Give Everyone a Chance to Do His Best

As youth sports become more competitive, parents must decide what type of program suits their child’s needs: one that permits every child to play in each game or one that caters to elite athletes.

Ken “Moon” Jones, an Inglewood parks and recreation boys basketball coach, and Danny White, an all-stars boys basketball coach, spoke with MARY REESE BOYKIN, offering opposing views.

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The policy of parks and recreation for the basketball program is that every child plays for five minutes of an eight-minute quarter during the first three quarters. The coach can play whomever he chooses during the fourth quarter. Kids pay a fee to participate in sports here, so I agree that everyone should play.

I coached young kids in New Orleans, and we had a similar philosophy of rotating kids in and out. We didn’t cut any kids. If there was an overload, we created another team. In Inglewood, we make sure that every kid participates, even if it means creating other teams, provided there are enough coaches to work with those teams.

Some coaches may not like that you have to play every kid; you get the competitiveness of the coaches wanting to win. Everybody likes to win, including me. If kids are coming to practice and doing what the coach asks them, I think that they should have the opportunity to play in the games. But when that fourth quarter comes, you want to get your best players in there so that you will have an opportunity to win. Even the kids who don’t play well want the bragging rights of winning.

I have coached young children at parks and recreation, high school athletes, and have been an assistant coach at the University of New Orleans under Tim Floyd, now head coach of the Chicago Bulls. You can win, but if kids haven’t learned anything--camaraderie, sportsmanship--then winning is but a hollow victory.

I try to make sure that the kid who is not so talented feels as important as the more talented kids. Our job is to teach, to be mentors. We are supposed to help kids develop their skills. The serious kid will develop additional skills by going to basketball camps. If you don’t give a kid an opportunity to play, then you’re almost telling that kid he is a loser.

The other kids hate it when the less-talented athletes play, but I think if you are a good coach, you mix them up so that there is a kid who can play well out there. There are certain talented kids that you have to make feel that they have to lead. You tell them that we may not have the best team, but it is up to them to make the team better. You tell those kids that it is their job to help the less-talented player by not put- ting that player in a situation where he has no chance for success.

The tennis shoe companies support programs that have produced some of the top players. This is where some parents lose sight of what youth sports are about. If your kid is going to be good, he doesn’t have to be supported or sponsored by Nike, Adidas, Reebok. Your kid is going to be good because you are looking out for his well-being as a person. Some kids are with programs that say, “You’re the best.” “You belong to us.” But then it is not fun anymore. It’s almost like a job. If the kid doesn’t do his job the right way, they knock him to the side and get somebody else. We have been brainwashed by television and all the money out there with sports and try to envision our kids being the next Michael Jordan. We don’t look at kids as kids; we look at them as investments.

A priority in my program is that kids have fun. And when I run into my former players, they don’t talk about the championship we won; they talk about the fun we had.