National High School Basketball Coaches Association

By Greg Grantham, Executive Board, National High School Basketball Coaches Association

There’s an old adage in coaching, “If you haven’t taught it, don’t expect your players to know it .” Most good coaches will never run a play, call for a defensive alignment, nor expect a player to execute a skill in a game that they have not taught and repped numerous times previously in practice . Really good coaches never assume that someone else at a lower level taught their players any principle or skill that is important to the current team . An unfortunate exception to that rule is the concept of being a good teammate . The vast majority of coaches assume that by the time a player gets to high school or college, he has already learned what it means to be a good teammate . The reality in our society today is that most kids are NOT taught what it means to be a good teammate . Players are taught how to become a better player . They are then acknowledged and rewarded for working on their individual game and becoming a better player . In fact, once a kid becomes a good player, he is constantly recruited to join a new team (at Jr High, AAU, High School, College levels) because he is individually recognized as a good player . Because good players change teams so often over the course of their young lives an unintended consequence of playing on so many different teams is that players develop a perception that being a teammate simply means we all wear the same color jersey with the same name on the front . Even the corporate and educational worlds have adopted the word “Teams” to refer to groups within an organization that work together in the same area or on the same projects . This only proliferates the concept that just because we answer to the same boss [coach] and/or are required attend the same meetings [practices] that we are teammates . This misappropriation of the term “team” is teaching our kids and adults that being a good teammate means you show up to all the required meetings [practices], you’re there on time, you dress in the appropriate attire, you fulfill the specific tasks that are assigned to you and you make sure your boss [coach] looks good . Most basketball coaches were fortunate to have played on good teams, for good coaches and were blessed to have great teammates . Most coaches were themselves good teammates . As a result, we coaches tend to take for granted that players already know what it means to be a good teammate . Are you as a coach teaching your players what you expect from them as a teammate? Have you given your players a clear definition of what it means to be a good teammate? Are you explaining to them the characteristics of a great teammate; being accountable, dependable, respectful, humble, caring, honest, selfless, resilient, positive, relentless, unifying, and a leader? These are not the player traits that are getting highlights on SportsCenter . Even more important than are you teaching what it means to be a great teammate – are you recognizing those attributes when demonstrated by your players? And are you rewarding your players for those characteristics? Or are we only recognizing individual skill, individual talent, individual effort and performance? Are we unwittingly perpetuating the undesirable traits of selfishness and the concept that every individual should just take care of his own business and do his job? What we don’t condemn, we condone and, conversely, what we recognize and reward gets repeated . If your most talented players are not good teammates, then your team will never play up to its full potential . A saying that summarizes what we want from each of our players as teammates is, “Strive to be the best FOR your team, not the best ON your team .”

The National High School Basketball Coaches Association also serves as the High School Congress of the NABC. About thirty-five state basketball coaches’ associations and representatives of some states that do not have a basketball coaches association work together to improve scholastic basketball and scholastic coaches. The NHSBCA is the national voice for high school basketball coaches, working to foster high standards of professionalism and to support coaches. The NHSBCA conducts two general meetings per year, one at the NABC Convention and the other in July. Additionally, the NHSBCA Executive Committee conducts monthly phone conference meetings. For additional information about the NHSBCA, visit www .NHSBCA .org.