For as long as I can remember, basketball has always been something that makes me happy. It has always helped me to forget about rough days or to help me recover mentally when needed.
Basketball has always been something that I needed to be a part of. Of course in my early years it was playing the game that brought me happiness but those days are gone. I now find that joy in, not only watching my daughter play, but training and teaching others the game as well. But it took me a little while to find my purpose in the sport.
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I remember when my wife and I signed my oldest son up for his first year of Rec basketball. I was that dad that said, “I don’t want to coach my kids. I just want to be a fan and watch.” That lasted all of about one season.
As a parent, I’d sit and watch practices and I’d find myself dissapointed because I could see the kids weren’t learning to play the game. To no fault of their own, the coaches in the league at the time, were volunteers (which I think is tremendous and I applaud that) but unfortunately hadn’t really played the game. I found this to be true not only on my sons team but throughout the league. As the season had gone by I noticed more and more that it was never about learning to play the game, it had become “What do we need to do to win a championship?” Which in my opinion, still applies in a lot of leagues today.
I spent the next few months really studying the game in our area. Going to as many games as possible at every level (youth through High School). What I learned in that time is that, at least in our area of South Jersey, the system was broken. Basketball at the high school level was subpar – which made sense when watching the way things were going at the youth level. (This is a topic in itself which I’ll touch on another day.)
The following year I decided that I wanted to start coaching but I wanted to do things differently. To be honest, I didn’t know anything about coaching but my approach was to develop and teach the kids the fundamentals and help them grow over the course of the season. We did a bunch of dribbling drills, layup drills, defensive drills, etc. Each practice I tried to bring something that the kids could learn and grow from. And we had a ton of fun doing it.
At the time, gym times were limited, and we’d share the gyms with other teams. Though I didn’t think what we were doing at the time was anything special but I remember coaches and parents from other teams glancing and watching how we did things as if it was something they hadn’t seen before.
In all honesty I wasn’t sure what to expect that season. To this day I wouldn’t be able to tell you our record or who won the championship but I remember two things:
1. Each one of those kids showed growth from the season start and season end.
2. This was the start of something special.
The following year, just as it was time to register for the new season, I remember getting a call from the league director at the time. He said, “Our registrations are coming in and I’m getting a lot of requests from parents wanting their kid to be on your team.” At the time I didn’t really understand what transpired – for me I was just showing kids how to play. But something I had done and the way I did it was well received.
For me that was just the beginning.
