4th Grade Girls Basketball Game

Remember that 4th grade girls’ basketball game I mentioned last week? I need to ask you something and you can e-mail back your answer. The question is: Am I being too critical of Team B’s coach? In order for you to make a good decision, here are the details of the game.

Comparing Personnel of Team A and B
Before the game, Team B’s coach told me, “We’re playing a team [Team A] that has played together more than we have. We’re probably going to get killed today.” 

Team B’s star player was his daughter, a point guard but nearly the tallest player. When she was not in the game, she sat next to her dad and they discussed things alone. I was immediately suspicious as to why he was coaching. Like so many youth coaches, was he in it primarily for his daughter? If, after watching the game, it was evident he had made an effort to really teach all of the players (what I was hoping for), my suspicions would be unfounded.  

The Difference the Game Revealed; Specialization
As the game began, I saw the difference between the two teams. In my opinion, raw talent, conditioning, and height were fairly equal. Team A might have been a little quicker but that may have been due to more experience. (Experience results in faster reaction which may give the appearance of quickness.) The main reason for Team A’s superiority, at least on the offensive end, was its players were specialized while Team B’s were not. 

On Team A, each player was told what and what not she was allowed to do. The offense was initiated by a point guard who had no left hand. (She actually had a left hand but she couldn’t dribble well with it.) She dribbled to her right until she found an opening in the defense. If she did, she dribbled through the opening, stopped, and shot the ball. If she couldn’t get in and shoot, she passed to the high-post player who was taught how to get open. She took one dribble, left or right, and looked for her shot. If she didn’t have the shot, she passed to a perimeter player that shot the ball. If that didn’t work, the ball went back to the point guard and the whole thing started again. The other two players were rebounders. That’s all they did. No girl ever did anything other than what she was supposed to do. On the fast break, only the point guard was allowed to handle the ball and each player knew exactly where to go. The confluence of the five roles made the whole thing work, even at the 4th grade level. 

Team B’s players had no designated job descriptions. This was evident early in the game, the first time they had to take the ball out of bounds. No player knew who the inbounder was supposed to be. “Do I take it out? Should you? I don’t know.” Sometimes it took ten seconds to get the ball in play. This continued all game. During timeouts and one or two times during the game, the coach nicely told his tallest player, “Rebound. I want you to rebound for us.” I’m pretty sure the girl did not fully understand what her coach was asking, and I’m very sure rebounding had not been drilled in practice. When the ball was shot, she raised her arms but never went after the ball. The result of this disorganization was, there was no spacing, the passing was terrible, and, like Simon Cowell says, “It was an utter mess.” But good news! The coach’s daughter scored 15 points.

My Question
Team B’s coach had the players to be able to compete with Team A. Why didn’t they compete? (How do I say this gently? I can’t.) He was more concerned about his daughter getting experience at the point guard spot than teaching the girls how to compete as a team. Earlier, he told me they were going to get killed by Team A. You can’t tell me he couldn’t see why his team was not up to par with the other team, that the other team was better coached and executed a system that was better than his, or that the other team was much better organized. You can’t tell me, as he watched that game, he didn’t know his girls were capable of doing the same thing as the other team if he would have taken the time to learn how to teach them.  But suppose I’m wrong. Suppose Team B has inferior talent. Wouldn’t you say, all the more reason to assign specific roles and, in practice, to develop those roles.

Maybe I’m wrong. Perhaps I’m too critical of Team B’s coach. Am I? Youth sports is to be, above all, fun. If that is true, which team was having more fun, the one that won or the one that got “killed?” Or, doesn’t it matter at that age? And here’s another related question. Do the parents have a right to say something? Just askin’.

Swen