First time coach for my sons basketball team. We are struggling as we are a small team but are getting better. As the season winds down, I am losing some players (some of our best players) to baseball to the point where we may be down to 5 from 9 for a 40 minute game. Other coaches tell me this happens often and is just part of life. I just don't see how a parent can commit their kid to a team knowing they will miss a lot of games. Tell me not to be mad....
This **** happens. Just deal with it brah I remember i was mad as *** in High School cause we had a good JV team. This one dude was a fukin beast on our team, i mean he was swole as *** 30+ inch vert, going ham in the paint dominating fools. Playoffs where just around the corner and we lost him because he was also playing football. That was our year man
Just think of it as an opportunity to do something amazing with a short handed group. This will sound pathetic, but my best memory playing sports was when I was in 8th grade and playing in a YMCA basketball league. Our team was pretty good and hadn’t lost a game but the last game of the season fell around a holiday and we had several guys out of town and couldn’t play. On top of that the previous week one of our better players had broken his leg and he had a cast on it, was on crutches. So the day of the game we only had 4 healthy, present players to play. The rules stated that you have to have at least 5 players to start a game but after that you can finish the game with as few as 3. So at tip off we had our 4 healthy players on the floor with the guy on crutches just barely on the court. After tip off he hobbled over to the bench and we played 4 on 5 the whole game. And we beat the snot out of them. They were a much bigger team too. It was freaking exhilarating.
Use it as a good lesson to the other kids about sticking with their commitments, but hell yeah, you have every right to be pissed. It's not fair to the other kids at all.
Your mistake is personalizing winning and losing in kid's sports. The kids are just there to play, the same as if you were teaching a fingerpainting class: time filled, had fun.
Not all parents are in it for the same reason as you are, some are in it just to get their kids some exercise, baseball starts this time of year, and it is a big time-sync, basketball is the 3rd or 4th sport for most people so it gets chopped. My Youngest is on a select basketball team in Austin, and even we lose players to others sports at this point, and as a matter of fact, he plays soccer and basketball at the same time and any conflict that comes up, he chooses soccer as his number 1. So, just be up front and tell the coaches that - as a point of reference, we have 3 basketball games on Saturday, but he will miss the one on Sunday due to his soccer commitments = and he is the starting PG - the coach understands - it is just kids sports after all. DD
This pretty much sums it up. Parents who are heavy into sports often put their desires over their kids.
wait, they make the kids play 40 minute games? How old are these kids? Man, the IL high school basketball association doesn't even play 40 minutes. They play 32.
Wait, I don't care about winning and losing. I care about parents making a committment for their kids to play on a team knowing they have already committed them to play on another team at the same time and not disclosing up front that they won't be playing the last few games. We had a draft, and I guess knowing that, if I had known the players I drafted would miss the last 3 games, I would have drafted other plays that didn't have that conflict. Also mad that the rest of the kids will have to play the whole game without a break (heck they only give us 2 1 minute timeouts a game). I guess my point is, don't sign up your kid to play a sport (or at least disclose) if they are going to miss 1/3 of the games because of a conflict with another sport.
Don't let your kid play 2 sports that overlap, really? And if the kid all of a sudden wants to play a different sport when that sports' season comes around you'd be butthurt too? I don't have any kids or even like kids but nah, bro. Instead just get over it.
Is it too late to redraw the district lines or play some ineligibles? Make it happen. I once was part of a team who won a game with only 4 players left on the court due to our version of Dennis Rodman committing more techs than one can count on fingers. One my great memories. Play on!
As a hs freshman basketball coach, I understand what you're going through. Even at this level, I lose kids to UIL tournaments, band competitions, personal appointments...etc. However, we don't tolerate them committing to park leagues, and if they choose park leagues over this team, we pick up their stuff. Yes, the parents should have let you know early on so you could your adjustments. Nothing wrong with feeling angry. UIL games at the hs level are 4-8 minute quarters. 40 minutes is a long time. On a side note, my last practice of the season is tomorrow morning!!!! Been having morning practice since October 29th. I'll finally get to sleep that extra two hours in the a.m.
40 minute games? I'm assuming this is a preteen age group, but I was just at a 7th grade jr. high game and i think their quarters were 6 or 8 minutes.
I'm guessing it's either two 20-minute halves with running clocks or four 10-minute quarters with the same.
I'm with you. A few missed games is one thing, but if they're missing a good chunk of the season, probably shouldn't have committed in the first place. If you only have 5 or 6 players, that kind of ruins the team.
