After weeks of practice, my team finally had our first real test with this scrimmage. Full uniform, with a referee and running our plays. Even though I have coached a real varsity team before with flag football (and bowling), this was different. A gym basketball court is a much more intimate environment versus the football field. Saying my loud voice carries in there would be a great understatement. And lets not forget, basketball is one of my great loves so this is a big deal for me. This is special to me. I literally cannot wait for the regular season to begin. With a few more practices and one more scrimmage to go, we still have some learning to do and kinks to work out, but we are looking decent. This whole thing is certainly a learning process for myself and the girls.
Although this basketball season is my first and I really have nothing to compare it too, I did play basketball for many, MANY years at a very competitive level. Coaching in East Harlem however, is very much a WAY different experience than that of my coaches when I grew up in the suburbs of Chicago. And the experiences of my girls are VERY different from my high school experiences; on and off the court. Throughout the last few weeks, myself and my assistant coach (who grew up on Long Island) have been talking about how this basketball experience for the girls is sooooo much different than the ones we had as high school basketball players.
The fact that our players come from such different backgrounds from us, in so many different ways, (cultural, socio-ecomical, geographical, etc...) makes their experience as high school basketball players very different than the ones we had. There are so many factors that play into this. Besides the fact that I was a high school basketball player many, many moons ago, there are some things that are soooo different between the experiences my girls have versus mine that are very unique to New York City public school sports. I sat down, in typical me fashion, and made a list of all the differences between my experiences and theirs and what I believe to be huge differences.
1) The program itself. Our sports program is comprised of students from five small high schools in East Harlem. This is soooo different from the big suburban schools (like the one I went to (see #19 btw)) because big campus school's don't really exist anymore in the city (except for maybe in Brooklyn or Staten Island). The big campus schools were broken down into like four to five different small schools in each building. They take kids from all these schools and form teams. Our program is unique in the fact that our five schools are NOT in the same building. They are all five independent small high schools that all happen to be in the same neighborhood within 15 block and a few avenues of each other. Because we can feed from all five schools, we do have a very large sports program with 16 sports now, including one of five high school football teams in all of Manhattan. It's pretty neat. However, this arrangement can be very difficult with communication a lot of the time because although I teach at one of these schools, having to get messages and announcements out to players can be rather difficult because not all schools communicate to their athletes like mine does.
2) Gym Sitch. You would think that with having access to five schools, gym time wouldn't be an issue. Think again. One of the schools doesn't have a real gym, my school's gym is not regulation but can work in a bind, and scheduling with the others schools that also have their regular activities going on can be a struggle with having to accommodate my team, the boys team, and the wrestling team. Throughout the week, our time is spread out throughout three different schools in the neighborhood and at different times. My girls must pay close attention the the schedule and remember where we are at each day. It's not consistent each week regarding which days we are at each gym because of other conflicts and games, but we make it work the best we can. This is unlike my experience where my high school had two main gyms and then a fieldhouse. Gym space was never an issue or something we worried about.
3) Ball Sitch. Since we are at different gyms at different schools, I often find myself carrying a bag of balls to and from work a few times a week. Two of the gyms don't have safe enough storage for our balls (BALLS, hehe. Sorry, I can't help myself) so we have to schlep them to and from that gym. That means, I have to take them home with me that day after practice and then take them back to work in the morning. It's a pain. This was certainly never an issue my coaches dealt with. Balls were always available and secure.
4) Transportation. New York City is a city of public transportation so of course this is the way that we get to and from our games. No yellow buses to take us to games. (We also don't have money to rent them.) We take the train and the bus just like everyone else in the city. Surprised? Yeah, it's always interesting riding the train with a team of girls during rush hour.
5) Commitment. This is one issue that I am struggling with the most and just can't accept. We practice five times a week with the occasional weekend practice. All I am asking of these girls is that they show up everyday, be on time, and give 100%. I told them if they are going to be late or absent they must call, email, or text me to let me know. It's not a difficult request but they MUST let myself or my assistant coaches know if they aren't going to be there. This just can't sink in for some of them. I do not tolerate lateness in my real life with people, so it certainly will not be tolerated on my teams. If they are late, they will run a sprint for every minute. The whole team. Even if its one girl. I'm not playin'. (If one girl is six minutes late, they are all on the line and will run six sprints.) After the first two times this happened, it really hasn't been an issue. However, there are a couple girls who just don't show up to practice and don't inform me. (They have to run five suicides at the next practice they attend if this happens.) Not showing up and not telling anyone is NOT OKAY. And will never be. It blows my mind that they think this is acceptable and then still expect to play in the game. Not gonna happen. Not on my watch. When I played, no one would even miss practice unless they were deathly ill or had a family emergency, and of course they told the coach if this was the case. Missing practice (or god forbid a game) was unheard of. With our student population, being consistently committed to something can be a struggle and being part of a team that relies on you is a new concept to many of them. I am trying to teach them responsibility and communication and I will continue to do it even it it drives me to my most frustrated lengths or even causes us to take a loss or two from benching starting girls to teach a lesson. Showing up to something you are committed to and where others are counting on you is a life skill and if they take away anything from this season, it will be this.
6) Complaining. Me: "Get on the line." Them: "Butttt....Miss....We're Tired." Imagine this in the whiniest, teenage girl voice. And multiply it by 12. Its just funny to me. To a certain degree. Then it becomes annoying. And then I get mad. This happens often and it escalates very quickly. The fact they can't just suck it up and do what is asked of them is beyond me.
7) Competition. There isn't much of it here, plain and simple. Not that I've seen and I have been going to the games for a couple of years not. You'd think in the mecca that is NYC, high school basketball would be at a high caliber. Well, it's not. At both the girls and boys level it just isn't that exceptional. It also doesn't draw the hype that basketball in Chicago does. In Chicago, high school ball makes the nightly news and the newspapers and people follow it and know a lot about it. Here, there isn't much buzz. It's so bizarre to me.
8) Parental involvement. In all my years of playing organized sports (soccer, softball, basketball, and volleyball) my parents missed one game. One. I must have played in thousands of games throughout the many years I was involved in competitive sports and my parents were always there. I played on many travel and club teams and had games as far as two hours away and my parents went. Always in the bleachers or on the sidelines cheering me on. In the rain, cold, heat, and everything in between. (THANK YOU MOM AND DAD!!!) And this was pretty much the same for most girls on my teams. Unfortunately, this is not so much the case for my girls. There are like two or three that have their moms at every home game, but that's it. It makes me sad that they don't have that support. Many of them are so passionate about few things and basketball is one of them, Playing makes them so happy and I wish their parents were able to see them out there doing what they enjoy so much. We try to encourage our teachers to come support the kids so they can see their students excel somewhere else besides the classroom.
9) Camps and AAU in the offseason. When I was younger, middle and high school age, I spent my entire summers at basketball camps. One summer I think I went to like eight different ones. No joke. I ate, drank, and breathed basketball. AAU was also a big deal and I quit soccer my junior year of high school so I could focus on that. Maybe like two of my girls have gone to camps and played AAU. I think this is because of two reasons, 1) they don't have the proper information 2) its just too expensive. They just don't know better and if they do, they may not be able to afford the camps. They don't realize the off-season is where they improve their game. Where I grew up, off-season started the day the regular season ended and went until the season started again. It was nonstop. (And I loved every second of it.)
Regardless of all these differences between my high school basketball experience and that of the girls I am currently coaching, the goals are the same. WIN. Win games. Win conference. Keep winning in the playoffs. Win City. Go to State. I really cannot wait to see what this season holds. I am already prepping myself for the hoarse voice, the cursing (I'll try to control myself), the tears (I will have to be really careful about these and not let the girls see them post-game), and maintaining a high level of positive energy. I think we have a good team (it's all relative) and hope to go far in the playoffs. Obviously the girls want to repeat the City Championship and I will do everything in my power to get them there. I want it as bad as they do. Our first real game is December 1 and its on from there! "Pride on 3: 1...2...3... PRIDE." Let's do this. Game on.
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