The 6th Grade Mid-Season Review

A parent came up to me at the beginning of a basketball season, worried that her child's team was going to have a difficult year, since they were swept in the pre-season tournament.

I said to her, "Winning is the best deodorant."

That team went on to win the championship and the winning covered up any problems at the beginning of the year. And when you win, the problems are no longer problems.

For the 6th grade basketball team, the wins haven't been coming as easy as they were last season as they sit (2-3) with three games to go. So the inability to get in the win column has been magnified.

Never has a team been under that much pressure and scrutiny to win. Partly because never has a team this talented not had success. In what may seem like a complex problem, it really is fundamental.

The focus and ability to be a team just isn't there.

"I think this team has potential to succeed," said coach Clarissa Lee.  "Everyone has the mentality of going to the playoffs or championship or beating last year's personal record, but none of this can happen if they don't work well as a team."

"I have a hard time pin-pointing why this team isn't mentally present," said coach Chris Yee. "At times it seems like they don't listen or their minds are somewhere else, whether it be practices or games."

"I see talent in every player, but very few have actually utilized their skill into playing their best when it comes down to the game," said coach Calvin To. "Our team doesn't even need to be excellent in
everything we teach them. Just plain effort would already have put us near the top of the division."

It's almost a parallel to the San Francisco 49ers -- all the talent in the world, but the results don't come. They have had four different head coaches in four years and the only coach that has lasted more than a year is Clarissa.

Building a relationship with coaches and knowing what works and what doesn't is important, but the players and previous coaches usually don't seem to mesh well, so what is the answer?

The solution is not very difficult and each player knows what he needs to do to help this team. Yet, it doesn't seem to be reached.

But it would be a good start if the players acted more like their age and not their shoe size.

"If one person isn't engaged, it usually distracts the others into not caring as much," Calvin said. "I can almost describe it as jumping into the bandwagon."

"If players who aren't normally motivated to do their best see their teammates mentally focused, they too will do the same. If just one person is always distracted and talking about something else other
than basketball, others are distracted and join in on the discussion, thus drawing their focus off basketball and distributing it elsewhere."

"They need to be mentally present and actively listening. This is key. Once we have this, I believe we will be fine," Chris said.

Daniel has been one of the bright spots for the team, but his absence Friday night created a huge void for the team to overcome.

Basketball wise, they may not focus enough during practice to work on their flaws and they show during a game. Some players constantly go right. Some never dribble. Some never box out. And some are just so physically outmatched, going up against much stronger and taller opponents.

Playing another team is hard enough, but in the last few games, the team has been playing itself too.

Another factor working against them is the division. It is very competitive and the margin or error is slim. Some even say they should be in a lower division. But this is the hand of cards they are dealt, and they'll need to rise to the occasion or fold. There's three more games to find out what they will do.

"This season is halfway done, but I still see us rising to the occasion, leaving the past mistakes behind  and moving forward into putting our best effort every game, no matter the outcome," Calvin said.

Some deodorant would sound pretty nice about now.