Part IX - The Secret Of Longevity - Lost & Found.

My high school team took part in scrimmage jamborees the past two weekends. I had the opportunity to see a lot of old friends, meet a lot of new folks and watch a lot of good basketball. Like all of the other coaches at the jamborees, my goal is to best prepare our team for the upcoming season. Playing against different styles and systems in a short period of time is great because you can get an early read on where your team is good and what your team is lacking.

It doesn't matter, but for this article's sake, we went 5-1 combined in those two jamborees. We lost our last game in the first jamboree (held in Charlotte) and I felt like that was necessary to see how well our team could handle a little bit of early adversity. What I found, I think, is a team that realizes that there is a lot of work to be done and whatever success our program has had in the past doesn't equate to winning games this year. They came back on Monday of last week and tried to correct some of the things we messed up on during that loss.

In the second scrimmage jamboree (held in Greensboro) I met a lot of new coaches trying to establish their programs. Several asked me questions on what they could do to build a competitive and solid program and one thing I told one of them was to not be scared of losses. I followed that up by telling the coach that I wasn't just talking about losses on the scoreboard, but losses when it comes to building your program through the vision you have. The coach was upset about their team's performance in the scrimmage, a loss by twenty-some points. I tried to explain that they may have lost what, looking through the lens of this season, a scrimmage that won't show up on their record. However, they may have really won, if their team sees the bigger picture.

We didn't get good overnight. It takes take time and during that time, you, as a coach are going to have to accept losses... on your roster, on the scoreboard, and in the short term goals you want but if you are true to what you want accomplished and focused on making that dream a reality, you will find that those losses were both a blessing in disguise and necessary for growth.

Losses On Your Roster:

No coach that I know of wants to lose a game. However, when building a program, you have to hold true, especially early on, to what you want accomplished in the long-term.

In 2002, I took over as the head women's coach at Bishop McGuinness Catholic High School; a job I still hold to this day. The team was 7-23 the year before and from what I gathered in talking to the administration, (some of) the parents, and those familiar with the program, the players basically weren't as dedicated as they needed to be to be a consistent winner.

I spent the summer trying to establish a new identity for the program: When you step on the floor you are not going to only look like you plan on winning, but you are going to act like winners and play like winners. Basically, we were going to wear our socks a certain way, have our shirt tails tucked in before stepping on the court (which meant warming up that way) and we were going to play hard. If any of those "asks" were not met, then they wouldn't play. The girls took that to heart and we had a very successful summer. However, when school started and open gyms took place, several, who had not attended our summer workouts decided to come out and participate. That was fine because everything was voluntary, but the ones now joining or rejoining had to understand that things were now different.

You could tell immediately that the ones who didn't attend during the summer, mostly seniors, had a little culture shock as the team they left at the end of the 2001-02 season was not the same when open gyms started. A lot of what I was hearing from the "newcomers" was "What do you mean we have to do this or that"; that didn't go over too well especially from players who were younger, mostly sophomores.

So when tryouts started, a couple of established players decided it was OK to miss a night because they had something else to do. "Established" meaning they were multi-year starters, very popular in school and, relatively speaking, important members of the past couple of girls basketball teams. To me, it didn't matter what it was they were doing; they weren't at tryouts. Missing tryouts was going against everything that had been built up between June - October and the ones that had been participating the entire time felt like nothing was really going to change. I had the opportunity right then and there to make a statement about what I was preaching over the last five months being the new standard for the program.

I cut the kids who missed.

The uproar afterwards was expected and the LOSS of experienced players would be tough, but what was FOUND was a respect and trust from those who wanted to believe that things were going to change. At one point that season we lost six games in a row, but got things together, finished 15-11 and wound up making the state playoffs with a team dominated by sophomores who probably would have played JV if I had kept the ones from the years before.

We didn't want to LOSE games, but that season we actually FOUND was that initial and important building block to the foundation of what we hoped to build.

Losses On The Scoreboard

As noted in the previous point, we lost six in a row. Those six defeats came after we had started off 13-4. Those six consecutive losses set the stage for the following summer and season. Those sophomores were now juniors and they were determined not to go through that again.

I didn't have to worry about dedication because we had removed that the previous year. I didn't have to worry if some new players would come in and try to disrupt our momentum because the returnees told them that if you did "this" or "that" you probably wouldn't be a part of the team. The team was beginning to police itself and I needed to continue to raise the expectation level.

I had cut out every USA Today high school girls basketball Top 25 poll from the previous year and told the team that one day we would be on that list. Naturally, they laughed and said "OK Coach" but I was serious.

However in order to reach that mark we had to play better opponents on a regional and national scale. I started off by scheduling the best teams in our state. If we wanted to be a Top 25 team, if we wanted to win a state championship... heck, if we wanted to just win our conference, we needed to play the best in the non-conference.

Of course, scheduling that way led to some criticism and "concerns" but losing a game here or there would, in the long run, help our team and program find our way.

Over the next five years, 2003-2008, we played every state, regional and national powerhouse that we could. We took some losses and some were tough to swallow, yet we were building a unique program, foreign to the teams and programs and the Triad, and it took us to heights that seemed like just a hope.

We were invited to participate in the top girls basketball tournament in the nation, the Nike TOC, held in Phoenix, Arizona. Not only were we invited to the tournament, but we were placed in the TOP bracket, meaning that the other seven teams alongside of us were nationally ranked.

We got our "you know what" handed to us in three of the four games, but managed to win one of them. When we got back home, some folks were asking "Why in the world did you all the way out there just to get blown out?" My response was that playing on that stage was going to benefit our players and our program in the long run and our girls, who were undefeated before that event, needed to see that there are more improvements to be made individually and as a team.

Over the following years, we were invited to other national events and competed well. Those events made us stronger for the stretch run when we returned home and led to us winning championships in the end. Those losses helped refocus us.

Loss Of A Short Term Goal:

In between those years of 2003-2008, we won three state championships: 2006, 2007 and 2008. That first one, in 2006, was not without its' moments. The one singular moment of that season took place in the western regional semifinals at the LJVM Coliseum Annex.

Our team was undefeated, 28-0, and going to play in the Friday evening nightcap vs. Hendersonville. Katheryn Lyons was our star player. (Yes, I made mention of this story in a previous post.) Katheryn was not only our star but our leader.

I had spent the 2002-2005 years trying to remove the old ways of the program and felt like "Here we are" that March day in 2006.

We had a 4:30 shoot-around and then a 5:00 team meal scheduled before heading to the Annex. At 4:15, everyone was there (15 minute rule) except Katheryn. Katheryn lived five minutes from Bishop and it wasn't like her to be late. However, she came walking in at 4:20 and I'll never forget the look on her face when she walked into the gym. She had gotten the times mixed up and knew she had messed up.

Some team members were upset because they knew what was going to happen... she was going to have to sit for a while, while other team members huddled off to the side, to my disappointment, smirking because they wanted to see what was going to happen.

Here was the choice: She was just a few minutes late and we were in the Elite Eight, I guess I should let this slide because we can't afford to fall behind and lose or not start her because the rules need to be the same for everyone and take a short term loss.

The choice was simple: For the past four years we had worked to create a set of standards. If I go back on that now, in this moment, then the cuts made in 2002 were pointless, playing great opponents was needless and my goals to build a strong program were hopeless. Nothing I said was going to matter anymore because "I didn't want us to lose this game".

I didn't start her.

The uproar from our crowd who was sitting opposite our bench was rather seismic. I could hear folks yelling across the way to me: "What are you doing", "Put Katheryn in the game", "Come on Coach" for the first few minutes, but I couldn't lose the program.

Katheryn eventually came in, we won, and went on to win the state championship capping off an undefeated 31-0 year.

Looking at that moment from my perspective:

1. I felt like the girls understood what was expected from an effort and focus standpoint. We had worked on that since 2002. It didn't matter who started or who was playing, that expectation wasn't changing.
2. I was somewhat thrilled to have folks yelling at me because just a few years earlier we weren't even close to being in a position like the one we were in. No longer were we the 7-23 or 15-11 program.
3. If I excuse Katheryn's tardiness, whether it was accidental or not, and we win that game, I would lose the program as the players and parents on that team would always bring it up when I tried to discipline someone. "Well, you let Katheryn get away with it."

You may ask: "What if you would have lost that game because you didn't start her?" Go back to Point #1 and add to that the fact that everyone knows that if a starter can be benched that they can and will be as well. I was looking at the program long-term, in that moment, while having all the confidence in the world that we would be fine in the short-term. That is the evening when my "Here We Are" turned into "I have FOUND my program".

Article recap from The Winston-Salem Journal's Mason Linker in 2012: Robinson said he remembers the crowd "howling" when he benched Lyons, his star point guard, for the first five minutes of the team's first Western Regional semifinal, against Hendersonville in 2006.

Lyons, the rock of the first two championship teams, arrived at the pregame shoot-around five minutes late.

Robinson said he would rather stick by the rules than show favoritism and risk future problems.

"Honestly, that's something that could have cost us a game,' Lyons, who just finished her second season as the girls coach at High Point Westchester, said this week.

"You never know... Getting down early could have been horrendous. I was never mad at him. I was mad at myself. I never expected him to make an exception for me. He knew it was a misunderstanding because I had never been late for anything."

Lyons now uses Robinson's approach for her program."When you make your expectations and demands very clear, it's almost a contract between the players and parents and coaches and the team itself," Lyons said. "Everything is laid out for you. There is no gray area."

Conclusion:

Don't be scared to take a loss or losses in order to create and establish the program you envision. You will find a lot of great things that come from a loss here and there.

It may involve making tough and unpopular decisions, but that comes with being the head coach, the leader and the face of your team and program.

Always think long-term with your program decisions and know that each moment that is considered a problem is really an opportunity, and a blessing, in disguise.

Yours for Better Basketball Always,

Brian Robinson