Middle School Sports - Playing The Right Way. A Coaches Pride!

I have been coaching school sports for 15 years. I do it because I have a passion for sports and I want to help provide opportunities for kids to participate in school sports. In some of the schools where I have worked, school sports are the only opportunity many kids will have to be part of an organized sports team. These are very rewarding situations for me because these kids are just happy to be playing the games and attending a real tournament. They aren’t wrapped up in the need to win. My goals when coaching is always the same and I make them extremely clear to the students who come to try out. I want the kids to learn the game, have fun and demonstrate good sportsmanship.

On Tuesday, I attended our Regional Intermediate Basketball Tournament with our school team. The way intermediate sports work in our area is that there is a one day tournament that teams from each region participate in. This is after about a month and a half of tryouts and practices. I have been coaching many of these boys since they were in grade 6. They are a pretty talented group of basketball players and several actually play on competitive teams outside of school. Last year, essentially the same group of boys in grade 7 went to the regional finals and placed 2nd in the tournament. They had very high hopes coming into this year and I thought they would have a good chance as well. That was before the practice season started.

I must say that in all of my years of coaching school sports, this particular team has been one of the most frustrating experiences I have had. Things started off great. Tryouts went well and I had assembled a team of 14 guys that looked really good. We had our first two practices as a team and they were fantastic. The speed and pace of our drills were the best I had ever seen and the boys were looking great. Then things took a drastic and unexpected turn. We had a week where we were unable to access the gym for practices due to a variety of different things that were going on in the school. After that, things were never the same again.

When we started having practices again the attendance of players was very poor. Only 7 or so players were consistently showing up and this made it very difficult to conduct any kind of practice where we worked on positions and systems. One of the players who was missing practices was considered to be one of our best players. After several conversations with players about the issue, unfortunately, I had to start removing some guys from the team. In my opinion, if you are going to commit to something then you have a responsibility to be there and work hard like the rest of your teammates. It was starting to feel like some of these very good players believed that they were good enough that they didn’t need to practice and that they were needed. I also had two players that were regularly being disrespectful in class and making bad choices so I also removed them from the team. Nowhere on my list of goals above did I say that winning was a priority for me. Winning is nice but it should not be at the expense of being good character people. 14 players dwindled down to 9 by the time we got to the tournament on Tuesday.

The remaining players were still enthusiastic and looked forward to a fun day of basketball even though we were missing several very good players and our chances of success were significantly lower than several weeks earlier. I was happy knowing that I was there with a good core of guys who were going to represent our school well off the court and give their best on the court. I could never have expected what the day would bring. The boys played with a fire and a determination that was inspiring. We started out the day with a 25-15 win over a very good team who consistently does well at these tournaments. Our second game was a 25-10 win and the boys had secured a playoff spot early. In our third game, we had to play one of the tougher teams in our region. They have been chams several times and walked with a swagger that suggested they were better than us. Their players actually commented on how bad they were going to beat us and were unfortunately quite unsportsmanlike. This didn’t phase my team a bit. They were able to ignore the banter and take it to them for a 47-26 victory securing first place in our pool. It was a proud moment to see these boys not only take the moral high ground but to stick it to them on the scoreboard as well.

In the playoffs, the team kept on cruising winning their quarterfinal match 20-15 and their semifinal game 27-17. In the finals, we were matched up with the team that had beaten us handily in the final last year. This was their chance at redemption and these boys seized the opportunity. They got out to a big lead early in the first half and would hold off an attempted comeback to win the first ever Basketball Championship our school has ever won. They went 6-0 on the day and came home with gold medals. I was so impressed with the way they performed on the court and the level of play that they exhibited all day. We were short-handed in terms of the number of players and the boys were tired but it was well worth it. I was even more pleased with the way they carried themselves off the court and I even had compliments about how my boys behaved while in the stands. I think my favourite moment of the day was seeing one of our players who happens to be autistic really come out of his comfort zone and have an absolutely amazing day. He played so well and had so much fun. This is a kid who struggles with social situations and anxiety at times but today he was just part of the team and he was great.

We all went to the tournament on Tuesday with very little expectations. The plan was to go and play our best and have fun no matter what. That is exactly what these boys did and they showed that if you give all you've got, anything can happen. I honestly think that we played better because we were missing some of those good players. They played as a team! They passed well, set up plays and truly worked together. They gave their all and earned that championship. I have coached more teams than I can count and have had several teams win championships along the way but I don’t know if I have ever been more proud of a group of guys before. Seeing them smile and so much fun all day is why I coach sports.

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