Coaching girls basketball can be both frustrating and rewarding at the same time. For years I have been coaching junior high boys teams and over the years have become increasingly frustrated with the "I am already awesome" attitude that seems to emerge at those ages despite the fact that they really do not understand or appreciate the many complexities to the game of basketball.
So this year I took a different route and decided to coach junior high girls. I have coached at the high school level with girls in years past and it was a very positive experience. Junior high has proven to be the same this year.
Despite the lower starting skill levels and different athletic ability...it's incredibly rewarding to see them grow as athletes, individuals, and basketball players. This year's team has been so keen and willing to learn. We started off the year entered into a tournament in which we went 3-1. It was a great starting point although the teams we played were similar in ability, we were able to come out with some decent starting results.
The regular season started last week with 2 losses in a row and I became frustrated watching the girls make the same mistakes over and over again....telegraphing passes...only moving the same direction...not boxing out...etc.
We were entered in a tournament at AJ Smeltzer Junior high this weekend and the girls were pretty excited. The first game we played on Friday night was relatively close but we came up on the losing end in our opener 41-33 against Astral Drive. The girls were disappointed as was the coaching staff.
Saturday morning we played a lesser skilled team and we didn't play that well as a team but managed a pretty easy victory. That meant that the next game we played in round-robin play would have the winner advancing to the finals. We ended up pulling away toward the end and won by 20 or so but it was still not a strong game.
The championship game was a rematch with Astral Drive and something amazing happened. We switched around our defense and slowed down our offense. It was as though the lights came on in the heads of every girl on the team. We started strong and led from wire to wire playing a phenomenal game both offensively and more importantly, defensively. The zone did its job and prevented them from scoring any easy hoops and we played a controlled offensive game and won the final by 22 points. The girls were so happy and they should be so proud. They worked so hard and applied so many ideas from practices and it all gelled together today. This will be a turning point in our season and the girls now see what they are capable of.
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