OTL: AAU Vs. High School Basketball

Fri, 15 May 2009 OTL examines the power struggle between club and high school basketball

via OTL: AAU Vs. High School Basketball.

Not much posting to this blog lately. Usually if it’s just an interesting article I post to Twitter these days….

But this one got me a little riled. Without telling too many tales (those of you who know me have heard them already), it hits too close to home. I’ve become a bit of a broken record on this issue, but I’ll try to hit the main point concisely here.

ESPN’s OTL should be commended for addressing the issue, but like many other outlets that have taken a look at this, I think they miss the point.

School-based sports aren’t supposed to be the same as non-school sports. The “student-athlete” is not just a kid who plays a sport. As an educator who coaches, I see my work in coaching as an integral component of my players’ academic growth experience as well as any advances we might make in sport. Too often, coaches – some at schools, and some in clubs – don’t see themselves as educators first.

I do.

Sadly, it’s often to my own detriment as a professional educational coach. Club and AAU coaches do have tons of influence in my area (Chicago), but they’re not the only ones. There is a powerful and growing contingent of school-based coaches who also see themselves as power brokers and collectors of athletic talent. These coaches increase their power base by becoming successful in assembling championship teams by collecting talent. They often do this with close relationships with club programs. Many directly or indirectly recruit student-athletes from other schools.

Interestingly, the ESPN piece exhibits this in its narrative, but doesn’t spend a lot of time assessing the role of some school-based coaches.

The result is that our talented youth athletes have become commodities – both to certain club coaches as well as certain school-based coaches. They are wooed and squabbled over and led to believe that their college opportunities are dependent on their affiliation with a particular coach or program. They are bought with lofty promises and expensive shoes.

I’ve seen kids really benefit – personally and academically – from sports. You may never hear about them or see them play in television-worthy college games, but my primary job is to teach skills they’ll take with them when they’re not playing sports.