Basketball Diaries - 5

Part V: Opportunity is Knocking

So it took me quite some time to finish my blog about coaching in the YMCA basketbal league. That championship loss stung a little more than I anticipated.

Anyway, life has moved on as it always does. As much as it sucked, losing in that championship game presented another awesome opportunity for myself and Nathan (my other coach). After the championship game, the opposing team's coach came up to us and asked us if we wanted to help him coach an AAU team. He was also recruiting one of our players to play on the team as well, but he liked how we coached and used players effectively.

Of course we said yes.

Nathan and I were orginially "hired" to coach the 2-3 grade team due to the lack of patience the head coach has for that age group. Understandable, but to be honest, I didn't want to coach them either. One of the main reasons I chose to coach the Y team was because they were middle schoolers and not 2-3 graders. Anyway, we ended up not getting enough team members to play in that age group, so it dissolved and we're just part of the coaching staff for our middle school team. We also have a 9-10 grade team, and a 11-12 grade team (those guys are good).

We went to the tryouts and have been going to the practices. It's much different from coaching at the Y. While coaching at the Y, we had to do much more teaching and really highlighting the rules and fundamentals of the game. The league was full of players that wouldn't ever play basketball at a very high level. The AAU team, however, is loaded with potential. The coaching has become more about sharpening skills, learning plays and developing talent. The differences are VERY clear.

Our first tournament is this weekend (March 23-25) here in Charlotte. I'm pretty hype about this and can't wait to see the teams in action. I'll keep everyone updated here and through tweets. Stay tuned, it will be a summer full of basketball!