HoopClinics

Brian Williams
The Coaching Toolbox

Football Coach John McKay said, “Coaches have to watch for what they don’t want to see and listen to what they don’t want to hear.”  One area that I have always applied that to is keeping an eye on our players grades. We have always made it a rule that on days when progress reports or report cards are issued, our players must show us the report before being allowed to practice or play in the game that evening.

The follow up is that if you don’t practice because of that reason, you will miss the next game.  But, we have not had to enforce that because we always see the reports.  It has made me late to practice at times (while the assistants start practice) having to address some poor grades, but I would rather know about those issues as soon as possible to give me a better chance to deal with them. It helps in the area of progress reports because we can see not only who is failing at the time, but also who is struggling.  As for the report cards, if there is someone who is going to be academically ineligible, I would rather know immediately rather than waiting for the report from the athletic office.

The third benefit is that I can see everyone’s grades in all of their classes–not just the failing grades.  That way we can work with the players not just to keep them from failing, but to work to their potential.