Viking Coach

Here it is. . . a frank and honest coaching frustration. . . today was the second day of practice for the junior high. Seventh grade numbers stayed steady at ten. However, the eighth grade lost a player today. Its hard for me to understand why. . . she is a very good athlete and would have been one of the top players on the team???!!! With this girl on the team we would have five solid players to work with and that would have been great. I’m still holding out hope for this young girl's return. I called her tonight and tried to encourage her to reconsider. . . and I also have talked to another 8th grader who has been in the program up until this year and encouraged her to come out. . . keep your fingers crossed!!!

Why such a concern:

1) What really hurts is that the 8th grade now consists of 4 players who played last year and have attended camps and elementary programs for a number of years (In other words, these four know how to play the game)

2) With the addition of 3 more 8th grade players, who joined the team on the second night, we now have 6 players who are attempting basketball for the first time. This means they don't understand the concepts of; double dribble, traveling, offense vs. defense, etc. . .

3) With 5 solid players you can put a team on the court that will be able to compete and run through plays. Having only four means that the offense stands a good chance of breaking down.

So, practice was very interesting tonight as I attempted to teach the flex offense to players who really don’t understand the difference between offense and defense. They worked hard, did their best and you have to give them credit for having the fiber to try something new but I sure wish they would have attended all the basketball camps that we have had over the years. (NOTE: money is never an issue with camps for our younger players. . . if you can’t pay we still invite them to play!)