AAU Coaches Vs HS Coaches

[JRutledge]

Originally Posted by VaTerp

Exactly.

Because AAU has gotten more competitive and organized almost every year, many AAU coaches are also high school assistants or head coaches, many at winning schools. And overall, the quality of AAU coaches in general has gotten better in terms of knowing and teaching the game.

As for their behavior that is a complete result of the setting as others have stated. They are less accountable and have less to lose in most AAU settings. So the same coach could be much more of a problem during the summer than he is in the winter.

In top level AAU settings you will find the overall coaching behavior similar to high school. This is because at this level, they are coaching future D-1 players, and a lot of AAU coaches are now getting college jobs. So they have a lot to lose and behave accordingly.

It is the rest of AAU where the overall atmosphere can be more challenging for an official. The coaches can be worse BUT the biggest problem, by far IMO, is the fans. They are louder, more ignorant, and even more blinded by their bias than fans during the scholastic season. And like the coaches, it's often the same fans but their behavior is much worse. And they are often crammed right by the court because of the setting.

It's all about the setting.

You are exactly right the higher the level the better they likely will behave. But as I said, the main reason AAU coaches act that way is because many of the tournament directors control the conduct and they often are being paid by the AAU teams to participate. Those TD do not want to lose money or prestige if they get rid of a coach or their fans for bad behavior. If you have a TD that does not put up with that kind of behavior or understands the value in having good officials work their tournament (which might include an evaluation camp), then a lot of that behavior will continue. When I have had these tournaments while attending a camp, there seems to be a very good understanding of between the persons that run the camp and the TD. Also depending on the tournament there might be some high profile coaches and programs around and their conduct could affect other opportunities including their kids that are being observed.

Peace