The “High School Basketball Podcast” is now two episodes in, and host Joshua Morse couldn’t be more excited with the trajectory of the show.

Morse, who will enter his second season as head boys basketball coach at Frontier Regional this winter, started the podcast at the end of August. He typically invites another high school coach – of any level, boys or girls – to join him and talk about coaching strategies, tell coaching stories, and learn a variety of new tactics he can incorporate when coaching his own team.

“As coaches, we are always learning,” Morse said. “If you're not, you're falling behind. And in basketball, there's no secrets anymore, you just got to do it better than somebody else. All good coaches steal from others.”

The podcast isn’t just for high school coaches. Morse hopes that players tune in, as well as people who are genuinely interested in talking hoops. His overall plan is to showcase the ever-growing list of bright basketball minds that western Massachusetts and surrounding areas have to offer.

“There are so many unbelievable high school coaches, not only in Massachusetts, but everywhere,” Morse said. “I wanted to provide a platform for other high school coaches to share their knowledge with others – whether that's in the community, or to other coaches, or to the players to understand how they might be able to succeed in their own high school system.”

Eventually, Morse hopes to widen the scope of the podcast and have it reach a more national scale.

“I'm starting at the level that I know, because I know Massachusetts coaches, and some New Hampshire coaches – just more regionalized coaches,” Morse said. “I want to be able to broaden it out on a more national level. That’s my goal.”

For the players themselves, watching and listening to different coaches may help them recognize what they can do to improve their basketball skills and earn time on the court. Sometimes hearing a voice other than the coach they hear every day is what they need for information to resonate.

“They may hear it from their own specific coach, but when they start to hear it from others and other programs, they start to connect the dots and say, ‘You know what, there may be something to that,’” Morse said. “And normally it reinforces what their coach is already telling them.”

Morse teamed up with Amherst Media to make it happen. He said he had the idea for a while, but wanted the podcast to look as professional as possible. The partnership with Amherst Media allowed Morse to use their equipment – cameras, headphones, and a recording studio among other things.

“I was super stoked, because, now you can do this, but are you gonna make it look like it's professional?” Morse said. “So I was super happy with it. And Amherst Media has been tremendous for me, and they’ve allowed me to kind of start the project.”

What Morse didn’t realize until he finished recording his first episode was that the real work begins afterward. He spent roughly 35 hours self-teaching himself how to edit, as he didn’t have much experience in that area. 

“It's not just spending a half hour, 45 minutes in a room with some cool headphones,” he said. “All the real work is on the back end. On my first podcast, I probably spent 35 hours editing – just learning.”

Morse is promoting his podcast on TikTok, Twitter, and Instagram – using social media platforms to reach a variety of different audiences. The best way to reach out to Morse for any inquiries – such as joining the show – is via the Instagram page (hs_basketball_podcast). The podcast can be found on Amherst Media’s YouTube page, and is also aired on Amherst Community Television.

As for what Morse is getting out of this individually? Well, that’s simple.

“The only reason I'm doing this is to give back,” Morse said. “Giving back the best I can, and I'm going to do everything to showcase all these other amazing coaches.”