Any Assistant Basketball Coaches?

[3ballbomber]

I'm an assistant coach for my son's Under 12 rep team. We recently had a tournament. Prior 2 the tournament head coach informed me that he would let me head coach for the tourney as it's just for fun & nothing too serious.

This is my 1st ever gig @ being an assistant coach let alone head coaching, but i was up for the challenge.

We are still in the early grading stages of our season, wich started late last year. We have not won one game.Most of our games were highly sloppy & often blow outs. Our last game b4 Xmas break we lost to a very mediocre team that we should have beaten.

Anyway, I Game planned for the tournament & was ready for our 1st game. I simplified our strategies by only doing 2 simple plays wich i emphasized for the boys to do consistently. As a result it was the best game we've played yet. We were structured, it was clean & the boys made good decisions. It wasn't perfect but such a massive improvement to last year. Pretty much it was night & day to how we were.
I believe by simplifying our schemes & only getting the boys to do 2 plays it made the game easier for them. They also were far more organized when playing within a structure they were able to handle. We won our 1st game of the tourney by 13pts A big accomplishment considering how horribly we played last year & mostly blown out by our opponents. As a 1st time head coach i was proud of what i had accomplished w/ the boys.

2nd game we were facing the top team & i was even more nervous for this 1 as i actually really wanted to win it & i felt if we continue what we did last game that we had a good opportunity. I didn't want to change anything. I wanted to hammer into the boys the same 2 plays for us to do consistently. They seemed to trust the game plan since they won w/ it the last game. And they played an even cleaner & structured game than the 1st. We were winning by small margin majority of the game, again an amazing thing to see considering how horrible we were last year. Last 2 mins & we were up 5pts. I was fairly nervous & excited to potentially pull off 2 straight wins in my head coaching debut. Long story short the boys failed to execute the plays at crucial times of the game dwo nthe stretch & opponents won it with a steal & lay up w/ 22 seconds left on the clock.

The loss STUNG & expressed to head coach how much it hurt. We were 2mins away from beating the top team. Had we won that game the boys would have momentum going into our 3rd game the following day & i believe we would have had a good chance in making finals as we only would have needed to win 1 of our next 3 games.

I couldn't sleep & was up till 2am game planning our 3rd game. It was vs the bottom team so it was a great spot for me 2 continue to emphasize doing our 2 plays & redeem the horrible loss from last night. I also wanted continuity w/ our game plan...........
....I woke up excited to redeem our loss & when we got 2 the venue Head Coach absolutely breaks my heart & tells me he's taking this next game

I'm not sure what exactly happened but did he not tell me prior to the tournament that he wanted me to head coach the tournament because the tourny was more for fun? & after what i had accomplished in our 1st two games (even though 2nd game was a loss we still played a quality game & only lost by a bucket to the top team) you'd think he'd want to reward his assistant coach, especially knowing how much last games loss hurt. Furthermore i only head coached 2 games & made big strides w/ the team. Where is the support & reward?

What made it even worse was that we were playing the bottom team. The top team we lost by 2pts to thrashed them 44-2. It would have been a great chance for head coach to reward his assistant coach by redeeming the loss and making him feel better by allowing him to head coach w/ a high % chance of winning vs this weak team

We had 2 more games after that and i was quite angry and upset.

What made it worse was that prior to our match up w/ that bottom squad they had only scored 12pts in 2 games. I had allowed on average 19ppg to 2 of the top 4 teams. He allowed the bottom team to drop 20pts on us After all my hard work on what i got the boys to do. & we scored the same amount as what we scored in our 1st game.....verses the bottom team?!?!?! Furthermore he did not emphasize my two plays that got the team to play so well & he even put in a play that has never worked in 6 games prior to the tourney?!?!?!


By the time i had to Head Coach our 4th game vs the 2nd team on the ladder it became such a bad spot because the continuity that came from what i had the kids doing wasn't there any longer as the 2 plays were not emphasized the game prior, after i was hammering them in2 the boys in the 1st two games. So for the 1st time in the tourney we were down all game. We managed 2 even it out but we lost by 4pts in the end (w/ 3 horrible calls to boot). I was really upset by this stage.........


..........what made it worse was Head Coach then tells me he'd take our final game Wich again was against one pf the bottom teams Basically he opted to Head Coach 2 of the worse teams on the ladder, it was also quite convenient that he would demote me back to assistant coach each time i lost a game.... & he'd take the head coaching job vs the 2 worst teams!! I don't understand, WTF?!?!


Had to vent

[3ballbomber]

haha. i don't expect anybody to read this novel

I had to vent

[TKainZero]

haha. i don't expect anybody to read this novel

I had to vent

Dude, that took TWO mins to read
It took almost as long to load the reply link and write this sentence because of the crappy iPhone 4.


Meanwhile,
Dude, that sucks.
Sounds like you were doing well.
Sucks that happen.

Hope you can get your own team one day soon, and matchup vs him and win!

[3ballbomber]

Dude, that took TWO mins to read
It took almost as long to load the reply link and write this sentence because of the crappy iPhone 4.


Meanwhile,
Dude, that sucks.
Sounds like you were doing well.
Sucks that happen.

Hope you can get your own team one day soon, and matchup vs him and win!

lol, i'm not trying to compete. I'm all for these kids. I was just gob smacked by his decisions and the motives behind them.

[greenbeans]

Long story short the boys failed to execute the plays at crucial times

Way to toss the boys under the bus, coach

[3ballbomber]

Long story short the boys failed to execute the plays at crucial times

Way to toss the boys under the bus, coach

You weren't there to make the assumption that my criticism is unfair.

Up 4 w/ around 2 mins left in the game. We made 2 good stops under their basket wich had us inbounding both times. One of our plays is the stack used for inbounds. They never got into formation in both instances & as a result had 2 TO's & they converted in each one. When ever they executed the play it worked 99% of the time, all game - wich is one of the reasons we were leading all throughout.

In a tight game down the stretch, execution becomes vital, you know!

[CoachD]

First off all...

You're a rookie assistant coach. No previous experience.

Your job is to support the head coach. You don't have the ability to bitch about him not rewarding you.

Your reward is being part of the team and getting a chance to get some experience.

Coach for a few years. Attend some coaching clinics. Learn the game from a coaches viewpoint... then go head coach your own team.

The head coach doesn't owe it to you to let you run the team cuz you won a game and then came close.

Hell by your logic, Steve Kerr should step down.

And please... the words "to" and "for" don't need to be substituted for digits.

[Froob]

Should have accused the other team of cheating and blamed the refs. It's okay, classic mistake.

[BlzMwt]

interesting to read, but i'm sorry the grammar definitely makes it a little annoying

but I feel your sentiments and im sure many others do as well. Whether you are a player, a coach or any other role in sports. So many individuals who deserve to get opportunities, don't. While others who don't deserve it, do.

Can't really elaborate on your situation, as we don't know the full details of the situation. Maybe since the entire tournament was for fun, the coach wanted to try more than just the two plays? Even though those two plays were working, maybe you can save those for more important games that count and see if other plays work, despite the age of your players?

Either way, take it as a learning experience and the entire thing will be beneficial to not only you, but the entire team

[3ballbomber]

First off all...

You're a rookie assistant coach. No previous experience.

Your job is to support the head coach. You don't have the ability to bitch about him not rewarding you.

Your reward is being part of the team and getting a chance to get some experience.

Coach for a few years. Attend some coaching clinics. Learn the game from a coaches viewpoint... then go head coach your own team.

The head coach doesn't owe it to you to let you run the team cuz you won a game and then came close.

Hell by your logic, Steve Kerr should step down.

And please... the words "to" and "for" don't need to be substituted for digits.

i tried to shorten the novel as best as i can & part of that was to shorten some words.

i don't think you truly understood my situation to simply dismiss my break through w/ the boys and that is exactly what i achieved....a complete break through. Not once in 6 games prior have the kids been as consistent, structured, disciplined and engaged as i had made them. It was a big accomplishment.

I constantly support head coach, i even go well and beyond my job for these kids. you claim i need more learning but don't have the faintest clue of my knowledge of the game.

I made massive strides w/ these boys and as a head coach you should be pleased, give some gratitude and encourage your assistant coach. I would do exactly that if i was head coach. This is no ego thing either, i don't want props but at least acknowledgement of what even the head coach could not accomplish in 6 games w/ the boys.

[CoachD]

So you're the greatest coach ever and you worked a miracle.

Awesome

You're still the ASSISTANT.. And it's not about your ego... it's about the kids.

Next season apply to coach your own team.

Peace.

Sent from my STV100-3 using Tapatalk

[3ballbomber]

interesting to read, but i'm sorry the grammar definitely makes it a little annoying

but I feel your sentiments and im sure many others do as well. Whether you are a player, a coach or any other role in sports. So many individuals who deserve to get opportunities, don't. While others who don't deserve it, do.

Can't really elaborate on your situation, as we don't know the full details of the situation. Maybe since the entire tournament was for fun, the coach wanted to try more than just the two plays? Even though those two plays were working, maybe you can save those for more important games that count and see if other plays work, despite the age of your players?

Either way, take it as a learning experience and the entire thing will be beneficial to not only you, but the entire team

I'm really not sure why all of sudden he took back everything he said. When you tell somebody something you honor it and not all of a sudden change your mind. Especially when that next game he chose to head coach was vs the bottom team, who only scored 12pts in two games prior to our meeting

I honestly think head coach ego kicked in. Saw how successful i was w/ the boys, in my very first head coaching debut & wanted some shine for himself. I've been dwelling about this for some time w/ some other people and that's the conclusion. I and the guys i've been talking w/ about this have had a history with the head coach and we don't put it pass him that that may have been his motives.

[3ballbomber]

Either way, take it as a learning experience and the entire thing will be beneficial to not only you, but the entire team

This is spot on. It's very much a learning experience to be able to handle such a demoralizing experience of feeling black balled by a jealous head coach

[turk3d]

EXPERIENCE! EXPERIENCE! EXPERIENCE!

Experience is not learning how to coach or how to play the game, it's to experience the politics unfortunately appear in all sports (I've never see worse politics than I've seen in Little League, Basketball Leagues, Soccer, you name it). It's just something that you'll have to get used to if you plan on doing this some more in the future. After all, you're doing it for you own kid, right? I've coached many sports in the past, from baseball (starting at T-Ball and going up through American Legion),

Youth Basketball (both boys and girls) and I have a loot of memories, both good (and bad unfortunately) If you have a problem with a particular coach, then you need to go to him and explain to him how you feel and see if can be resolved or just move your son to another team and another coach to see if it can be resolved.

If you have coaching aspirations yourself, then wherever you go, then volunteer at the beginning and learn from the experience so that someday you may have your own team if you want. You can volunteer if you want to for that as well, if the league your putting your son into has openings. Sounds to me like you might be better off finding a good coach that you can learn from and eventually (when you're ready) take on your own team. Most people start that way (including myself).

I can tell you one thing, just too plays might have simplified the game for the kids who most likely were confused, but 2 plays is really nothing as far as the game is concerned. There's much more to it than that and the best way to learn is to work as an assistant to someone who knows and understands the game better than you do from a coaching standpoint. Having the played the game definitely helps, but coaching it is an entirely different thing which is why some of your best players make terrible coaches.

Best of luck, and don't let it bother you much. Sometimes our worse experiences turn out to be our best teachers.

[BlzMwt]

Either way, take it as a learning experience and the entire thing will be beneficial to not only you, but the entire team

This is spot on. It's very much a learning experience to be able to handle such a demoralizing experience of feeling black balled by a jealous head coach

Not only that but during your brief stint as HC you were successful. You should now take that confidence and roll with it, despite what this guy does from here on out.

Whether it's with this team or not, you'll get an opportunity. Obviously you're passionate about this, you came onto a basketball forum to vent in detail, talked to numerous other people. Passion breeds success, you'll get there

[Warspite]

Sounds like your ready for the business world as well. Yeah you have an a hole boss. Most of us do and if you survive you can become one yourself.

Or you can use the experience to make yourself better and to broaden your horizon. The glass is always half empty or full but its up to you to decide.

[youngcrev]

Wow, I bet I can guess what the D in CoachD stands for...

[jwise44]

Should have accused the other team of cheating and blamed the refs. It's okay, classic mistake.

Should have tested to make sure the balls weren't deflated

[CoreyVillains]

Wow, I bet I can guess what the D in CoachD stands for...

He's right though. Even if the head coach isn't great, he is still the head coach and he is in charge. Learn as much as you can and go get your own team and run it how you see fit.

[GMstatus]

I stopped reading after all the "2's and 4's" in the first paragraph.