The thirty-seven years coaching high school basketball, I embraced two major objectives, which if successfully addressed rendered the main outcome goal. First, I wanted to develop a year-to-year all-level program focus protecting its integrity and secondly, develop and sustain a basketball family atmosphere. If I could accomplish those two objectives then the day I would leave that coaching position, I would leave a basketball program in better shape than I inherited.
In today's blog, I wish to address one growing factor regarding the second objective; developing and sustaining a basketball family. We must acknowledge that the relationship dynamics in high school sports can be most difficult to harness and move in a positive direction. That relationship between player-parents-coach. That said, it is paramount that parents and players have a constructive format, which they agree to follow when concerned about their child's participation in basketball. Our programs developed and insisted on following a specific communication process.
In recent times, I note the potential for program destruction coming via the Facebook-Internet interaction. As a coach, I could not control what those outside our program said or did. As the coach, I was totally responsible for protecting the program and I did. Regarding the Facebook-Internet factor, a smart coach would have parents and players sign a pledge, i.e. Athletic code-pledge that they would NOT engage in those Facebook Internet exchanges while participating in the basketball program. This would be an acknowledgment that 'the program's' integrity is our central obligation.
This agreement is not some sort of an indictment of free speech. It is an agreement that as a committed member of a group with a mission, we must 'circle the wagons' and protect 'The Family.'
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