Early in my coaching career I did not give any post-season awards. It went back to my experience as a high school football and basketball player.
The entire season my coaches promoted the value of a “team-first” attitude- it was all about the team not the individual.
Then we got to the banquet, and they gave an MVP Award. It seemed the focus was not on the team’s achievements but the suspense of who would be the MVP. Players who had been great team players left the banquet feeling disappointed and perhaps unappreciated.
As a result, I chose not to give any individual awards for much of my career.
In the 1990’s, we went thru a period of time where our teams were very successful. It started to bother me that people outside of our team circle were choosing players to recognize for special attention. Often if we won a game, it was the player who scored lots of points who the press wanted to interview. It was not the player who held the star on the other team to only five points, or the player who was setting good screens to get a guard open- those things always seemed to go unrecognized and unappreciated.
Finally, a local weekly newspaper started picking our MVP. I didn’t want a player to be picked as an MVP. It was at this point I decided I needed to make an effort to recognize and to celebrate the players who did all the things that were important to our team culture.
Awards Promoting Our Culture
It is my belief that these awards recognize important parts of our team culture. We believe that if we are to compete for championships, we need:
** Players committed to growing and improving.
** Players committed to working to become strong defensive players.
** Players invested in being leaders.
** Players will bring passion to our practices and games.
** Players committed to excelling in the classroom.
Don’t Wait ‘til the Banquet- Daily Reminder
The trophies for these awards are not in a trophy case, they are on top of the players lockers in the lockeroom. I did not want the players to find out at the end of the season banquet what our program valued- I wanted the players every day to be able to look up and see what our program values.
Celebrate
At our banquet, as I presented these awards, I used it as an opportunity to celebrate the values that we thought were associated with each award and why they were important to our team culture.
For each award, the players had an opportunity to rank their first choice, second choice, and third choice. So usually many names might have been included in the voting. If I were to make a mistake, usually I would lean toward giving multiple winners of each award.
Reflect
If a parent or a player were disappointed in not being selected for an award, I would hope they would pause to reflect why they think they were not chosen by their teammates. If a players was not chosen to be a captain, reflect on your leadership skills. If a player was not selected for the “Bring It Award”, is it a reality check about the players approach to practice
Crisman Award for Excellence in Basketball
This award was not an MVP Award. The award was named for Amy Crisman, a 1981 GHS grad. I felt when we started this award in the early ‘90’s that all the awards at GHS were named to honor males. I felt it was important to have an award named for a female. Amy Crisman was our first official All-State player.
Some years we have had as many as 4 players receive the award, and some years we didn’t have any winners. It was to recognize any players who received either All-Conference or All-State recognition.
Team Captains
We selected team captains for the next season, at the end of the season before. I felt it was important to use the off-season to train the captains and to build a trust with them.
The team voted for the next year’s captains. On the ballot for captain, players were given this direction, “Team captains should be players who have shown an ability to lead by how they work, how they practice, how they compete, how they relate to their teammates, and how they represent the basketball program as students and citizens.”
Most Improved
The players voted for this award. Their instructions, “The player who thru hard work and commitment improved the most from last year to this year, or improved the most from the beginning of the season to the end of the season. It can be a player who goes from average to good, or who goes from good to great.”
Best Defense Award
The players voted on this award with the following instructions, “This should be the player you feel was our team’s best defensive player. We could count on them to be locked in defensively.”
Bring It Award
This award was copied from the University of Wisconsin women’s volleyball team. This is considered the Badger’s most prestigious award. The players instructions when voting on this, “This is the player who always bring energy, effort, and enthusiasm. They bring energy, effort, and enthusiasm in the off-season and during the in-season. They bring energy, effort, and enthusiasm in practice, the weight room, and the games. Every drill in practice is better because of their energy, effort, and enthusiasm.”
Academic Excellence
This award is presented to all seniors who have a 3.50gpa at the end of the first semester of their senior year.
.
No comments:
Post a Comment