Championship Ramblings

Tuesday Jan 12, 2010: We lost a heart breaker last night against the number 2 team in the state of Michigan. Schoolcraft showed all the poise, skill and confidence of a highly ranked team that had been in the state championship game the year before. The final score was 80 – 66 but everyone who witnessed the game will tell you it was a lot closer than the score at the buzzer. Early in the 4th quarter we actually held a 3 point lead.
I have been asked many times by fellow coaches, “How does someone get a team from being average to playing like a champion?”. The thing that I have realized more than anything is that the answer to that question is always changing. It depends on relationships with players, physical and mental ability of your athletes as well as the system of play.
One of the keys is to get kids to believe they can be champions. Championships can be relative; one team thinking that winning a league title is a great accomplishment while another may think that only winning a State Championship is success. Each coach and team must define their own success.
To get a team to believe they can be a champion they must witness a team playing at that level. We purposefully go to Hope Team Camp each summer so that we can witness and play against championship caliber opponents. This gives our kids a feel for what it will take to get to that level.
We are currently competing with the upper level teams in our league but our record is only 2-5. All five losses are to good teams that deserved the victory. However, all five losses could have been wins IF a few little things could have been taken care of. The number one thing we are struggling to achieve is leadership. Our leaders are not getting the most out of their teammates.