LBoogie's The Real 411

I hear ya. I’d like to see NP play again and observe more of what you wrote. Hopefully the players will just play and get what they can out of each and every game.

Great job. This article needs to be sent to all the High School Coaches in the DMV. It’s a shame that kids just can’t get out and play like they do in the spring and summer. Most coaches I see in the DMV fail to realize that the overall goal is to make the kids better and they get so caught up in X’s and O’s that they loose site of this. This is an OUTSTANDING article!!!!!

Wow…. very interesting, but not all is true. This article has a lot of information pointing to the coach. Some of it is true and some isn’t. If you really read between the lines, the real message is about the BIG 4 that starts. I’m sure you know who they are. There are parents who have a GREAT impact on some of the decisions the coaches make. There is also a lot of hype about the five starters, and what division schools some will attend and who the upcoming stars are etc. There is never any hype about the true ballers for NP High School. They are on the bench and subbed when the starters are in trouble.
Then they are put back in once the true ballers pull them out of their mess. If the truth be told, and I’ll be glad to tell it, out of the five only 2 and possibly 3 should be starting. It’s really sad to see what is going on with this NP team. It’s really sad. Your remark about the missed layups,free throws, and shots is true to a certain extinct. However, if your game is like that and you’re a division I/II baller than you wouldn’t be missing 95% of your layups, freethrow, and shots. It’s really a lot of hype and I mean a lot of hype when it comes to the Big 4. I’m a spectator of the game, as well and I’ve been to all NP games this year. I’m seeing absolutely nothing on the court when they are out there. There is no production. Many times NP Big 4 doesn’t score until we’re under 5 minutes in the 1st quarter. That’s unreal, especially when there are articles being put out in the independent, washington post, and other media about how good they are. I’m not being critical. I want all of NP players to succeed. The publicity should be geared toward some of the other players on the team. However, that would probably never happen, due the coaching staff and some parents. I would just like to say, you young ladies playing HS basketball that never get the chance to show your true game, it’s going to work out. KEEP YOUR HEAD UP : – ) NP team is really not a team. Even outsiders can see that there is love toward each other. I’ve never seen anything like it. There is so much more to speak about and the truth needs to be told. For now, I’m just keeping it real.

Basketball is a game of rhythm and flow, manifsted by the management of pace and tempo. If North Point is playing 12 girls, Keeping It Real, and the team has neither rhyme nor reason when they’re “playing”, and they’re losing real games with one of the best starting fives in our region, public, private, or Catholic, then the coaching is inadequate. On every level. And that’s fact, not opinion.
Keeping It Real, you are certainly not a spectator of the game–nor are you a fan of the game. Your “opinion” shows that you are nothing more than just another parent who paid five dollars to get in the building. Your concern for the 12 NORTH POINT GIRLS WHO PLAY is false, and furthermore, is clearly opposite to the goal of presenting an efficient, cohesive unit which plays hard, plays together, has fun, and shares success.
In fact, it’s parents like you who endorse this type of coaching, while ALSO blaming specific girls and other parents for a team’s dysfunction and distress. Instead of embracing and supporting EVERY one of the girls on the TEAM, you invent and embrace any level of intrigue and drama which supports your warped and twisted understanding of this game of basketball, and of the science of coaching.
In smaller words for some of you, you and your co-signing fellow parents are killing your daughters’ spirits with this bulls**t about playing time, and who starts, and who doesn’t. And you and your co-signers have clearly contributed greatly to Norh Point girls basketball being the laughing stock of East Coast high-school athletics.
Your daughters and yes, your coach, need you all to be genuinely 100% supportive of that program right now. Be a parent right now, instead of a big-mouth, no-nothing agitator. Because despite all of the dysfunction and distress in that building right now, “the Point” still has a legitimate shot at that Maryland State 4A Championship trophy!
But even if the coach and his coaching get better, that situation will get even worse than it is now, as long as you and your crew continue to conduct yourselves like a pack of hating hellraisers.
It’s parenting, coaching, and playing–not the other way around.

There is a lot of truth to this article. However, there is a lot missing as well. It will not do any of us any good to point fingers at each other leaving the problem unsolved. I will break this topic down logically so that everyone will understand the core of the problem.

This is clearly my opinion/observation-

70% of the problem is the Coach-First and foremost- Just because you think you can coach doesn’t necessarily mean you can coach! And not every coach can coach at this level of the game…

When you coach at this level you have to possess the following:
Knowledge of the game
Discipline (mental)
Committment
Leadership
Respect
Desire

The coach lacks all of the above in his program -if he did start with it 4 years ago somewhere along his journey he let it go. With that said his program was bound to crumble. Coach if you can’t take this team to the 4A finals- Throw in the towel!

20% of the problem is the NP players- I walked away from this game because I realized that with time the meaning of this game had changed for players. The no longer have the love for the game, the desire to push and the killer instinct to dominate the court. Basketball is a year round sport. So when your not with your coaches during season youe should be developing your weaknesses during the off season. Every player should no there limit, and every time they step on the court for practice or games their goal should be to push themselves to that limit…. NP player learn your potential. What is your self value to the team? Seniors you are playing like freshmen it’s time to step up to the plate.

10% of the problem is the NP parents- You have been conditioned to believe that your opinions of this game count, but in reality it really doesn’t. I have coached HS basketball for 14 years and one of the most important thing to do is let parents know their role. I have always allowed parents to be apart of my program because they play a key role- But i have never and will never let parent dictate how my program is ran…… Coach Spencer should have niped that in the bud 4 years ago. Parents your daughters need your support-remain positive this season and push them to push themselves!

Good Luck NP!!!

often times we let our wishes and desires override reality. at some point the wishes surplant reality. high schools let students participate in extra-curricula activities. from the administrations point of view and as tasked, basketball is the same as the french club and the chess club.

oops hit the wrong key, my bad.
as a basketball fan i certainly have the expectation that i see good basketball played by well schooled players who have a desire to excel at the game. when i see this whole desire and wish screwed up by a coach, parents, school administration my first inclination is to benchmark them with what should be. this is a false expectation from beginning to my alusion that it could be as i desire.
the coach may or may not be qualified. if he is not how can i expect him to be. if the administration sees this as only an extra curricula activity i certainly can’t lay on them what i think and conceive as what should be. if the parents who by the way, score not one bucket nor check anyone can or cannot cloud the issues. every parent is not as versed in and on the game as they might think and believe.
this is high school basketball, period. every school has it’s own mandate and it’s own pursuit in meeting it. every schools serious goal is not to field nor be concerned with seriously competing. the reality is, that is the way it is and goes. the coach is chosen for various reasons and in the case under review here, it is obvious that basketball knowledge was not the first criteria. if in fact this is a four year endeavor again it is obvious that what we fans want, wish and desire is not paramount to those running the show.
you can not critique an orange and be mad because it is not an apple.
the school contracts the coach to field a team, and guide them through what ever that activity may be, chess, debate etc. if in fact he does this, the coach has fulfilled his contractural obligations. no where in the contract does it state he has to win, that he must help players get better, that he/she must assist in getting students athletic scholarships, put in extra hours.
fortunately in the dmv the majority of the contracted coaches do put in extra time, be it good or bad. we have many, many talented players, who fortunately play year round and participate in very good spring/summer programs, where the expectations and the coaches are hired or coach under far more critical circumstances. a lot of the expectations put on these coaches are unrealistic when applied to the typical high school coach. certainly there are some spring/summer coaches who could be judged has horrid also. but in their case the player and parent have alternatives not available as readily in high school.
too much and too often high school coaches are critizied and critique using criteria that does not apply and is not applicable to reality. the average high school in the dmv is not an oak hill, the wac conference, or some of the other schools and conferences where coaches, players, administrations goal is field highly competive teams.
all this being scripted, bad is bad except it by facing the reality of who, where and how of the situation at that or any high school as relates to the extra curricula activity basketball

Amen to the author I couldn’t agree with her more. I have had an opportunity to catch the NP girls play on a number of occasions and have echoed the same sentiments. I myself have played , coached,and even officiated in the D.C. area for a number of years. I attended high school at a school that competes in The Washington Catholic Athletic Conference (formerly The Metro Conference ) and have witnessed some of the best hoops play and coaching in the area, perhaps the nation. What I noticed at the NP games is that the coaching is on par with what I saw while officiating pee-wee league games. The coach often utilized whoesale substitutions, sometimes subbing five players at a time as if he had a one quater rule to abide by. The time outs were misplaced and often taken while his team was in the midst of a run thus disrupting the flow and continuity of the game. Most of the premiere boys teams are lucky if they can go eight deep, most girls teams are fortunate if they have six or seven consistent contributors. Subsitutes should be filtered in on a situational bases, to give a player a breather, keep her out of foul trouble, to go big, or small based on the mismatches that maybe present. Unless a team is up by twenty or thirty with two minutes left in the game there are going to be players who do not play. On most occasions they will get their chance to shine when the time is right, if not this year maybe next. In some cases the coach makes the team, leading a group of overacheivers who are not so athletically gifted to success by way of the scheme and game plan. This is not the case with the NP girls. In this case the coach hit the lotto landing a team with several critically acclaimed future division one college players. As for ” keeping it REAL ” you and yours need to sit back and enjoy the ride that the so called ” Big 4 ” will take you on this year, and hope that the coach dosen’t screw up your chances at sniffing another SMAC title or maybe even a state title, because it maybe Noth Points last chance. They say ” absence makes the heart grow fonder “, and when the NP seniors are off playing college basketball next year maybe, just maybe you will miss them. When the gym isn’t full of scouts, and the wins an losses column isn’t full of W’s maybe you’ll miss them. When NP doesn’t finish in the top of the SMAC maybe you’ll miss them. Oh what heck there is always AAU ball, and we all know everyone gets a chance to play on those super competetive elite travel teams, if you are in fact elite. I wish the best of luck and success to the Eagles this year, may they straighten out all of their issues on and off the court and be poised to make another championship run. Really REAL signing off, ONE LOVE !

This is all senseless nonsense and so unimportant when you think the challenges we are faced with today. The highest unemployment in nations’ history where people are losing their jobs, cars, homes, and been thrown out on the streets, low test scores, murders, teenage pregnancy, etc… I find it very difficult to see the importance when you speak about chemistry on a girl’s basketball team when we should be concerned about the Chemistry being taught in our Public High Schools. Parents try their best to live their lives vicariously through their children in hopes they will make to the professional basketball, football, or baseball level; I mean really; Are you serious??? C’mon, folks… Step and take a look at what’s going on in our inner city (urban) schools where they wished they had the resources that North Point or Westlake had. Things like books, safety, discipline in the classrooms. We are so concerned about Points per game and FG % when we should be more concerned about ACT, SAT, and GPA’s.

It is easy to point at a coach and say all the things that he or she are doing wrong, but what are doing to help, extend some grace, or just transfer your child to another school if you don’t agree with their coaching style. In the scheme of things, it really does not matter, it’s a game. Do you value education over athletics, safety of championships… probably not, but reading these blogs, one would think so. NP made had bad coaching, but where do they rank academically? “What good does it do a man to gain the whole world and lose his sole?” Nobody wants to hear what I saying, but that is OK because I speak the truth. Our country has begun to place more value on sports and not education and we wonder why our schools are ranked lower and lower on a global scale each year comparatively speaking.

How much better off would we be if these same parents would come together and display this much concern for current education situation and unequal treatment/funding for our children, I wonder how much further this country would be. I forgot, we are talking a middle class suburban State of the Art School with all of the amenities one would want or even imagine. Small classrooms, computers, labs, libraries, wireless connections, their on stadium track, etc…Do you have magnetometers, gun carrying security guards, and how many murders have their been at this school compared to the ones in D.C. or others in Price George County? I’m just saying”

One of the bloggers talked about the “Love of the Game.” How can we as people have love for a game when we can’t even “Love Each Other?” Get it together people, it’s a game, a sport, and entertainment for kids most of who will never play at the college level and less than that will play at the pro level and then what…. They all need Education and so do you.

A coach is just that, a person who plays a distinct role in a childs life just for a small snapshot of time, but a Parent is for Life and if anything out influences your Parenting, then you can’t blame the Coach. I would rather be a bad Coach, than a bad parent. Parents are Forever…

I enjoyed the topic and feedback