I know, it’s the holiday season and I shouldn’t be thinking about physically attacking a youth basketball coach. Especially one coaching in a Catholic Youth Organization game in which my 8th grade daughter was playing.
That’s just what happened this past Sunday as I sat in suburban Kansas City watching my daughter get her hoop on.
The team we played was a better team. You could just tell during the pregame layup drills. More athletes and girls as tall as the oak trees that line the streets here. They seemed well coached too and being a coach myself, I watched the guy run his team through drills to see how good they really were.
Our team is filled with great kids and last year they played in a standard Catholic Youth Organization league. This year, because they were so successful last year, they decided to play up a division. Despite a great effort by our girls, they just couldn’t keep up with this bigger and more experienced team.
I was proud of my daughter and her teammates for competing the best they could. They never once gave in nor did they give less than 100-percent on every play up and down the court. They did what they were playing the game to do: compete and have fun.
That said, once the opposing team was up by 20 points, the other coach should have gone back to a standard defense and used as much clock as possible the final quarter. Entering the fourth quarter, our girls were trailing nimrod coach’s team 29-9. The game was over, from a win-loss perspective. Our girls continued to play hard but the end result of the game wasn’t going to change.
So with the score so lopsided, what did this junior basketball legend of a coach do? He puts on the full court press.
What a dick.
Not only that, he has his girls running double-teams and running and gunning the break after each rebound.
So much for being a good sport.
I am one competitive guy. When it comes to business, sports, and just about anything, I play to win. In the case of CYO sports, the mission statement says: “Participation, in the athletic events, is to be considered primary. ‘Competition and winning’ are by-products of participating and are of lessor importance.”
Apparently this guy didn’t read the guide book.
The good news was our girls were fine. They didn’t even seem to care. But for this middle-aged coach, I was livid. It’s coaches like this who can ruin the experience of participatory sports for kids. Not all kids are going to be All-Americans or even earn a scholarship to a college or university. Like my daughter, some kids just want to play to belong and to learn the game and team work.
Punk coaches like this are tolerated by parents and by kids. It’s too bad because they’re teaching their kids a horrible lesson. Instead of teaching them about winning with class, they go for the old “salt in the wound” style of play. Not only is that unsportsmanlike, but for a coach of a Catholic middle school team, unforgivable.
For me, as hard as I try not to contradict myself, I’d like to punch that jerk in the mouth. I see coaches like this in football, basketball and baseball with my son. They’re so wrong and so selfish it’s sad. I always feel for the kids on the other side and question why their parents won’t step up and say something.
Which brings me back to this punk coach and my desire to let him have it.
But, mindful that I am not only a coach on the court but one to my kids off it, I restrained myself. Although my wife did have to physically stop me from clipping the guys heels with our baby stroller.
I told you I was competitive.
Is this where I come to confess my sins as a youth basketball coach? When was son was 9 or 10 I was coaching his youth team. We were playing a team coached by a guy like the one you describe above. In fact, the guy’s kid had been on my team the year before, and he was completely uncoachable because Dad told him to ignore me and shoot whenever he wanted. After falling way behind early, my kids clamped down and held them scoreless for the 2nd and 3rd quarters, and were up by 2 with a few seconds left when we got called for a shooting foul. The bad guy’s best player was on the line with a chance to tie.
I called time out and iced a 9 year old. Not my proudest moment, but I justified it by convincing myself that this guy winning would only encourage him in the future. It worked,the kid missed the shots and we won. Then the next day the county calls me and says that he protested the game because I didn’t get all my players in for the minimum time. Did I mention that his wife was the official scorer for the game? The county rejected the protest when they did the math and found that her score sheet showed some of my kids playing 40 minutes, of a 32 minute game.
I really wasn’t upset when my son retired from basketball at 11, and then baseball at 14 (which I also coached) to focus on fencing. I don’t coach fencing.
I don’t know, Scott… I don’t see a problem with this.
My nephew is on a football team that ended their season 3-6. In one of the games, they were down 14-0 with about 6 minutes to go. The other team just kept scoring and won 36-6. Frankly, neither I nor any of the other parents on the sidelines, had a problem with it. Being down by a large margin doesn’t allow you to check out, and it shouldn’t mean the other team lays off. If you’re not gonna play defense, I’m gonna score on you. Otherwise, it’s a bell-to-bell effort.
I know your girl was down, and yeah, the score wasn’t changing, but still… No reason to phone it in just because it’s a blowout. If you’re outgunning the other team, keep outgunning them until it’s over.
Now, if they were taunting the other team, that’s a whole other scenario, but I don’t get the impression that’s what happened.
Vinny…I disagree. My son played football too in a competitive club environment. Even then, teams would, if ahead by a bunch, continue to drive and score but would do so running the ball. They wouldn’t be throwing the ball or running reverses when up by 29 points. It’s a fine line.
In this case, CYO is a participatory league. It’s not a competitive league. That makes a big difference. In that case, if it was me, I tell my kids to pass at least three times before shooting and then play standard man-to-man defense. I wouldn’t by any means tell them to “shut it down.” Instead, you play the sportsman and plays straight.
Even in the NBA or college hoops that happens. Again, it’s not phoning it in. Just like you shouldn’t rub it in in a Catholic middle school league.
I’ve coached teams in competitive and participatory leagues. In the latter, I am always cognizant of the kids and their ability and I how coach with and against them.
Thanks for the discussion.
I’m with Scott. The point of the game at that age is to get better at it. Running it up in the 4th quarter doesn’t help either team do that. The only thing it does is feed the coaches ego. We often had huge leads at halftime and we would dial back the defensive intensity in the 3rd quarter (no steals out on top) and I would outright forbid stealing in the 4th quarter and turn the game into a defensive positioning drill.
Even in MLB baseball stealing or bunting for a hit with a big lead in the 8th or 9th inning will usually result in somebody taking a fastball in the ribs.