Taking a step away from College coaching has opened some incredible doors that were once closed due to the demands and nature of the job. One such example is the opportunity to take these pictures with players ranging from 12-19 years old in Southern Australia.
For a few weeks in July this year I was offered a chance to conduct 4 basketball clinics at the Starplex in Gawler, Australia in the suburbs of Adelaide. Nestled in the heart of one of the finest wine regions in the world, Ricky Simpson, the director of Starplex offered me an opportunity to join him in what has become Southern Australia's top basketball development program.
Ricky came to Australia from his hometown of Atlanta, GA to play for the Adelaide 36ers after a great playing career at Concordia University in Minnesota. Ricky married an Aussie and three talented and beautiful children later found himself making Australia home.
Ricky is joined at Starplex by an ex-NBA player with the Denver Nuggets, Kevin Brooks. "KB" as everyone calls him is one of the humblest and endearing professionals I have ever met. The opportunity to work with Ricky, KB and one of my mentors, Mike Olson (pictured to my left), was tremendous.
The opportunity to get back in the gym and work with athletes was invigorating to my spirit. The boys and girls we worked with were every coaches dream. Wide eyed, big ears and no egos attached. The attentiveness and willingness to branch out of their comfort zone was inspiring to all the coaches at the camp. The level of play that we saw, particularly from the U14 group was outstanding. Being a part of building the development program for these talented youth is exciting and I am looking forward to returning in another year.
There were 4 clinics, 19 and under, 14 and under, 12 and under and a post clinic. All totaled we served over 120 athletes and the response to our instruction was overwhelming. The graciousness of the parents and local staff like Judy and the Business Manager Dale was incredible. It was refreshing to be in a place where people shared their appreciation for our efforts with hand shakes and thank you's. Player after player waiting in line to say "thanks" when the camps were completed. What I experienced over a two week span in "Oz" reinvigorated my passion for the game.
Back Stateside, I believe the culture of entitlement that we see building momentum here in the United States could take some notes from the folks Down Under. There has been a recent debate circulating throughout social media lately about the impact AAU basketball has had on the sport. While there are many positive aspects of the function AAU has in the exposure it allows for our young student/athletes in the US, there are also many drawbacks. One of these drawbacks is what is being perceived as a "growing sense of entitlement" among our youth and parents.
The concept is simple. AAU teams are formed and enter into competitions throughout the country. At these competitions is where virtually every college coach in the country spends hours and hours of their time recruiting.
What AAU and these tournaments bring is the "hope" that a college coach will like a player enough to recruit them and with that recruitment more "hope" that a scholarship of some type will be included.
It this very "hope" of a scholarship through exposure that parents are investing thousands of dollars in for their children. In order to get exposure, teams have to play games and what we are seeing as a result is a serious dip in development. There is much more emphasis on playing time in games than on the actual development of the athlete.
Look at the NBA draft this year alone. 8 out of the top 20 draft picks were of International origin. The state of international basketball is catching up to the US and one of the reasons for this is that the international structure is mainly based on development, NOT exposure through games.
The issue of entitlement is complex and very much real in our youth sports world today.
Many parents who are paying thousands of dollars to an AAU program expect that their son or daughter will be given the opportunity to play. The money involved is at the root of the problem. The "be given an opportunity" mentality is even more of a problem. Have we completely lost the concept as a culture that we must "earn and work for our own opportunities?"
We are also seeing a drastic change in the sense of inherent loyalty and more importantly any accountability of the athlete. If a coach isn't playing the player what they (or the parent) feel is an appropriate time, or is "not being used right", or whatever the disgruntlement of the parent/player may be, all they have to do is leave the team and join another. So we have a major issue here. AAU programs need the dollars to exist, AAU coaches need happy players and parents to keep their rosters filled and the biggest losers in the whole game actually wind up being the youth themselves. With no accountability and no sense of loyalty being instilled in our youth, the current structure of AAU has unwittingly created a sense of entitlement without a significant effort across a huge population of our youth.
I am hopeful that some change can come to AAU and across all of our youth sports programs. The relatively unregulated growth of this and other organizations has led to some serious problems that we are only now beginning to realize.
Here in Sioux Falls, SD I am encouraged to see that the number of individual development instructors for basketball is growing. This is something that will help our young players in the long run, from a development standpoint. That development is all individual though and the fact remains that basketball is a team sport. We need a culture in AAU that will teach the concept that the team is always more important than the individual and that sacrificing ones ego for the benefit of the team is OK and in fact a very important life lesson! Right now the structure of AAU is accepting the concept that the individual is more important than the team.
Mark Swasey
No comments:
Post a Comment