They Keep Score For A Reason! Part 2

That day at Siglar Park I learned that there’s another very simple reason why they keep score – to measure results and determine who wins and who loses. Basketball, much like many other areas of life, is extremely result oriented. The scoreboard is brutally honest as there are no points awarded or displayed for either style or effort. Only results are recorded.

You can’t try to work hard. You can’t try not to drink and drive. You can’t try to be honest. You can’t try to rebound or to play good defense. As the famed philosopher Yoda once said, “Do or do not. There is no try."

Results matter and that is why they keep score!

They Keep Score For A Reason!

I’ve learned a lot through basketball over the years, starting with the very first basketball game I ever played in when I was seven years old. The game was played at Siglar Park in Westminster, California early one Saturday morning. Simply put, my team was thrashed 44-6. Even before I left the park that day I realized two very important things: From that day on, I knew without a doubt that there was a huge difference between average and excellent and maybe even more importantly, that winning is a lot more fun than losing! Thankfully, I’ve never forgotten either one!!

Some people don’t want to admit that there is a difference between average and excellent, between losers and winners, between failure and success whether it’s on the court, in the classroom, or in the workplace. Whether we like it or not, there are differences, but unfortunately many do not learn this until well into adulthood.

We live in a time where parents and other well meaning adults want to protect the fragile self esteem of their children at all costs. One of the ways they try do this is by refusing to “keep score” whenever their kids are involved. After all, if there is no score then there are no winners. If there are no winners then there can’t be any losers. Everyone is the same in the land of mediocrity!

During the last three years, our daughter Taylor has played on six different grade school soccer teams (one in the Fall and one in the Spring) where possibly the only rule that is ever enforced is the one that prohibits keeping score. During one game when nine year old Taylor and one of her teammates kept announcing the score after each goal, the opposing coach pulled his team off the field and refused to play the rest of the game. Unbelievable!! That guy never would have survived at Siglar Park!! What was he teaching the members of his team? That if you ever get behind you should quit? That not playing is more fun than playing and keeping score? Why not view the situation as the perfect opportunity to teach his team the value of persistence or bouncing back from adversity? Why not use it as a springboard for his players to improve their skills, fitness level, or teamwork? Why not just let the kids come to the realization that keeping score is a fact of life?

Keeping score is a big part of life and the sooner we all realize that the better. Teachers keep score and call it grades. Banks keep score and call it credit report. Businesses keep score and call it profit. Armies keep score and call it death toll. Politicians keep score and call it votes. Even American Idol keeps score.

In all walks of life, keeping score should motivate us to do our very best and to get better results. Keeping score lets us gauge our progress and then make any necessary adjustments. Without keeping score it’s easy to assume that everything must be going well, that we are doing everything right, and that all performances are the same. Knowing the score helps us get better.

I hated losing that very first game when I was seven years old, so much that I’ve remembered it all these years, and I’ve hated losing ever since. But once I knew they were keeping score I had a couple choices to make – I could either improve my skills, become a better teammate, compete harder and win or I could continue to lose. I’ve tried to apply that lesson to nearly everything I’ve done since then. The very first thing I ever learned through basketball was that they keep score for a reason!

Sprints & Bellyflops!

Roseburg's been in the midst of a heat wave this past week which has made spring conditioning workouts even more challenging than usual. As a change of pace and to get out of the heat at the same time, Linda put the girls through a pool workout last Thursday that was anything but easy. But as they have done over and over and over again this past year, the girls found ways to have fun and work hard at the same time. By the time they were done, everyone was tired, sore and sunburned but Marji Maxfield and Kristi Fallin still had enough energy for several rounds of a belly flop contest!!
I've been thinking lately about some of the great things that I have learned through playing and coaching basketball over the years and how they apply to my "off the court" life as well. So over the next several weeks I think I'm going to write about some of those things under the heading of "Most Everything I've Ever Learned I've Learned Through Basketball" or something similar. If any of you have some good ideas or stories of things you have learned through basketball, let me know and I'll work it into the blog.

Spring Update

It's been about six weeks since I've written anything and so I apologize to those parents, friends, alumni, etc. who feel like they have been missing out on what's going on with our basketball program. The reason is very simple: RECRUITING!! Unless you've done it it's almost impossible to know just how time consuming the whole process can be!!

We start with a list of approximately 100 names. (Last year, knowing we had to recruit and sign nine new players, our list was closer to 150 names.) We go to at least two high school games a week beginning the first of December until mid March. Some time in January we start contacting these players by phone and begin determining who is interested in playing for us. Those initial phone calls are important because we are looking for a connection; for a certain personality that will undoubtedly fit in with the rest of our team. We definitely want good players but we also want good people! These days text messaging makes it's harder to get to know recruits as quickly as we used to. Texting is a great way to communicate with your friends and family but is very difficult to give and get a great first impression. Can you imagine trying to conduct a job interview through text messaging?

Once we have that first conversation with a potential recruit we contact her once a week as long as we are still interested in each other. Besides calling the players, phone calls are made to parents, high school coaches, club coaches, and counselor's. It's safe to say that it seems like we literally live on the phone all Spring!! Home visits and campus visits give us even more chances to get to know the recruits and to let them get to know our team. Our list eventually dwindles from 100 to 75 to 50 to 25 names. In a perfect world this whole process would be done before the recruits graduate from high school but that's not always the case. Last year, for example, our team wasn't completed until the end of August!!

The time spent this year has been well worth it. We have received two signed Letters of Intent and have verbal commitments from four others. Once all the Letters of Intent are signed we'll list their names and bio information here on the blog. But for now it should be safe to say that it's going to be another fun, exciting, and successful year for Umpqua Basketball!!