Finally, a good sportsmanship story
 

Today was the last day of the season for our local kids rec league. I had four games in which I was training some HS kids. My first two were 5th/6th girls games and the last two were 8th boys games. In the first girls game, team A won by 6. After the game, I was talking with one of the parents from team B who I've known for quite a few years. He told me this was the first game they lost all year (meaning they were 11-0 before this) but at a practice this week, their coach told everyone he was going to give as much playing time as possible to the "players who didn't play as much" this season, regardless of the score. Apparently all the girls and their parents supported this. He has a guard and a center who are probably the two best players we have at that grade level and they each played less than half the game. I noticed every time a girl on his team made a really good play, the kids on the bench would cheer wildly and when one girl made a basket, they "went nuts". I asked my parent friend about it and he said that girl only had about 2 baskets all season. She played almost 3/4 of this game.

I hope this guy comes back again next year. BTW - most of their games were relatively close (I was told their biggest victory margin was 12 points) and they never "poured it on" anyone.

Gee - I wonder what that Texas HS coach in that other thread would say about this.

BTW - I had to toss a coach in one of the 8th grade games, so the day wasn't all good. Or was it. ;)

Good story Mark.

After reffing four playoff games across town today, I show up to watch the last game of the season in my son's league - 15U Rec All-Star Game. I arrive 10 minutes before game time - one official. He comes over to me and says "Hey man, I need help." Apparently, there was some kind of screw-up and he has been reffing all day by himself - three All-Star games. Sux. Ya can't do B15U by yourself.

Unfortunately, I didn't have my stuff......duh. I thought about it, but didn't bring my smelly stuff from earlier, duh.

Jeans (belted) and a t-shirt. Borrowed whistle.

It was one of the most fun games I've done in a while. A good game. Parents, coaches, players - all buddy buddy. Joking and having fun.

We even agreed to a 5th quarter.

Good way to end the season.

Truth be told, five games is my limit........I'm pooped.

I did two MS games last night. Five today. Tomorrow, we end another league and I do their Championship and All-Star Games. Actually can't wait to go to work Monday and get some rest. :p

Merry Christmas ...
 

Great question. Great post. Thanks for sharing.

During the last season that I coached middle school basketball, right before a few politically active parents "encouraged" me to leave, we hadn't won a game right up until just before Christmas break. Besides not winning a game, I had a few sixth graders who had not as yet played a single minute of middle school "varsity" basketball. In our last game before Christmas break, we were ahead by about twelve points with about four minutes left in the game. Two of our opponent's best players had fouled out. It was going to be our first win of the young season. I looked down to the end of the bench and saw the faces of those sixth graders who hadn't gotten into a "varsity" game yet. I did not want them going home over the Christmas break, meeting family members who would probably ask them about how their basketball team was doing, and how they were doing, to only reply, "We only won one game, and I haven't played in a real game yet". So I put them in the game, to see the lead decrease to two points with less than a minute to play. Now I had another problem. Do I pull them, and put in the regulars to seal the win, or do I show them that I have faith in them? I chose to have faith in them, at the risk of losing the game. We won by three when our opponents missed a three pointer at the buzzer. Of course it could have backfired on me, with us losing, and with the older players blaming the loss, not on me, but on the younger players. One of those sixth graders made a free throw with ten seconds left to put us up by three. She was as proud as she could be. After the game, one of the parents, whose daughter was a granddaughter of a former town councilman, complained to the principal that my poor judgment in making substitutions at the end of the game almost led to another loss. That's all the "encouragement" that I needed. To me, winning was very important, but there were a lot of other things just as important, if not more important, as winning middle school basketball games.

Good Story, but shouldn't the good sportsmanship tag be given to the coach of that age group that didn't have to wait until the last game to make up for the lack of playing time for his players? It seems like winning was what he was all about as his team went undeafeated, but some players didn't play very much to accomplish that goal. Don't get me wrong, I am glad he did what he did the last game, but it couldn't have been a lot of fun during the season for the players that didn't get in the games that often. That is probably why some youth leagues have mandatory participation rules.

In our league all kids play equal time each game.We don't keep score with
the biddy kids . Works pretty good,we even have a few kids with slight impairments that have a blast playing each weekend. plenty of proud parents and grandparents . Our league motto: Every kid's a winner. At the end of the season , some of our ref's have been known to lift up the littlest kids ( K-2) to the hoop so they can score, and the last game one coach goes in with each team to play . It's definitely fun calling fouls on them and see the "deer in the headlights" look! :) <><

Our league has a rule that if a player participates in both of their practices during the week, that player must play at least half their game on the weekend. If they wind up playing less, it's up to the parents to notify the league. We received zero complaints about playing time regarding that team for the season. Teams are held to a maximum of 10 players and sometimes they wind up with 8 or 9. In fact, 7 or 8 is probably the average that actually shows up for games.

Winning Isn't Everything ...
 

We almost always had a five minute, or ten minute, running time "junior varsity" period after the varsity game. Everyone on the roster got to play in either the "junior varsity" period and/or the "varsity" game. I always tried to get our sixth grade "junior varsity" players into the varsity games as often as possible. I just couldn't see sending them home for the Christmas break without getting into a "real" game. Every year the last four players selected on our fourteen man roster were told in advance that they would be considered "junior varsity" players, but I always tried to get them into the "varsity" games. They worked just as hard at practice as the ten "varsity" players. And sometimes, due to illness, or injury, we needed them in the varsity games, so I figured it was best to get rid of the "butterflies" as soon as possible.