A Contrast in Coaching

Connor and Derek love basketball AND cars.

Derek is Connor's basketball coach this year.  Last Saturday they had their last game before the tournament and we were treated to a display of contrasting coaching styles.  Derek is encouraging.  He points out the good things the boys do, tries to help them stay calm, and reminds them of how they should play against each kind of defense, and what their plan for the offense is.  He reminds them that everyone gets five fouls and as long as you aren't out there trying to hurt anyone then you don't need to get upset when the ref calls a foul -- even if you think you didn't make one.

The other coach, who I think is probably a really nice guy in regular life, shouted and shouted at his players, and acted like our players were really his teams' enemy and not just their opponent. He yelled at the ref constantly.  At one point he jumped off of his bench and went to yell at the ref on the court.  The other ref kindly put his arm around him and quietly explained that he needed to calm down, and stay on his bench if he wanted to keep coaching the game.

This coach did good things too.  When Connor made an awesome last second shot before the third quarter buzzer sounded, he clapped.  I just was glad that Connor didn't end up with him as a coach since I think Connor would have decided he didn't like playing city league ball after all.  The game was very close.  Our guy hit what we thought was the game winner, but there were two seconds left.  The other team threw up a miraculous swish of a three pointer right at the buzzer to win.  Our team was sad to lose, but they did play a good game, and have done a good job of having fun.  The tournament starts today and maybe this time we'll get the winning shot.