Every season you coach, there are some aspects of organized sports that seem to never change. You may or may not agree that your student athletes have, because of the culture they have grown up in, become more of a challenge to mold into a cohesive unit.
I am not writing this blog to convince you one way or the other. I do believe this. Every year, you as a coach, must take on the enemy that can and will destroy your team. You cannot significantly change the talent level of your team, nor are you going to wave a magic wand and make your players stronger or more coachable. But in my humble opinion, you must defeat the enemy I refer to as selfishness in as many areas as you can.
You, as their coach, may be the only person in their life that is not promoting selfishness. If you can handle it, go on some of the social media outlets & tell me they are almost entirely about self promotion. Watch commercials and analysis what they are trying to sell you. After all you deserve a break today. Purchase this product because it will make you feel special. We even have allowed it to seep into public education. Let's not issue letter grades because it will make someone feel inferior. Failure is to be avoided at all costs, & if by some means you do fail, make sure you blame someone else for it.
When I attended coaching clinics, I often heard one or more coaches sharing their "war" stores of the previous season. It often included a story about one or more parents confronting the coach & complaining how unfair they (the coach) was in their treatment of their child. Now just because I was a coach, I am more than willing to admit that the coach is NOT always right. I think I did one thing very well each year .... I screwed up and deserved criticism. My concern is the promotion of selfishness that some parents believe in. Some parents have little to no interest in the team's success. Their focus is on one thing. How much playing time is their child given. AD's seldom get complaints from parents about the team's success or lack of. But if their child is not being given enough recognition in their view, .... you will hear about it.
I don't have all the answers about defeating the enemy of selfishness, but I will list some things we did that I believed promoted a team concept. Let me list some of them ....
1) We gave out a theme T-shirt each season. They had a quote or slogan emphasizing team.
2) Everyone wore the same practice gear in every practice. No headbands, or wristbands were
worn. We told our players we wanted their play, not their appearance, to stand out.
3) We NEVER posted individual statistics after a game. We might post team turnovers or team
shooting percentages. We stats NOT me stats.
4) Each game we had different game captains. No permanent season captains. We did not
want to give recognition that might single out one or more individuals.
5) Players were expected to clean up their locker room. We did not want them to feel it was a
custodial duty to pick up after them.
6) On road trips, at least two different players were the last to leave the bus when we returned
from the trip. We did not feel it was the job of the bus driver to have to clean up after us!
7) During post game meeting, I usually commented on unselfish play and for those who made
significant contributions off the bench. We did not talk about the leading scorers. I felt it
was more important to recognize anyone who had played exceptional defense.
8) I sometimes allowed our seniors to decide some of our practice times. Especially, if the
practice was during vacation days.
9) At the end of practice, we had one or more seniors "breakdown" & end the practice.
10) We used our older players at camps to coach our younger players. No better way of finding
out what our program was about than watching your players teach others.
I hope you all have a successful season. There are, in my opinion, few place left that teach the team is more important than individual achievement. What you teach is important in a very
self center culture.
"No cutting in line!"
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