Trust the Process

In Illinois, every girls and boys basketball team is getting ready to get geared up to start their summer programs- camps, skill workouts, leagues, and shootouts. It is really a challenge for coaches to get players signed up, get staff organized to help, and plot out transportation and lodging. And one of the toughest things is to get the players placed in appropriate camp sessions and determine which players are on which teams and attend which shootouts. Summer basketball in Illinois has become a big deal. 

Motivated and competitive players have goals of what they want to achieve this summer and what they want to achieve next season. Players goals can range from hoping to “make a team”, “be moved up to the next level,” become a starter, and wanting to be all-state. So with players having goals for the summer and for next season, both players and their parents are very anxious to see if they are going to reach their goals. 

It is natural for both parents and players to try to read summer placement as predictor of what is going to happen. While it is natural to want to know how things will turn out, parents and players need to take a deep breath, trust the process, and just keep working to improve. The following are some examples of trusting the process from past players. 

Molly Watson, one of our all-time best players, never made the varsity as a freshman. Other players before her and after her not only made the varsity as freshmen and some even started, but she worked hard on the FS team, and started on the varsity as a sophomore. She went onto play for DePaul. 

Sarah Larson played with a FS team all summer long. She never played once with the varsity or attended varsity camp. During the winter she was first player off the bench on the varsity. 

Sabrina Clay was on the freshman team as a freshman. Another freshman made the varsity, and 3 other freshmen made the sophomore team. She never pouted, never expressed frustration- she just worked and improved. As a sophomore, she made the varsity and played regularly, while the 3 classmates were still on the sophomore team. 

We were going to Chicago for a summer tourney. I told Andie Allison that she could go, but she needed to realize there was a chance that she might not play at all over the weekend. So it was her call whether she wanted to go our not go. She could have gotten upset and not gone- she chose to go, someone got hurt and she played all weekend.

One summer when we went to Carolina for team camp, Brenna Saline as a freshman didn’t play at camp with the varsity and another freshman did play on the varsity. I didn’t tell Brenna, but I had already decided she would be on the varsity the next winter, I wanted to evaluate the other freshman. Brenna never complained, she had a great camp on a lower team. 

As a freshman, Kiarra Kilgore never started a single game and she played mainly as a #5 (post player). She knew she wasn’t destined to be a post player and we knew she was not destined to be a post player, but it gave her an opportunity to gain varsity experience. 

All five of these players “trusted the process.” They were not worried about where they were at the moment. They focused on working hard, being good teammates, and listening to coaches. They trusted that if they did those things- eventually they would reach their goals.