Lessons from 5th Graders

I always leave youth basketball tournaments feeling a little worse about the state of sports in America. This last weekend was my daughter’s fifth grade basketball tournament, and if it weren’t for the shear joy of seeing your daughter score a basket I don’t think I would have been able to say it was a positive experience.

One particular incident that stands out is on Sunday afternoon when a referee had to reprimand a parent, two players, and both coaches all within the span of about thirty seconds. Was the official great – probably not, but there was almost no way to call the out of control eighth grade girls game he was trying to keep control over. Whatever he was making that day was not enough.

During the fifth grade games the officials got a share of irritated fans. Coaches seemed to be the worst offenders. If they had spent as much time coaching as “working” the officials the girls would have gotten an education. For the record, I was proud of the way our girls coach conducted herself and coached our girls, but overall the adults seemed to make the experience a lot less enjoyable for the girls. Between officials on the court, screaming coaches and parents, and tournament officials looking for many ways to maximize a buck it was hard to see the love of the game. It was there if you looked, but you had to look awfully hard.

My form of protest is that I vowed then and there to put up a hoop on the driveway this summer. I’ll encourage my kids to do camp and keep playing, but I’ve decided that maybe the playground is the best place to learn. I’m grateful to the coaches I had, especially for the life lessons. As an assistant high school coach for the past two years I can see how that still happens. High school teams seem to be a little more controlled and a little more balanced with a focus on winning the right way. However it seems to me that the traveling team basketball culture has lost sense of why we play the game. The chance that any girl at this week’s tournament will make the WNBA is astronomically small. The chance that they will need the lessons in perseverance, sportsmanship, health and wellness, and confidence that basketball can teach is astronomically large.

So, for the weekend I’m glad we went 0-3 and tried to do it the right way. With a few more practices every week and teaching the girls how to play a 2-3 zone that relies on just not letting anyone come near the lane would likely have garnered us at least one win, but a few days removed I think the future is brighter for our 0-3 girls than whoever ended up winning the championship. Early success is no guarantee of future results, but early effort is.