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The last team I coached was the summer of 2006. It was a squad of primarily 16 year old players destined to compete in a couple of Michael T White events and the Nike River City Classic event normally held in Memphis. This was a squad. Three of the young ladies on this team eventually ended up getting scholarships at Division 1 schools. One young lady was named freshman of the year for her conference, one participated in the national championship game her freshman year and the other one is doing quite well as a contributor for her squad.
I took coaching summer basketball seriously. When I coached, I was spending my time, money and energy into preparing the young ladies to not only compete in highly competitive environments but also giving these young ladies the opportunity to showcase their skills to the college coaches and scouts that were present at the games.
At one of my practices a young lady decided that she did not want to give full effort for the day. Not only that, she did not want to run during sprints. I noticed her lack of effort at the beginning of practice and attempted to encouraged her. As time went by her efforts where still not there. When it got to the sprints, I called her to the side to discuss and her attitude was just terrible. After a moment of speaking, I politely dismissed her from MY TEAM. I did not dismiss her solely on the single practice but I knew it was coming by the way she carried herself and the people she hung around.
I considered my team as an ELITE team. These young ladies had the potential of playing Division 1 basketball. As I mentioned earlier 3 went D1 and the majority of the others went junior college. I was not going to waste my time nor a college coaches time showing off a player that couldn’t give me effort in my own practice. Why would I pass her own to a college coach or program. I could not allow this player to become a cancer spreading negativity and mediocrity amongst the team.
My philosophy is I rather have a team of hard workers and young ladies that’s willing to pay attention and follow directions. Than a team of super stars that think they know it all and won’t give any effort.