To get the obvious out of the way, I'm safely holed up in my apartment while Sandy makes her visit to the NY Metro area. So far for me, she's been nothing more than a tree-stripping, work cancelling noise-maker, but I'm pretty sure I'm just lucky. For those families who live in areas prone to flooding or got hit harder than I did, hope you get to return to normalcy real quick.
So, perhaps I'm old school or I'm just too hard on players still in middle school and below. All I know is, that I'm not that much older than these kids I coach and it seems like things are so different. When I was a kid, you were a student and an athlete and were expected to be decent at both if you wanted to stay a student athlete. The trick was in effective use of time and resources. You knew you had class from 8 to 3:30 and then you had 2 hours of practice. You were expected to be at both. Big test? Great, make sure you study, go to tutoring in the morning before school, whatever - but keeps those grades in the passing range. Well, almost whatever...you still have practice from 3:45 to 6. You didn't call up coach saying you had a test or something and expect to not have some kind of punishment for missing practice. You committed to being both a student and an athlete. You didn't just drop one when it was convenient for you.
Now it seems like the new idea behind student athlete is that you are a student before an athlete. Yeah, that's cool too. Let's face it, for basketball players, there are only 30 NBA teams which means only 60-65 guys get in (give or take some for undrafted free agent signings) so the rest of the people in NCAA, NJCAA, NAIA, and the like have to find some other way to make money. While from a rational, beating-the-odds viewpoint, this idea makes sense, I think what people forget is that being a student athlete is a privilege, not a right - and it should be earned by excelling in both areas. Not just bouncing back and forth, letting one area slide to correct the other. You need to bring your "A-Game" in both realms to be a student athlete.
I coach 5th grade through 7th grade, and across all levels this season I've had parents tell me "John Smith won't be at practice today because he has not finished his homework." I'm sorry, but I don't feel bad for you or your kid. For one, I doubt the school system is giving these kids that much homework to be out of school by 3:30, if not earlier, and get there homework done before or after practice. I especially don't feel bad for the multi-sport kids, as that I feel is just a lapse in judgement by the parent(s) that the team should not suffer for. If you are going to invest in your kid to be in all these after school activities, you should make sure they, and you as a parent, are prepared and capable to handle all associated responsibilities that come with the decision(s) to participate. Where I'm from, that kind of oversight was typically met with the dreaded "end of the bench" seat - the seat coach's eyes never seemed to be able to reach when it came time to sub.
While I don't want to take any emphasis away from academics (that is what got me my scholarships after all), I have to ask the parents and kids to take a serious look at what it means to be a student athlete. I chose the route of just being a student, and it served me well I guess, though I wish I had made that run at the basketball team while I had the chance. I have some old associates who chose to just be athletes and struggled to get into colleges that would get them looks from NBA scouts and the like, though they were local heroes on their respective high school teams. But then, there are the student-athletes, who excel in the classroom, on the court/field, and at home with time management that get to go to the likes of Duke, North Carolina, Texas, Alabama, USC, and of course Baylor, and then get an opportunity to continue playing after graduation. I know for most of my players that's almost 10 years away, but it's never too early to start forming good habits.
Oh, and before I forget - shout out to Coach BDG for getting hitched this weekend and flying out literally just before the storm for his honeymoon. Best wishes to you and your new life with a wonderful wife.
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