Becoming Bobby

I love basketball.  As a kid, I dreamed of playing basketball for Indiana University.  I had a picture of its famous point guard, Steve Alford, posted in my room growing up and I cut out the Sports Illustrated article where Steve Alford told how he proposed to his future wife by putting the engagement ring in the basketball net and having her find it there. (That's not how I proposed to J., by the way...)

I proudly wore a red Indiana Hoosiers hat and dreamed that one day I would get recruited by Indiana's legendary (and volatile) basketball coach, Bob Knight.  I thought that if I were ever a basketball coach, I'd want to be as good a coach as Bobby was.

For the past couple of months, I've been coaching R.'s basketball team.  It has been an interesting experience.  The league is quite competitive--especially when you consider that the kids are only in the 3rd and 4th grades.  Despite the fact that our team has lost every single game, I've been accused of "poaching" by another coach (i.e. stealing a player from his team) and I've tried to teach my players--many of whom have never played organized basketball before--the fundamentals of basketball.

Swish!

Usually what happens in youth basketball is that there is a draft where the coaches get to pick the players for their team to make sure that there is some competitive balance in the league.  That apparently didn't happen this year.  Instead, the coaches just put their teams together and there were about two teams that didn't have coaches.  Mine was one of those teams.  We got everyone that was left over.

I was asked to coach after my team had already been "assembled" but I was excited to be able to help because I love basketball (if you couldn't tell from this blog).  I told the parents that I personally didn't care if we lost every single game but that my goal was for the kids to be better basketball players by the end of the season.

I admit, it's been frustrating at times.  I couldn't believe it when another coach accused me of "poaching" one of his players.  I didn't, of course, but I was kind of confused why he wasn't more worried about just coaching the players on his team.

The lack of experience of our players is also frustrating.  Last night at practice, for example, we only had three kids show up (even though we obviously need the practice).  We spent 45 minutes practicing lay-ups with the team goal of making 10 of them in a row.  We couldn't do it!  (The closest we got was 7 in a row several times.)  That was frustrating, but I credit the kids for staying enthusiastic and for not giving up.  And they did get better at making their lay-ups.

But it has been fun to see the kids get better from week to week and over the course of the season.  They have a lot more confidence now than they did in the first game.  One of our best players on the team had never played basketball before, but had three baskets in our game today.  Another one of our kids--who also had never played before--didn't know how to dribble the basketball in the first game.  (He just held the ball and walked around the court.)  Now he knows how to dribble.  Another kid who had never played before managed to nail a three pointer during the game today.  It is exciting to see the kids get better.

No One Ever Accused Bob Knight of Being Too Laid Back

Because they've gotten better, my expectations and hopes for them have gotten higher.  And that is how I found myself almost "becoming Bobby" today.  (I can't take credit for the title of this post.  I "borrowed" it from a great post written by Ashley Carter.  She has an awesome blog that you should check out if you haven't already.)

We were in a tight game this morning during our weekly game and we even had the lead in the fourth quarter.  That's never happened before.  Another thing that has never happened before is that we actually ran a play correctly and R. (my son) scored a basket off the play.  It was probably my proudest moment as a coach this season.

Also significant was that my son, R., fouled out during the game.  That has never happened to him before and he was so sad because he thought that he had done something wrong.  Rather I tried to reassure him that sometimes it's good to foul in basketball.  Moreover, I was so proud of him because it was the best game that I'd ever seen him play in his entire life.  He hustled, played great defense, and made three baskets during the game!  I know he's my son--but any parent would have been proud to see him play out there.  And as a parent, I felt his sadness that he was feeling at the end of the game.

R. Gets Ready To Shoot a Free Throw Last Year
(It's hard to take pictures when you're coaching...so no pix from this season, sadly!)

And even though I started the season as the "anti-Bobby" in terms of coaching temperament, the excitement of the game (and the emotions) made me want for our team to be able to win.  I never got close to throwing a chair (like Coach Knight infamously did during one game) but I thought about throwing my clipboard at one point.

Ultimately, we lost (again), but we have one more chance next week in the last game of the season.  And whether we win or lose, I still believe that our team will be winners because of the individual improvement that the players have made this season.  And even if it's an exciting game, I promise to keep my chair firmly planted on the sidelines!