MikeThomasSmith.com

Sad Day, my basketball season is over.  I’ve really enjoyed coahing those kids and teaching them a sport that I love.    I miss those kids already.

The last game was a blast!  I have to say the league we were in goes out with a bang.   They had an announcer and introduced each player over the PA system.  It was so funny seeing their face when they heard their name and jersey number called.   You know the look a 7 year old boy gets when he’s trying to be cool?    Trying to hide that smile.
But to me the best part was after the game.   We had a short trophy ceremony and I got to honor each kid’s accomplishments in front of a crowd of parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles and other supporters.    It was a small crowd of about 100 people.   I had a great time and it meant a lot to the kids too.

Two years ago I wouldn’t have dreamed of getting in front of a crowd with ease.  To be completely honest the fear of getting in front of a crowd would have kept me from coaching the team in the first place.

If your fears of public speaking are holding you back from that promotion, honoring loved ones or coaching your kid’s sports teams than you need to click here and begin conquering your speaking fears today.

Thanks for a great season

Hey Everyone,

I’ve got a problem.

I coached my 2nd basketball game last night and I wasn’t happy with the results.   I don’t feel like the ref was real fair with my kids.

Now understand it’s a church rec league for 6 year old boys so it’s not real intense.   The ref is real lenient on calls such as double dribbling and traveling and that’s understandable.    But last week we were beating the other team by 8 points midway through the fourth and he started calling everything on us until the game was taken away from us.

Now last night: Same ref.   One of the league rules is the kids must play defense with a foot in the paint.   My team complied but the other team consistently went as far as 3 steps out of the paint and play defense on us.  Nothing was called.   If my team took one step out he would blow the whistle.  He even acted as if he was getting tired of correcting my kids.

Me and my assisitant coach have talked to him and he gets real short with us.   I’ve thought about going to the director and asking him about it, but I don’t want to alienate my team any more than it obviously is.

Now I want to clear one thing up before hand.   I’m not a sore loser.  I don’t really care about winning and losing at this level.  I just want these kids to learn the game and have a lot of fun.   It got to the point where my team just gave up because it seemed they felt they couldn’t do anything right last night.  It killed their spirits.
Any suggestions on how I should handle this?

Mike