Basket Bawl: Semantics, Politics, and Transparency

Who will be the next girls' basketball coach at Melrose High School? Perhaps only Edward Snowden knows, wherever he is. The girls' team which had won ten consecutive Middlesex League championships, struggled over the past several seasons and a change is imminent. Change is a constant in sports.

What's in a word? A rose by any other name is still a rose. The difference between judgment and judgmental or courage in one's convictions and stubbornness often lacks clarity and depends more on our point of view than objectiveness.

Politics never escapes high school sports. In fact, sometimes what happens off the field eclipses events on the field. Many returning freshman and junior varsity players (over twenty) will compete for a handful of varsity spots. Talented, athletic, rising freshmen will also be in the mix. Inevitably, players and parents will be unhappy with the team selection process and/or the roles that their children will be assigned. Every parent wants what is best for their child; coaches want what is best for the team.  

The new coach, with or without the wisdom of Solomon will face that challenge immediately, yet the bigger leadership task will be to restore the program to success.  

Will the incoming coach have a wealth of experience and a formidable basketball pedigree or be a politically connected insider? Is the best fit for the system an outsider or a local coach known to everyone involved? We'll find out the decision soon.

The game is for the players. Coach Ed Beattie, former coach at Winnacunnet High School in New Hampshire won seven state championships, and produced a string of Division I players. At a summer tournament he told us, "the deal is between the players and me. Practices are closed to everyone but the players."  Transparency was not a requirement for Coach Beattie, but character, commitment, communication, competitiveness, and competence all certainly were.

A successful coaching formula includes preparation, attitude, sacrifice, teaching excellence, and encouragement. We can only hope that the process identified and chose the best candidate for the girls in Melrose. 

Ron Sen, MD
author The Simple Guide to Girls' Basketball