Today I am sending a message to parents, AAU Coaches and players. It’s a simple message and it’s one that they be wise to follow. This time a year can be stressful for all. Finding the time to get children from place to place is not easy. Trying to work on ones game and be ready for the AAU July period is not easy. Trying to keep everyone on a AAU Team happy is almost impossible to do….everyone has their back up against the wall this time of year.
This weekend I received a number of texts about the behavior of parents at games. It’s nothing knew to have parents yelling and screaming at games. There will always be those parents who cannot control themselves. My question has always been why don’t other parents say something. I recently coached a basketball game, where the opposing coach spent the entire game yelling and screaming at his kids. I was amazed that any parent would watch this behavior in public and not complain. But then I realized some parents will do anything to have their kid be part of a team, regardless of the behavior of the coach. I recently told a AAU coach that one of her parents is developing a bad reputation among college coaches. I told her this parent needed to understand all coaches talk and reputations are created be it negative or positive. I told her this could be the reason, she is so under recruited these days. Parents lie about who is recruiting their kid, why you ask? Two reasons, one ego and two they hope lying will being in other schools. Coaches all talk and know when parents are lying….THEY KNOW… These things cause more stress than its worth. Yet I see it every year…its no benefit to anyone especially kids.
Players these days are under stress. Some players have offers and most don’t. Some of those offers are from schools many rather not attend. Some without offers are simply being under recruited. It’s all part of the process. But what’s not part of the process is kids not working on their weakness until it too late. Those who have lived only in the AAU world, I wish them good luck. But I am a real believer in kids working on THEIR GAME…NOT JUST THE TEAM GAME. I believe winning at the AAU level feels good and is important, but getting exposure and preforming is much more important. I wish girls had camps like boys, a place when girls could show improvement to coaches everyday… but the fact is they don’t. It’s almost do or die each time a kid steps on the floor. But for those kids who have trained properly and had a honest approach about working on there weakness, they should be OK. I have never seen so many kids on the D1/D2 fence as I have seen this year. Some of those kids are in big trouble, for one reason…a lack of understanding of how coaches view them. But there are kids who have stepped up big time and now find themselves in a great situation for July and have real choices that was not there before April. I hope some kids start seeing what they need to do in order to fulfill their dreams. BUT THEY MUST ACCEPT CRITICISM AND USE IT AS FUEL.
AAU coaches jobs have gotten much tougher over the years. They must try and keep everyone happy and be competitive at the same time. It’s not a easy job by any stretch of the imagination. But we have too many AAU coaches, who mean well, but don’t understand that most kids are in it for exposure. I hope that AAU coaches, understand the game rules have changed. There are elite camps (http://hoopgroup.com/clinics/girls-academic-elite/) now and it may be the best way for a kid to get exposure and build relationships with college coaches. But it will mean AAU coaches giving up some control. It means sometimes not being able to control a players recruiting process or time in the gym. I hope AAU coaches, understand that doing what’s best for kids will come back big time and make their program shine even brighter.
ITS A NEW DAY AND EVERYONE MUST CHANGE!
CORE SKILLS TRANING STARTS TOMMORROW! 4.30- 5.45..4TH- 6TH GRADE….5.45-7PM…GRADES 7TH-12TH
