by Rich Briggs

Created on: June 24, 2008

I am a youth basketball coach, having coached junior high girls basketball for the past six years and going into my seventh year in the fall. A sidebar to this is coaching the same girls in the summer in a junior varsity league. The summer league is more loosely structured and allows the kids to learn the game in a playground fashion, but in a controlled environment.

The first thing I learned coaching youth at this level is that yelling and criticism has to be held to a minimum. Children at this age are learning to find themselves in this world and constant yelling defeats the purpose. Since I am also a teacher, I believe this helps with my approach to coaching. I am an optimist, a glass half full kind of guy, and I pass this along to the players. I work with my head coach in this endeavor and I believe my approach helps the girls to succeed. We have taken four different groups to the playoffs the last four years and the last two groups lost a combined one game, and this year's group won our first playoff game in the program's history. This leaves us with something to build on.

At this level, criticism must be constructive. They must be told about the mistakes they are making, but they must be corrected in a positive manner. Practices are structured to move along quickly so that the kids do not get bored doing any one thing. Each drill has a purpose, whether it is ball handling skills, conditioning, playing defense the proper way, running offensive sets, or simple shooting drills.

Winning and losing with class and dignity is very important at this level. I have told my teams in the past that I will not be a part of any group that displays poor sportsmanship, nor will I be a part of any team that trades words with another team. My players are taught to keep their mouths shut and to run their offenses and defenses as instructed. They are told to beat their opponents on the scoreboard, not with bad language and retalitory actions.

It has gotten extremely difficult to watch pro, and for that matter college, basketball in this era because of the poor sportsmanship that is being displayed. I would never tolerate any of this behavior from any of my players. The pro and college levels need to be showing better examples for our youth.

While external factors are part of the deal of coaching, regardless of the level, this needs to be dealt with in a rational and professional manner. Kids are playing the game to have fun, learn something about themselves and working with teammates, and to become better players. They don't need external pressures at this level when they are still learning the game.

One of the most rewarding things anyone can do during the course of their lifetime is to coach a youth sport and watch kids learn to appreciate the game and have fun along the way. You get to see these kids get better as they get older, mature, and become teenagers and young adults. I have watched several of our girls grow and become better basketball players by starting with us on the junior high level and continue their careers at the varsity level. They have improved each year and it's nice to know that we had something to do with their progress playing for us at the lower level of youth basketball.

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