Saturday, I attended the Niki Showcase girl’s basketball event at Miramonte High School in Orinda. Some of the best teams in California were playing, and the games and players were certainly worth the admission price.

However, it’s been very troubling to me to watch and observe various coach’s (and sometimes the parents as well) behavior during these events.

At Saturday’s event, two teams in particular, one from Concord, one from Vallejo, won their games, but there was no joy in their victories. It was sad to see these two teams win and see so little or no excitement by the coaches, and what was even worse, to see no joy by the players.

Having been around girl’s basketball for over 40 years, and athletics for over 50 years has allowed me to observe games and coaches with a clear perspective. I coached 16 years of girl’s basketball at the high school and college levels, and also coached 4 years of varsity football at the high school level. 20 years of coaching along with seeing hundreds of basketball games, and seeing coaches behaviors has been both a wonderful and disturbing experience.

Coaches yelling and berating 13-17 year old girls, screaming at them, being overly critical, along with pouting and being negative in their evaluations is really disturbing. But what is worse is the lack of leadership and the lack of self-control that these coaches exhibit. Seeing a coach literally self-destruct……being somewhat in control during the first half of a game, to being utterly “out of it” during the second half, even while their team is winning the game, speaks to the fact that these coaches are not up to the task of being an effective leader and coach.

The other six coaches at this great day of basketball were balanced in their behavior. Steve Pizzoli, coach of Salesian High is a wonderful example. I have observed this guy coach for 8 years……he is calm, balanced, never yells, and he teaches his players during the games! His players truly enjoy playing for him, regardless if they win or lose. His teams always have a positive spirit!

There is a story of Bill Walsh of the 49ers stopping practice the very first practice of his tenure as the 49er head coach. He pulled all the coaches aside and told them to stop yelling at the players…and to start teaching them…the rest is history.

I was not a saint as a coach. I sometimes raised my voice and sometimes got too overly excited as well…but, the very first girl’s basketball team I coached gave me a plaque at the end of the season that said the following:

“TO WIN THE GAME IS GREAT…TO PLAY THE GAME IS GREATER…TO LOVE THE GAME IS GREATEST”

I always tried to live up to this standard.

I wish more coaches could see themselves and the way they behave. I think they would surely be embarrassed. If not, then maybe it’s time for them to consider doing something else.

Proper leadership, self control, good communication skills, and excellent teaching abilities leads to excellence…negativity does not!

LEARN…MAKE CHANGES…EVOLVE…

GROW…BE A POSITIVE ROLE MODEL, is what this should be about for these coaches to consider.

Ron Wheatley

Benicia

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