Coach Like A Champion

Back in August I attended a workshop entitled Play Like a Champion. This workshop was presented by Notre Dame University and was a required workshop for all coaches who coach youths in the Catholic Diocese of Erie. The major premise of this workshop was that sports, although an undeniable aspect of our daily lives, is not the end all when working with youth. Sports at the grade school and even in the junior high and junior varsity level should be developmental. This is where we teach the children the fundamentals of the game. This is where we teach the kids to have sportsmanship and respect for their teammates as well as the other team. Too often we get caught up in the importance of winning. The old Al Davis tune - "Just Win Baby" gets played way too often in high school sports, and unfortunately grade school sports.

Don't get me wrong... I am not one of those feel good radicals who doesn't believe in competition. I love competition. Competition is what makes our country great. However, there comes a time and a place where we have to draw the line of what is competition and what is "win at all costs".

Today, I witnessed a failure of the "Play Like a Champion" workshop. At a 6th grade tournament at the Notre Dame grade school in Hermitage, Pa. I witnessed two coaches who completely forgot about their teams and tuned their headsets into the old Al Davis "Just Win Baby" tune.

Meadville was playing St. Joseph School. The Meadville team clearly was a better, taller, and quicker team. However, when Meadville was winning by 19 points ( 19-0), the Meadville coach was still pushing his team to do a full court press. The Meadville coach left his starters in after halftime where the score was 42-0. Meadville crushed St. Joseph School 66-8.

The kids from St. Joe's were demoralized. But before I completely make the Meadville coach into a demon, The St. Joe's coach had a big hand in this defeat as well. The St. Joe's coach left her first team in over 80% of the game. The second team sat on the bench and did not learn a single thing except that "we got beat pretty bad!" What made matters worse was that a first team player for St. Joe's should not have been playing at all since he was sick for two days prior to the game with the flu. The kid was very weak and could not hit the rim or backboard with his free throws. Meanwhile, there were 6 kids on the bench- sitting on their hands- saying, "yep, we are getting beat pretty bad!"

After the pounding, St. Joe's had to play a game in the "losers bracket". That game was immediately after the Meadville debacle. Once again, the same starters for St. Joe's started and the same 6 kids sat on the bench. The St. Joe's starters were dead on their feet by the middle of the second quarter. Reynolds went on to beat St. Joes 42-28. It was a shame since St. Joe's was a better team than Reynolds. But after playing back to back games with no rest in between and very little rotation of players, defeat for St. Joe's was inevitable.

So- what did the kids learn... mmm "We got beat- pretty bad".

All of us who are involved in sports. The coaches, the players, and the officials and the fans need to stop and take stock in what the game is all about. "Just Win Baby" may work in the Pro's and at the Collegiate level, but it has no place in High School, Junior Varsity, Junior High or Grade School Sports. We have a responsibility to teach our children to play like champions. In order to play like a champ, you have to coach like a champ!