Finally Over!!

Is it just me or is it a horrible thing to celebrate the end of your kids season, maybe his career?  Well that is what happened on Friday.  You see I try not to live through my kids, but I want them to be happy more than anything, so when something makes them upset I want to see them get that out of the their life.  And that is where this season of basketball comes in.  The last two years really have been a horrible experience and Sampson has had to work his way up from the freshman team / reserve team to the varsity team without anyone really helping him or a coach really seeing the potential in him.  Which is unfortunate as the kid has achieved quit a bit athletically and has settled into a couple of sports, but he hit a couple of home runs over the fence in Bronco ball, he won the summer swim title for boys when he was 12, and he is a regional qualifying cross country runner in high school, ran a sub 5 minute mile in track, plus all the stuff he has done for basketball.  But he isn't crazy tall and he isn't an exceptional leaper, but that is about all he isn't.  As far as basketball is concerned he can pass, screen, shoot (when he is allowed), and is probably better on defense that anyone on the team from the aspect of position and hand placement.  He does have freakishly quick hands if you want to give him that, but it is hard to quantify those. Anyway he worked to get to varsity and I think he thought there would be some relief if he was playing just varsity and it didn't turn out that way.  In a way it was almost worse.  Last year he was the 7th man on a team that only went 6 deep.  But he played reserve and practiced as part of the white team.  So he was in line for a tongue lashing every once and awhile, but managed to stay out of the spot light most of the time.  As far as screwing up in a varsity game, well you have to be in to screw up, and the only time he got in a game at Shadyside he actually did pretty well and knocked down a 3.  But that was the only time all season he played in the first half and netted only 10 varsity quarters all season, no where near enough to letter apparently, even though he did all of the off season varsity summer leagues and varsity practices all season.  So that is a little ridiculous because if you aren't going to reward a kid with playing time, then at least reward them for the time they put in.  But not this coach.  This is where the problem is, and I have talked about it before.  How do you make a kid hate a sport they have been playing for 10 years?  Yell at them everyday in practice and never tell them they do anything right.  And the problem isn't that it is just him getting yelled at, it is everyone gets yelled at in practice.  There is no level you can ascend to in order to get away from the wrath and that is what I think he realized this year.  That even if he did start, even if he was a focal point of the team he was still going to get yelled at and berated for every little thing he did, so he has had enough.  Which is a damn shame because I have put a lot into encouraging and building him up over the last 10 years and this next year should be his best on the basketball court.  Plus the time his mother has put in at the concession stand and doing basically everything for the parent organization over the last 4 years.  But I honestly don't feel bad about him not wanting to play because it has been that miserable and that is terrible.  How can a coach make a kid want to walk away from something they have done for the last 10 years and how bad is it that I don't want him to play either.  I mean I felt good when this season finally ended and I know how competitive he is and how much he would love to play as deep into the season as possible, but the practices are so brutal and there is no glory in anything they are doing so being done is the better option.  How sad.  I'm competitive too, and when they step on the court there is some questioning of how bad do we want to win vs. how bad do I want this season to be over.  The last game of the season was kind of the high water mark for poor player development, talent evaluation and just overall spitting in kids faces from a coach.  There is one senior that starts and has been in the system for 4 years, there are 2 seniors on the bench, one that did all of the off season stuff same as Sampson and one that was injured the previous football season, so he was restricted medically but his brother played so he was there basically.  Anyway the one senior plays and Sampson is now the 6th man even though he was told he would start based on match-ups which I guess were never in his favor the rest of the season.  The last game he only plays 6 guys, now granted it was a 2 point game at half time, but right after half we commit 8 turnovers in the third.  At some point Sampson came in, but he was the only one.  The other two seniors never came in until there were 40 seconds in the game and Sampson and the other senior had fouled out.  40 seconds. And you know what the coach posts on the way home on the bus:


Seniors you will be missed.  Apparently they were already missed because he couldn't find them to get them in the game.  Now the bad thing is the senior night game (which the seniors should have started but didn't because that is another thing this coach doesn't get) the guys played a good bit and at one point 3 senior boys (minus the starter, I mean why wouldn't you put all four seniors out there at one time for a nice moment, but no he couldn't do that either) where on the court together.  And they won by 38.  So don't you think that would register that the more rest the starters get, the fresher they are at the end and just in general during the game and the more engaged the team is and the better they play.  I mean if the abuse in practices was leading to this display every night I could kind of justify it, but it was a fluke game, a one off, that will probably never be repeated for the rest of his tenure which I hope is over actually so that Sampson would get to play his senior year.   I know you never say never, but at this point right now I hope he doesn't play and I hope 4 seniors that were on varsity and about 3 other players don't come back so he realizes you can't treat people like that.  Especially when IT ISN'T WORKING.  You have to see that the results you get are from what you put in, and we were 13-11 and probably should have won another 4 or 5 games and still been playing, but not the way this team was coached.  1960's offense, no transition, and only one kid is allowed to shoot and he only shoots 30% on a good day, makes no sense.  Maybe God can intervene some how, I hope so.