It's different when your kid's the quarterback.
My son is enjoying his first taste of high school football this fall. He's on the freshman team, and after spending most his time in junior football as a quarterback, he's having great success on the field as a receiver, defensive back and punter.
I've never seen him so happy. He's happy with his role on the team, happy being with his teammates both at and away from the field, and in the bigger picture, he appears to be making a smooth overall transition from middle school to high school. As far as football is concerned, he doesn't seem to miss being the quarterback at all (he still is the backup), and it looks now as if not being the quarterback is the best thing that could have happened to him.
The quarterback position is unlike any other in team sports. At every football game, all eyes are on the quarterback, and rightly or wrongly, the quarterback usually gets a disproportionate share of the credit or blame for the team's success -- or lack thereof. Of course, being selected to play the position is an honor, as it means the coach is counting on you to do a lot for the team. But sometimes it seems it might just be more fun to play a position with less pressure attached to it.
The boy who is playing quarterback for the freshman team is a great kid -- and a great quarterback and athlete. He and my son have played football together since the second grade, and while they don't hang out together away from the field, they do like and have a tremendous amount of respect for each other. They share the same values as far as desire to win, work ethic, etc., and I view them almost as partners dedicated to working together to help the team win. I've been friendly with the boy's dad since our sons were on that second grade team together.
The boy's older brother is the varsity quarterback, and sometimes I feel bad for their parents at games. Not the freshman games, so much, but the varsity games can be brutal. At a recent varsity game, the older brother was struggling some, and I was disappointed to hear parents in the stands yelling at him. On one play, the mother of another player screamed at the quarterback, yelling frantically at him to throw the ball as the defense closed in him. When he did, and the pass was incomplete, the mother yelled at him again, shouting, "Who are you throwing it to?!''
The following game, another parent approached the quarterback's dad and their conversation -- about football -- became so heated that they had to be separated by a third man.
My first thought, when I saw the one incident and heard about the other, was: What the heck is wrong with people, yelling at high school kids?
My next thought was this: If this is what happens when your kid is the quarterback, I'm glad my son isn't the quarterback.
Tuesday, October 18, 2016
Friday, October 7, 2016
Hey coaches, let's try to develop ALL the kids
The older my kids get, and the more sports I watch at higher age levels, the more convinced I become that too many youth team coaches are focusing too much on winning and not enough on player development.
My oldest son played lacrosse on the high school junior varsity team last spring. He was one of a handful of sophomores on a team that was mostly made up of freshmen -- freshmen who had won a lot of games on their eighth grade team the year before and throughout their youth careers. However, those freshmen were in an unfamiliar position, as the best player on all those youth teams wasn't with them anymore; he was good enough that he made the varsity. And while that was great for him, what it meant for his classmates was that, for the first time, they were going to have to learn how to play without him.
It took them a while.
The team started off losing a bunch of games -- including some they were expected to win easily -- and morale was low. Eventually, things did turn around, though. The goalie started making some big saves and getting more and more confident, and little by little, the kids began to move the ball around more, started scoring some goals, and began winning some games. They ended up winning about as many games as they lost, and, overall, it was a good year.
Maybe, from a wins-and-losses standpoint, it wasn't the kind of year the freshmen were used to having, perhaps. But the truth is, they all got better, which is the whole idea of a JV team. Because instead of putting all their efforts into working hard to win possession of the ball and then immediately giving it to their star player, the freshmen had to learn to trust other people and trust themselves to make positive plays. There were plenty of other good players in the group -- some of them sophomores, who the freshmen had to get to know -- and those kids stepped up. And the ones who didn't consider themselves stars eventually began to try things they hadn't had to do before, which ultimately expanded their own games, making them better players and better prospects for future varsity action.
Which once again illustrates the point I keep coming back to: That everything below the varsity level ought to be developmental -- and helping every player become the best player he or she can be is what youth coaches should be making their priority. Yes, winning games is important, because you do want to develop players who understand the difference between playing a sport and playing to win -- understand that there is a level of effort and sacrifice required of players if they want to win.
My oldest son played lacrosse on the high school junior varsity team last spring. He was one of a handful of sophomores on a team that was mostly made up of freshmen -- freshmen who had won a lot of games on their eighth grade team the year before and throughout their youth careers. However, those freshmen were in an unfamiliar position, as the best player on all those youth teams wasn't with them anymore; he was good enough that he made the varsity. And while that was great for him, what it meant for his classmates was that, for the first time, they were going to have to learn how to play without him.
It took them a while.
The team started off losing a bunch of games -- including some they were expected to win easily -- and morale was low. Eventually, things did turn around, though. The goalie started making some big saves and getting more and more confident, and little by little, the kids began to move the ball around more, started scoring some goals, and began winning some games. They ended up winning about as many games as they lost, and, overall, it was a good year.
Maybe, from a wins-and-losses standpoint, it wasn't the kind of year the freshmen were used to having, perhaps. But the truth is, they all got better, which is the whole idea of a JV team. Because instead of putting all their efforts into working hard to win possession of the ball and then immediately giving it to their star player, the freshmen had to learn to trust other people and trust themselves to make positive plays. There were plenty of other good players in the group -- some of them sophomores, who the freshmen had to get to know -- and those kids stepped up. And the ones who didn't consider themselves stars eventually began to try things they hadn't had to do before, which ultimately expanded their own games, making them better players and better prospects for future varsity action.
Which once again illustrates the point I keep coming back to: That everything below the varsity level ought to be developmental -- and helping every player become the best player he or she can be is what youth coaches should be making their priority. Yes, winning games is important, because you do want to develop players who understand the difference between playing a sport and playing to win -- understand that there is a level of effort and sacrifice required of players if they want to win.
But from a coaching standpoint, it shouldn't be strictly about winning. And all sub-varsity coaches, and especially all youth coaches, need to realize they need to help kids grow as players and teach them to play the game the right way. If you do that, then the winning will surely follow.
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