fastmodel PlayBank)
My Story
I’m Coach Matt Hackenberg from Canton, Ohio, home of the Pro Football Hall of Fame. I’m passionate about the game of basketball. My love of the game started when I was 7 years old. My dad came home from work one day to find me playing in a mud puddle in our driveway, feeling pity that his dirty son had nothing better to do, he asked “do you want to go to a basketball camp?” I replied, “sure,” and quickly followed that up with, “what’s a basketball camp?” I attended the camp, and a love affair with the game blossomed.
Growing up I used basketball as an outlet, met most of my friends through the sport, and learned countless valuable lessons about life as I refined my playing skills. I ended my high school career as a 1st team all-state player in Ohio in 2004, and went on to play small college basketball at Kentucky Christian University, amassing over 2,000 points and 1,000 assists in my four year playing career.
After college I moved back to Canton and immediately began coaching at East Canton, a small rural high school. We had a great team returning, and had an exceptionally memorable 20-0 regular sea- son. As a first year assistant coach, I thought, “this coaching thing is easy,” convinced I was much more than just a bystander for a group a talented kids that worked hard for their incredible achieve- ment. When those players all graduated, I got a real baptism in coaching, staying at the same school as an assistant for the next two years and working with a limited roster that didn’t produce many wins. It was a eye-opening experience, fully comprehending that there are a lot of intelligent people in the coaching community, and that I didn’t know nearly as much as I thought.
In 2012, at 26 years old, I got my first head coaching job at St. Thomas Aquinas, a small private school in the area. Taking over a program that hadn’t achieved true success in quite some time but had a decent run of athletes coming through the pipeline, something magical happened. We went on an unprecedented four year run, winning our district (equivalent to the “Sweet Sixteen” of the NCAA Tournament) all four years, and making it to the state finals one season, losing to a very good team. My time at St. Thomas taught me a lot of things, most notably how important a strong support staff is and also how important character is with the players on a team.
Due to the success at St. Thomas, I was able to parlay that success into a coaching job at Canton GlenOak, a large public school in the area. GlenOak is most known for sending CJ McCollum and Kosta Koufos into the NBA. My time coaching at GlenOak didn’t overlap with the aforementioned, but they’ve been great supporting the program as they continue their professional careers. GlenOak is a top-notch school in one of the toughest basketball conferences in the state of Ohio. I continued to learn how to build a basketball program and expand my coaching skills.
So that’s me. A basketball junkie following my passion as a career. I write these guides and make Youtube videos mostly for me, to provide clarity of thought around basketball concepts I’m trying to master. I enjoy sharing my independent basketball studies with the world and getting feedback. I enjoy getting emails asking for advice about basketball. I enjoy having a little extra spending money in my pocket when people are gracious enough to pay for the things I write and videos I make. So thank you for the support, and let me know if I can help you, as a coach or fellow basketball enthusiast, in any way.
-Coach Hack
"I am in the first year of taking over a girls varsity program. I have built every pillar of our program, top to bottom, from ideas gleaned from Coach Hackenberg’s monthly subscription…lastly, Coach Hackenberg’s resources are appropriate and usable for anyone - BUT PARTICULARLY for us coaches trying to build and establish programs without freakish athletes or 5 star, blue chip prospects!!!! HE IS THE ABSOLUTE BEST BASKETBALL MIND OUT THERE!!!!!"
-Andy Wood, Leesburg Fairfield High School Girls Varsity Basketball Head Coach