[JWP]

We did the draft for several years in our community youth basketball league. My last year as a coach, we had six teams, and most of the coaches were parents with kids in the program. We hardly knew any of the kids, and unfortunately, we were unable to have tryouts.

We all got to draft our own kids, but after that, we were just picking names. Or so I thought.

One coach, right after the draft, then went to me and said that his son's best friend and neighbor was on my team, could we trade players, so that he could take them both to games. Real sob story, about how this kid lived on edge of town, parents would never take him to games, etc. Sure, no problem, I said.

Turns out, he did this with three other coaches. All the players he traded for turned out to be the best athletes in the program. We all complained when we realize what had happened, but by then, games had started. Big surprise, his team went undefeated.

After that, a no-trade clause was installed. They have since done away with the draft, and parents are no longer coaching.

(This guy later applied to be the head football coach at the local high school. The look on his face when he walked in and found me as part of the interview committee was priceless. When I asked him about the need for high ethics as a coach, he knew he had no chance. Karma ... a good thing.)