Youth Basketball: What Makes A Basketball Player a Great Leader

What Makes A Basketball Player a Great Leader And Teammate?

Lamar Hull at Inspirational Basketball is the guest blogger for this post.

Strong leadership on the basketball court is a key component to having a unified, successful, and winning team. Leadership does not always come directly from the coach, but can come from within the team itself. Typically, a leader emerges from the team. Some people are born with natural leadership abilities and others have to strive and work hard to obtain that same quality.

There is a saying in the sports that holds true for all sport’s teams, "there is no I in team". A leader will excel as an individual player, while simultaneously helping to improve the effectiveness of the entire team. The first and most important key to becoming a successful team player is to know the game inside and out. Knowing the actions and talents of your fellow teammates will help the strength of the team to prosper.

Leaders are exceptional team players. Usually, a team player does not often have to be the most talented player to be the leader. Skills and natural talent of course help with leadership, but are not required. The leaders is typically the most vocal and leads by example. A leader needs to know the rules of the game, player's positions, duties and the team’s plays. This is one of the most important aspects of a leader, they have to be unselfish. One reason I exceled at being a leader on the basketball court was because I would never quit, no matter the score. A leader must have confidence in themselves and their team; this is a pedigree for a successful team.

Most importantly, along with those other attributes stated above, a leader must set high standards for their team and themselves in order to provide high quality leadership. Here are a few more attributes of a leader. They are on time to practice and games, usually the first player in the gym and usually the last one to leave, hardworking, and they put their heart and soul into producing great outcomes for their team.

An example of a great leader was Michael Jordan when he played with the Chicago Bulls through the late 1980's and 1990's. During this time he was considered a leader and great player because of the character he portrayed on and off the court. Jordan won the NBA's MVP award five times between 1987 and 1998, held the scoring title seven times from 1987 thru 1993, and then three more times since 1995-1998. Michael could not have won 6 championships without his teammates and in every interview he made sure to mention his teammates in the team’s success.

Michael Jordan showed leadership qualities from a very young age. Michael didn't make it onto his high school team when he first tried out. With his perseverance and dedication to become part of a team, he tried out the next year, and so began his basketball career as a team leader.

Leaders and great teammates are not made. Anyone can be a leader if they dedicate themselves to becoming successful communicators and hard-workers. Stats Dad talks about how to lead with passion. This is definitely a characteristic that a leader should have. It doesn’t take talent to lead with passion, it takes heart!

Author: Lamar Hull is a former basketball player for Davidson College and was a great leader on the court because he put his teammates before himself. Because of Lamar’s leadership he was awarded a professional contract to play in Europe. You can follow Lamar @lamarhull20

The Main Point

There is some great advice in this post, especially for the player who is not the superstar talent on the team. Coaches, fans and teammates appreciate the less talented but scrappy kid who out hustles everyone on the court to get it done.

Youth Basketball: Feel Good Story

My last post was about some poor sportsmanship from a dad. This story about good sportsmanship more than makes up for the poor actions of a mis-guided dad.

In this story, a high school senior with some developmental issues scores a basket at the buzzer and the assist came from an unlikely player.




The Main Point

This blog is about the good, the bad and the ugly. This is the good side of youth sports.

I swear I didn't make my daughter play injured.

I do not miss many games at all. I am lucky to have a job that I can manage my own schedule fairly easily.

I do not miss my kid's games because I do not want to miss the action. I want to be there when my daughter sinks a three at the buzzer or when my son makes a birdie on 18 to win a tournament. I want to see their faces when it happens. I want them to see my proud reactions too. I also want to be there just in case something happens. If they get injured, I want to be there to help comfort them. We all know that injuries are a part of youth sports. It is just a question of when, where and how bad.

I missed a game on Sunday.

I dropped CC off at soccer tryouts for the Ohio South Olympic Development Program. I normally stay to watch, but I had to leave to get to the Cincinnati Bengals / NY Giants game. 

I'm a huge Giants fan, so my wife bought me the NFL tickets for my birthday. What she did not know when she made the purchase in September was that my daughter would be competing in the finals of the 6th grade CYO Girl's Basketball Cincinnati Division I Championship. When I realized the conflict, I did not want go to the football game. I would much rather watch my daughter play. I contemplated not going to the NFL game, but the tickets were very expensive. I could have sold the tickets on StubHub, but it was going to be my wife's and son's first NFL game. They were very excited to go. I was torn, but had to go to the Giants game.

During soccer tryouts, CC got hurt in a freak accident. She was on the sidelines next to the goal awaiting her chance to get into the game. The coaching staff was rotating three goalies in each goal. CC was stretching and talking to the other goalie while the other girls on the field were showcasing their skills for the evaluators. CC was not really paying attention to the game. 

A striker in the game took aim at the goal and fired a really hard shot. The ball missed the goal and hit the very top of CC's foot. She was relaxed and not expecting the impact, so her  ankle snapped back. It hurt a lot, but CC did not want anyone to know. ODP Goalies need to be tough. 

She hopped up to walk it off and get the ball that ended up 20 yards behind her. She was trying desperately not limp. Just as she retrieved the ball, the tryout ended. Luckily, she did have to get back in the goal with a bum ankle. 

After the training session was complete, she found her club teammates and her ride home.  She arrived home to an empty house. She iced her ankle which was now really swollen. She then found an ankle brace, tied it on tight and awaited her ride to basketball. She was not going to miss the Championship basketball game. 

A basketball teammate picked her up and took her to the game. She participated in warm ups trying not to limp. She did not want the coaches to bench her. She ended up playing the entire first quarter and the first half of the second quarter before she got a break. During her down time at he end of the second quarter and half time, the ankle swelled more. She tried to play in the third quarter, but could not play at her normal frenzied pace. She sat out the rest of the game unable to take another step. 

CC's team went on to win the Cincinnati City Championship and ended the season undefeated with a 26-0 record.

We arrived after the game. As soon as she saw us, she started to cry. We knew she was hurt because we got a text telling us that she sprained her ankle. We were not expecting it to be too bad. We took her sock and shoe off. It did not look very good at all. 

This morning, she could not walk. We took her for an X-ray. The X-ray was negative. The doctor was concerned about the ligaments on the top of her foot, so he gave her a boot to wear for a week. We will go for a follow-up next week.

The Main Point

Some parents push their kids to play even when they are hurting. Some kids push themselves.

Youth Sports: Preventing Sexual Abuse

The best thing that you can do as a youth sports parent is to make your kid feel comfortable talking to you about anything. The second best thing to do is ask questions and listen attentively to what is said and perhaps not said.

Here are two situations where I talked with my daughter, listen attentively and helped her out of an uncomfortable situation.

2nd Grade YMCA Basketball

In second grade, my daughter was on a YMCA basketball team made up of boys and girls. The head coach was the grandfather of one of the kids on the team. The coach was over-qualified to be a coach of 2nd graders. He had coached at every level including college. He was a terrific coach and guy.

After the first practice, the coach came up to me and asked if CC was my daughter. I said yes with pride. He went on to tell me how impressed he was with her ability to listen and learn at such a young age. He was also impressed with her determination and athleticism. He gave me his card and told me to call him when she is ready for AAU basketball. On the way home, I told my daughter. She was beaming with pride herself.

The next practice, the coach used CC for all the teaching demonstrations. He constantly called her out to demonstrate a technique or where to be on the court for certain situations. It was second grade level coaching, nothing lofty, but it was quality coaching. Again, I watch with pride as my daughter performed all of the tasks for the coach.

The next week, my daughter did not want to go to practice. She wanted to quit. I asked her why, but she just said she did not like it anymore. I gave her the standard speech about finishing what you start. I knew she loved the sport, so I asked her more questions. I thought that I was going to hear that one of the boys was bullying her. That was not it. I thought that maybe one of the girls on the team was mean to her. That was not it. Finally, with tears in her eyes, she told me that she did not like the coach. I was surprised. I asked why. She finally told me that he touches her too much.

Well, I was at every practice and my daughter was never ever out of my site, so I know that nothing inappropriate happened. She went on to tell me that when she is in front of the team demonstrating plays, the coach pushes her and pulls her. As I thought it was nothing inappropriate, but it did make her feel uncomfortable.

Before the next practice, I spoke to the coach. The coach changed his style and my daughter went on to love basketball and the coach.

Fours years later with a different basketball coach, my daughter started complaining about the same thing. This time I was a bit more concerned because we leave our daughter with the coach. I asked my daughter very specific questions. Again, nothing inappropriate happened. My daughter just does not like to be pushed and pulled.

Again. I spoke with the coach and told him to simply, tell my daughter where he wants her to be and she will move to that spot.  I went on to tell him that she does not liked to be pushed or pulled. The coach was apologetic and the situation was resolved.

The Main Point

Talk to your kids about proper and improper touching. Make sure that they know that they should talk to you if they get into situations that make them uncomfortable.

Furthermore, make sure that the team has a "Coach and Player are never alone" rule. It protects the kid from potential abuse and it protects the coach from potential false allegations.

This post was prompted by a Sportsletter.com article called Preventing Sexual Abuse in Youth Sports.

Momsteam.com also has some great content to help parents protect their young athletes from predators.

Youth Basketball: Refs Influence Game Outcome

Should refs feel sorry for teams being out played and as a result call a game differently then they normally would?

We have all seen it many times before. One team is dominating another team, so the refs limit the fouls against the inferior team. At the same time, the refs call a tight game against the superior team. I believe that the refs do this to keep the score reasonable and to keep the lopsided game moving.

This past weekend, my daughter's team breezed through a tournament and advanced to the finals as the number one seed .

As the number one seed, we played our semi-final game from 3p to 4p against the 4th seed. We won 38-25. The 2nd and 3rd seeded teams played from 4p to 5p. The 3rd seeded team advanced. Our team beat the 3rd seeded team by 10 points during pool play.

The gym was exceedingly hot when our team took the court with confidence at 5p. The other team fresh off their win looked over-heated and tired. Our team took advantage and scored immediately after the tip off. We scored 4 more baskets in the first 3 minutes of play to take a 10 - 0 lead. The head coach of the other team called timeout and berated his girls. It was embarrassing.

When the game resumed, one of the best players on the other team was assessed her 3rd foul and the hot headed coach stepped on to the court and yelled at the ref who made the call. The coach was assessed a technical for walking on the court. Our point guard buried the 2 technical foul shots and our team took a commanding 12-0 lead. The neutered coach retreated to the sidelines and contained his emotions for the rest of the game.

The game played on and our team continued to dominate possession. Our team was passing and cutting and beating the other team's man to man defense with ease, but layups and short jumpers were not falling. Still it was very obvious that our team was in control.

At the half way point of the first half, the other team called time. We were still winning 12-0, but should have been winning 24-0. After the time out, our opponent emerged and started employing a tightly packed zone. Our team kept trying to pass and cut in the narrow lanes, but met lots of resistance and tough physical play. The refs, however, were not making any calls. After several obvious fouls were ignored, our coach called timeout and talked to the ref. The ref told our coach to relax because we were obviously going to win the game.

Well, our team kept missing shots and got frustrated. Our frustration lead to fouls and the other team buried foul shot after foul shot. Our team was still dominating each possession, but soon it was a 1 point game.

With 2 minutes left in the game, our team went into a slow down mode. We passed the ball back and forth. Every now and then the other team would foul us trying to make a steal. We were not even close to the bonus, so after each foul we had to throw the ball in.

Sure enough while we were trying to runout the clock, one of the passes my daughter made was intercepted and lead to the winning basket with 16 seconds left on the clock. My little girl was devastated.

The Main Point

In principle, I do not have a problem refs controlling the speed and score of lopsided games, but not in a championship game between two obviously strong teams. We lost the game because our team went completely cold. The other team won the game because they never gave up. Unfortunately, the refs played a major role in the outcome and that is just not right.

Youth Sports: Two Sport Athlete Overcommitted (Part 4)

In the previous three posts, I have questioned whether it is fair for a young athlete to commit to two different teams in the same season? Is it fair to the respective coaches, fair to both sets of teammates, fair to all of the parents who spend a lot of money to put their kid on a top team with high expectations?

I talked to two people who have experienced the two sport situation. After my conversations, I started asking a new question.

Is it fair that a talented young athlete has to commit to one sport over another before he / she knows his / her full potential / passion in any given sport?

The other day, I was at an orthopedic doctor getting a mysterious bump on my shin looked at. (It turned out to be nothing.) Prior to seeing the doctor, a young assistant came into the room to take down some information. While she was asking me questions like when the lump appeared and what medications do I take and am I allergic to anything etc. She also asked me if I had kids, which led to a conversation about youth sports. She was dressed in sweats and looked very athletic, so I asked her if she was an athlete. She said that she had played basketball for a small division 3 college in Ohio. I asked her if she played any other sports growing up. She mentioned that she played club soccer and AAU basketball. Wow, just like my daughter, CC.

So I asked her the burning question - how did you play both? She said,

"You daughter is going to get lots of pressure to specialize from coaches, single sport teammates and parents of teammates. My advice is don't do specialize for as long as you can. My soccer training helped me become a better basketball player and my basketball training helped me become a better soccer player. And, I did not know which sport that I wanted to pursue in college until 9th grade. Play both as long as you can."

I also called a friend of mine to dig a bit deeper into the subject. My friend has two very athletic daughters. The oldest is playing volleyball in college. The youngest just signed a letter of intent to play soccer in college. Both played high level club basketball and volleyball through 8th grade.

Here is what he said after I told him about the pressure we were getting lately:

Wow this sounds so familiar as we had to do this for both of our girls.    

Kate and Shea played both club volleyball and club soccer up to 8^th grade (soccer and Volleyball are the same season in High school and club).  Both also played CYO volleyball and basketball.

My recommendation is to keep CC into as many sports as she want to be in and as you can manage.  I think this gives them a feel for what they want to do and they do not get burned out to early on one sport.   As they get closer to high school, girls start to level out

Youth Sports: Two Sport Athletes Overcommitted (Part 3)

Is it fair to commit to two different teams in the same season? Fair to the respective coaches, fair to both sets of teammates, fair to other parents who spend a lot of money to be on a team with high expectations?

In this series of posts, I am thinking out loud regarding the topic of specialization in one sport. I am trying to determine 1) if an youth athlete can do two sports and be respectful to coaches and teammates, 2) the best age to specialize and 3) the best way to manage a two sport schedule until the athlete reaches that recommended age for specialization.

In the previous post, the coach of my daughter's AAU team questioned our commitment to the team in a respectful email after we informed her that we would miss an out-of-town tournament next week to play soccer.

Here is my response to the coach.

Dear Coach, 

CC is overcommitted and I would like to apologize to you, the assistant coaches, the other players and their parents. We are truly sorry for the distraction this is causing. 

CC loves basketball - She is committed to getting better at basketball - believe me - she shoots for hours and hours in our backyard. She truly wants to be able to help the team with her outside shots. 

She also loves soccer. She plays on a top team in the highest select league. She is THE goalie for the team. In a surprising move before this season started, the soccer coach cut the other goalie for the team. He wanted to keep an extra forward. As a result, CC is vitally important to the success of her soccer team.

Last year with all the rain - most of the weekend soccer games were canceled and replayed during the week. As a result, we did not miss a single basketball game - all 49 or so games. We got lucky and a little over confident that we could really do it again. This year - no rain and lots of conflicts. And lots and lots of heartache for CC. If the soccer team had another goalie - she could balance her commitment more toward basketball - but she can't. 

My wife and I are conflicted - CC loves sports and wants to compete every day. We don't want her to specialize at this young age. CC does not want to specialize yet either, not until she knows how tall / big / fast she is going to be and what sport will provide the best opportunity for her to standout in high school and potentially college. We hate that a 11 year old girl

Youth Sports: Two Sport Athlete Overcommitted (Part 2)

In my previous post I asked the following question -

Is it fair to commit to two different teams in the same season? Fair to the respective coaches, fair to both sets of teammates, fair to other parents who spend a lot of money to be on a team with high expectations?


My daughter plays elite level soccer and AAU basketball. In the last post, I wrote about overcommitment and how we got into this situation. I also indicated that the basketball coach is not happy.

Here is the very well written and respectful email from the coach to the team. She wrote this email to the team because my daughter is not the only overcommitted girl on the team.

My comments are in color.


Hello Everyone, 
 
I am a little bit confused right now about what everyone has committed to with our team. When your daughter and your family joined this team you committed to a basketball first team. Yes, we work with you to make sure your daughter has every chance as a young lady to play different sports, but I think, by me being so nice about this, it is coming back to haunt our team.

CC showing her value as the goalkeeper.

We were informed that this was a basketball first program when my daughter tried out for the team and again when she accepted a position. The previous year we were able to do both with few conflicts, but this year there have been a lot of conflicts. My daughter is now the lone goalie on the soccer team, so her commitment to soccer is paramount this year. To make matter worse, my daughter is not the only two sport athlete on the basketball team. Three of her teammates also play elite level soccer.
  
 
We are suppose to be the TOP AAU team, but I cant hold a practice, game or tournament with all 10 girls attending. It really has to do with practice and wanting to challenge this special group of girls, talented girls. I would love to see these girls stay together for years to come, but we need to know that we can rely on each other and that each teammate wants to be apart of this special team. 




We are suppose to the a top AAU team, in fact, the basketball team finished 1st in Ohio and 9th in the country last year. We lost key three players from that team but the team added three new girls. The team has a lot of talent and expectations were high coming into the season. However, for the first time these girls are struggling against other top AAU teams.




My daugther, CC,  has not missed any of the mandatory team practices due to conflicts with soccer. She practices soccer Monday (team), Wednesday (team) and Friday (goalie training). Her basketball team practices are on Sunday (team), Monday (optional skills and drills) and Tuesday (team).  She does miss a basketball skills and drills practice every week. I am OK with this, because my daughter practices all the time in the driveway with her brother.


Regarding games, CC has missed 1 day of a two day tournament and will miss an entire

Youth Sports: Two Sport Athlete Overcommitted (Part 1)

Is it fair to commit to two different teams in the same season? Fair to the respective coaches, fair to both sets of teammates, fair to other parents who spend a lot of money to be on a team with high expectations?

My two sport athletic daughter is over-committed and her basketball coach is not happy about it. I don't know what to do about it. Over the next several posts, I am going to think through the problem. I am not a fan of specialization at age 11, but we obviously need to address the situation to be fair to her teams.

Last year, CC found out that a soccer teammate named Mel played both AAU basketball and elite soccer at the same time. CC loves basketball and wanted to do the same. I found it hard to believe that you could do both, but I promised to investigate it. I asked the Mel's dad about it. He told me that they have been handling it with relatively few conflicts. He also mentioned that Mel's basketball team was holding a tryout over the next two weekends.

I looked at the basketball tryout schedule for first weekend and realized that we wouldn't be able to make it due to an out-of-town soccer tournament. That should have been my first clue. I looked at the second weekend and as bad luck would have it, my daughter had a soccer game 60 miles away from the basketball tryout. At first, I did not think we could do both, but I figured out that if the soccer game started and ended on time, we could possibly make it to the basketball tryout 5 to 10 minutes late.

It was a rainy day and I was hoping that soccer was going to get canceled, but it didn't. Fortunately, it was raining so hard, that the refs decided to start the game early and cut half-time short. This gave us an opportunity. Unfortunately, the rain snarled traffic and slowed us and we arrived at the tryout 50 minutes late. That should have been my second clue.

CC took the floor with complete confidence and I took my place on the bleachers. I then did a quick count of the number of girls on the court vying for 10 spots. There were 44 girls. After missing the entire first tryout and 50 minutes of the second, I figured CC's chances were slim to none. I thought to myself, that it would probably be for the best.

After the tryout, I told CC how proud I was of her for confidently jumping right in there. I told her that she can definitely play at that level, but that the chances of being noticed during the last 40 minutes were not good.

The following night, I got a call from the coach. CC made the team the team for the winter. We were also informed that another tryout would be held in February for the AAU National Tournament team.

We accepted the invitation to play on the winter team. CC's soccer team competed in Futsal in the winter, but the winter season for soccer is pretty laid back. CC only missed 3 of 20 Futsal games due to conflicts.

In February, CC made the National Tournament team and we accepted. To my surprise, Mel decided to decline her offer. Her dad thought it was too much. WHAT??#@%@ He convinced us that it could be done. That should have been my third clue.

Well, thanks to a lot of rain last spring, most of the weekend soccer games were rescheduled for the weekdays. And thanks to luck, the 5 basketball tournaments were on different weekends than the 3 soccer tournaments. CC did not miss any soccer games (19) or any spring basketball games (49).

The Main Point

An 11 year old athlete should not have to specialize in one sport, but it is so difficult to do in this over the top youth sports world with year round teams.

This year is a different story all together. It has not rained much this spring and there are lots of conflicts and the basketball coach is not exactly happy. More in the next post - including a letter from the coach.

Youth Basketball: The Confidence to Wear Pink Shoes

Wordless Wednesday

The Main Point

Who do you think is the most confident basketball player on this team?

Youth Basketball: Rising Above it All

Wordless Wednesday

2 points at a critical time.

The Main Point

Nic works hard with his strength, agility and conditioning coach. Of course having a mom who held her HS high jump record doesn't hurt.

Youth Basketball Routs: How Big a Win is too Big?

Last night, the Notre Dame Fighting Irish Women's Basketball team beat Pitt 120 to 44. If you have never seen Skylar Diggins play ball you need to. 

Last night in men's college hoops, the West Carolina Catamounts beat the Toccoa Falls Eagles of the National Christian College Athletic Association by 102 points (141-39).

Big wins like these on the youth sports scene really upset people. Big wins like these generate questions for me.

Question One: 

What is the politically correct margin of victory when a far superior team plays an inferior team? Should the team stop when the point differential get to 10 points, 20 points, 30 points? I ask the question because I really do not know.

Question Two: 

And when the team, that is in total control, gets to the politically correct point spread what should the team do? Should they play an embarrassing game of keep away? Has anyone asked the losing team why they didn't slow down the pace of play? Surely, the team getting blown-out could have dribbled uncontested at the half court-line for several minutes each possession to kill time.

Over the years, my kids have been on both sides of a blowout. I can tell you that it is no fun to be on the losing side, but it does not anger me unless the coach of the superior team is classless. 

Here is an example: I was completely angered when my son's team was getting blowout in a league championship game. The league was sponsored by a local indoor facility were the rules are somewhat lax compared to sanctioned leagues. My son's team had beaten the other team in the regular season so his team was confident that they could win the championship trophy if they played their game. The opponent that showed up for the game wore the same uniforms as the team my son's team played earlier in the season, but several of the players in the uniforms were different. These new players were awesome and completely dominated the game. If that were not bad enough, the coach of the opposing team called timeout with 24 seconds left in the game, a game his team was winning by 43. He called timeout to set up a scoring play. The coach was a completely classless jackass.

Question Three: 

So what is the coach of a far superior basketball team to do? Here are my thoughts:

1) Stop the full court press as soon as you realize that your team is going to win comfortably. (A 15 point lead is a typical time to consider calling off the dogs. Some leagues restrict full court presses after a team gets to a certain big lead.)

2) Play your non-starters more than normal to give them game time experience. You never know when you will need a reserve to cover for a starting player who becomes injured or who has fouled out at a key juncture in the game.

3) Make sure that your starters get some quality minutes too. They worked hard all week and deserve to play. This is especially important for the star players who

Youth Sports: This Parent Needs a Hug

Yes

At the end of almost every youth sports season, most coaches give a speech about the team. Invariably during the speech, the coach will instruct the young athletes to give their parents a hug and ask them to thank mom and dad for all the time they sacrificed to allow them to play.

Well, the season has just started and I need a hug.

Last week, I missed my beloved NY Giants play so that I could watch my daughter play volleyball. After that volleyball match, I didn't rush home to watch Tebow-mania and the Broncos win against the Steelers because I was watching my daughter play basketball.

Today, I will not be going to see the Villanova Men's basketball team (my alma mater) play the University of Cincinnati like I do every time Nova comes to town. No, I will be watching my daughter play hoops again. And tomorrow I will again miss my Giants play if my daughter's basketball team advances to the finals of the MLK tournament that they are in. They won the tournament last year so chances are good I will be watching my daughter shoot open three pointers while the Eli Manning is throwing TD passes to an open Victor Cruz.

The Main Point

I love my daughter and thank God for the DVR. Now I'm just waiting for a device to pause my kids games so that can play more golf again.

Youth Basketball: Flagrant Foul on Social Media?

This blog covers the good, the bad and the ugly of youth sports and this week the ugly raised its head yet again.

A dad of a high school player took a video camera to a HS game to capture highlights of his kid. He also captured the attention of the tiny TriCityHerald and 5 million and counting YouTube viewers.

As you will see, the game was physical, very physical. The dad with the video camera took exception to the refereeing in the game and wanted to make a point that the league needed better officiating. So after the game, he edited the video to showcase six tough fouls committed by two senior players on the Connell (Wash.) High School team. He then uploaded the video onto Facebook and YouTube. 

The Main Point

I am calling an unintentional foul on the dad with the video. He wanted Yakima, Washington to take notice, but the world was watching. This dad failed to realize was the power of social media.

I'm also calling one foul on the ref (not 5 fouls) and a foul on HS basketball rules.

Finally, I am calling a flagrant foul on the coach of the team for not controlling his players by taking them out of the game himself. Basketball is a rough and tough game but it is not a street fight. (I added this after reading the comment by Clarence Gains II below - Clarence was so right on this account)

Here is my take on the situation.

1) I think that the most difficult officiating job in youth sports is basketball refereeing. There are fouls on almost every single possession in basketball. The ref can't call every foul or the game will last too long. Conversely, the ref can't let every foul go or the game will get out of hand. So every play provides a coach or a fan the opportunity to complain. And because the ref is so close to the fans and coaches they hear an earful all game long (As you can hear in the video). I good ref just ignores the chatter and calls a balanced game.

2) I can only watch the edited clip, but from what I can see, the refs only made one judgement mistake. Remember the refs do not have the luxury of watching the play over and over again. They should have called a flagrant personal foul on the foul called #5. The player, who committed that foul, should have been ejected from the game and suspended for the next game as dictated by High School Rules. Otherwise the refs called all the fouls. Yes the other fouls highlighted in the video were tough fouls, but did they rise to the level of automatic ejection and one game suspension? I'm not so sure.

NFHS (U.S. high school) rules define a flagrant foul as a personal or technical foul that is extreme or severe. A flagrant personal / intentional foul involves excessive or severe contact during a live ball. A flagrant technical foul involves unsportsmanlike conduct that is extreme in nature, or excessive or severe contact during a dead ball. Fighting is also considered a flagrant technical foul.

The penalty for a flagrant foul in high school is the immediate ejection of the offending player, plus two free throws and a throw-in for the opposing team. The ejected player is also suspended during the next game played by his or her team.

In the NBA there are two levels of flagrant fouls - level one and level two. NBA referees have discretion in determining which level to call. The penalty for a flagrant 1 foul is two free throws and the fouled team gets the ball back. A flagrant 2 call also results in two free throws and the ball back, but the   offending player is immediately ejection too. A player who receives two flagrant 1 level fouls in a single game is also ejected upon the second foul. Just like in soccer where two yellow cards equals a red card.

I think that HS should have a similar rule to the NBA. This would give the refs another tool in their toolbox to control the game. A tough foul could result in a steep penalty (2 free throws and the ball back which could result in a 4 point swing) without ejecting / suspending a player who might have been playing out of control or overly aggressive but not mean spiritedly. Let's face it, a ref is going to hesitate making a judgement call that would result in an automatic ejection and suspension.

3) The dad inadvertently demonized two players he does not know. Were the offending players mean spirited or simply football players who are not agile enough to play at the speed required for High School basketball? I do not know and neither does the dad with the video camera. One thing I do know is that you have to think long and hard about what you post online because once it is out there, it is out there.

CORRECTION

The video shooter and editor was an uncle not a dad. And apparently according to this newspaper account, the uncle distributed the video to ESPN and other news sources via twitter.

Youth Basketball: Playing Older Competition

What do you think about younger teams playing against older teams?

Last year, my daughter's AAU team finished #1 in Ohio and ended the season #9 in nation at the conclusion of the 2011 AAU National Championship in Orlando, Florida. One of the reasons for the success achieved in state and national tournaments can be attributed to playing against older, faster and bigger competition leading up to the top tournaments.

The coach is following the same path this year. She entered the 5th grade team in a 6th grade winter league and in 6th grade tournaments.

Playing older, faster and bigger competition has advantages and disadvantages. The following advantages assumes that the younger team can actually compete with the older teams.

Advantages

• The team learns how to play against strong teams.
• The team learns how to break the press against stronger, faster and often tougher guards.
• The team learns how to get rebounds despite being outsized.
• The team learns how to win close games instead of blowing out every team.
• The team learns how to lose - going 40 and 0 before a tough national tournament can add to the stress.
• The team learns how to shoot over taller competition.
• The team learns how to create space and move without the ball.
• The team learns how to help on defense because older, faster kids will often breakdown a younger defender.
• The team learns how to work hard for points because nothing comes easy.

Disadvantages

• The team could lose confidence.
• The faster paced game could create bad habits - picking up the dribble to early, forcing bad passes, avoiding drives to the rim, etc.
• Some players could get hurt against bigger players. Our team is very big for a 5th grade team so this is not a problem as a team, but some players on the team are undersized. My daughter is one of those smaller players.

The Main Point

I worry about the injury risk because my daughter is so small compared to most of the older competitors, but I am not worried about her confidence waning. She does get disappointed when she doesn't play well against a bigger and faster opponent but she doesn't get discouraged. Conversely, her confidence soars when she plays great against players who should be better than her based on their bigger size and extra year of experience.

Regarding bad habits, in the beginning of last year my daughter was overwhelmed by the faster and stronger players and she often pick up her dribble too quickly and made hasty passes. Still, she never seemed discouraged or intimidated. And the coach did not give up on her. She progressed greatly over the year and this year she moves the ball with so much more confidence and purpose.  

Overall, I think that teams should play up against older teams if they are exceedingly better than the same age competition in their area. A good team that wants to do well in state and national tournaments needs to find the right competition level to challenge them and make them better. For me enjoyment of the game and confidence is the key to success, so a team should never move up to an older league if it will erode the confidence of the players or take the fun out of the game for the players.

This past weekend, CC's 5th grade team came in second in a 6th grade Cincinnati Christmas Classic Tournament. They lost a low scoring physical game in the finals 15-18 against the 6th grade team from the same select basketball club. CC was the smallest player on the court, but she scored 6 points and was called upon to attempt the game tying 3 point shot with 3.5 seconds left. She got the shot off, but it did not go in. She was proud in defeat.