Flint Township View

Frantic demise





Lisa Paine — Sports Editor

Lisa Paine — Sports Editor

In basketball, the pace is often supposed This also is not about teams going to be fast-paced and unsettling, especially through rebuilding years; that brings with for the opponent. it an entirely different set of circumstances

However, this season appears to be especially and challenges. What we are seeing first challenging for many of our area hand is a lack of fundamental basketball girls’ and boys’ teams, which from our perspective skills and teams’ inability to not let the are simply taking themselves out opponent take them out of the game. of the game with an unnecessary and Imlay City girls’ coach Jaden Clobes frantic pace. tried in vain during the game I mentioned

Coaches have commented on to get his girls to slow down and not the sideline–and to us in the play so frantic. He shouted from the newsroom–that the kids are playing sidelines, “slow down and make smart too fast and are not making decisions.” It was an impassioned plea smart decisions. Others, frustrated that simply showed that this particular out of their usually calm team was still very much a coaching minds have called work-in-progress. When Flint the kids out in print, saying Carman-Ainsworth boys’ they are playing coach said in print that uninspired and like a his squad played like a bunch of junior high junior high team, that teams. Ouch. also was meant to deliver

That’s likely not sitting well with parents, a message that had apparently fallen on and even some of our headlines and deaf ears in practice. And, when several recaps have not sat well with the parents. Genesee County boys’ coaches lamented Several have called me to school us on not that they just can’t find the spark to ignite being so hard on the girls’ teams, especially, their uninspired team, they also were not in print. being intentionally mean.

Sorry, but when we said a few weeks back Something has gone awry with a lot of that Lapeer West’s girls put a hurting on the teams and collectively, the coaches are Imlay City and that others were taken to frustrated. Likely, so are the kids. task or routed by their opponents, we were Let’s talk about the kids for a minute. I not being intentionally insensitive or know they are trying. They are not afraid unkind, just telling it like it is. to go after the ball, often ending up on the

It’s not about the numerous coaches’ floor fighting hard for possession, but they comments we have overheard or that are are clearly playing at such a frantic pace shared with us in person. It’s not about our that it’s written on their faces, in their words attempting to diminish the efforts decision-making, and the far-too-many being put forth or to embarrass the kids. misses and missed opportunities.

Rather, it’s about a definite shift we are Back in early December I watched at seeing in the level of the play across the Davison as a frustrated Flint Kearsley player board, and many of the games this season took five tries to inbound a ball. The are quite frankly, painful to watch. When a first two rebounded off players’ elbows and squad is only able to put up one or two hips. The referee finally moved her over a points in a quarter, something is drastically few steps and encouraged, “up and over”. wrong. When you have coaches saying Not something you normally see a ref week after week that the team continues to doing; ever. struggle with ball handling, something is It’s just not the level of high school basketball drastically wrong. These are the basic skills we are accustomed to seeing. The that should have been learned back on the season’s half over, and it’s going to be a junior high and freshmen and JV squads, very short one unless they can right the not at the varsity level. ship.


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