Posted 27 April 2018 - 09:32 AM
I'd say it's the most difficult time ever to coach boys basketball at the varsity level. Coaches want one thing, control. And that's just not possible today anymore. You have youth teams with parent coaches who are able to navigate playing time easily with short rosters and multiple games in one day. Easy to justify sitting kids. But when you get to the high school varsity level, you have generally 7-8 kids in your school - weather it's a school of 50 or 2,000, that you need to work with on game night.
Players can play well in a wide open, run and gun, no defense AAU / travel ball, and really struggle playing in a system where they are not taking shots whenever they want and the value of possessions are more. That kid may be the best one on one player on the team, but he can't play with other kids.
We also have at time when parents simply cannot stay away. They are constantly siding with their kid in every instance, they don't like coaches trying to teach their sons life lessons through sports, although they probably need them. Athletic directors/ principals and superintendents need to back their coaches to the hilt. Unless there is some kind of abuse or illegal activities going on, they need to let the head coach, coach their players the way they want to.
At the preseason meetings, parents and players need to be communicated what is going, how it's going on and it has to be held uniformly. You let your best player miss practices and not do things that are expected, then you are not living up to your end of the deal and any criticisms are warranted. Otherwise, parents need to stay out of the way. These young men will not grow if Mommy and Daddy are constantly trying to greece the skids for their kids. We have kids in college now who can't think and do things for themselves because they've been enabled their whole lives.
Coaches main job is not winning games, it's about about developing kids into young adults.