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There is a lack of training for new coaches, especially at the lower levels. Especially with so many "leagues" at such a young age, and the lack of qualified coaches, anyone perceived as "knowing basketball" can get into coaching. Great former players do not make the best coaches as the game was probably very natural to them so they don't know how to teach those less naturally gifted. Also, coaches that are in it for themselves lose perspective about how the kids they coach emulate them.
I was fortunate to get my start coaching under my 8th grade basketball coach. He did not know his basketball X's and O's very well as he was a football coach/teacher by trade. He was always very intense and passionate, yet dignified and classy. When he coached me, any player that addressed the refs with anything other than calmly asking for an explanation for a call would be benched for the rest of the quarter. He was loud, strict, passionate, and a perfectionist during practice, but he rarely raised his voice during games unless one of us made the same mistake over and over. When he hired me as his 7th grade coach, all he needed to tell me was "I know you'll do a good job, just remember you are representing yourself, your school, and ME when you go out there."
During the first few games of the season, our teams played at the same time so he did not get to see me coach. I thought I was representing myself well (what did I know, I was only 18) but I guess I did not realize how much of a whiny coach I was, spending most of the game yelling at the refs and yelling at my players. Then there was a game where my coach got to see my team in action. At half time with my team winning by about 15, before I joined my team in the locker room, he pulled me aside and talked to me: (to paraphrase) "I hired you to coach these kids, not to yell at the officials. Yelling at them will not make these kids better players and your kids become how you are. Next time you get the urge to yell at the refs, think about what skills or drills you can put in next practice to take the refs out of that situation. and if the refs do miss calls, you gotta remember, its middle school ball with middle school refs. Do your job. Oh, and stop whining."
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