and for 1 season jr high girls...

>Possible topics of interest:
>
>-Is coaching girls really different than coaching boys? How?

The girls team I coached was actually a church team, their original coach backed out at the last minute, one of the mothers was an assistant but she didn't really have any experience and didn't want the HC job so I was asked to do it since the boys season had just ended. I was apprehensive at first because I had never coached girls but it wasn't that bad. Most of the girls hadn't played as much as the boys but that was a positive because they hadn't developed bad habits so they took instruction well and were a lot more coachable than boys overall. Where as boys try do what they saw Kobe and Lebron do on tv the night before, girls generally do things exactly like you tell them to. One of the downsides was for a lot of them basketball just something to do with their friends and not necessarily a priority so I had to deal with things like "my mama said I can't come to practice tonight because I just got my hair done!", lol. Also to eliminate the possibility of the appearance of anything inappropriate I made sure my female assistant coach was present at all times with any interaction with the girls. A couple of times she wasn't able to be there and I would appoint one of the other mother's as my assistant coach.


>-How do you avoid one-size-fits-all motivation?

With boys its all about finding out what makes them tick, some need a pat on the back, some need a kick in the butt, figuratively of course.

>-What's your biggest individual success/failure?

On the boys church teams I coached I had kids of varying skill levels. Some played for their school teams and AAU teams and some who have never played organized ball before ever and the only team they would probably ever be on was a church team. To me the biggest joy was seeing those lesser skilled kids develop and grow and build their confidence. On one of my 7th grade teams I had a kid who couldn't even make a layup in practice and didn't play that much in games earlier on but he hustled hard and became a solid defender/rebounder and earned himself more and more playing time. The first time he made a basket in a game his reaction and the reaction of his teammates was priceless. His dad and I both did everything we could to fight back the tears, lol.

As far as failures, a lot. My personal philosophy was at the youth level players win games and coaches lose games. Whenever we lost I always to it personally and felt like and I had let my kids down by not preparing them well enough.

With the girls team I coached, like I said above for some of them basketball wasn't a priority and a lot of them would miss practices and games for various reasons and we ended up having to to forfeit some games at the end of the season because we simply didn't have enough player which was a huge letdown for the handful of girls that really were hardcore about basketball and wanted to play. I used to beat myself up about things I could've done differently to keep those other girls engaged.

>-If you're at a school, how does the overall athletic
>environment there help/hurt you?

I wasn't at a school, the rec league I coached at was in East St Louis, IL, so funding was minimal. Conversely the church that I coached for was "megachurch" so they had a big budget, they paid for all the uniforms and and equipment and had nice gym for us to practice in.

>-How did your team do this year / How does your team look this
>year?

My work schedule started getting crazy about 8 or 9 years ago and I "retired" but I definitely miss it. I still keep in contact with a lot of the kids, a lot of them have graduated high school and college and have started careers and families. I run into some of them around town occasionally and they still address me as "Coach" and I kinda like that in a corny sort of way, lol. I'd like to eventually get back into it if not full-time maybe as someone's assistant.

>Or anything else of interest. I have a very indulgent social
>circle of smart, interested people who are happy to listen to
>me prattle on about this but don't really know anything about
>it directly. And I know people who do the same thing as me but
>it's weird talking to them about it because we're talking
>about the same kids, etc.
>
>*If you don't, consider volunteering some of your time. It's
>usually kind of a pain to get looped in with most good
>organizations (more organized rec leagues, but especially
>schools) which, understandable, want to make sure you're not
>there for any villainous reasons. But it's worth it. And if
>you're like me and hate the idea of being in charge, I can
>assure you that most youth coaches would be thrilled to have
>somebody show up and say "I don't want to have any opinions,
>but I'm here to help things run smoothly by clicking a
>stopwatch (or whatever)."
>
>

________________________________________
"Take the surprise out your voice Shaq."-The REAL CP3
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2H5K-BUMS0