Viking Coach

Being the relationship of the player and the coach is confined to the gym and locker room not a lot of people get to see what really goes on between players on a team or between the players and their coaches. People come to the game and get a small glimps of this relationship but it is much like seeing a movie trailer and deciding the worth of a picture by the thirty to sixty second blip.

Other times the general public will get information about the team from players or players parents.

Too often, it seems, the public hears the comments made by players who feel they have been "wronged" by the coach or by the parents of these players who will, naturally, feel that their child has been treated unfairly.

What these players and/or parents say is often seen as the truth, the whole truth and sometimes nothing but the truth.

There is, however, two sides to every story. I hope people understand that sports are emotional and that often a person's perspective is colored by intense situations. Unfortunately, the coaches side of the situation is seldom heard and the coach is sometimes vilified in the court of public opinion.

For example. . .when people try to explain the reasons why a coach may play one player over another they often bring up the philosophy of “favoritism.” (Especially if they disagree with the coach’s choice) Sometimes a high school player will also believe that a coach is playing one player over another because of "favoritism". A high school player often doesn’t see or doesn’t believe that other players on their team are more athletic, have better skills, and/or have a better understanding of the game than they do. So they see decisions made by the coach in a different way.

Do coaches have favorites? You bet!

My “favorites” are the ones that work their tail off, listen to directions, treat their coaches with respect, and are just flat-out coachable. These players are often the ones that give the team the best chance of winning the game because they are the “team-first” players that are crucial to creating good chemistry on the court.

Does this mean that the more talented players who are not as coachable as a coach would like don't get a fair chance to play? The answer is no. A coach at the varsity level, is trying to win the ball game and not all of the players that get quality minutes are as "coachable" as the coach would like.

Yes, there are times when a player with less talent gets more playing time than one with more talent but this generally occurs when the talent level is fairly close and the attitude of the player with more talent is so bad that it effects the entire team.

I wish people would understand how dramatically a player’s attitude really affects a team. Sometimes a player comes in with such a “chip on their shoulder” that it just destroys the chemistry of the team. (Read Poem Below) Rarely do these players see their attitude as a problem or that they have an “attitude” at all. Instead, they look at the “injustices” that continue to occur to them and the coach bears the brunt of the blame for these situations.

I really think that you need to understand that most of what you hear in the public comes from disgruntled players who don’t understand their own abilities or their lack of coachability.

Recently I was visiting with a former boys basketball player from Pelican Rapids. He was recounting his days as a player and how he was always frustrated with how little playing time he got back then and how he did not understand why the coach didn’t play him more.

He then went on to explain that it wasn’t until he started coaching himself that he really understood the reason why his coach didn’t play him more.

In his own words. . .”I sucked as a player."

This young man had the opportunity to discover that coaches make decision based on what is best for the team and that there are reasons besides "favoritism" that goes into these decisions. There are a lot of factors that go into deciding who gets the playing time but the four overriding factors are skill, athletic ability, game understanding and coachability.

Winning games is something that is sought after at the varsity level. For this reason, some players will not get the same amount of playing time and this is going to cause conflict, misunderstanding and at times ill feelings.

Because of these feelings some players are bound to drop out of a program and probably will not have a lot of good things to say about the coach. This isn't something that is new and I don't think there is a way to stop the process. It is unfortunately a by-product of the activity we call competitive sports.


ATTITUDE

"The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life.

Attitude, to me, is more important than the past, than education,

than money, than circumstances, than failures, than successes,

than what other people think or say or do. It is more important

than appearances, giftedness, or skill. It will make or break a

company...a church...a home. The remarkable thing is we have a

choice regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We

cannot change our past...we cannot change the fact that people will

act a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only

thing we can do is play the one string we have, and that is our

attitude....I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and

90% how I react to it. And so it is with you....we are in charge

of our attitudes. "

Charles Swindoll