One of my main coaching responsibilities at Neptune is to serve as the assistant coach to their 14 and under team. Most of the players on that team are only 13 years old and a lot have just started playing basketball this year so we’re younger and less experienced than all the other teams. As a result, it’s been almost 2 long years since the team has won a league game. That is until today. We played the Limerick Lions who are one of the top teams in the league and had previously beaten us by 40 points only 2 months ago. At the start of the game our team looked like they had no expectations of winning, but I think it hit the team that it was possible to finally win the game when we were only down 4 points after the 1st quarter. The game was back and forth and before anyone knew we had the win locked up as we were up 4 with 15 seconds left with Barry (the head coach) and I yelling HOLD THE BALL as our team jacked up a three and got the rebound and did it again, oblivious to the fact that all we had to do was hold the ball to win.
While in youth sports winning is definitely not everything and a lot of parents and coaches forget that, you have to win at least some in order to keep the kids engaged and motivated. It’s been great to see the way the team has improved throughout the year. Sometimes it’s hard to notice the improvement on a week to week basis and it gets frustrating for Barry and myself because we’re training or playing in games 2-3 times per week and we want to know that the time and effort we put in is helping them or if we’re doing something wrong. When we see that our team improved by 40 points over the span of the season against the same team that lets us know that we’re at least doing something right.
For me, seeing the improvement on the court for the kids has been incredible to witness but the most fulfilling part of coaching the team is seeing how the team has bonded. At the beginning of the year, most of the kids didn’t really seem like they liked each other. They didn’t dislike each other either, I think they just didn’t know one another since so many of them were new to the team and the sport. Tonight, I had a Super League game and Barry organized a team get together to watch the game. From the court and bench I saw the kids all sitting and hanging out together having fun and laughing. At the beginning of the year they would have either sat in isolation or with a friend they knew from before the season started, showing how sport has the ability to bring people together.