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A STUDY OF ATHLETIC COACHING
AT THE MIDDLE SCHOOL LEVEL
USING THE COMPETING VALUES FRAMEWORK

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A STUDY OF ATHLETIC COACHING AT THE MIDDLE SCHOOL LEVEL
USING THE COMPETING VALUES FRAMEWORK

By

Michael James Prelesnik

A DISSERTATION

Submitted to
Michigan State University
in partial fulfillment of the requirements
for the degree of

DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
Department of Educational Administration

2007

 

 

it

ABSTRACT

A STUDY OF ATHLETIC COACHING AT THE MIDDLE SCHOOL LEVEL
USING THE COMPETING VALUES FRAMEWORK

By
Michael James Prelesnik
The purpose of this study was to examine and describe how middle school athletic
coaches balanced the challenges of coaching as they strived to follow the established
standards for coaches, adhered to middle school principles, and tried to field a

competitive team. Qualitative research techniques were used as the activities of middle

 

school girls’ basketball coaches were observed. The source of data for this study was
observations of practices as well as games and a post-observation interview with the
coaches. Case studies were then written which revealed elements of coaching techniques,
the coaches’ own philosophies as they related to middle school principles, and strategies
that the coaches utilized when they experienced a conflict in enacting their own standards
and principles. Additionally, many of the established coaching standards of middle
school coaching were revealed as the actions of these middle school coaches were
documented. Next, coaching descriptions and information about a variety of actions were
written in detail to support and provide examples during discussion of five major themes
related to elements of coaching where challenges may occur. In addition, a cross-case
analysis was used to compare the coaches’ activities with relationship to the five major
coaching themes as well as the established coaching standards. Research findings were
further examined with reference to the competing values framework as the findings from
the study were analyzed within the parameters of this framework. It was discovered that

coaches with cognitive complexity were more successful coaches as they could move

more easily through the various quadrants of the competing values framework. A rubric
that middle school administrators can use to evaluate middle school coaches was also
written. Final conclusions, implications, and further recommendations for additional

research related to middle school coaching philosophy are proposed.

 

 

Copyright by
Michael James Prelesnik
2007

 

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to thank my advisor, Dr. Susan Printy, for her support and assistance
with my dissertation. I also would like to thank my committee: Dr. Maenette Benham,
Dr. Robert Benham, Dr. Keith Groty, and Dr. Steven Weiland. I greatly appreciate the
advice and support from this committee, and I appreciate them giving their time and
expertise to help me with the completion of my dissertation.

I also would like to acknowledge and thank the school administrators for
supporting this study by allowing me to observe coaching in their schools. Additionally,
I appreciate the support of the middle school coaches who participated in this study.
They were more than willing to allow me to observe all components of their coaching as
well as answer my follow up questions, and I appreciate them giving up their own time to
participate in this study.

Finally, I would like to thank my family, friends, and fellow cohort members for
their support during this process. Additionally, I appreciate the ongoing support and love
of my wife Angela during this long and challenging process as I conducted and wrote this

dissertation.

 

TABLE OF CONTENTS

LIST OF TABLES ................................................................................. viii
LIST OF FIGURES .................................................................................. ix
CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY .............................................................. 1
Introduction and Background .............................................................. 1
Statement of the Problem ................................................................... 6
Significance of the Study ................................................................... 8
Purposes ....................................................................................... 8
Competing Values Framework ............................................................ 9
Research Questions ........................................................................ 13
Limitations/Assumptions .................................................................. 14
Summary .................................................................................... 15
CHAPTER 2
REVIEW OF LITERATURE ...................................................................... 16
Introduction ................................................................................. 16
Middle School Coaches .................................................................... 19
Characteristics and Skills of Coaches .......................................... 19
The Middle School Philosophy ........................................................... 22
The History of the Middle School .............................................. 22
Middle School Philosophy ....................................................... 24
The Middle School Philosophy and Athletics ................................. 25
Selection and Evaluation of Coaches .................................................... 29
Summary ..................................................................................... 32
CHAPTER 3
RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS ....................................................... 33
Introduction ................................................................................. 33
Research Design ............................................................................ 33
Data Sources ................................................................................ 34
Sampling Techniques ...................................................................... 35
Instrumentation ............................................................................. 36
Data Collection Strategies ................................................................. 39
Data Analysis Procedures ................................................................. 40
Trustworthiness and Transferability ..................................................... 43
Summary .................................................................................... 43
CHAPTER 4
CASE STUDIES AND EMERGENT THEMES ............................................... 45
Introduction ................................................................................. 45
Description of Coaches .................................................................... 45

vi

 

The Coaches ................................................................................. 47

Scott ................................................................................. 47
Lori .................................................................................. 51
Dave .................................................................................. 54
Jennifer .............................................................................. 58
Tom .................................................................................. 64
Ed .................................................................................... 67
Sam .................................................................................. 72
Emergent Themes .......................................................................... 77
Playing Time and Competitiveness ............................................. 78
Conflicts in the Schedules of Middle School Students ....................... 82
Institutional Support and Resources for the Program ........................ 88
Middle School Coaches’ Connection to High School Programs. . . . . . . . ....91
How Coaches Measure Their Own Effectiveness ............................ 95
Summary ................................................................................... 100
CHAPTER 5
AGGREGATE FINDINGS AND ANALYSIS ............................................... 101
Introduction .............................................................................. 101
Elements of Middle School Coaching ................................................. 101
Playing Time and Competitiveness ........................................... 101
Conflicts in the Schedules of Middle School Students ..................... 104
Institutional Support and Resources for the Program ....................... 108
Middle School Coaches’ Connection to High School Programs .......... 111
How Coaches Measure Their Own Effectiveness .......................... 113
Coaching Standards ....................................................................... 124
Competing Values Framework ......................................................... 131
Introduction ....................................................................... 13 1
Competing Values Framework and Middle School Coaching ............ 132
Conclusions, Implications, and Recommendations .................................. 138
Middle School Coaching Research ............................................ 144
APPENDICES
Appendix A: Coaches’ Informed Consent Form .................................... 146
Appendix B: Administrator’s Permission Form .................................... 149
Appendix C: Letter of Invitation to Coaches ........................................ 152
BIBLIOGRAPHY ................................................................................. 154
vii

LIST OF TABLES

Table 1: Data Matrix .............................................................................. 42

Table 2: Description of Coaches ................................................................ 46

 

viii

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1: The Competing Values Framework .................................................. 11
Figure 2: The Competing Values Framework of Leadership Roles ........................ 132
Figure 3: The Competing Values Framework and Middle School Coaching ............. 133
Figure 4: Middle School Coaching Evaluation Rubric ....................................... 142

 

Chapter 1

THE PROBLEM AND ITS SIGNIFICANCE

Introduction and Backgound

 

Extracurricular activities are an important component of any middle school
educational program. Students have the opportunity to participate in a variety of after
school activities including interscholastic athletics in the seventh and eighth grades.
These students often gain positive rewards from their involvement in sports as they have 6“

the opportunity to learn about the sport as well as the importance of teamwork and

 

character development while they are taught by a positive role model; a coach who cares

 

about them and wants them to have a successful and enjoyable experience as a member
of the team. Coaches in middle school athletic programs are faced with a variety of
challenges as they work with youth at this age level because there are different traits and
values that the coaches may choose to emphasize. These challenges include balancing
playing time while fielding a competitive team, working with the busy schedules of
middle school students, relying on varying degrees of institutional support, and deciding
whether or not to have a strong connection to the high school program. They need to be
supportive motivators of the participants, but also teach the fundamental skills of the
sport. They may be compassionate in their coaching, yet also firm as they work with this
age group of students. Additionally, coaches sometimes have to handle conflicts or
problems between the players as they ultimately strive to teach the concept of being a
team. Typically, these coaches also have a fundamental understanding of the emotional

and social needs of the middle school adolescent. At an eighth grade basketball game,

Lori, the coach, is observed as she talks to her players and coaches them throughout a
game.

“Good job! Grab it,” she exclaims as the players go after a defensive rebound.
“Pressure, box out,” she says while they continue to attempt to get possession of
the ball. She adds, “Be strong with the ball.” As the team gets possession and
takes the ball up the court she tells them, “Wait, wait, okay now pass it.” While
one of the players is shooting, she yells to the others, “Be strong, rebound,
rebound.” The team then falls back on defense as she tells them, “Good job.
Good job. Get another turnover.” The team is working hard and giving a good
effort, and she exclaims, “Good hustle! Way to move the ball ladies.”

This brief glimpse of a few minutes during an eighth grade basketball game demonstrates

many of the coaching characteristics and values that coaches at this level may have as

 

part of their own coaching philosophy. Middle school coaches are positive motivators,
they emphasize the fundamentals and basics of the game, they teach players to work
together, and they must be continually communicating with the players. Lori mentioned
what she strives to emphasize as a middle school coach.
I stress character a lot. In terms of no matter what happens on the court, showing
class, and showing good character. I teach responsibility. Teamwork is also a big
emphasis. Kids at this age are focused on themselves, their own playing time, and
how they look to people in the stands. You have to instill teamwork so that they
know what it means to play as a team.
Lori’s discussion illustrates many of the goals of her coaching. She is attempting to teach
character development, sportsmanship, and teamwork skills. However, this can be quite
a challenging task to balance such a variety of priorities. Coaches such as Lori are often
faced with difficult choices when they have conflicts in their own coaching beliefs and
philosophies at the middle school level. The middle school years are a unique time of
social and emotional development in the K-12 educational career of the typical student.

Middle schools began as the formation of the junior high school in the early

1900’s. This provided a specific school for 7th and 8th graders, and it removed them from

the typical K-8 elementary school. In the 1960’s these junior high schools evolved into
middle schools for students entering the period in their lives known as “early
adolescence.” These schools were for students in the sixth through eighth grades that
were between the ages of 10 and 14. The schools utilized teaming, and specialized
guidance and support systems to assist students during this time of dramatic social and
physical changes in their lives. Extracurricular activities and athletics are a large
component of the middle school philosophy as well. These programs give students an
opportunity to be involved in activities outside of the regular school day. Middle school
athletic programs can have a dramatic impact on a young person’s life. Athletic activities
with a clear focus on the needs of young adolescents can have a positive influence on this
age group of students. Successful athletic programs will organize competition around
equal opportunities in games, fundamental skill development, and social networking.
With the guidance of an effective coach, middle school adolescents can be tremendously
impacted by the middle school athletic program as they will gain personal development
skills, learn about teamwork, and develop skills and learn information related to a
specific sport.

Middle school coaches play a large role in the lives of their student athletes. The
actions of a coach will affect the experience of the youth playing the sport. The coach’s
behavior influences participant’s enjoyment of the activity as well as their self-esteem.
Additionally, the coach influences the athletes’ perceived success, effort, and preference
for optimally challenging activities (Black and Weiss, 1992). The support and feedback
that coaches give young people will directly affect a young person’s level of motivation

and self-perceptions in the sport. As coaches utilize more frequent praise, informational

feedback, and encouragement; this is positively related to the student’s perceived
competence and success, enjoyment, effort, and preference for optimally challenging
activities (Harter, 1981). Although coaches strive to encourage all of their players to
work hard and learn the sport, they also have a desire to field a competitive team. They
want to win, as winning can be a motivator for the team. However, they have to balance
their priorities. If coaches overemphasize winning at all costs, keep statistics, and yell at
players, than this competition can be harmful. On the contrary, if the coaches believe in
playing fairly, equal opportunities for all team members and skill development than the
benefits of a competition. can outweigh any anxiety created by losing a game. In general,
most middle school students do not find athletic competitions to be stressful. With the
support of a coach they can handle competition just as they would prepare for a band
concert or musical playing competition (Scanlan and Passer, 1978).

The middle school years are a time of great importance to the education of a
young person’s life. It is vital that the middle athletic program fit the needs of this age
group of students. Ultimately, individual schools and coaches will decide what they
believe are the most important components of an athletic program to meet the needs of
middle adolescents. By considering the desirable skill sets of coaches and the middle
school philosophy, the middle school athletic program can flourish and have a positive
impact on students. Schools strive to hire coaches who have a basic understanding of
middle school philosophy (Lirgg, 1995). Additionally, coaches must have many traits
which include being a good communicator, a teacher, motivator, and listener. However,
the definition of what is effective in middle school coaching varies greatly, and this can

be a difficult framework to define. The Michigan High School Athletic Association

(2005) established standards that all middle school coaches should consider in their
coaching. These standards are helpful in defining the actions, values, and goals that an
effective coach should strive for while teaching middle school students. The standards
were developed to give coaches and school administrators guidelines for the expectations
in coaching at this level. Many of the standards are related to communication as coaches
should strive to have good working relationships with players, parents, and
administrators. Coaches also will develop unprejudiced relationships with all players so
that team selections are fair. Coaches will have a good knowledge base about the sport
being coached. Additionally, they may attend workshops or other training seminars to
learn about the sport that they are coaching. Coaches also are role models for their
student athletes. They should demonstrate appropriate behavior at practices, when
talking with other coaches and officials at competitions, and during other team activities.
As the role model of the team, coaches should also dress professionally, and not display
inappropriate conduct in front of the players. Finally, the Michigan High School Athletic
Association (MHSAA) encourages coaches to attend MHSAA rule update meetings and
other MHSAA sponsored activities to be continually informed about the sport and the
MHSAA’S expectations of middle school coaches.

The MHSAA developed these standards so that the middle level coaches in any
school can have consistent benchmarks for what they should be striving for in their own
goals as a coach of middle level adolescents. Coaches who meet these standards, are
more likely to be termed as “effective” than coaches who do not follow an established set
of standards. This study examined how coaches handled coaching situations as they

educated young people about the fundamentals of a sport and taught them the meaning of

being part of a middle school athletic team. The study investigated the qualities and
characteristics coaches have, and how they coach and educate middle school age students
in a busy and challenging environment.

Statement of the Problem

 

Middle school athletic coaches are faced with a variety of challenges. There are
an established set of standards that they should follow. They must be aware of the
middle school philosophy and the emotional needs of this special age group of students.
Most coaches want to be competitive and win while still balancing the coaching
standards and middle school philosophy including playing all students in games. It is
challenging for middle school administrators to know what criteria should be valued
when hiring and evaluating middle school coaches. However, this is critical because
administrators hire and evaluate athletic coaches. Should coaches follow all of the
MHSAA standards? Do they emphasize being competitive or should they follow the
middle school philosophy which emphasizes equal opportunities for all students? These
are questions that any middle school administrator will consider as they coordinate and
supervise an athletic program at the middle level. The goal of this study was to examine
how middle school girls’ basketball coaches balanced the challenges of coaching as they
strived to follow established coaching standards, adhered to middle school principles, and
also tried to field a competitive team. This study provides middle school administrators
with findings that can guide them in the hiring and evaluation of coaches. Additionally,
the study will aide coaches in developing their own coaching philosophy as well as
include findings that can provide resources that can assist coaches in effectively teaching

middle school students about a specific sport or athletic activity.

A dilemma and challenge for all middle school coaches is the high level of
expectations placed upon them. For example, they want to win. However, they also need
to have an understanding of young adolescents and the middle school philosophy.
Additionally, there are a variety of standards that school administrators expect them to
adhere to each day as they coach their young athletes. In this study, middle school
basketball coaches were observed to see how they went about the daily routine of
coaching while having to think about all of these challenges that they are faced with each
day. Certainly tensions and conflicts resulted in their own beliefs as they carried out their
coaching duties. .

In this study of middle school athletic coaches, the research participants were
observed with a variety of coaching philosophies utilizing numerous activities to
accomplish the task of coaching young adolescents. Along the way, I saw coaches
grappling with a sense of conflict resulting from competing demands. Coaches may be
believers in the middle school philosophy and equal opportunities for students, but they
may have these beliefs challenged in a situation where a game becomes particularly
competitive. At times as a coach weighed in the middle school philosophy, coaching
standards expected of them, and a sense of competitiveness—challenges arose. It was
inevitable in these situations that conflicts or tensions in their own beliefs could not be
avoided. It reached a point where individuals had to make decisions based on what was
most important to them. For example, does a coach play all students equal amounts of
time in a game, and sacrifice some of the team’s competitiveness for that contest? These

are dilemmas that were seen in this study of middle school athletic coaches. What was of

interest to me was to see how coaches handled these difficult tensions and conflicts that
arose in their coaching belief system.

Significance of the Study

 

In Michigan, thousands of middle school youth are involved with seventh and
eighth grade interscholastic athletic programs. School administrators are continually
challenged with hiring coaches who they feel will be the best fit for their school’s athletic
program. Administrators are also responsible for supporting the coaches and athletic
program on a day-to-day basis. This study of middle school coaches was designed to I
provide information for current and future middle school coaches and administrators, and
to assist the coaches in being more successful as they work with middle school youth to
develop the team concept, help them gain skills in the sport, and provide an enjoyable
experience for the players. Additionally, the study will propose a theoretical perspective
on the competing values that coaches are faced with each day while coaching middle
school students. The research findings will ultimately provide both practical information
as well as the theoretical framework that coaches and administrators will find useful for
helping middle school coaches improve in their coaching responsibilities.

Purposes

The purpose of this study was to examine how middle school girls’ basketball
coaches balanced the challenges of coaching as they strived to follow established
coaching standards, adhered to middle school principles, and also tried to field a
competitive team. The findings of this study provide a resource for coaches and school
administrators in the process of hiring, training, and evaluating middle school athletic

coaches. The researcher is hopeful that these findings can be shared with colleagues to

assist middle school coaches in being even more effective in carrying out their
responsibilities with middle level adolescents. The findings of the study which outline
the qualities, characteristics, actions, and values of coaches have a strong application to
both the hiring procedures and evaluation procedures for middle school athletic coaches.
This information can be utilized to improve existing middle school athletic programs and
to assist middle school coaches in being more effective.
Competing Values Framework

In this study, girls’ basketball coaches were faced with a variety of challenges and
competing demands. Coaches had to develop their own philosophy related to playing

time for each student. They had to decide if they should play each athlete equal minutes

 

in games, or should they have a policy to at least make an effort to get every player some
time in games, but not necessarily equal playing time. Coaches were faced with
challenges of the busy schedules of middle school students as the players could not
always attend every practice or game due to conflicting activities. Coaches had to either
be understanding of these conflicts or they may have a strict policy with expectations that
the students come to all practices and games. Institutional support also presented
challenges to the coaches; some programs had two coaches for each grade, while others
had only one. How was this challenge tackled when only one coach was hired by a
school to work with two different basketball teams? Coaches also were faced with the
challenge of deciding what the focus of the team should be for the season. Should they
have a strong connection to the high school program, and do they run similar plays and
drills as the upper levels of the program to prepare the students for the high school? Do

they coach as they would like at the middle school level with less concern about future

years of basketball in the school district? Finally, when developing their own coaching
philosophy, what are the priorities? Should the coaches ensure that the students are
having an enjoyable experience? Should they emphasize learning the fundamentals, or
should there be an effort to teach more advanced offensive plays? How do coaches teach
students what it means to be a member of a team, and how is responsibility and character
taught to the players?

We can turn to the competing values framework as structure to guide coaches as
they are challenged by all of these various coaching demands. The competing values
framework examines criteria in organizations that appear to be related to organizational
effectiveness. This framework developed by Robert Quinn, a professor of organizational
behavior and human resource management, has also been applied to the variety of
managerial roles required for personal effectiveness in complex environments (Vilkinas
and Cartan, 2001). Since being developed, the framework has helped researchers
determine what makes organizations effective in a number of research settings in
education, communication, organizational culture, management of diversity, gender in
management, and management information systems (Vilkinas and Cartan, 2001). The
title of the framework derives from the fact that the characteristics highlighted in the four
quadrants seem to have conflicting messages (Quinn, 1988) (Figure l). The vertical axis
ranges from flexibility to control, and the horizontal axis ranges from an internal focus
within the organization to an external focus outside of the organization. Four models in
organization theory are represented. They are 1) the human relations model in the upper-
left quadrant stresses cohesion and morale as well as human resource development; 2)

The open systems model in the upper-right quadrant is related to flexibility and readiness

10

as well as growth, resource acquisition, and external support; 3) the rational goal model

in the lower-right quadrant stresses planning, goal setting, productivity, and efficiency;

and 4) the internal process model in the lower-left quadrant stresses coordination and

communication as well as stability and control. The model posits that organizations need

to pay attention to all of these organizational values in some way in order to be effective.

The values represented by each of the quadrants, however, might not receive equal

attention or universal attention. There might be environmental pressures, for example,

that demand a focus on one or the other of the quadrants at any given time. For instance,

if a team is suffering from low morale and teammates are quarreling with each other

Figure 1. The Competing Values Framework

 

Human Relations Model

Open Systems Model

 

 

Flexibility
-Value of Human Resources -Adaptability
-Training -Growth
-Cohesion -Extemal Support
Internal External
Focus Focus
-Coordination -Planning
-Communication -G-oal Setting
-Stability and Control -Effectiveness

(Winning)
Control

Internal Process Model

 

Rational Goal Model

 

11

 

 

rather than working together, the coach might have to pay particular attention to the
human relations values so as to promote more collaboration and participation.

This framework presents conflicting messages. Organizations may want stability
and control under the internal process model, but they also want to consider planning and
goal setting to reach maximization of output with the rational goal model. Organizations
may want control with centralized integration but also may strive to be more flexible with
decentralization. The competing values framework does not suggest that these
oppositions cannot mutually exist within a system or organization (Quinn, 1988). In
reality, these criteria and assumptions are oppositions in our minds, as we think of these
as being different from each other. But leaders who can find a way to reconcile these
opposites will be more effective than those who can concentrate only on one quadrant at
a time. Quinn refers to this ability as “cognitive complexity” and argues that such
complexity is necessary to meet the demands of operating in a complex world. Effective
managers, or coaches in this case, will pay attention to these conflicting values all of the
time. They have the ability for complex thinking, and they find ways to act that reduce
the tensions between opposite values. This enables organizations to not only exist, but
also to flourish. Although leaders will have natural preferences for discrete roles within
the organization, one of the fundamental premises of the competing values framework is
that leaders have balance and flexibility within the organization (Cartan and Vilkinas,
2006). Leaders pay attention to human relations concerns at the same time that they
focus on productivity and maintaining a competitive position. Effective leaders will be
able to move throughout the quadrants of the model, and this will provide benefits to the

organization. Managers and leaders may also play the role of the “integrator” within the

12

organization. The integrator role provides guidance to the manager or coach as he or she
goes through the process of selecting the appropriate role in the competing values
framework (Vilkinas and Cartan, 2001). The integrator is a critical observer and
reflective learner. According to Vilkinas and Cartan (2001), this role requires the
manager to observe and interpret the changing environment on a continual basis, and as
they learn and adapt to this environment they will be able to adopt the most appropriate
roles in the competing values framework. Similarly, a coach would then integrate his or
her coaching behaviors and actions to meet the variety of important goals that they strive
to achieve in their middle school coaching.
Research Questions

From a consideration of the responsibilities that coaches are faced with each day, an
overarching research question emerged that guided this dissertation study: “How do
middle school coaches reconcile the tensions that result from their efforts to support
middle school principles even as they field competitive teams?”
Sub questions include:

1. In what ways do highly regarded middle school coaches support middle
school principles in working with athletes and their families?

2. To what extent is adherence to the MHSAA coaching standards evident in the
participants’ coaching practices?

3. To what extent do participants sense or experience conflict in enacting these
standards and principles, particularly in competitive environments?

4. When they experience conflict, how do participants reconcile them?
The findings of this study will aide in determining answers to these questions related to

the actions of middle school coaches.

13

Limitations/Assumptions

This study of middle school coaches included case studies of seven girls’
basketball coaches. The study was limited to the sport of girls’ basketball. The research
was also intentionally limited to middle school coaches in Michigan, and coaching
standards for the state of Michigan were purposely used as a framework for the study.
With this study, it may have been difficult for coaches to fully express their actions to the
researcher. Sometimes the participants had difficulty putting into words what was
happening on the basketball court. Also, the selection of candidates was conducted using
a purposeful selection based on recommendations of middle school administrators.
Although this was an appropriate method of participant selection, some administrators
did not respond to requests to nominate coaches for this study. If these administrators
had participated, this could have increased the pool of possible research participants. In
the study, administrators were asked to nominate coaches who they highly regarded or
felt were good coaches. Thus, the seven participants were considered to be highly
regarded coaches by their school administrators. This could leave another sample of
coaches who are not as good as others. There also could be other middle school coaching
issues that were not observed because they were not issues for the coaches in the study.
With this small number of research participants, the results of this study needed to be
carefully summarized for this group of coaches. It is difficult to generalize the findings
to include all middle school coaches as a broader quantitative study of a larger sample
may be able to accomplish. However, it was the goal of this study to produce trustworthy

findings that can be helpful to other middle school coaches and administrators.

l4

 

Summary

The goal of this chapter was to provide background infonnation about this study
related to middle school philosophy, the characteristics of young adolescents, and middle
school coaches. Additionally, this chapter outlined the purpose of the study, the research
questions, and the limitations of the research. Chapter two will review further many of
the findings in the literature related to middle school philosophy and middle school

coaching techniques.

15

Chapter 2
REVIEW OF LITERATURE
Introduction

The 1989 report by the Carnegie Council for Adolescent Development
summarized the importance of the middle school experience for children: “Middle
school grades—junior high, intermediate, and middle schools—are potentially society’s
most powerful force to recapture millions of youth adrift, and help every young person
thrive during early adolescence. The early adolescent years are crucial in determining the
future success or failure of millions of American youth” (Carnegie Council on
Adolescent Development, 1989). The report asserts that successful schools will hire
teachers who are expert at teaching young adolescents. The report also advocates that
schools should work to improve academic performance through health and fitness.
Extracurricular activities contribute to the successful growth of young adolescents, and
athletic activities in particular often have positive benefits for the students involved in
them.

Middle school students who are involved with athletic programs, and who are
taught by a coach knowledgeable about young adolescent behavior, experience many
academic and social benefits. Also, interscholastic sports are desirable as a way to
recognize young people for excellence. Student involvement in extracurricular activities
such as athletics has been linked by researchers to indicators of positive development
such as interpersonal competence, improved self-concept, better academic achievement,
increased school engagement, and improved educational aspirations (Eccles & Barber,

1999; Elder & Conger, 2000). Students involved with athletics and other activities report

16

feeling more challenge and enjoyment in organized activities outside of the regular

school day than they do in classrooms, where they are often bored. (Larson, 2000).

Additionally, students involved in athletics for many seasons and many years have a

higher level of scholarship than students who only participate in sports for a few seasons,

only one year, or not at all (Buhrmann, 1972; Stegman & Stephens, 2000). Participation

in athletics might also reduce the likelihood of students dropping out of school (McNeal,

1995) Involvement in athletics is one of the most positive activities in a young

adolescent’s life (Kirshnit, et al., 1989). l
Participation in interscholastic sports certainly seems to enhance the academic :

performance of students. It is often difficult to determine why athletes seem to perform

 

better academically than nonathletes. However, participation in athletics does help
students build discipline, set goals, organize time, and develop self-confidence (Stephens
& Schaben, 2002). Student athletes who can transfer these skills to their academic
careers find success and reach higher achievement in the classroom. Also, these effects
of athletic participation reach beyond the walls of the school and enter the social world of
the students.

Participation in nonacademic activities such as athletics can also increase a
student’s social ties. This increase in social capital can be advantageous to students’
educational pursuits. Social capital is generally recognized as the ability to accrue
benefits through membership in social networks (Portes, 1998). Research based on
analyses of NELS:88 data, a nationally representative longitudinal study sponsored by the
National Center for Education Statistics, investigated the relationship between

participation in extracurricular activities and academic achievement. According to Broh

17

(2002), students who participate in interscholastic sports have a stronger sense of control
over their lives and a value system that is concordant with the American educational
system. She concluded that participation in extracurricular activities can forge a link
between parents and the schools as well as parents and the coaches, which is equally
important. The role of the parents and family in a student’s athletics can affect their
success in the sport as well as students’ performance inside of the classroom.

Indeed, social networks forged through athletics can enhance students’
achievement in multiple ways including development of relationships that enhance
learning experiences, the dissemination of resources, and attachment to the school (Broh,
2002). Students involved in athletics are more likely to communicate with their teachers
outside of class than are non-athletes. The more students talk to their teachers, the more
opportunities they have to gain information that could be used to improve their test scores
or grades in the class. These interactions may also encourage behavior that conforms to
school expectations and norms, which help students succeed in school. Additionally,
these student-teacher relationships create social bonds that motivate students to perform
better for teachers with whom they have personal relationships.

Given these potential positive outcomes of extracurricular programming such as
athletics, school leaders must evaluate the need for appropriate programs in the school
and must also be attentive to finding appropriate coaches with an understanding of young
adolescents and middle school philosophies. This can be a tremendous challenge to find
the coaches who are the right fit for the athletic program within a particular school.
Principals or athletic administrators aim to hire coaches who they hold in high regard as

professionals with specific personal characteristics that fit the philosophy of the school

18

 

(Lirgg, 1995). For instance, administrators in one school might prefer coaches with
winning records. Other administrators will seek out individuals who believe in giving
students equal opportunities and equal playing time in games and practices. Coaches
who are efficient with the use of practice time and who also understand the role of
parents in the athletic program can also be desirable individuals to lead a middle school
athletic team. A coach with a combination of these traits may also be the right fit for a
specific school. Despite what characteristics the administrator desires in athletic coaches,
careful consideration must be taken to hire the best person to meet the needs of the

students at each particular school.

 

Middle School Coaches

 

Characteristics and Skills of Coaches

One of the important keys to a successful middle level athletic program is that
school administrators hire coaches who have a fundamental understanding of the middle
school young adolescent. Coaches who are hired from outside the school or from other
levels, such as the high school, may lack this vital understanding (Lirgg, 1995). My
review of the literature has led me to make the conclusion that with a successful middle
school athletic program, the coaches as well as the administrators, students, and parents
will understand the middle school philosophy and how it impacts competition at the
middle school level. Individuality is respected and, therefore middle school students of
all abilities have the opportunity to participate. In fact, my research findings may provide
further information about why it is important for middle level students to have equal
opportunities, and if coaches really do provide these Opportunities for team members.

Middle level experts also assert that successful coaches organize games so that every

19

member of the team plays at least a minimum amount of time (Riemcke, 1988).
Additionally, Riemcke states that if coaches and schools can make multiple sports
available to middle level students, both team and individual, this gives all students in the
school greater opportunities in athletics and more Opportunities to be successful. These
statements outlined in this paragraph seem logical, but additional research could help to
support these claims.

Coaches can have a large impact on middle school adolescents. Coaches who
value equal opportunities for student athletes and who display more encouragement,
positive reinforcement, and instruction with less criticism have players who enjoy sports

more and have higher levels of self-esteem (Smith et al., 1983). This conclusion comes

 

from earlier research investigating and measuring coaching behaviors and determining
the relationship of these behaviors to the psychological development of young athletes.
During research of youth swimmers and their relationship to perceived coaching
behaviors, it was found. that coaches’ behaviors not only influence sport enjoyment and
self-esteem, but also influence the athletes’ perceived success, effort, and preference for
optimally challenging activities (Black & Weiss, 1992). A young athlete’s self-
perceptions and motivation are significantly related to the quantity and quality of
coaching feedback that they receive for performance successes and errors. Coaches’ use
of more frequent praise, informational feedback, and encouragement are positively
related to perceived competence and success, enjoyment, effort, and preference for
optimally challenging activities (Harter, 1981).

Coaches can have an influence on young athletes in yet other ways. Snyder

(1972) found that players’ decisions to attend college are positively related to their

20

coaches giving them advice in regards to college plans. The type of advice and feedback
that coaches give athletes also influences the student’s perceptions of ability (Chambers,
1991). For instance, Horn (1985) found that athletes who achieved the same performance
level perceived their ability as low when coaching feedback signaled pity, and high when
coaching feedback was either neutral or angry. Horn also found that feedback can
facilitate children’s motivation, but only when such feedback is administered in a non-
controlling, performance-contingent, and specific manner, which provides the child with
positive information concerning his or her competence (Horn, 1985).

Another characteristic of an effective middle level coach is having a person who
will emphasize to the students the positive benefits of the sport or activity. Doing this
helps students to boost their self-esteem and increase their interest in athletics. An
effective coach will have the young adolescents’ psychological well being in mind as a
priority whenever developing coaching strategies for middle school athletic programs.
Additionally, effective coaches of middle school students should not place too much
emphasis on winning, and they should not have unrealistically high expectations of the
students. They also are aware of the physical and psychological readiness of each
participant (Vaughan, 1984). Coaches help young adolescents set goals, which reflect the
individual interests and abilities of each student. Furthermore, a coach’s primary role is
to help athletes realize their potential, and coaches are able to accomplish this by
continually motivating their young athletes (Hansen et al., 2003). When motivating
students, an effective coach might follow the motivation guidelines of the National
Association for Sport and Physical Education (1995) which include: react positively to

mistakes and give encouragement; know the social and emotional reasons why the

21

players are competing; use goal setting strategies and arousal techniques; and use a
variety of positive instructional methods such as encouragement and constructive
criticism. Coaches who follow these guidelines will more effectively instruct and coach
young people and allow the students to enjoy the sport while improving in their athletic
skill development as well.

The Middle School Philosophy

 

The History of the Middle School
One of the most helpful strategies for middle school coaches is for them to have a
better understanding of the middle school philosophy and its development. This will

enable them to establish a personal philosophy of coaching that shows awareness of

 

potential challenges they might encounter in various coaching activities. Having this
extra knowledge could be pivotal to a coach’s success in the middle school athletic
program as well as to the coach’s prioritizing what is most important to him or her as a
middle school coach.

The origin of the American junior high school dates back to 1910. During this
time period, schools for grades K-8 were becoming overcrowded with large numbers of
immigrant children. Students were also held back for failure, and older children were not
receiving the education they needed in these schools that were designed more for the
younger children than the older ones. Many of the older children then left school to
become laborers in factories during the industrial revolution (Beane, 2001). Welfare
advocates such as G. Stanley Hall argued that these children should not be entering the
factory workforce because at 7’h and 8th grade, these adolescents were not mature

adolescents; nor were they children. Hall’s concerns also followed earlier findings of the

22

Committee of Ten on Secondary School Studies led by Harvard president Charles W.
Eliot in 1893 (Gruhn & Douglas, 1971). This group had recommended that secondary
education should begin two years earlier, which would result in six years of elementary
education, and six years of secondary education. Finally in 1913, the Committee on
Economy of Time in Education made reference to a separate junior division of secondary
education. This met the needs of school officials as it removed the seventh and eighth
grades .from the elementary schools, relieving overcrowding, and it allowed educational
experts to reconsider the kind of education that should be provided in those two grades.
When reviewing history, one can study the formation of the junior high school in

two interconnected ways. First, as many of today’s educational leaders would like to

 

think of it, the formation of the junior high school can be thought of as an educational
reform forming from the ideas of professional educators such as Hall and Eliot.
However, the other strategy to understanding the beginning of the junior high school is to
examine the development of the schools as a social intervention whose beginnings were
more related to the lives of immigrant families, the education of their children, and the
use of child labor during the industrial revolution. In reality, the creation of junior high
schools was more of a solution to a set of social problems in this country rather than an
educational reform (Beane, 2001). This was no accident. The junior high school was
designed as a combination of the need for college preparation for students and social
efficiency with the design of an institution dedicated to the developmental interests of
young adolescents. The junior high school remained unchanged for decades, until the

transition into middle schools.

23

The Middle School Philosophy

Junior high schools began to evolve into middle schools during the 1960’s. At
this time new data documented a decline in the average age of puberty. This new
information centered an age window of 10 to 14 as “early adolescence” rather than the
12-15 year period, which had previously been associated with this period of time in a
child’s life (Tanner, 1962). As a result, administrators began to think that grades five or
six through eighth were the appropriate ones to include in a school for young adolescents.
Middle school reform advocates also felt that these young adolescents were not “mature” .
enough to succeed with the anonymity and isolation that could result from the

departmentalized secondary school model of the junior high school. Thus, middle

 

schools were developed with teaming among teachers and classrooms with small clusters
of students in order to meet the special needs of this age group. Additionally, because
this age level was not yet considered mature adolescents, the schools would emphasize
affective guidance and counseling services to help students during this time of dramatic
changes in social and physical development.

During the late 1980’s, the Carnegie Council on Adolescent Development (1989)
presented its findings of a task force on the education of young adolescents. This group
made numerous recommendations to improve the middle school including: small
communities within the larger school, a core academic program for all learners, success
experience for all students, empowerment of teachers and administrators to make
decisions, families reengaged in the education of young adolescents, and reconnected
schools and communities. These six recommendations are in addition to two others,

which include that middle schools hire teachers who are expert at teaching young

24

adolescents and that improved academic performance be fostered through health and
fitness. In an additional publication by the Carnegie Council on Adolescent
Development, Turning Points 2000: Educating Adolescents in the 21" Century, two
conclusions were made (Jackson & Davis, 2000). First, the report stated that
developmentally appropriate educational experiences were being implemented effectively
by thousands of middle schools across the country. Second, the report concluded that
evidence indicated that such programs, implemented effectively, produced the positive
outcomes that educators and parents desired. George and Alexander (2003) recently
defined the term middle school as a school planned and operated as a separate school to i

provide a developmentally appropriate educational experience for students usually

 

enrolled in grades 6-8 or 5-8 and 10-14 years of age, building on elementary and leading
toward high school. The middle school concept has worked appropriately when
administrators and boards of education effectively implement it, and utilize it as they
develop schools for young adolescents. The middle school philosophy is also a pivotal
component of middle school extracurricular and athletic programming.
The Middle School Philosophy and Athletics

The middle school philosophy is represented within extracurricular activities as
well. These activities are important to young adolescents because middle school physical
education cannot provide all of the young people’s recommended physical activity
(McKenzie et al., 1995). Results of a recent study show that middle schools offered
extracurricular activity programs an average of 3.1 times per week, each lasting
approximately 75.4 minutes (Powers et al., 2002). Of great importance for middle

school administrators, is that they structure extracurricular programming such as athletics

25

with a clear focus on the needs of the young adolescent during this time of great

 

emotional and physical change for each student. Middle school leaders have to decide
what type of athletic program to institute in the school. Some researchers believe that
competition at any age level is exclusionary, too competitive, unhealthy, and should be
avoided (Kohn, 1986 and Weller, 1999). However, simply due to normal relationships
among people, other researchers realize that children are generally competitive and begin

organizing into competitive groups at a very early age (Lirgg, 1995).

 

?'
The opinion of many sport psychologists is that competition can be good or bad— '
depending on the social context in which it is taking place (Scanlan and Passer, 1978). If
coaches overemphasize winning, compile statistics, or yell at players during halftime,
"L

than competition can be harmful. On the contrary, if middle school athletic competition
is organized around fair play, equal opportunity, and skill development; than the benefits
of competition in athletics can outweigh any anxiety created by losing a game. In fact,
Scanlan and Passer (1978) argue that most children do not find athletic competition
highly stressful, and that athletic competitions have been found to produce no more
anxiety than physical education classes, academic tests, or band competitions (Simon and
Martens, 1979). Schools with an athletic program interwoven with the middle school
philosophy will be more successful than middle school athletic programs that disregard
the middle school philosophy. 1

Once a middle school has made the decision to have athletics, school leaders have
to make a choice as to whether the school should offer an intramural athletic program, an
interscholastic athletic program, or both opportunities for students. This is a decision for

some school officials that is highly debated. With the first type of program, intramurals,

26

students only compete within their own school. The program is structured, supervised,
and students are allowed near equal participation. Intramural athletics are also closely
tied to the school’s physical education program; however, the coaching that takes place is
minimal (Lirgg, 1995). The interscholastic athletic program, on the contrary, is for the
elite athlete. Tryouts may be held, students could be cut from teams, and winning may be
emphasized. Additionally, Lirgg (1995) states that coaches are more knowledgeable
about the sport, they work with the student athletes to increase their skills, and there is
competition between school districts. Regardless if a school implements an intramural or
interscholastic athletic program, or both, in a school setting based on the foundations of
the middle school philosophy, the basic fundamentals of the middle level research and
middle school philosophy are components that are interwoven into the athletic program.
The effective leaders of a middle school with an extracurricular athletic program
will take into consideration both the emotional and physical needs of young adolescents.
In looking at the emotional needs of students, one of the most important needs of this age
group is within the social area: the need for friends. Friends represent an important act
of choice for young adolescents because they have little control over most other areas of
their lives (Milgram, 1992). The peer group for most young adolescents is made up of
same-sex fiiends. As a result, athletic programs that can allow for both co-ed and same-
sex activities are mostly likely to be successful in meeting the social needs of the young
adolescent. Peer pressure is another aspect of the emotional component of a young
adolescents’ life. Schools that utilize the middle school philosophy will plan activities to
formally and informally address peer pressure (Campbell, 1991). Intramural activities

where everyone participates and can be a member of the team help to eliminate peer

27

 

pressure (Lirgg, 1995). Also, discussions led by coaches about the differences in areas
such as personality, race, gender, and ability will help to eliminate some of the typical
problems that could result from middle school athletics such as elitism, racism, or sexism
among the students. Emotionally, these students are in a fragile state. They lack
experience to put things into perspective, and events are often blown out of proportion
(Campbell, 1991). Coaches who understand these emotional needs can help the students
to better cope with daily events without devaluing the student’s feelings. Middle level
students desire open communication with adults to help them deal with their feelings and
to help them develop a positive self-concept. Because they often are easily discouraged
and lose self-confidence rather easily, they need adults such as coaches who are
interested and genuinely care about them (Irvin, 1992).

Along with the emotional needs of middle school students, coaches must also take
into consideration the physical characteristics and changes of this age level child. This is
a time period of intense physical change. Although boys and girls have similar biological
characteristics before puberty, once girls reach puberty at age 10 or 11 and boys at age 12
or 13, they are distinctly different (Keogh and Sugden, 1985). Changes in muscle mass,
height, weight, and secondary sexual characteristics happen quickly at this age level, and
it is distinctly different for boys and for girls. Puberty can have a large impact on athletes
as some students are taller than others, have more muscle mass, or are simply more
athletic than later maturers. Because of this, cutting middle schools students is strongly
discouraged as it is highly unfair to the late maturers (Payne and Issacs, 1991). These
researchers also recommend that students receive education about their body changes

during this time period, and they be given the opportunity to discuss their concerns with a

28

 

caring adult such as their coach or teacher. My review of the literature has led me to
conclude that, as difficult as it is for middle school leaders and coaches, an understanding
of the middle school philosophy and the emotional and physical needs of this age group
will contribute to a more successful athletic program with additional positive outcomes
and benefits for the students involved. This understanding will result in better
relationships between coaches, students, and parents as well, and this will be helpful to
coaches as they balance all of the tensions they face on a regular basis.
Selection and Evaluation of Coaches

The middle school is a pivotal component of the educational career of a young

person’s life. The middle school athletic program has certain characteristics and features

 

to meet the needs of young adolescents. Of greatest importance is a school’s
employment of a coach who has an understanding of this age group and who enjoys
working with middle school students. Coaches are also faced with a variety of challenges
as they set out to accomplish their goals to teach these students and help them develop
skills and characteristics that they very well could retain for the rest of their lives.

A coach may have certain characteristics including being a motivator, enjoying
working with middle school age students, helping students with goal setting, and
providing instruction to students about the sport. Additionally, they may carry out
actions such as communicating, providing feedback, modeling, praising, instructing, and
many others. A middle school coach will also have an understanding of the middle
school philosophy as well as information about the role of the parents and family in the

life of a young adolescent.

29

Once middle school administrators establish their priorities for characteristics of a
middle school coach, they search out individuals that they think will fit their school’s
program. An important component of the program is not only to hire the best individuals
for these positions, but also to continually work with these coaches and evaluate their
performance. Often, middle school athletic coaches are evaluated at the end of each
season. This enables the administrator to examine their coaching characteristics and to
identify areas of improvement. The evaluation process can be rewarding and beneficial
for the coach, administrator, and the athletic program. Coaches also attend workshops
and training sessions to improve their coaching abilities in both technical skills related to

the sport and interpersonal skills related to working with young adolescents. An effective

 

coaching evaluation process only strengthens and improves the middle school athletic
program.

This study investigated qualities and characteristics coaches have and how they
coach and educate middle school age students in a busy and challenging environment.
The goal of the study was to examine how middle school girls’ basketball coaches
balanced the challenges of coaching as they strived to follow established coaching
standards, adhered to middle school principles, and also tried to field a competitive team.
The findings will have strong application to both hiring procedures and evaluation
procedures for middle school athletic coaches.

Clearly, the term “effective” in relation to middle school coaches is ambiguous in
that it can be specified in any number of ways. This research was based on the
assumption that successful coaches balance the competing demands introduced by

interscholastic competition, equity concerns related to players, facilities use and

30

scheduling, parent involvement and other contingencies outlined in the preceding section.
Because effectiveness and success are abstract and unspecified terms, it is useful to
introduce a more concrete framework for thinking about the dispositions and behaviors of
middle school coaches. For this purpose, I turn to an established set of standards.

The Michigan High School Athletic Association (MHSAA) published an athletic
code for coaches, which contains twelve standards that should be practiced by all middle

school and high school athletic coaches in Michigan (MHSAA, 2005). These standards

 

include: .
1. Develop an understanding of the role of interscholastic athletics and 3-
communicate it to players, parents, and the public.
2. Develop an up-to-date knowledge of the rules, strategies, precautions, h
and skills of the sport and communicate them to players and parents.
3. Develop, communicate, and model policies for athletes’ conduct and
language in the locker room, at practice, during travel, during
competition, and at other appropriate times.
4. Develop fair, unprejudiced relationships with all squad members.
5. Allow athletes to prove themselves anew each season and do not base
team selections on previous seasons or out-of-season activities.
6. Allow athletes time to develop skills and interests in other athletic and
non-athletic activities provided by the school and community groups.
7. Give the highest degree of attention to athletes’ physical well being.
8. Teach players, by precept and example, respect for school authorities
and contest officials, providing support for them in cases of adverse
decisions and refraining from critical comments in public or to the
media.
9. Teach players strict adherence to game rules and contest regulations.
10. Present privately, through proper school authorities, evidence of rule

violations by opponents; and counteract rumors and unproven
allegations of questionable practices by opponents.

31

11. Attend required meetings, keep abreast of MHSAA policies regarding
the sport, and be familiar with MHSAA eligibility and contest
regulations.

12. Present a clean and professional image in terms of personal appearance,
and provide a positive role model in terms of personal habits, language,
and conduct. Use of tobacco within sight of players and spectators and
use of alcohol any time before a contest on the day of the contest is not
acceptable.

These standards for athletic coaches set a state-level benchmark for the
expectations of middle school coaches. These establish a basis so that coaches can know
what their responsibilities and duties are as a coach of young adolescents.

_S_u_n;m_ar1

Middle school youth across the country are involved in extracurricular athletic
activities including athletics. The success of a young person’s involvement in such
activities hinges on the quality of the instructor—their coach—in the activity. It is
helpful for coaches to have an understanding of middle school youth, middle school
philosophy, as well as the established set of standards for athletic coaches. With this
knowledge base, coaches are more likely to be effective in their coaching activities with

middle school youth. Coaches now have to prepare to face challenges in their own

coaching value system and philosophy as they coach middle school students.

32

 

Chapter 3
RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS
Introduction
The purpose of this study was to examine how middle school girls’ basketball
coaches balanced the challenges of coaching as they strived to follow established
coaching standards, adhered to middle school principles, and also tried to field a
competitive team. In this chapter, the methods for this research study will be outlined.
This will include the research design, data sources, sampling techniques, instrumentation,
data collection strategies, data analysis procedures, and a discussion of trustworthiness.

Research Design

 

As the researcher sought to study middle school athletic coaching, seven middle
school coaches were studied and profiled. The researcher sought to provide detailed
descriptions and images of the activities of these individuals. Creswell’s (1994)
description of a qualitative study fits this research inquiry. A qualitative research study is
defined as an inquiry process of understanding a social or human problem, based on
building a complex, holistic picture, formed with words, reporting detailed views of
informants, and conducted in a natural setting. Qualitative research allows for the
collection and analysis of extensive narrative data in order to gain insights into a situation
of interest that is not possible using other types of research (Gay, 1996). In this study, a
multiple site case study approach was utilized with the experiences of multiple middle
school coaches being examined. A case study is an exploration of a “bounded system” or
a case (or multiple cases) over time through detailed, in-depth data collection involving

multiple sources of information rich in context (Creswell, 1998). In this type of research

33

 

there is a bounded system that is bounded by time and place and the cases themselves
being studied such as a program, an event, an activity, or individuals. A qualitative
research study also allows the researcher to study meaning such as how people make
sense of their lives, experiences, and their structures of the world, and qualitative research
involves fieldwork in which the researcher physically goes to the people, setting, or
institution to observe or record behavior in its natural setting (Merriam, 1998). Thus, in
light of the observational research in the field that will be conducted in this study, the
researcher utilized case study research strategies.
Data Sources

The source of data for this qualitative study was observations and a post-
observation interview with middle school basketball coaches. Women’s basketball was
selected as the middle school sport for this study. This enabled the researcher to keep the
sport constant. The researcher used a multiple site case study to report the findings in a
descriptive format. Previous research studies of coaching or the role of knowledge in
teaching utilized both interviews and observational research. The number of teachers or
coaches studied varied between four and ten (Housner and Griffey, 1985; Schempp, et
al., 1998; Graham et al., 1993; Walkwitz and Lee, 1992; Borko and Livingston, 1989;
and Benham, 2002). This research study consisted of case study research of seven
coaches from seven different middle schools in the mid-Michigan area. After gaining
approval from the University Committee on Research Involving Human Subjects
(UCRII-IS), seven adult coaches were observed in the field at a minimum of one practice
and one game as well as interviewed following the observations. These research

strategies provided data for use in writing detailed descriptions of the coaches’ activities.

34

 

The researcher contacted administrators at a variety of mid-Michigan area middle
schools to find coaches for this study. Of the seven coaches studied, an effort was made
to have coaches who varied by 1) gender, 2) race-ethnicity, 3) school location
(urban/rural/SES), 4) school size, and 5) included both faculty and non-faculty coaches.
Sampling Techniques

The researcher was particular in the selection of participants for the research
study. The selection of the middle school basketball coaches was of the utmost
importance. With the assistance of middle school athletic directors and/or principals, the
researcher sought to identify potential participants for this study who the administrators
highly regarded as coaches who were successful and upheld middle school principles,
who valued established coaching standards, and who were competitive. The study was
restricted to the state of Michigan and included current middle school coaches.

The researcher reviewed the pool of highly regarded coaches suggested by middle
school administrators for this study. This sampling relied heavily on the
recommendations made by these middle school athletic directors and principals. After
screening the recommended candidate profiles for meeting the criteria of this study,
coaches were contacted by telephone and/or letters to ask for their assistance with this
research study. The researcher sought to establish a preliminary pool of a minimum of
eight to ten coaches for the study based on purposeful sampling techniques. A telephone
or on-site interview was held to determine which coaches would be the best candidates to
fulfill the criteria of this study. This allowed the researcher to select coaches who would
provide the most information and eliminate candidates who were unwilling to share in

great detail about their coaching techniques or who may have be reluctant to participate

35

in this study. After the conclusion of the preliminary interviews, the researcher selected
seven middle school coaches who seem most likely to provide beneficial information for
the research study.

Instrumentation

 

During the research study, data was collected by direct observation of coaching
activities as well as by post-observation interviews with the middle school coaches.
Observation of the coaches took place at minimally one practice and one game. All
observations followed established protocol. Coaches were asked specific, predetermined
questions about their background and coaching beliefs as well as other open-ended
questions based on the findings from the observational research. If interviews took more
than an hour and in cases where the coach did not have time for a complete interview, a
second interview session was scheduled.

Observational Protocol:

The researcher used two strategies to make observations in the field. First, of the
twelve standards that coaches should follow, any behaviors related to these standards
were noted. Additionally, any observations related to middle school philosophy and
being competitive was also documented. Second, the researcher utilized the Arizona
State University Observation Instrument (ASUOI) (Lacy & Darst, 1984) to assist the

researcher in logging the frequency of a variety of coaching activities.

Behavior Categories and Definitions of the ASUOI:
The frequency of a behavior in each of these categories was logged and noted so
that the researcher could have an accurate log of the coaches’ activities or behaviors

during each observation time period.

36

1. Preinstruction

2. Concurrent Instruction

3. Post-Instruction

4. Questioning

5. Physical Appearance

6. Positive Modeling

7. Negative Modeling

8. Hustle

9. Praise

10. Scold

1 1. Management

Initial information given to player(s) preceding the desired
action to be executed.

Cues or reminders given during the actual execution of the
skill or play.

Correction, re-explanation, or instructional feedback given
after the execution of a skill or play.

Any question to player(s) concerning strategies, techniques,
assignments, etc. associated with the sport.

Physically moving the player’s body to the proper position
or through the correct range of motion of a skill.

A demonstration of correct performance of a skill or
playing technique.

A demonstration of incorrect performance of a skill or
playing technique.

Verbal statements intended to intensify the efforts of the
player(s).

Verbal or nonverbal compliments, statements, or signs of
acceptance.

Verbal or nonverbal behaviors of displeasure.

Verbal statements related to organizational details or
practice sessions not referring to strategies or fundamentals.

The researcher expected that the observation settings — practices and games — would

introduce some variety in the findings. That is, coaches demonstrated different

dispositions and behaviors in the different observation conditions. In that case, the

follow up interview provided an occasion to question the coach about the differences.

In addition to follow—up of observed situations, as above, the interviews also

included specific questions and follow-up probing questions that were asked of all

coaches:

37

Background Questions:
1) How did you become a middle school coach?
0 Were you ever a volunteer who assisted a coach?
0 Did you attend coaching clinics or classes?
0 Did you feel prepared initially to be a coach?
2) Why do you coach middle school students?
3) How long have you been coaching middle school students?
4) Did you play a sport yourself in middle school or high school? i
Coaching Philosophy

1) What is your coaching philosophy?

 

2) How did you develop your coaching philosophy?
3) What do you especially have to pay attention to when coaching middle school
young adolescents?
o What specific characteristics of young adolescents affect your coaching style?
0 What do you think is different between coaching elementary children, or high
school students as compared to middle school adolescents?
0 Do you or did you have a coaching role model/mentor?
Coaching Standards
1) Now I would like to give you a few scenarios. Please think about what you
would do if you were the coach.
Scenario 1: At the beginning of the season, you would like the student athletes and
parents to understand the role of the sport in their life as compared to family, school

studies, and other aspects of their life. How would you relay this message to students
and their parents?

38

Scenario 2: You witness questionable behavior by another coach in the school. What
would you do?

Scenario 3: You notice after practice that student athletes are not treating each other
with respect in the locker room. What would you say to them?

Scenario 4: Student athletes approach you, and they have conflicts in their schedule
with a school activity and an athletic practice. What would you say to them?

Scenario 5: A parent is upset after a game about something that took place during the
contest. What strategies do you use to deal with this parent?

2) From our discussion, I can tell that you have developed your own coaching
beliefs. Generally speaking, what is your strategy for dealing with conflicts in

your coaching beliefs?

Data Collection Strategies

 

The data collection strategies included 1) the observation in the field of coaches
as they were teaching students during practices and games, 2) post-observation
interviews, and 3) field note writing. The data collected through the fieldwork provided
detailed information about the activities of the middle school coaches. Additionally, the
interviews provided background information and additional insight into the coaching
strategies observed by the researcher. Interviews also allowed the researcher to follow-
up on the coach’s interpretations of activities or behaviors from observations in the field
and probe deeper into their coaching value system.

The observations of coaching activities included fieldwork of at least two hours
during each visit. These occurred at games and practices. The researcher was present
from start to finish of each practice session or game. The researcher also was able to sit
near the coach during games so that the coach’s discussion with players during the game
could be heard and noted. The researcher took observational field notes following the

established observational protocol outlined previously of what occurred during coaching

39

sessions with particular emphasis on observing coaches’ behaviors and speculation about
what they revealed about their coaching strategies and beliefs related to the published
coaching standards. Interviews with coaches after the fieldwork included specific
questions as well as open-ended questions and questions that expanded on the
observations of the researcher. Interviews were tape recorded with the consent of the
research participant for future review and transcription.
Data Analysis Procedures

The data analysis organized and summarized the research into a useable format to

make conclusions based on the research findings. The Arizona State University

 

 

Observation Instrument (ASUOI) was used for a 30 minute time period during the ‘
practice observation of each coach. This use of the ASUOI gave the researcher a general i
idea as to the type of activities the coaches used during practice. For example, did a
coach utilize more praise, hustle, or scolding comments to the players during a practice?
Then this infomiation was an additional resource during the writing of the case studies.
Tape-recorded interviews were transcribed by the researcher to ease the dissemination of
information as well as the development of the case studies. During data analysis,
research findings were first grouped into categories related to the twelve standards of
athletic coaches, general middle school philosophy, and actions that are competitive in
nature. Grouping the large amount of qualitative data into these value categories assisted
in identifying the findings of this research study.
Once the research findings were categorized by coaching values, the researcher
sought to determine how the coach was successful at balancing these various tensions

related to the middle school philosophy, coaching standards, and competitiveness.

40

Coaches also were specifically asked in follow-up interviews how they felt about these
coaching standards, which of them they felt were most relevant, and how they would
expect the standards to affect their coaching on a regular basis as well as questions about
their coaching beliefs in regards to the middle school philosophy and being competitive
(winning).

The researcher also utilized a data matrix to assist in organizing the observations
related to major themes and categories of the observation. This helped the researcher to

navigate through the large amount of qualitative data that was collected (Table 1).

41

Table 1. Data Matrix

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Coach Middle MHSAA Other Institutional Playing Stu-
School Standards Activities role time dents
Principles
Scott Wants Positive, Supportive Support, two Everyone 2
players to motivates of other coaches plays teams,
have fun activities equally 21
players
Lori Character Positive Has Support, two Everyone 2
develop- feedback, policies gyms, two plays, not teams,
ment role model for other coaches equally 20
activities players
Dave Develops Sense of No policy Some Everyone 2
fundamen- humor, for other support, only plays, not teams,
tals enjoyment activities one coach equally 17
players
Jennifer Teamwork Role Basketball Limited, Everyone 2
Fun model, should be only one plays, not teams,
motivator priority coach equally 1 6
players
Tom Fundamen- Role Basketball Limited, one Everyone 2
tals model, is the coach, gym plays, not teams,
positive priority time issues equally 22
players
Ed Coaches Motivates, Basketball Good Everyone 2
for players role model is the support, plays teams,
enjoyment priority one coach equally 20
players
Sam Teamwork, Motivator, Supportive Good Everyone 2
teaches role model of other support plays, not teams,
advanced activities two coaches equally 24
plays players

 

The outcome of this research study grouped emerging and common themes about

the coaching activities of these highly regarded coaches. This enabled the researcher to

determine what actions these coaches took to balance all of the tensions they must handle

on a regular basis. Additionally, the results of this study will be made available to help

other coaches in the future

42

 

Trustworthiness and Transferability

The goal of this research study was to provide accurate interpretations of coaching
activities related to coaching standards from fieldwork, interviews, and observations. It
was important for this study to address trustworthiness, which is the accuracy of the
information and whether it matches reality (Merriam, 1988). Several strategies were
implemented to lend trustworthiness to the study. To be impartial and unbiased, formal
interview guides were used during post observation interviews. Also, structured. methods
of taking field notes were utilized. Systematic analysis was imperative to accurately
present findings for this select group of seven girls’ basketball coaches. The author
acknowledges that there might be other issues that were not identified. Some ideas,
perhaps, could be found in another study, with a different sample of coaches such as first
year coaches or coaches who were struggling. However, the author contends that the
findings in this research study deal with universal issues in middle school athletics and
will be helpful information to assist other coaches and administrators. Whether readers
of the study will find the results important in their own contexts is for them to decide.
The intention of the researcher was to report the data as accurately as possible, and in as
much detail as possible, so that readers can fairly decide on the transferability to their
own schools.
Summary

The purpose of this study was to determine what actions middle school athletic
coaches took and what they emphasized in their coaching as they strived to follow the
established standards for coaches, follow their beliefs related to the middle school

philosophy, and to field a competitive team. In order to create a useful summary of the

43

research findings, descriptive case studies were written. It was the goal of the researcher
to use established qualitative research strategies to report accurate findings. This enabled
the researcher to produce an end document that is useful and helpful to current middle
school coaches, principals, and athletic directors who are directly involved with middle

school athletic programs.

44

Chapter 4

CASE STUDIES AND EMERGENT THEMES

Introduction

Case studies are presented in this chapter that describe the activities of middle
school girls’ basketball coaches. The coaches’ names and the school names used in the
case studies are pseudonyms. These case studies show elements of coaching techniques,
the coaches’ own coaching philosophies as they relate to middle school principles, and
strategies that the coaches utilize when they experience a conflict in enacting their own
standards and principles. Additionally, many of the established coaching standards of
middle school coaches are revealed as the actions of these middle school coaches were
documented. Each of the case studies offers evidence of various qualities and
characteristics that a coach of middle school adolescents should uphold to educate this
age group of students in a busy and challenging environment. The case studies in this
chapter are written in two components. First, brief descriptions of the coaching activities
of all seven participants are presented. Then, in the second part of the chapter, coaching
descriptions and information about a variety of their activities are written in detail to
support and provide examples during discussion of five major themes related to elements
of coaching where tensions may occur.
Descmition of the Coaches

The research participants coached either seventh or eighth grade girls’ basketball
at middle schools located in Michigan. Coaches who were teachers in the school as well
as non-faculty coaches were utilized for the study. Coaches were observed during after

school practices as well as during games in the late afternoon and evening throughout the

45

girls’ basketball season. Interviews were conducted after the practice and game

observations.

The procedure and criteria used for selecting the middle school coaches were

described in Chapter 3. Table 1 (below) provides a brief summary of the description of

the coaches. All coaches are identified by pseudonyms.

Table 2. Description of Coaches

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Coach Grade Years School School Size F aculty/N on-
Coaching Location (#/ Students) Faculty

Scott 7 14 Rural/ Suburban 449 Faculty

Lori 8 5 Suburban 662 Faculty

Dave 8 8 Rural/Suburban 523 Non Faculty

Jennifer 7 3 Rural 508 Faculty

Tom 8 5 Urban/Private 278 Non Faculty

Ed 8 6 / 8 overall Suburban 478 Faculty

Sam 7 4 / 20 Urban 1045 Non Faculty
overall

 

 

 

 

 

 

46

 

The Coaches

 

Scott

Scott is the seventh grade girls’ basketball coach at Pine Junior High School.
Pine Junior High School is in a growing, rural school district that has become more
suburban over the last few years. The school has 449 students in the 7th and 8th grades.
Scott has been coaching at Pine for 14 years and teaching physical education in the
district for 17 years. After teaching at the elementary school for the last 16 years, this
school year he began teaching at the junior high school where he coaches. Like most
schools in this geographical area, the seventh grade basketball program has two teams to
allow for more students to participate in the sport. These are called “A” and “B” teams.
Scott and an assistant coach work together to coach both teams of girls. Twenty-one
seventh grade girls play on one of the two teams.

Scott is a former basketball player himself, and he actively participates in
practices. On a recent afternoon he runs a practice with a focus on fundamentals. Scott
uses drills to teach the young athletes basketball skills that he will expect to see in the
games. “Okay, outlet drill now,” he tells the players. On each of the two courts the
players are defensively rebounding the basketball and then moving back quickly down
the court. “Freeze!” yells Scott as he stands directly in the middle of the gym between
both courts. “You all have to be watching. When you rebound look up and yell ‘outlet’”
Scott hustles back and forth between the two groups. On a few occasions he rebounds the
ball himself and goes down the court with some of the players to complete the drill.
During another drill, Scott has the players work on their physical conditioning. The girls

line up and move their feet following his lead. This drill is known as the “machine gun,”

47

 

and they continue to move their feet rapidly while remaining in place as they follow
Scott’s movements. As the coach turns one direction or the other, the girls do as well.
The drill continues, and Scott compares their effort to a game situation to make the drill
more fun. “Okay, it’s the end of the first quarter, we’re down by 6.” A little bit later in
the drill he says, “It’s the half—down by 3,” and then, “Now it’s after the third, and
we’re down by one. Oh the game is over, we’re tied!” He then exclaims, “Keep going,
it’s overtime!” Scott later explained what he likes to accomplish at practice.

The kids play for fun at this level. I want to make it fim for them. Sometimes I

look at their faces after a game, and I want to see that they had fun. If they

haven’t had fun, I don’t care if we won by 20 or lost by 20, if they didn’t have
fun; it’s not worth it to me. We do a lot of fun things in practice, but we’ll work
really hard too. We have to field a competitive team because this is the feeder
program to our upper level. I think the girls have fun on the team.

Scott continues practice with an emphasis now on the offense. He stresses the
importance of good passing to the girls. As the players are working on offensive plays he
stops them, “Freeze! When you’re out with the ball, drive in, get the defensive player to
come out, and then the inside will be open.” The drill continues. Scott watches intently,
“Nice shot.” He stops the drill again. “Blue team, we don’t need to score in two passes.
Don’t force it! Be a little more patient and pound the ball inside.” He now is intently
watching this group of players while the assistant coach is on the other court working
with the second group of players. He counts the passes to emphasize to the girls the
importance of passing during an offensive play, “one pass, two passes, three, four, five,
,,.

six, work that D, work that D.” The shot is made and he says to the players, “Nice job

Scott’s emphasis is on the fundamentals at this practice.

48

As the practice time comes to a close, Scott says loudly to the girls running drills,
“Bring it down, time flies when you’re having fun!” The team circles around their coach,
“Let’s think about what you are doing. Make the defense work. Outside shots are okay,
but let’s not settle for them. Let’s try to get the ball to our taller girls inside for an easy
shot.” Scott ends the practice with some running drills up and down the court. But rather
than just running the girls have an opportunity to shoot free throws do determine how
much they will run. The girls eagerly volunteer one at a time to shoot free throws until
one of them makes a basket to end the practice. The practice concludes as the players
and coaches gather around at the center of the gym and yell “one, two, three—team!”

During a recent A team basketball game, Scott coaches with an emphasis on the

 

fundamentals. He coaches the players on defensive strategies, rebounding, and making it
good passes. As the game is progressing, he tells the players on the floor, “Let’s see
some good passes now, let’s see some good passes.” When the team is on defense, he
says, “Move your feet, move your feet.” He provides encouragement to a player on
defense, “Stay with her, go get her.” As he often does, he then turns to the players not in
the game who are seated next to him on the bench and tells them, “Girls, you have to play
good defense.” With Pine leading 15 to 6, they head to his classroom for a half-time talk.
He stresses the fundamentals on defense and offense to the players. “What do they have,
six points? Four of those points came off put—backs where we didn’t get a rebound, and
on the other basket the girl went right around and made a shot. That won’t happen again.
You have to work twice as hard on the defensive end as you do on the offensive end.
Twice as hard. That comes from right there—pride. Right in your heart. That’s where

you play defense, with your feet, your head, and your heart. Not with your hands and

49

reaching every time. I know it is tempting to reach and go for the steal. How many of
you got a foul because you were going for the ball?” he asks the players. “Alright. You
can’t play defense with your hands. Now if they leave it right there for you, then yes
we’re going to take it. But we’re not going to foul them or plow right into people. That’s
not the way you play defense.” Scott also speaks to them about how they are doing on
offense. “Offensively, be patient. Work the ball around. Let’s not settle for long bombs.
Now, if you were open a couple of times, wide open—that’s a good shot! If you’re
forcing it up there, that’s probably not a good shot. The good thing that can come of it
though is we can get rebounds, and that is what we did on a few occasions. Get yourself

in position, use your feet, use that backboard, and work hard.”

 

During the fourth quarter of the game, Scott calls a timeout to set up a play. Pine
has the ball, and using the whiteboard he explains to the players what to do when
inbounding the ball. The game resumes, and on the inbound, the players did not run the
play. He explained his thoughts on this and coaching at the middle school level.

That happens all of the time. It makes me upset. You’d think it would be really

easy to carry over what they just learned in the timeout to the game. But then I

think back to when I was in 7th grade. When you’re on the court playing, it is

completely different sometimes. We have worked on those plays for a long time.

It was a set play, and the player sent the play in too early to almost the third

option.

The game comes to a close, and the Pine Junior High School A team wins. After shaking
hands with the other team, the players go to the locker room with Scott to listen to his
post-game comments. He tells them, “The effort was there. They were physical, but we
did a good job.” Next, he says to the girls, “Raise your hand if you made a mistake.”

Most girls then raise their hand. He then says, “We all make mistakes. But you have to

learn from them. What did we do the last time up the court? We had 5 or 6 passes and

50

then we were able to make an easy lay-up.” Finally, Scott asks the players, “Did you
have fun?” The girls answer loudly, “Yea!” He tells them, “Basketball is about having
fun and learning about the game and life. Work hard, and study hard too.” The team
then yells in unison, “One, two, three cougar pride!” The players leave the locker room,
and will need to be ready the next day for another practice and a second set of games later

in the week.

Lori

Lori is the eighth grade basketball coach at Eagle Middle School. Lori is also a
seventh grade math teacher at the school, a suburban middle school of 662 students in the
sixth through eighth grades. The eighth grade basketball program has two teams;
however, Lori is only responsible for coaching the A team. Another teacher at the school
coaches the B team. Twenty girls tried out for the two teams, and ten girls were put on
each team. The team this year is quite social and outgoing, and they seem eager to play
basketball. Lori also previously coached softball at the high school for a few years before
becoming the eighth grade girls’ basketball coach for the past five years.

During an early season practice, Lori instructs the players to circle up and stretch.
Lori has a friendly demeanor with the girls. They are comfortable joking with the coach.
A student joked with her about her shoes she was wearing in practice (which she
borrowed from another coach because she had forgotten her own gym shoes). Lori
instructs the team members on a variety of drills such as how to shoot a lay-up,
transitioning down the court, and rebounding. Next the team practices free throw
shooting. Lori asks the students, “What do you think is a reasonable percentage of free

throws we can shoot? 70? 60? 50?” The girls agree that they can reach 60 percent today.

51

“You know what; let’s go with 50% for this week.” The girls break into small groups
and shoot free throws around the gym. Lori runs between the groups and writes down
how many shots are made on her clipboard. When everyone finishes shooting, she
tabulates the results. “You were at 42%,” she announces. “We’ll keep working on it.”
Before a drink break, the team has a number of agilities. They run down the court and
back switching their feet as they run. Then they shuffle down the court. “Keep your
knees bent,” she yells as they are moving down the court. Finally, the players do a drill
known as the “back pedal drill” where they go down the court and back running
backwards. After a brief water break, the players practice shooting, and then move into
working on man-to-man defense. As practice ends she tells the players, “Good job.
Okay at the end of each practice we will end in the middle of the court.” She then talks
to the team, and tells them, “Good first practice. Look over your packets. Everyone on
three,” she says. “One, two, three, team!” the group yells in unison with their hands
together in the middle of the circle. Lori talks about the strategies she uses to coach at
this level.

One of the things I teach is the basic skills. We’ll run some plays that they

brought from junior pro, but I work on the basics. These are simple pick and

rolls, boxing out, and ball handling—the basics. Then when they get to high

school they can just work on the strategy of the game, because they will already

know the basics from playing in eighth grade.

During a game, Lori is a positive mentor for the student athletes. She yells
encouragement to the player as the game progresses. As a player rebounds she says,
“Good job, grab it.” On offense, the team is passing the ball well. Lori gives them

encouragement, “Good hustle! Way to move the ball ladies.” As some of the Eagle

players wrestle for a lose ball, Lori exclaims, “Good job, Good job!” Eagle leads at half-

52

time. Lori then speaks to the players at half-time, “We have another whole half to go.
We have to come out strong. Don’t let them back in. Stay pumped and stay in control of
this game.” As part of her half-time discussion, she offers her input on where the team
needs to improve their defensive intensity, “You guys are giving them easy shots. But
you know what, they are making shots too. Get a hand in her face. On the outside, get a
hand in her face. Don’t necessarily try to block or foul the other player, but get a hand in
her face. If you get a hand in her face, they won’t all drop.” After addressing some
offensive plays, she ends the half-time discussion, “Do not let off. Don’t let them back in
this game. Okay? Let’s go out there and stay pumped up. Let’s go!”

Throughout the second half, the Eagle players seem to respond to their coach’s
half-time talk. At one point, an Eagle player makes a tremendous dive for a lose ball and
slides out of bounds. Lori exclaims, “Good hustle Jen!” In the second half as the team
improves their intensity, they also continue to call their own plays offensively. Lori
allows this group of girls to call one of four plays themselves as they come up the court——
usually the point guard calls the play. Although as the coach she doesn’t select the play,
she actively watches and instructs the players as they run through the play. “Post up, post
up. Switch. Switch. Good job. Way to hustle!” As the game ends, Eagle wins by a
sizeable margin. A close contest in the first half—the team played harder in the second
half and gained control of the game. After shaking hands with the other team, they head
into the locker room to talk to Lori. “Good team effort. Good hustle. Look what
happened. Last year we beat this team by one point. This year we won by much more.
Everybody contributed. It was a team effort. Good hustle out there tonight. Jen. . .diving,

that was great! Vicky, way to go out there. Even the little things tonight created more

53

’—_' _—._.—

shots. That was so much better. You were pumped up before the game, and it showed on
the court. You need to take this with us from tonight. Any questions? Good job

tonight.”

Dave

Dave is the eighth grade girls’ basketball coach at Townsend Middle School, a
rural/suburban school with approximately 500 students in the sixth through eighth grades.
Seventeen girls are on one of the two eighth grade teams. This fall is Dave’s eighth
season coaching girls’ basketball at Townsend Middle School. Dave does not teach at
the school. He works in the human resources department at a nearby university. When
he graduated from college, Dave returned to his hometown, and he volunteered to coach
middle school basketball. After landing the university job he left his hometown, and
eventually he found that he missed coaching. He decided he wanted to coach middle
school athletes once again. He looked in the local newspaper, and applied for open
coaching positions at a few local middle schools. He was hired at Townsend. He
explains why he decided to work at the middle school level.

I chose to coach at the middle school level. The place I started coaching was

middle school. It seems like to me that most of the high school coaching

positions are for staff members at the school. I like the practice schedule at the

middle school, and I enjoy this age level.

A few minutes before 6:00 PM on a mid-September evening, seventeen eighth
grade girls wait in the hallway outside the gym at Townsend Middle School. Once the
seventh grade team is done practicing, the eighth graders are ready to start their own

practice that concludes at 8:00 PM. The girls are chatty and seem excited to get the

practice started. As the seventh graders exit the gym, the eighth grade girls enter and

54

shots. That was so much better. You were pumped up before the game, and it showed on
the court. You need to take this with us from tonight. Any questions? Good job

tonight.”

Dave

Dave is the eighth grade girls’ basketball coach at Townsend Middle School, a

rural/suburban school with approximately 500 students in the sixth through eighth grades.

Seventeen girls are on one of the two eighth grade teams. This fall is Dave’s eighth
season coaching girls’ basketball at Townsend Middle School. Dave does not teach at
the school. He works in the human resources department at a nearby university. When
he graduated from college, Dave returned to his hometown, and he volunteered to coach
middle school basketball. After landing the university job he left his hometown, and
eventually he found that he missed coaching. He decided he wanted to coach middle
school athletes once again. He looked in the local newspaper, and applied for open
coaching positions at a few local middle schools. He was hired at Townsend. He
explains why he decided to work at the middle school level.

I chose to coach at the middle school level. The place I started coaching was

middle school. It seems like to me that most of the high school coaching

positions are for staff members at the school. I like the practice schedule at the

middle school, and I enjoy this age level.

A few minutes before 6:00 PM on a mid-September evening, seventeen eighth
grade girls wait in the hallway outside the gym at Townsend Middle School. Once the
seventh grade team is done practicing, the eighth graders are ready to start their own

practice that concludes at 8:00 PM. The girls are chatty and seem excited to get the

practice started. As the seventh graders exit the gym, the eighth grade girls enter and

54

 

Liz—3...”,

begin running. Shortly thereafter, Dave arrives to the gym and posts a paper on a small

bulletin board by the doors. The paper lists the practice schedule for the evening, and a

quote is typed at the bottom, “True success is overcoming the fear of being

unsuccessful.” Dave puts up a quote each day at practice. Sometimes he reads the quote

and emphasizes it with the players, and other days he just allows them to read it and think

about it on their own. Today, he doesn’t say anything about the quote, but most players

walk up to the bulletin board and read the quote by the end of the evening. Some girls

repeat the quote to one another. The practice begins with warm-ups and then Dave gives

the players some brief comments at center court before they begin organized activities. E
Practice this evening at Townsend moves quickly into drills. Dave instructs the i

players to line up on one end of the court and the girls practice an outlet play they would I

use after a defensive rebound. Dave yells encouragement during the drill, “Let’s go, let’s

go. You’ve got to control the ball ladies. Go, go!” He wants them to work on quick,

solid passes that are on target. “Come on ladies, no soft passes,” he tells them. Dave

watches the drill for quite a few minutes, and the he yells, “Outlet” and joins the drill in

progress himself with two other players. After a few more minutes, he blows his whistle

to begin a new drill. He runs the players through a number of rebounding drills. He has

to stop the drill and explain how to do the drill a second time to the players. He then has

the players line up near the gym wall and shoot the ball at the wall, rebound the ball, and

shoot again. He offers them support throughout the shooting, “That’s it, put it back up.

There you go. Good.” During the “hustle drill” he has the team line up in two lines. He

then rolls the ball and a player from each line tries to get the ball and then make a lay-up.

Each player has a chance to run through the drill. a few times. Dave is pleased with the

55

effort the players exhibited in the drill. He tells them, “You did great on that. Now we’ll
move to free throws.”
Dave emphasizes free throw shooting in his practices. Each player joins two
other players to shoot 30 free throws at one of the six baskets in the gym. Over the next
several minutes the players shoot the first 10 free throws, five at a time, and then rotate in
their group. Then they switch after each two shots for the next ten free throws, and rotate
after every attempt for the last 10 free throws. Dave watches the players from the center
of the gym. Each group of girls eagerly reports the number of shots made, and Dave
records them. Over the next few minutes, the players shoot baskets in their small groups.
Dave announces, “The first group to make 10 shots, run to the middle of the gym.” He
then instructs the girls to run this game with a different type of shot at the basket, closer
to the basket than the free throw line. “The first group to make give shots, run to the
middle.” This is a fun way to work on shooting, and the girls try hard and run to the
middle to be the winning group. After a short break to get a drink, Dave has the players
number off to select sides for a full court scrimmage. The last 30 minutes of the practice
is devoted to a scrimmage. Dave coaches the teams from the front row of bleachers in
the gym. “Run Carolina,” he says. He then has them run it again. He keeps running the
play a number of times so that every player has experience running this particular
offensive play. He yells encouragement fi'om the bleachers, “Let’s go!” he says while
clapping, “Make sure you are running a play, not just running around.” He tells them to
run the play again. The girls continue the scrimmage and with five minutes left in the

practice, he has them gather at center court. “We’re improving—that’s the good news. I

like what I’m seeing. We just need to play with consistency. I want to see consistency

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with what we do. Does anyone have any questions? Let’s go.” To end the practice, all of
the team members and Dave say in unison, “one-two-three Hornets!”
As a coach at the middle school level, Dave focuses on the fundamentals. His
discussions with the A team at a recent game demonstrate this emphasis. With just a few
minute before the game, he calls the team members over to where he is near the bench.
Dave stresses fundamentals of the game as he talks to the players. “Work on boxing out
tonight. On offense, look for the cutters. Move your feet on defense, remember we’re
playing man-to-man defense. Get the rebounds, look for the open man, and make good
passes. Any questions?” The team and Dave then say in unison, “Take good shots and
use the backboard.” The game starts with Townsend on defense. Dave shouts, “Move
your feet white, move your feet. Watch the middle.” As the team gets a defensive
rebound, Dave calls a play for the offense to run, “Green, green.” The game remains
close at half-time, with Townsend in a slight lead. The game was quickly paced with
both teams racing up and down the court, but not necessarily getting good opportunities
at the basket. At the break, Dave speaks to the girls. “First of all, we have to stay under
control. Okay? The fast break is great, but if we don’t get a shot right off, then pull it
back and run the offense. Keep using the backboard. When we’re using the backboard,
they go in. We didn’t run the offense the entire second quarter. We have to keep things
under control. Keep things under control on both sides of the court. I want you to be
aggressive, but there is a fine line between being aggressive and keeping things under

control. Box out, play strong, and be aggressive.” Dave later talks about his emphasis in

coaching middle school girls’ basketball:

57

A_r‘l "' _

I stress fundamentals. We only learn a few plays. We have three baseline out-of-

bounds plays, one side line play, and four offensive plays. In my coaching, I like

to do a few things well.
Throughout the second half Dave continues to coach, stressing fundamentals. He says,
“Use the backboard,” and then later, “Keep it up! Move your feet.” At the end of the
third quarter he talks to the team. “Don’t let up! Keep moving your feet on defense.
Attack the basket on offense. Finish the game. On three, finish.” The team says, “One,
two, three, finish.” The girls are laughing. “What?” asks Dave. A player answers, “We
thought you said spinach.” They laugh and then go out on the floor for the final quarter.
Throughout the rest of the game, the team continued to play well hustling for lose balls
on defense, moving, and using the backboard on shots. The game ends with Townsend
wining by 22 points. After the game, Dave enters the locker room where many players
are eating. “How come I didn’t get a snack?” he asks. The girls laugh. He tells the team,
“You played well. Just like the B team, you did everything that I asked. You moved
your feet on defense. You boxed out. You ran the offense well with the cuts. I’m proud

of you. Have a good weekend.” Dave then heads out of the locker room and now will

get ready for another week of games and practices.

Jennifer
Jennifer is a third year seventh grade coach at West Middle School. Jennifer
teaches math at the high school, and upon being hired in the school district, she was also
given the opportunity to coach at the middle school. Jennifer is a graduate of the West
Public Schools, and her hiring as a middle school coach was based on her reputation as a

former player and student teacher in the school district. The high school athletic director

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had recommended her to the middle school administration as a potential coaching
candidate, and she was hired when there soon was an opening at the middle school as the
seventh grade girls’ basketball coach. West is a middle school with just over 500
students who comprise two grades—seventh and eighth grade. Jennifer is the lone coach
working with the two seventh grade teams.

At an early season practice session, sixteen seventh graders are practicing for an
upcoming game. One of the first activities for the team is agility drills. The players are
running back and forth on the basketball court. Although the two teams now have a total
of 16 players, the first few weeks of school, there were only 11 players on both teams.
Jennifer recruited and searched for additional players so that the school could field two
teams. Just getting the bodies out for the team has been a tremendous challenge for
Jennifer this year. Some of these players who joined the team late have never played
before and need to work on their basic basketball skills. Jennifer said that this year there
was a problem with a low turn out of players at tryouts as students were busy with other
activities which resulted in more new players to the game.

The practice moves quickly along with various drills and activities. Next, the
team is practicing free throws. The players are in groups of three at each basket around
the gym shooting. Jennifer quickly runs between the groups offering suggestions and
advice to the shooters. She arrives to a group that has students who just recently joined
the team. She demonstrates where to place their feet and how to go up and down on their
toes as they go through the motion of shooting the ball. At one point she literally stands
behind one of the players and moves the student’s body as the player shoots the free

throw. Once the free throws are completed, she asks the team, “Are we done?” The girls

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answer, “Yea,” as students are still bouncing the balls. “Hold the balls ladies!” she yells,
and then she begins to explain the next activity—agility drills. The team. runs, except .for
the two girls who made the most free throws. They are rewarded by not having to
participate in the agility drills.

While the players are running, the parent of an eighth grade student enters the
gym and sits down in the bleachers. He was looking for his eighth grade daughter, and
he thought she was in this gym. In reality the eighth grade team was in the nearby gym
of the intermediate school. Jennifer recognizes the parent and approaches him. She asks,
“Can I help you?” He then explains he is looking for his daughter. “You’re Amanda’s
Dad, right?” He replies, “Yes.” She then enters into a conversation with him about
Amanda. Jennifer knew she had been struggling this year in the first weeks of practice to
adjust to the eighth grade coach and learn her role on the team. “I’m Jennifer. I coached
your daughter last year. I hope I’m not overstepping my bounds here, but I heard she is
having trouble this year. She is a tremendous athlete—she rocks on the court. Tell her
Coach T. says play the game—coaching philosophies are different from year to year, but
she does well on the court. She just needs to just play the game and not worry about
coaching differences.” The father responded that yes she had quit the team at one point,
but had just rejoined this week. He said that the eighth grade coach and Amanda had a
conflict with each other initially, but they got it worked out. He thanks Jennifer for her
time and left the gym. Jennifer later reflects on her interaction with the parent:

That eighth grader is a tremendous athlete. I had her as a seventh grader, so I

already had some prior knowledge about her family life. It is not the greatest.

When she played as a seventh grader, it was her first time ever playing on a team

of any sort, she always wanted to quit when things got hard last year. I was trying

to talk to her Dad go get him to work with his daughter rather than yell at her as
he did last year.

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The eighth grade player did rejoin the team and had a successful eighth grade season.
Jennifer’s conversation with the parent early in the season was something she felt as a
coach at the school, she needed to have in order to help with the situation. This is just
one of the many responsibilities that Jennifer feels she has to fulfill as a coach at West
Middle School.

Next during the practice, Jennifer reviews offensive plays with the students. She
sends six players from the A team to one end of the court, and she works with 10 players
from the B team on the other end of the court. Before the girls split up on the court, she
says, “My concern is when I send girls to the other end of the court they are not working
as hard. You are goofing around. If you are doing that, we are just going to run.
Everyone needs to work hard whether I’m with you or not.” She then works with the
players from the B team, demonstrating plays and helping the girls run through offensive
plays that they can use in the upcoming game. Meanwhile, the A team is working
independently on the other end. After a brief break for drinks, Jennifer has the two
groups of girls switch ends. She begins to work with the A team and abruptly stOps. “I
have five bosses of girls who like to tell each other what to do. I can’t coach this way—
come on ladies.” This group of players is the more talented athletes that have tried out
for the team. But sometimes it appears they can be bossy or rude to one another. After a
few more minutes, Jennifer instructs some of the girls to do 10 push-ups on the spot as a
consequence for their actions on the practice court. Jennifer later explains the situation.

The A team girls dropped for push ups because I had warned them about bossing

each other around. They have a tendency to tell each other what they are doing

wrong and not focus on where they need to go themselves during plays. I only

had the girls on offense do push ups because defense was working really well and
communicating together. In that particular case, on offense my post player was

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telling the point guard what to do and which play to run, which was not the play I
had told the point guard to run. It’s very hard with the A team because these girls
have played for so long and on so many different AAU, Junior Pro, and other
teams that they are not used to playing with each other and trusting each other yet.
This is something I’m working on though.

During the last drill of the practice, Jennifer shoots the ball from various positions on the

court and the players line up, and each takes a turn rebounding the ball and moving it

down the court. Jennifer is not only rebounding, but she also is involved with the play

and often joins in moving the ball down the court after the rebound. She continually

offers instruction as the girls are carrying out the drill. As the practice ends, she tells the

girls it is time to go select their uniforms. This is one of the last practices before the first

game of the season, and they need to go down to the storage room and get their uniforms.

After the practice, Jennifer talks about the structure of the team and what she hopes the

students learn as a member of the team.

I coach the A team to be competitive, but the B team is for the experience, having
fun, and skill development. We do split up during the practice, but many of the
drills we do as one team. What I want to teach these girls is what seventh grade
basketball is all about. I want them to learn what it means to have a uniform and
to play for your school.

A halftime break in the locker room at an A game which West is winning,

demonstrates Jennifer’s coaching style. There is a lot of excitement in the room.

Jennifer is clapping—the players are clapping and yelling. The girls are excited.

Although Jennifer is pleased with how the team is playing in the game, she stresses where

they need to continue to improve which is on defense. “Push them hard. We’re in man-

to-man (defense). We’re much better in man-to-man. Get faster and get back. You have

to get back.” She then uses the whiteboard to show the players how to get back on

defense after a basket or missed shot on the offensive end of the court. “Girls in the back

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court, you have to spring down the court. You have to get back. You’re making me
nervous. I don’t like to be nervous. So just get back. You’re doing well, but they’re
going to come back in the second half and be aggressive. We can’t give up.” Jennifer
then shows the girls on the whiteboard where on the floor they should position
themselves to box out on a rebound. The girls respond to her discussion, and are
listening, even laughing a few times as the coach interjects a slight amount of humor.
Jennifer talks about hustling and working hard and sends the team back to the gym.
Jennifer’s half-time talk with this team demonstrates some of her own coaching beliefs.
She wants her players to be competitive, thus she discussed strategies they could use to
improve their defense. On the other hand, she also wants them to have fun.

When working with middle school athletes, Jennifer knows she must be attentive
to their learning styles. Although Jennifer teaches at the high school, she has a good
relationship and connection with her middle school team members. She strives to keep
them focused, because sometimes if they are not playing they may not pay attention or
they may become bored. One of Jennifer’s biggest challenges this season is working
with the various needs of young adolescents.

When the A team girls are frustrated, it’s hard. They feel like when they get

frustrated, it is all them, by themselves. With the B team players, if they get

frustrated they get scared—they would rather be on the bench and cheer. That’s
good because that’s part of West basketball too. We continue to work on the girls
who have skill—getting them to learn to trust each other and not become
frustrated.

Jennifer’s coaching philosophy demonstrates a desire for the players to learn about the

game, to learn about what it means to play a school sport, and to have fun. She enjoys

the challenges she is faced with coaching middle school students, and strives to make a

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difference in these players’ lives and she wants to teach these young women to have pride

in their uniform and to have pride in playing basketball for West Middle School.

Tom

Tom Smith is the eighth grade girls’ basketball coach at Deer Valley parochial
school. Deer Valley Middle School is a private school of 278 seventh and eighth grade
students in an urban city. Tom, who graduated from Deer Valley High School, works in
private industry and is a non-faculty basketball coach. He has coached at the middle
school level for five years. Although the school administration typically hires a coach for
the A team and a coach for the B team; this season, Tom coaches both teams because the
district could not find anyone interested in coaching the B team. Although he is allowed
by the school to have 12 girls on each team, this fall only 22 students tried out for the
eighth grade team. There are 10 girls on the A team and 12 girls on the B team.
Although he doesn’t mind coaching both teams, it is a longer time commitment, and a
difference at Deer Valley versus the public schools in the area is the pay Tom receives.
He earns about $800 for each team he coaches, whereas some of his fi‘iends in the public
school system earn $2600 each season for coaching one middle school team.

Tom is coaching during a practice with just the A team players on a Sunday
afternoon. Tom is relaxed at the practice—he rarely blows his whistle. The girls begin
practice by going up and down the full court making lay ups. Tom remarks after a few
minutes, “We haven’t missed one lay up today.” He then says jokingly, “How come we
missed them all in the last game?” After warming up with lay ups, the players move into

various shooting drills as well as free throw practice. Each player shoots 10 free throws.

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During the free throws he provides instructions for a few of the girls. He shoots the ball
to model the proper stance for shooting a free throw.

After practicing free throws, the team works on offensive plays that they will use
in games. There are a few tall players on the team, and one of the fundamental plays
involves passing the ball to these players who are near the basket. “Our goal is to get the
ball to her (referring to the center),” he instructs. “Don’t be afraid to shoot either. We
looked scared in the game the other night.” Deer Valley has only played one game this
season, but the school they played was a good, competitive team. Both the gold (B) and
green (A) teams lost. Tom is using this practice to improve on the mistakes made in the
game. He also is coaching to provide the girls with confidence. He tells his players the
team they just faced is the best team they will see all season, and he is honest with them
where they need to improve including taking shots at the basket, passing, and free throw
shooting. After working on offensive plays, they go back to practicing more free throw
shooting. He explains to the players, “We were one for six in the game. We need to
shoot more free throws. Ten free throws with a partner—let’s go.” He then observes the
players shooting, and walks between the girls. Next, he leads the team in practicing
jumps shots, and then they go back to even more free throws. “Free throws—five each in
groups of two. How many you miss in your groups is how many times you are running.”
For each missed free throw out of ten attempts in their groups, the players will run the
length of the basketball court. Tom walks back to the player he had assisted earlier in the
practice. “Good that’s better,” he tells her. “You’re bending your knees.” After
finishing the free throws, the players run the length of the gym for several minutes. Some

groups have to run more than others depending on how many free throws they missed.

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The last activity of the practice is a three on two drill where the players rotate on defense
and offense. This enables them to practice both sides of the ball. Tom is providing
instruction throughout the mini-scrimmages. “Good. Up strong. Square up,” he says. As
the practice ends the team practices shooting for a few minutes and then Tom tells them
to bring it in. He ends each practice in a circle with the team. He always ends practice by
talking to the team, “That was the best team we will see this season. Don’t be afraid. Be
ready to play. Everyone that was here today is going to play a lot. You are the starters
because you were here. Let’s go Raiders.” Tom will allow five of these players who
were at practice to start in the game.

In a recent B team game, Tom is an animated coach. He starts by sitting, but is
quickly up watching the action on the floor. Deer Valley is on defense. He says, “Who
do you have? Who’s right here? Good. Good. Help out!” The gold team rebounds a
missed shot by the opposition, and Tom sits down and says to himself, “Good.”
Although there is a lot of action up and down the court, there is very little scoring.
During a break in the first half, he tells the players, “We’ve got to go to the basket. Calm
down out there. Set your picks and get up the court. It’s four to nothing. Remember
man-to-man defense.” A few times throughout the game, he yells instructions to players
on the floor, and then talks in more detail to the players on the bench. During a low
scoring first half, Tom uses the half-time to review some basics of the game. “Okay,
we’re making this game too hard for ourselves. Simple pick and roll. Wait for your pick.
We’re playing man-to-man defense. Give them a little space. We don’t need to be right
up on them. Get back. I have to tell you this every game. Give them a little space. If we

don’t, we’re in front of them, but right on top of them, and they dribble around us. We

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have to help a little better. Help defense. Does everybody got it? Okay.” Tom also
encourages them to play tougher on offense, “Go to the basket. When you get it
underneath, get a rebound, and go right back up with it. Warm-up out there, and
everybody be ready to play, okay? Here we go.” Throughout the second half of the
game, Tom continues to coach animatedly. When a Deer Valley player is inbounding, he
is talking to the player on the floor, “Do it right. Wait for it. Help out (the ball is
inbounded). Good! Way to take it to the basket (they score off the inbound play).” He
then comments to the players on the bench, “This is a pretty simple game when you
listen.” The girls nod in agreement. As the game ends, Deer Valley wins by 9 points.
Tom is pleased with their effort in the second half, which he felt was lackluster in the
early part of the game. He has the girls shake hands with the opposing team, he circles
them for quick congratulations by telling them, “Good win,” and he sends the team to the

locker room.

Ed

Ed is a computer teacher and eighth grade girls’ basketball coach at Maplewood
Middle School. He has been teaching at Maplewood for over eight years and this season
is his sixth year as the eighth grade girls’ basketball coach. He also coaches boys’
basketball during the winter sports season. Maplewood is one of two middle schools
within a large, suburban school district. Ed played basketball when he was in middle and
high school, and as a result he is familiar with the game from his own experiences. After
becoming a teacher at Maplewood, he saw a posting for a boys’ basketball coach. He

began his coaching career with the boys’ team, and he added the responsibility of

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coaching the girls’ team two seasons later. Ed felt initially prepared to be a coach when
he first started coaching. Additionally, he has learned more technical information about
the game from keeping in contact with the varsity coach at the high school. He feels
there is a good connection between the middle school and high school basketball
programs. He has his own playing experience as well as working at basketball camps in
the district to assist him in being a more proficient coach. He is the sole coach
responsible for coaching both the A and B eighth grade teams at the school.

At a practice, Ed directs an activity where the players line up with three students
in each of three rows. All nine students are bouncing a basketball. It is the goal of an
additional player, who is playing the position of a guard, to dribble through the three lines
of defense. He explains to the players that the guards need to learn to attack, and not be
passive. As each guard is attempting to dribble through the defense, he closely watches.
“Look to attack. Don’t get stuck, go in and out then,” he instructs. He rotates all of the
players in the drill through the positions as a guard attacking and a defensive player on
one of the three lines. He continues the activity until all players have been in the guard
position and have successfully gotten through the defense. For the last drill of the
practice, he has the team practice a press break. In yesterday’s game, as the teams were
being pressured by the defense, they did not successfully get the ball over half-court.
They practice many different options to break the press by the opposing defense. Ed
summarizes how he coaches when working with middle school students.

Things have to be repeated over and over when coaching middle school students.

I repeat instructions. You also have to have patience when working with this age
group with their short attention spans. I also coach so that they have fun.

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As a team building activity, for the last twenty minutes of practice, Ed takes the players
to the art room at the school. The players begin working on two banners for a teammate
who had ACL surgery during the week, and has been out of school. The banners will be
hung in the gym on the following Monday for her to see when she returns to school. Ed
gives the players some basic instructions, and then lets their creativity take over. As the
practice time ends, he tells the players, “Give me five. Listen up, Monday we can finish
these up. See you then!”

The following Tuesday, the two Maplewood Middle School eighth grade teams
are playing games against the other middle school in the district in the opposing school’s

gym. To the players, this is big rivalry game as the two middle schools are within

 

walking distance and a part of the same community. Many of the players from each ’1
school know each other. The coaches and administrators at each school down play the
rivalry, and they remind the players at both schools that in one year they will be
teammates at the high school. The game has a larger than normal crowd as compared to a
typical afternoon middle school basketball game. Student spectators have their faces
painted in school colors, and the gym, is a loud, exciting atmosphere. As the B team is
warming up, Ed helps a player tape her fingers. At the end of the warm-up, Ed gathers
the players near the center of the court. He tells them, “Tonight, play your hardest! Any
questions? This is the same as our other games, except we have more fans. Be sure to
set your picks. Make sure you rotate. Panthers on three!” The team then yells in unison,
“One-two-three panthers!”

Ed directs all of his attention to the court throughout the game. He calls plays

each time Maplewood has the ball on offense. On defense, he also provides instruction.

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He tells the players on defense, “Drop back, drop back.” But, the players do not respond.
Within the first few minutes of the game, he calls a time out. He huddles the players
around him on the bench, and kneels down on one knee. Using a small whiteboard he
explains the defense he is expecting in the game. “When I say drop back, here is what I
mean.” Using a marker on the whiteboard, he shows them how to play the defensive
scheme. Ed continues to stress defense throughout the first half. The players still seem
to struggle to find their positions on the floor when transitioning from offense to defense.
One particular player is having trouble, and Ed subs her out of the game. He takes a E
moment on the bench to explain her position on defense in the middle of the court. She

seems to understand and takes a seat on the bench. On the next several offensive plays,

 

Ed calls the play. “Triangle,” he says. He calls this play multiple times, each time ii
resulting in a missed basket. He calls timeout. Again on one knee, he says to the players,
“When you’re running triangle offense, here is what you need to do. You are up here,
match up,” he says as he illustrates the play on the whiteboard with a marker. “Know
you have, Panthers on three!” The offense begins to play better in the second quarter. At
one point Ed calls a different play, “Line, line, line,” he repeats. The play results in a
wide open player who scores an uncontested lay-up. Phil explains this play.
Line is a play that we run on offense to get the ball to that particular student who
scored. She is a basic (special education) student. She is new to basketball, and
this play works for her to be able to be involved in the offense.
Maplewood leads by over ten points as the game nears half—time. The coach of the other
team, who Ed knows, calls him to the scorers table. He asks Ed to let off on his defensive

intensity. Ed answers, “Call timeout and I will.” The other coach quickly calls a timeout,

and during the timeout, Ed explains to the girls to adjust the defense and let off on the

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pressure. However, these players are not well-experienced with basketball, and don’t
quite let off like the other coach would like. He calls Ed over again, and they have a
lengthy conversation at mid-court while the game is continuing. Ed tells the players,
“Drop a step, drop a step,” to encourage them to let off on the intensity of their defense.
The first half ends with Maplewood leading by a score of 22 to 5. Ed instructs the girls to
go to the visiting locker room.

Ed appreciates the effort the players have shown in the game. At halftime he tells
them, “Alright, good intensity there. You’re going after stuff hard. That’s good. We’re T
getting people in there who aren’t always involved.” He goes on to use the white board

to re-explain the triangle and line offensive plays. After answering a few questions he I

 

tells them, “Don’t let them have easy baskets. Play help defense. Play hard with help ii
defense. Be sure not to stick to your player, play help defense.” Ed believes as a coach
of students at this age level it is good to repeat instructions. He often repeats plays and
instructions to the team in both games and practices. During the second half, Maplewood
continues to score and they often run the plays known as line and triangle. On defense,
Ed actively coaches, “Move your feet! Move your feet!” he instructs a player. A few
minutes later he says to everyone on the floor, “Arms up D!” Although they are leading
by a wide margin, Ed continues to instruct and call timeouts a few times to further
explain offensive plays in more detail during the game. The game ends with the
Maplewood B team winning 32-11. After the game in the locker room he tells the team,
“Hey that was a great effort. You continued to give a good effort, and you played hard. I
liked that we could make adjustments. Everyone contributed. Good team effort!

Panthers on three!” As Ed walks out of the locker room, there are just a few minutes left

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before the A game. The next group of players is already warming up in preparation for

the final game of the evening.

Sam

Sam Jones coaches the seventh grade A team at Central Middle School. At
Central, Sam coaches in a large dome fit to be a community college athletic facility.
Central is a large, urban middle school with 1045 students in the seventh and eighth
grades. Sam coaches the seventh grade A team, and another adult coaches the B squad.
Although Sam coaches at Central, he is not a teacher or staff member at the school. He
works for a private business in the area. Central Middle School is a former high school in
the Central School district. Sam, a veteran coach for the past 20 years and former player
at the middle school, high school, and college levels enthusiastically coaches in practice
and games.

On a mid-October afternoon, Sam leads a typical basketball practice. After a
three on two drill where students practice on both offense and defense, the players run
agility drills in groups against one another up and down the court. Sam yells at the
players to encourage them to run their hardest. “Come on Lisa, you can do better than
that,” he says. “Good job, good job, hustle back,” he yells to another group. As the last
group starts running he enthusiastically yells, “Come on now—let’s go. Come on turn it
up!” Next Sam instructs the players on a defensive drill. He has the girls pair up. He
demonstrates an offensive play with a basketball, and he has another player defend him.
“Is she playing defense right?” he asks the team. “No she is not, that’s right. What is

wrong with her?” he asks. “She needs to be lower and down more towards the floor,” he

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answers. In the pairs, the girls practice defending each other. Sam walks among the six
groups and offers instruction. “Ann, you have to get lower, and you have to be more
flexible. You have got to be loose—you can’t be stiff,” he tells her. Then interjecting
some humor he says, “It’s like when you are dancing, you’ve got to below and you’ve
got to be loose.” The players laugh, and then continue practicing the drill.

Next he has the girls shuffle their feet as they move up and down the court. He
has one player lead the other 11 players as they follow each other at an arms-length apart
up and down the court following the out of bounds lines. As the girls run the drill, he
offers encouragement. “Get down some. Come on finish up,” he says. He then blows
his whistle and has them run more shuffling drills. “Keep it going. Good job girls, good
job,” he yells as they slide up and down the basketball court. Once everyone has
completed the drill he explains why they are doing this drill in practice. “The reason for
so much sliding today is that we’re going to play man—to-man defense tomorrow in the
game. This will be different than the zone defense. You will have to worry about finding
your man. When you were in a 2-3 zone defense, you just had to worry about finding
your spot on the floor. It’s going to be harder tomorrow because you will have to think
about where your girl is. But we will try it. Are there any questions about what I just
said?” Sam often physically gets involved in the practice. For the next activity, he pairs
up with each player, one at a time, and Sam and the player run up the court and back
passing the ball. The player then shoots a lay-up attempt on each end of the court. The
ball never touches the floor. Sam makes a positive comment to each player as they end
the drill such as “Good job” or “Finish it.” Sam strives in practice to make positive

comments to each player throughout the afternoon.

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Later in the practice, Coach Jones splits the players into red and blue teams. They
are practicing game situations in a mini-scrimmage format. He begins by discussing the
defense. “This is giving us problems. When the ball is in the wing (he demonstrates
dribbling the ball on the side of the court), you just can’t stand here. What you guys are
doing is standing here. Then you’re here, and then they get the easy lay up.” He then
says, “If the ball is over here, then you have got to slide over (as he has the ball, the
defensive players slide over). Good job,” he tells them. After situating the defense, he
begins to work on the offense. “I want to see five passes before a shot!” he exclaims. He EE
watches the players run the offensive plays. “Let me see you girls run it. Okay—good.”

He continues to observe the teams as they run offensive plays. “Five passes, five passes,”

 

he reminds them. “Good job, good job. Finish it.” Then he starts calling some specific EE
plays. He takes a minute to explain the next play he will be calling. “Do you know what

Iowa is?” A player answers. “That’s right. It slows the game down, and helps us work

the clock down. See if we can run it for 30 seconds. Go.” He watches as they pass the

ball. “You’re too close together. You’ve got to have more spacing. That’s right. Good

job.” Sam teaches his players a lot of specific plays and skills in practice during the

season.

Towards the end of the practice, Sam instructs the team to shoot free throws. He
tells the girls that these practices are not enough time. They also need to work at home to
get better. After everyone has shot their free throws, he asks, “Who wants to shoot free
throws?” Many of the girls on the team raise their hands to volunteer. How many shots
are made out of three by the player Sam selects will determine how many times the team

has to run the length of the court to end the practice. The player makes the first——

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everyone cheers loudly. The dome echoes with noise. Then she misses the next two
shots, and the team has to run up and down the court twice. No one seems to mind, as the
one shot that was made reduces their agilities from three lengths of the court to two.
Finally, to end the practice, Sam instructs the players to circle up at the edge of the court.
He tells them, “Good job everybody. Good practice. We’re going to keep the same
routine. Go home tomorrow and come back before the game. The team tomorrow is
tough. Good practice ladies!” The players begin to leave the dome, and Sam is already
thinking about tomorrow’s game.

Sam looks forward to coaching in games. During a recent game, the contest
begins with Central wining the opening tip. Sam yells the first offensive play, “Sentra,
Sentra, Sentra,” but the team does not score. As the players fall back on defense he tells
them, “Hands up. Two-three zone, two-three! Good defense!” One player in particular
takes several three point shots attempts in the first few minutes of the game. Sam calls a
timeout. As the girls huddle around him at the bench he tells them, “What is with the
three point shots? Run the offense. That’s what we have done all season. Run the
offense. One-two-three Bulldogs!” As the ball is inbounded, he again calls the offensive
play, “Sentra—run the offense.” The team runs the play and successfully scores. Sentra
is the name of a play that the A team runs often in the game. Sam later explains how this
play originated:

One of my coaching role models was my high school basketball coach, Ben

Sentra (pseudonym). Still today I use Coach Sentra’s philosophies in every game.

Even through they are high school philosophies, I find that they work at this level
as well. As a matter of fact, the offense we ran in high school—a swing
offense—I call this play Sentra, to honor him. It is a great offense. We have two
guards and then a swing person, and it works very well.

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.4F_ _—L_._..n:__—-_-
A..-

Sam continues to call the Sentra play quite often in the first half as well as a few other
offensive plays. The player who shot several three point attempts early in the game,
takes more three-point shots in the second quarter. Sam subs her out of the game and has
her sit next to him on the bench. “I don’t mind you taking three’s if you are open, but
what is the three-point thing? Run the offense. You need to go to the basket and cut
through. Okay?” The player nods that she understands. A few minutes later he puts her
back in the game. In the next few offensive series, Central scores. The one particular
player is no longer taking three-point shots as Sam had instructed. The other team soon
calls a timeout. Sam huddles the team around him at the bench. “Good job ladies.” To
the one player who had been taking all of the three point shots he says, “You had a wide
open lay-up. Good work. You just have to be patient.” The first half ends with Central
leading by a score of 15 to 6.

Sam feels that the team can play better and has improvements to make in the
second half. In the locker room he asks the players, “Is this the best team we’ve played
all year?” “Yes,” the players answer. “That’s why we have to play. We have to play our
game. We want to be on top of our game, or we are going to lose. What I am talking
about is don’t get out of what you guys have been doing all season. Don’t play
differently. Keep doing what you have been doing all year. The second half begins, and
the game is competitive and intense. Sam continues to give instructions and directions to
the players in the game. On defense, he tells the players, “Hands up, Hands up,” and later
says, “Good job, good job. Nice rebound.” Often during the second half he calls the
Sentra offensive play. One player drives to the basket and misses the shot. “That’s

alright,” he says as he claps with approval for the effort the player shows in the play. The

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game ends with Central winning by 10 points, this was the closest game they have played
in all season. The players huddle and say in unison, “Good game!” to the other team
before they shake hands. A game worker from the other school comes up to the girls and
coaches and tells them, “You are a nice group of girls. You all represented your school
well.” Sam thanks her for her compliment and instructs the players to head to the bus.
The team will stop for dinner at the way home and get back to the school late. He
decides that they will not practice on Friday afternoon. Sam later talks about his
philosophy as a middle school basketball coach.
I want the players working hard and listening. The winning and losing doesn’t
matter. But, I’ve found out that the girls listen and if you reinforce it everyday, I
win my share of games, just by using that philosophy. I really believe that a
coach has to be a nurturing person at this level. You can’t be an in-your—face kind
of coach, always expressing anger. You have to be a nurturing person. I think you I
have to be a nurturing person at every level you coach to get the kids to respond.

If you’re always screaming and hollering, and not hugging and holding, talking in
a good manner, you’re not going to get much from them.

EmeLgent Themes

 

Each day, middle school basketball coaches are faced with a variety of challenges
related to their coaching of young adolescents. As a result, the coaches develop their
own unique characteristics as they strive to coach basketball to middle school girls. At
the middle school level, the coaches attempt to play all students while fielding a
competitive team. They work with middle school adolescents who often have difficulties
with their peers, family, and their busy schedules. The coaches also must tackle these
challenges with sometimes limited institutional support. Additionally, many of the
coaches observed did not have a good communication pipeline to the high school

basketball program, which could be another source of support. Each coach takes on this

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task of coaching middle school girls’ basketball, and attempts to be the most successful
coach that he or she can be for their respective schools. The coaches all measure their
level of coaching effectiveness differently, and this ideal level of effectiveness will vary
depending on their own coaching beliefs and coaching philosophies.

The discussion that follows will outline some of the challenges that are faced by
middle school girls’ basketball coaches. First, the coaches’ efforts to play all students
while remaining competitive in each game will be discussed. Then, the challenge related
to the busy lifestyles of today’s middle school adolescent will be noted and how these
busy schedules can conflict with basketball. Next, institutional support for the coaches
and resources provided by the school will be noted followed by a discussion of the
connection between middle school and high school basketball coaches. Finally, coaching

effectiveness will be reviewed as seen through the eyes of each individual coach.

Playing Time and Competitiveness

One of the biggest challenges for all middle school coaches is balancing the
competitive nature of the game with the coach’s own coaching beliefs. Coaches want to
be competitive in each game, but they also believe in the fundamentals and making sure
that all students play nearly equal amounts of time in the game. Experts argue that
successful middle school coaches organize games so that every member of the team plays
at least a minimum amount of time (Riemcke, 1988). At Pine, Scott plays all of his team
members in each game. He utilizes strategies as a coach so that he is always thinking
ahead in a game, especially if the outcome may be close, and doing the best he can to

balance opportunities and playing time for all of the players.

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It’s tough, because I am competitive. But what I’ll try to do is sense if a game is
going to come down to whoever has the ball at the end. What I’ll do then is try to
sit these particular girls so that I have those five girls at the end of the game. But
it doesn’t always work that way. There have been times when we’ve lost a game
before because I didn’t sub. I told the girls it is just a game, that scoreboard
means nothing. You can feel good about yourselves that you tried your hardest.
But, I’m not perfect by a long shot.

During the observed game, both the A and B team won by a large margin. This made it
easy for Scott to play everyone equally in the games. In other games later in the season
that were close, Scott is sure to plan and play everyone early in the game.

Lori, the coach the eighth grade coach at Eagle Middle School also makes it a
priority to balance playing time. In the games, all of the players have numerous minutes
of playing time. It is Lori’s coaching philosophy to make sure that all of the athletes play
in each game, although not necessarily equal minutes in each game.

I do play all the kids in every game unless they forget their uniform, or there is a

discipline situation. But I haven’t had that this year. This year has been fine with

10 girls. Sometimes with 12 players, there is a drop off in terms of skills, and you

weave them in when you can. I try to make sure everyone gets plenty of minutes

in every game. It is easier when you are winning by a lot. The last two games,
perhaps I had kids in a little longer who needed to be fresh. At the B team level,
everyone plays equally. At the A team level, we make an effort to get every
player in each game. But I really try to get them in several minutes each half, or
even time in each quarter. There would be very few girls who have not played at
least a portion of a quarter in each game. They all get a good amount of playing
time.
One of the greatest challenges that Lori faces as a middle school basketball coach is
insuring that all the team members’ play, and yet still being competitive in each game.
She feels that to keep the program strong, they have to win as well as make sure everyone
plays. She shares how she handles it when she does have a conflict in her own coaching

beliefs such as a game situation when she would like to remain competitive, but also be

sure all athletes play in the game.

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I would try to make sure that I don’t violate anything that I’ve given to the kids up
front about what our philosophy is in terms of playing time and winning. Our
goal is to have fun and learn a lot, and winning is a byproduct of it. And at the
same time, if it came down to it—the first game of the season went into overtime,
and we were outmatched height wise. I had five girls in who played the second
half of the 4th quarter, and all of overtime without any subs. Because I set up the
fact that we don’t all play equally, and I’m not going to rotate you as groups.
They’ve been in a system where they have rotated five players for five players,
and they have rotated as groups. I don’t rotate as groups. So I tell them that
upfront. So as long as I don’t violate my word or go back on my word, with
something I’ve said prior to that. We do play to win more so than a B team
because that is what keeps kids involved in our program too (winning). If they
think at the end of the game, I’m just going to put kids in to get them equal
playing time—that turns off kids as well. Hopefully at one point or another,
everybody has a chance to be in a game at that time and make a difference. I
think they all felt really good about tonight for the most part. The kids who
played, I think they all felt good about the role they played in the win. But I also
stress, we win as a team, we lose as a team.

After losing the previous two games, the team won the game on the night observed. Lori
had been quite intense the past few games, and she made a conscious effort to be more
relaxed as a coach. It is her hope that this more relaxed atmosphere helped her team
members to play better in the game. In the game, the girls seem to enjoy themselves, and
everyone played. This resulted in a victory for the team.

Dave, the eighth grade coach at Townsend Middle School has a simple coaching
philosophy. He wants to work on the fundamentals, and give all of the players
opportunities while they have fun playing basketball as well. Dave talks about dealing
with situations where he wants to be competitive as a team, but also offer equal
opportunities for all players.

They all play. I don’t guarantee equal playing time, but everyone plays in the

games. To avoid situations where players are not getting in a close game at the

end, I always try to get everyone in before the fourth quarter. So everyone plays,

and if it is close at the end of the game, I’ll play the starters. If it isn’t close, than
everyone will get to play in the fourth quarter.

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Dave developed his coaching philosophy by modeling it after coaches in his hometown.
He played basketball in middle school and high school, and he stresses the same
fundamentals that those coaches stressed when he was a player and later a volunteer
coach. It has worked well for him at Townsend Middle School.

During a recent seventh grade basketball game at Central Middle School, at half
time Sam is talking to his players. A player tells the coach during the half-time that she
has not been in the game during the entire first half. He tells her that he will get her in
the game during the second half. Sam’s goal is to have all of the team members play in
each game. However, because this was a close game, this particular player did not play
in the first half. He did not yet meet his own guideline in this game to play each team
member.

The players all play in the games. They don’t get equal playing time, but they all

play. I believe at this level, that everyone can play, and you can still be

competitive and win some games. I don’t believe in each player playing a certain
amount of specific minutes in a game because that is not always realistic. It might
work in elementary school, but in middle school we are starting to prepare the
girls for high school. But I haven’t had too much of a problem getting all of the
girls in games.
During the second half, Sam was sure to have this student in the game. Although it was a
close game, Central won and all of the players had time in the game.

Tom, the eighth grade coach at Deer Valley Middle School, wants all players to
play a role on the court in each game. They may not play equal playing time, but
everyone will have an opportunity to play in each game.

I get everyone in the games early. In the last game, two girls didn’t play at the

end in the A game. But they are getting into the game and getting time to play.
We want to win too. The girls want to win. That’s what I can do.

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Tom’s strategy to play everyone early in the game supports the claim by Riemcke (1988)
that successful coaches organize games so that every team member plays a minimum
amount of time. By making sure everyone has adequate playing time early in the game,
this allows Tom to play certain students who may be more advanced in their skills near
the end of the game. This would be helpful, for example, if the score of the contest was
close near the end of the game. Tom also rewards players for their effort in practice. On
a recent Sunday afternoon, only six of the ten members of the A team were at practice.
The other players were at a community based league soccer game. These players chose a
soccer game over basketball practice. At the end of the practice he tells the players,
“Everyone that was here today is going to play a lot on Tuesday. You are the starters
because you. were here. Let’s go Raiders!” Later in the game that week Torn did start the
players who were at the practice, and eventually he put everyone else into the game.
Although Tom penalized the students who were not at practice by not allowing them to
play at the beginning of the game, as the game progressed, everyone played. Coaching
middle school students who have busy schedules as well as fielding a competitive team
and playing all students in games is a continual challenge for basketball coaches. The
students’ conflicts with other activities is another element of coaching that affects many
middle school basketball programs and can also contribute to a coaches’ ability to play all

students equally in games.

Conflicts in the Schedules of Middle School Students
Oftentimes it is difficult for middle school students to focus their firll attention on
basketball with the competing demands on their time. Team members are busy with

other sports and activities which may cause a conflict with a basketball practice or game.

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Schools and coaches who make multiple sports and activities available to middle level
students can benefit the students by giving them more opportunities in athletics and more
opportunities to be successful (Riemcke, 1988). At many times throughout the season,
coaches will have situations where students have a conflict with a basketball activity.
Scott, the seventh grade coach at Pine Middle School is flexible when a player was a little
late to a recent game.
Well, just like what happened with the girl’s soccer practice after the game, she
had to leave right away. They have all these other activities going on. You have
to be a little bit flexible. You can’t say they have to be at every practice, and you
can’t hold it against them if they’re not at every (basketball) practice. You just
can’t hold it against them if they’re not. Like tonight one of my girls was a little
late getting here. She doesn’t have a driver’s license. She went home; it’s not
always their fault. You have to be flexible. Also at this age and the high school
too, we pound home the academics and getting your grades before you play. If
you don’t have the grades, you don’t get to play. That’s probably the biggest
difference. You can’t scream at them and yell at them because of their emotional
maturity. There are some kids you can push a little harder than others, but their
maturity is not that of an older kid, so you have to be a little more of a. . ..not a
father figure I guess, but someone who will take them under your wing and try to
be more patient with them. You definitely have to show much more patience with
kids at this level. At the high school if a kid messes up you see a coach pull them
out, and they sit the bench the rest of the game—we can’t do that here.
Scott understands that students have busy schedules, and allows for some flexibility when
conflicts arise.
Lori, the eighth grade coach at Eagle Middle School understands that students are
busy. She feels that family priorities and school come first. However, she recently had a
student miss a practice for a soccer game. The player did not start the next basketball
game. Because she missed practice, she did not start in the game. Lori feels that a school
activity should take precedence over practice, but an out of school activity such as soccer

does not have priority. She is preparing the girls for high school, and she feels when they

get to high school they couldn’t play soccer. High school coaches would not tolerate

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Ill.—

students missing excessive basketball practices. They would have to make a choice.
This creates an interesting coaching situation for Lori. She must decide whether to
sacrifice playing time now to better prepare the girls for the future as a member of the
high school team, or she can organize the team as eighth graders so that everyone plays
regardless of missed practices for other activities. By choosing to not start the player
who missed practice for soccer, she has designed her coaching strategies to sacrifice
some playing time as eighth graders to better prepare the girls for the future in high

school.

. . _ uh-.._-_*'

At West Middle School, during the first week of basketball tryouts, there were

only 11 players for both teams. Jennifer recruited and searched for additional players so

 

that the school could field two teams. Just getting the bodies out for the team has been a I
tremendous challenge for Jennifer this year. Some of these players who joined the team
late have never played before and need to work on their basic basketball skills. Jennifer
talks about the problem she faced this year with a low turn out of players and the new
team members to the game.
When I played ball this is all that there was. Now there are so many choices for
these girls. There is so much they can do. Most years, everyone wants to be on
the A team. This year I have nine girls who want to be on the B team. I coach the
A team to be competitive, but the B team is for the experience, fun, and skill
development.
.During an A team game, there were only seven players dressed to play. A player went
home ill, and two others will not start the game for disciplinary reasons. One of the

players had missed a recent practice, and the other was late to a practice. Jennifer

believes in tough consequences for actions such as players not being responsible to arrive

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to practice on time. If players are late to games or practices, they sit out or don’t start a
game. Jennifer discusses her policy for students who miss practices or games:

If a player misses basketball for a school activity like band, and they get credit,
that comes first. If it is something like going to their sister’s varsity game, which
has happened this year, and they miss a practice then they do not start. If they
miss a game then they sit out the next game too. One missed practice also means
they won’t start the next game. If they miss two practices that week, they don’t
play in a game at all. Sometimes players on the A team early in the season would
come late to practice or leave early. On one occasion when three starters all sat
out for part of a game, they had almost perfect attendance after that.

Jennifer had some parent complaints about this policy when the players sat the bench for El
being late to a practice. However, she stayed firm with her policy, was supported by the
school’s administration, and the players did not start the next game after missing part of a r

practice. After this happened a few times, the more talented players on the A team, who

 

had the tendency to miss part of a practice ended their antics and the remainder of the
season went smoothly.

With Jennifer’s coaching philosophy, there is a distinction between not starting
and sitting out of a game. Not starting means that they do not play in the early stages of
the game, but eventually they will play. This is typically a meaningful consequence to
the best players on the team who begin the game and are considered “the starters.”
Sitting out is when a player does not play in an entire game. This is can be a strong
consequence to all players because typically the player will still attend the game and sit
on the bench to support their teammates. But, this also sends a strong message to the
student as sitting close to the action on the court—but not playing—certainly can be
difficult. Jennifer does not start players who are late or miss a practice. However, if a

player misses a game or misses more than one practice, they have to sit out an entire

85

game. The goal of this strategy is that the players will learn from their first experience,
and not miss practices or games in the future.

At Deer Valley, Tom has penalties for students who miss basketball for other non-
school related activities. He adheres to a policy that he developed.

If it is school related like band, that’s okay to miss practice. If it is a school

activity, they can do that. My problem is soccer. We tell parents they have three

strikes. The first time they miss a practice is my discretion. The second time it

happens they miss a game, the third time—they are off the team.
His policy allows the students and parents to understand his expectations. Although, it is
difficult when students have conflicts, they know that their coach expects them at the
basketball practice or game.

With middle school coaches, a distinction must be made between activities that
are acceptable and those that are not for missing a basketball practice or game. There is a
hierarchy that coaches typically follow. Students are not penalized for missing basketball
practice for activities that are related to the school. This may include band or choir
concerts, a required meeting with a teacher, or a drama play. Typically activities that are
not related to school will result in a coach such as Tom assessing a penalty which could
include sitting out part of a game. In this study, these non-school events mainly consisted
of community based soccer programs. But they also could include other non-school
sports, dance classes, or other activities. In most cases, coaches expect students to give
them advance notice if they cannot attend a practice or game. When the student informs
the coach of the conflict rather than simply missing the activity without an excuse, this
can also affect the severity of the penalty enacted by the coach. Although school

activities are “privileged” over non-school events, each situation is dealt with on a case

by case basis.

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During the first quarter of a Maplewood game, Ed did not play a student. She
missed the previous Friday’s practice for a commitment to a community soccer team.
However, she did not tell the coach about this conflict until noon on that day. Ed has a
policy for players who miss practice.

If students miss a practice for a school activity that is okay. However, if they
miss basketball for another activity or something like shopping there are

consequences. The first time it happens is a warning. The second time they sit out

for part of a game. The third time we will look at removing them from the team.

They don’t miss practice very much. I remember one time I had a player who

planned to miss practice to go shopping with her older sister. A few days before,

she asked what the punishment would be for doing this. I explained it would be a

warning. She was at the practice.

One strategy Ed uses to communicate his team rules with parents and players it to meet
with the parents at the beginning of the season. This helps the parents to understand his
coaching beliefs and philosophy. During this game, the team has not scored very many
points. However, Ed is confident none of the parents will be mad over the game because
they know the team is trying their hardest. Ed seems confident with his relationship with
the parents of the team members. The pre-season meeting helps to strengthen his
relationship with the players and their parents.

At Central Middle School, Sam is flexible when it comes to conflicts in the
schedules of the players, and they have to miss a game or practice for another activity.
His beliefs support those of Riemcke (1988) who asserts that it is beneficial and gives
more opportunities for students to be successful if they have multiples sports and
activities made available to them.

I’m flexible. I have four soccer players. I encourage the girls to do everything

that they can. If you like basketball or soccer, and if you can handle it, go ahead

and do it. As long as you’re out there doing something, that’s the main goal. I

encourage it. If they can swing it, we’ll work it out. It hasn’t been that big of a
problem. I talked to another school, where they can only do one activity, and the

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'1

 

coach only had six girls on their B team for basketball. It makes it tough. I can be
flexible.

As long as the players can handle multiple activities, Sam is supportive of their other
activities. However, the situation Sam mentions at another school can be a problem for
some coaches. If a middle school coach adheres to a firm policy that students can only
participate in one activity, often students may not elect to play basketball, particularly the
less talented basketball players who may comprise a B team. This results in fewer
players on the team. This is another example of a conflict in values that middle school
coaches may have to face as they are working with middle level adolescents. They have
to decide if they should have such a stringent policy which could limit the number of
participants, or if they can be more flexible with other student activities, they may have
more players on the team. This is another dilemma that coaches deal with as they carry
out their responsibilities coaching middle school students.

It is difficult for coaches when conflicts arise for players with other activities that
interfere with basketball practice or games. It is important for each coach to develop
guidelines for these situations, and relay them to the team members and their parents at
the beginning of the season. This communication will help in building a successful
basketball program. As coaches strive to develop a strong program, they also must rely

on institutional support for their team.

Institutional Support and Resources for the Program
A successful middle school athletic program needs the support of the school
district and administration. This support is in the form of equipment and supplies,

facilities, and providing the coaches with the resources that they need to be successful.

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Even the number of coaches hired by a school illustrates institutional support of the
basketball program. Throughout the research study, institutional support of the middle
school girls’ basketball teams was noted.

At Deer Valley parochial school, Tom often holds his eighth grade practices on
Sunday afternoons. Facility usage time is a challenge at the school. Community bingo is
held in the gym twice each week, on Mondays and Thursday as a fundraiser to raise
money for the private school. Because of this, practices cannot be conducted on
Mondays and the home games on Thursdays have to be moved to another day of the
week. Thus, practices are held on Sundays. This is not ideal because on Monday—the
day before a game—there is no practice. But this is the schedule that Tom has to follow,
and he does the best that he can to prepare the team with the gym time that is made
available to him by the school’s administration. Typically, Tom coaches each team
separately, with 90 minutes to practice with the green team and the following 90 minutes
for practice for the gold team. At Deer Valley, the school refers to the A team as the
green team and the B team as the gold team. This naming of the teams with the school
colors is an effort to take away the notion of the A team being more elite or better than
the B team. Also, because Tom is the lone coach, he leads practices with both of the
teams.

Eagle Middle School has two gymnasiums. This allows Lori to practice with her
eighth grade team while the seventh grade practices in the second gym. Sometimes right
after school Lori coaches the eighth grade A team in one gym while the other eighth
grade coach works with the B team in the second gym. The structure of the school with

two coaches as well as two gymnasiums allows Lori to schedule practices at ideal times

89

 

 

right after school. This makes it more convenient for players and their families, and also
allows practice to end before 5:00 P.M., which is helpful to students and families that
have other activities. During one game, Lori was observing during the B game. She
noticed some defensive strategies that the other team was using. During halftime of the B
game, she led the team to the auxiliary gym. They were able to review some offensive
plays and how the players should rotate when running the play. This was helpful for
Lori’s coaching to have this opportunity and this gym to go over plays again, just before
the game. Most schools would not have such a convenient set-up.

At Central Middle School, Sam leads a seventh grade practice in a large dome fit
to be a community college athletic facility. Central Middle School is a former high
school in the Central School District. The athletic facilities were recently renovated
which resulted in the large dome with rubberized flooring providing state of the art
athletic facilities and basketball courts for the students of the middle school. There are
numerous courts in the dome. This also allows the seventh grade B team coach to
simultaneously coach the other team behind a partial curtain. The support of the school
with these facilities is helpful to Sam as he tries to build a strong program.

At Maplewood Middle School, Ed is excited about the new uniforms for the team.
Last spring, the school ordered new uniforms for both the boys and girls teams. These
uniforms were custom made in the school’s colors. Ed said they cost over $7,000. He
feels this helps him improve the basketball program as the players have more pride in the
uniforms that they are wearing. They feel good about being a member of the team. Ed is
fortunate his school was able to purchase these uniforms, because other schools likely

would not have the financial resources for this type of support.

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One final example of institutional support for middle school coaches is related to

 

the number of coaches employed by each school to coach the girls’ basketball teams.
Schools that employee two coaches for each grade level are providing additional support
to the program and the coaches. With two coaches, some schools have one coach for the
A team and one coach for the B team such as Sam at Central Middle School or Lori at
Eagle Middle School. Other schools use the two coaches as a head coach and an assistant

coach for both the A and B teams such as Scott’s coaching situation at Pine Junior High

 

School. When two coaches are available, this allows for better supervision of the players,

a smaller coach-to-player ratio, and additional opportunities for one-on-one instruction.

At schools like Deer Valley, West, Townsend, and Maplewood, with just one coach for

both the A and B teams for each grade, it can create a more difficult coaching situation. I

If schools are able to provide two coaches, it seems to be an advantage to the basketball
program.

The institutional support provided to these coaches affects the success of their
basketball programs. With more support and less obstacles, this gives the students
opportunities to be more successful. When fewer resources are provided by the school,
this makes coaching he team more challenging. Another factor that affects the programs

is the middle school coaches’ connection to the high school programs.

Middle School Coaches’ Connection to High School Programs
Middle school basketball programs often have a connection to the high school
athletic program. Coaches at both levels may communicate and run the same plays at

both levels, for example. High school coaches working to build a strong basketball

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program often utilize a strong connection between the middle school and high school
teams. The teams may run the same type of defense, offensive plays, and drills in
practice. The coaches then feel this will result in a better transition from middle school
basketball to the high school as the players will already be familiar with the plays and
team philosophies related to the game. These strategies seem to be an advantage to those
schools that have this type of connection as the players contribute to a high school team.
However, some might argue this is too intense for the middle school level, and that in fact
it may work against the middle school philosophy in sports which stresses a positive
experience and granting all athletes playing time. Thus, at some schools in this study,
there is little or no connection between the two programs. Both circumstances are noted
from field observations.

At Eagle Middle School, the high school and middle school programs are well
connected. On an early fall day, ten eighth grade girls gather in Lori’s classroom after
school. Before the team heads to the school’s gym for the first practice since tryouts
determined who is on which team, they meet in her classroom to talk about the season
and her expectations for the students as players on the team. Lori gives the team
members a packet about the basketball program at both Eagle Middle School and the high
school. The packet is mixed with program goals, quotes, and technical information about
inbounding, defensive strategies, and offensive plays. Lori reads through the packet with
the students reviewing offensive plays, transition assignments, defensive positions, and
base line out of bounds plays. “A lot of this is based on the high school program,” she
tells the students. She then reviews with the players what they can expect from her as

their coach. “I’ll come with a plan ready to go. We’ll move along. There will be a

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reason for doing things. There is a reason that we may spend 10 minutes today on
something and 30 minutes on it tomorrow. We won’t do meaningless running. We will
build conditioning right into what we do unless it is a consequence for talking or goofing
around. If there is something new you need to know about, tell me.” She then adds, “I
think we’ll have a fun season. We’ll win a lot of games, and we’ll learn new skills.”
After some questions and further discussion the meeting concludes, and she instructs the
players to meet in the gym. Lori also mentioned that the previous day, the high school
varsity coach held a meeting with eighth grade players. He spoke to them about his goals
for the program at the high school, and motivated them to play hard as eighth graders as
they prepare for the high school level. He feels this will allow for a better transition from
eighth grade to high school basketball next year. This contributes to building a stronger
district wide basketball program. Lori outlines the advantages she sees to having good
communication between high school and middle school coaches:
Doing this promotes continuity within the program. We are provided with a
binder full of plays, drills, and philosophical ideas regarding both offensive and
defensive priorities. Also, I think it helps give middle school sports and coaches a
little more credibility when they understand that much of what we do is
encouraged by the high school coaches. This communication also gives the high
school coaches a much better sense of the girls before they ever get to high
school. They can see the big picture of the program’s strengths and weaknesses
as the girls move through high school. Finally, the collaboration between coaches
has provided me with ideas, direction, and a sense of importance. The high
school coaches make us feel like what we do is very important to the overall
program.
As Ed coaches middle school basketball at Maplewood, he feels a good
connection to the high school program. He has learned technical information about the

game from keeping in contact with the varsity coach at the high school. He has also

worked at basketball camps within the district which have helped to prepare him as a

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coach. This connection to the high school also allows him to learn what types of
defenses they are using at the high school and what offensive plays they are coaching.
Then, Ed can coach his players using similar strategies. This will help as the players
transition from the middle school to the high school basketball team next year.

Other coaches do not feel there is a good connection between the middle school
and high school programs. At Deer Valley, Tom does not talk to the varsity coaches. At
Townsend, Dave does not talk to high school coaches either. These coaches run more of
their own offensive and defensive plays which are not related to the high school
basketball program. This could potentially make it a more difficult transition to the high
school for the players in the future, particularly because both of these teams are eighth
grade. Tom is interested in working more closely with the high school coaches, but the
coaches there are not currently interested in the middle school program. This is
something he would like to improve as he continues coaching at Deer Valley.

The relationship between the middle school and high school basketball programs
and coaches has an affect on the middle school programs. Good communication between
the coaches can result in a better transition from middle school to high school. As the
younger players become familiar with plays and strategies used at the upper levels, this
can contribute to a smoother transition as the player moves through the program.
However, this rigor of high school coaching philosophies could be too intense for the
middle school level. Although this communication could contribute to the success of a
middle school basketball coach and the program, it may also be contrary to the middle
school coaching philosophy. Besides connectivity to the high school, other factors also

contribute to a coach’s belief that he or she is coaching effectively.

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How Coaches Measure Their Own Effectiveness

All coaches have a different measure of effectiveness as they work with middle
school young adolescents. Scott feels he is effective if his seventh grade players are
having fun and they are learning the basics of the game.

At this level of basketball, I try to teach as many fundamentals as possible. Win

or lose—that doesn’t matter. I am a competitive person by nature, but we can get

over that. I want them to learn fundamentals and have fun too. You have to
juggle both sides of it.
The way Scott speaks to his players at the close of a practice demonstrates his emphasis
on the fundamentals. “Let’s think about what you are doing,” he tells them. “Make the
defense work. Outside shots are okay, but let’s not settle for them. Let’s try to get the
ball to the taller girls inside for an easy shot.”

Lori also strives to teach the athletes on the team the basic skills of the game. She
emphasizes running basic plays and working to improve strategies such as simple pick
and rolls, boxing out, and ball handing. She is a positive roll model for the girls, and she
continually encourages them. She also measures her effectiveness as a coach by how she
brings the team together throughout the season. She emphasizes teamwork, and she
wants her players to know what it feels like to be part of a team and to contribute to a
team effort. Lori shares what her areas of emphasis are as she coaches eighth grade girls.

I stress character a lot. In terms of no matter what happens on the court, showing

class, and showing good character. In fact my starting line up now is not what I

had starting at the beginning of the season because you can tell that to the girls,

but until if really affects the girls like starting, sometimes they don’t change it.

Early in the season I had a few girls who didn’t work very hard and goofed

around a lot, and would react to referees’ calls on the court, and react to fans. I

also teach responsibility, if they don’t have a part of their uniform, they don’t

play; they don’t get to borrow from another player. Teamwork is a big emphasis.

Kids at this age are focused on themselves, their own playing time, and how they

look to the people in the stands. You have to instill teamwork so they know what
it means to play as a team.

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At Townsend, Dave measure effectiveness by coaching the players to do “a few
things well.” He emphasizes the fundamentals, and he has developed his own coaching
routine and strategies over the last eight years. At times, he may appear intense as he
coaches, but his sense of humor comes through after observing him over a period of time.
Dave ensures that everyone plays in each game, although all students may not get equal
playing time. He seems to have developed a philosophy that is effective as the players
are learning about the game, and laughing and enjoying the experience at the same time
as well.

As West Middle School’s seventh grade coach, Jennifer feels she is an effective
coach as she teaches the girls about the game and how to be a member of a team.
Although she wants to win and be competitive, she also wants the players to have a
positive experience as a member of the team.

It’s hard. That is probably the hardest part. Even though I try to tell the girls that

winning doesn’t matter, you always want them to win or play well. It is seventh

grade basketball, and it is very hard. You could have a lot of knowledge about
something, but it sometimes goes in one ear and out the other a lot of times when
they are out there. Most of all, I like to see the girls working hard and enjoying
the game. If the girls are miserable, than I am doing something wrong.
Jennifer’s utmost goal is for the players to learn about the game and enjoy themselves.

I want the players to have fun, to learn, and to feel how it is to be in a team sport.

I also want to evaluate them to see what they came in with and what they learned.

Did they become more of an athlete? Basically, that I’ve introduced them to what

it means to be a team and be at school at the same time.

Jennifer’s coaching philosophy demonstrates a desire for the players to learn about the

game, to learn what it means to play a school sport, and to have fun. She enjoys the

challenges she is faced with coaching middle school students, and she strives to make a

96

difference in these players’ lives. If she can accomplish these goals, than she feels she is
an effective middle school basketball coach.

As a coach at Deer Valley, Tom has certain standards he expects of his players.
When thinking about the role of athletics in a student’s life, Tom has particular priorities
that he relays to the players. The first priorities are school and family, and next is the
game of basketball. Tom also wants the players to have fim. He talks about his priorities
as a coach:

School is number one. I get progress reports. I check how they are doing in

school. Family is next. That is why we don’t practice a lot. Which I should,

but. . .it is all about them. It is all about having fun. These are kids, you know.

It’s about them.
By establishing the role of the sport in the life of the player, he meets the first MHSAA
coaching standard which is to develop an understanding of the role of interscholastic
athletics and communicate it to players, parents, and the public (MHSAA, 2005). It is
important for the athletes to understand the role of basketball in relation to family and
school. Earlier in the season, Tom had a problem with two players not treating each
other with respect. As the coach, he expects all of the team members to get along. In this
situation, he sat both players down and determined what the problem was. He also talked
to them individually, and worked the problem out. He will not tolerate this type of
behavior from teammates. Finally, with regards to playing time, Tom wants all players to
play a role on the court in each game. They may not play equal playing time, but
everyone will have an opportunity to play in each game.

One of Tom’s strengths as a coach is providing feedback to his players about their

skill level, effort at practice, and performance during games. Similar to a study by Black

and Weiss (1992) in which the coaching behaviors of youth swimming coaches were

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Q

 

 

studied, Tom also demonstrates that a coach’s behavior can influence the enjoyment of a
sport by the players as well as their self-esteem. Furthermore, Tom’s positive feedback
also influences the player’s effort and perceived success. This feedback helps the
students to learn about the game and be more successful.

Over the last eight years coaching at Maplewood Middle School, Ed has
developed his own coaching philosophy and measure of effectiveness. He coaches so

that all players have experience playing in games, and he wants them to have fun as a

 

member of the team as well.

I don’t coach to win or lose. But you want to win—if you can. All kids will play
in games. I coach with equal playing time to equate with their practice time. It’s
about life lessons. The one girl missed practice on Friday, and she didn’t play in
the first quarter. That was a huge deal for her. It was symbolic of her
responsibility to the team to not start when she missed practice for soccer. It’s ll,
about life lessons. I play a lot of man-to-man defense. If we played zone, we’d '
win more. But I sacrifice winning by doing things the right way. We do learn

zone, but don’t use it too often. However, we did it last week, and we held a team

scoreless for more than a quarter.

 

Ed’s coaching strategies are based on a middle school philosophy. He believes in
positive feedback, having a plan to play all students in games, and providing motivation
and instruction to the players on the team. As a middle school coach, Ed utilizes his own
playing experience and communications with the high school coaches to direct his
coaching strategies at this level. He doesn’t have the time to attend coaching seminars or
classes. He expects the players to have basketball as the priority in their activities. He
enjoys coaching and feels he is making an impact on the young people that he is working
with each day. By establishing procedures so that all team members play and contribute,

this helps to build a stronger team, which results in a positive experience for these eighth

98

grade basketball players. Additionally, his positive support and feedback during
practices and games help strengthen the skills of the team members.

While coaching at Central Middle School, Sam emphasizes skill development and
a work ethic. He measures his effectiveness by measuring the skills the players develop
as the season progresses.

At every practice I try to put a program in so they can develop. When I first got
the girls this fall, most of them didn’t know what foot to go off of when shooting.
I try to establish that. Then I try to establish the right hand. I explain to them that
they can look at me as a teacher—that’s what I really am. If they want to learn,
they need to listen to get better. I give them assignments. In the first three weeks
of the season, everyone had to make a right handed lay-up. Now, everybody’s
doing it. If they don’t—I have them run sprints, baseline to baseline. Everyone
runs. That kind of builds team spirit as well. It’s worked for me. Now all of the
girls are shooting with both hands.

Sam also organizes his practices to mirror his expectations for the games. Drills they run

in practice and become learn become the warm ups drills for the games. He explains this

strategy:
When we do the lay-up drill in practice that is really preparation for the games. I
tell the girls when you go out on the court, that’s the stage, and you’re the
performers. When you go out there, you want to look your best. When you go
out there in your warm-ups, you can make a statement before the game even
starts. You’re out there, you’re performing, and you’re setting the tone for the
game. I do the same thing at every practice. We do our stretching, we do our two
laps, we do our lay-up drill, our shooting drill, and three-girl weave at every
practice. That’s our routine to start warm-ups. By the middle of the season, these
girls have it down.

Even though the Central Middle School seventh grade A team finished the season with a

12-0 record, Sam doesn’t measure his effectiveness by wins and loses. Although he is

proud of their team accomplishments, he is even more proud of the improvement the

players made in their individual and teamwork skills as the season progressed.

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a:

 

 

Summary

As the seven coaches work with young adolescents, a variety of coaching
strategies and philosophies were revealed. Each coach had different coaching tactics to
field a competitive team yet play all students in the games. They also had a variety of
strategies to handle situations that arose when students had conflicts in their schedule
with other activities that interfered with basketball. In addition, differences in
institutional support and the connection between the middle school and high school
programs were revealed. Ultimately, each coach developed their own coaching strategies
that defined their effectiveness as a middle school basketball coach. This finding, along

with others will be discussed further in Chapter Five.

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Chapter 5

AGGREGATE FINDINGS AND ANALYSIS

Introduction
The purpose of this study was to examine how middle school girls’ basketball
coaches balanced the challenges of coaching as they strived to follow established
coaching standards, adhered to middle school principles, and also tried to field a

competitive team. This infomration will also be interpreted through a cross-case analysis.

“’55

The case study method was helpful to provide a detailed description of the activities of
the middle school coaches. In this chapter, the similarities and differences among the

coaches in relationship to the five themes presented in chapter 4 will be discussed.

 

Additionally, a cross-case analysis will be used to compare the coaches’ activities with

relationship to the established coaching standards. i
In the final part of this chapter, these research findings are further examined with

reference to the competing values framework. Findings from this research study are

analyzed within the parameters of this framework. Final conclusions, implications, and

further recommendations for additional research related to middle school coaching

philosophy are proposed.

Elements of Middle School Coaching
Playing Time and Competitiveness
A challenge to one’s own middle school coaching beliefs is the balance between
playing time for team members and fielding a competitive team. Successful middle

school coaches organize games so that every member of the team plays at least a

101

 

minimum amount of time (Riemcke, 1988). At the middle school level, all participants
should be given time to compete in game situations. Coaches who value equal
opportunities for participants have players who enjoy sports more and have higher self-
esteem (Smith et al., 1983). Typically, sports in the elementary grades have an emphasis
on equal playing time and learning basic skills of the game. As students reach high
school, a larger emphasis is placed on winning. This leaves seventh and eighth grade
middle school coaches in the transition period between focusing on equal playing time
and emphasizing competitiveness at all costs. Most coaches in this study attempted to
reach a middle ground by playing all students using specific strategies so that they could
maintain a competitive team. Some coaches argued that if they did not at least attempt to
be competitive, losing would be harmful to the team in terms of maintaining participation
levels and creating an environment where the players could have an enjoyable experience
as a member of the team.

The case study of Scott provided in-depth information about the challenge of
balancing playing time and coaching the team to be competitive. As the coach, Scott
wanted the players to develop fundamentals, have nearly equal playing time in games,
and enjoy the experience of being a part of the team.

At this level of basketball I try to teach as many fundamentals as possible. Win or

lose—that doesn’t matter. I am a competitive person by nature, but we can get

over that. I want them to learn fundamentals and have fun too. You have to
juggle both sides of it.
It was difficult for Scott to balance his own coaching philosophy of teaching the
fundamentals of basketball and playing every athlete nearly equal playing time in games

with fielding a competitive team. However, he was able to accomplish this by planning

ahead in games. He played everyone in the first quarter of the game. He also adjusted

102

 

 

his line up in more competitive games, so that the particular players that he wanted on the

court in the closing minutes of the game were out there at that time.
What I do sometimes, and what I did in the last game, is the team that I had on the
floor at the end of the game—I prepared my line up so a couple of those girls sat a
little longer when they normally would have gone into the game. That way I can
have this particular group on the floor at the end of the game. They all still played
the same amount of minutes, but I thought I had my best five on the floor at the
end of the game.

This planning ahead allowed Scott to coach so that each player received nearly equal

playing time, but it also allowed the team to be competitive at the end of the games as #4

well.

The case study of Ed also demonstrated a coaching philosophy that emphasized

 

near equal participation in games.

I don’t coach to win or lose. But you want to win—if you can. All kids will play

in games. I coach with equal playing time to equate with their practice time. It’s

about life lessons.
Ed did play all students nearly equally in games, however it was contingent upon their
participation in practice. If all players were at practice, they all played in games equally.
However, if a student missed practice, she had less playing time in the next game.

The coaches all emphasized playing time for each team member in games.
However, unlike Scott and Ed who balanced playing time near equally, other coaches did
not make this promise. Many of the other coaches placed an emphasis on each player
having time in every game, but not necessarily equal playing time. Coaching
philosophies related to playing time also differed with some coaches depending if the
game situation was with the A team or B team. At Eagle, Lori utilized similar strategies

that were used by Scott to balance playing time with the B team. However, with the A

team, players were not guaranteed equal playing time in the games. With the A team

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members, she made sure that each student had several minutes of playing time in each
half of the game. Similarly, Jennifer coached the A team to be competitive and the B
team for skill development and the experience. Jennifer balanced playing time near
equally for the B team players, but not necessarily for the A team members. Tom, Dave,
and Sam also played students in each game, but not equally. Each of these three coaches
played everyone early in the game, and then if necessary they could control which
specific players they wanted on the floor towards the end of the game, particularly if it
was a close contest. Sam mentioned that all of his team members had playing time in
games, although not necessarily equal amounts of time. But, he felt that with everyone
playing in games, including the less skilled players, with planning and organization, the
team could still be competitive and win games.

Playing time was an important area of emphasis in each coach’s philosophy.
Although the strategies varied, all of the coaches played students at least a certain
minimum amount of time in games. The coaches developed methods so that they had a
system for doing this while the team remained competitive. Overall, the middle school
adolescents were playing in games, learning fundamentals, and having an enjoyable
experience. However, students who missed excessive practices for other activities did
see this affect their game playing time.

Conflicts in the Schedules of Middle School Students

One factor that could affect game playing time for the team members is their
involvement in other activities outside of school which interfered with basketball.
Middle School adolescents are busy young people as they are involved with school

activities, family commitments, and outside activities such as community sports, music

104

 

 

lessons, and other events. It is difficult at times for coaches to have all team members at
every practice and game. Generally, it is positive to give middle school students ample
opportunities for extracurricular involvement. In fact, schools and coaches who make
multiple sports and activities available to middle level students can benefit by giving
them more opportunities in athletics and more opportunities to be successful (Riemcke,
1988). Parents just need to be cautious as to not overburden children with too many
extracurricular activities. Students who rush from afternoon school sponsored sports to
other activities such as yearbook staff meetings or other community based athletic teams
can be stretched to their limit and experience burnout (Martinson, 1997). These
activities can be incredibly time consuming and too many extracurricular activities will
not allow time for homework or family commitments. Martinson (1997) asserts that
educational responsibilities and student enjoyment should be the first priorities when
examining a student’s extracurricular involvement. Parents and coaches should strive to
avoid student burnout as it involves psychological, emotional, and many times physical
withdrawal from an activity such as a sports team that was originally perceived as
enjoyable (Smith, 1986). Ultimately, parents and students should decide together which
extracurricular activities are most appropriate for the student. However, in the research
study, when students did have conflicts arise between basketball and other activities,
some of the coaches handled this dilemma differently than others.

The nature of the conflicting activity affected how the coach handled each

situation. All coaches shared the same philosophy related to school activities. Students

were not penalized for missing a basketball activity if the conflict was school related such

as a choir concert or a meeting with a teacher to complete homework. Also, family

105

 

 

conflicts were typically viewed as acceptable absences by the coaches. All coaches
expected the student to notify them of the absence from the practice or game in advance.
However, the coaches’ policies related to non-school activities varied.

The case study of Scott at Pine Middle School was an example of a coach who
was understanding of conflicting activities in a team member’s life. On occasion, players
had been late to games or had to leave a practice or a game early for another activity.
Scott realized they had a variety of activities going on in their lives, and he felt that he
could not hold it against them. As a result, he did not enact penalties for students who
missed a basketball game for another activity. Similarly, Sam was also understanding of
conflicts, and he encouraged his players to be involved with multiple activities. As long
as players were capable of being a part of numerous activities and kept their grades up, he
didn’t mind if the players had multiple activities during the basketball season. Scott and
Sam were similar in that they did not enforce penalties for students missing practice or
games for other non-school sponsored activities.

Each of the coaches had a policy related to missed practices or games. They also
usually had a penalty for a first, second, and third offense. Similarly, Lori and Jennifer
had policies that if a player missed a practice, they did not start the next game. This
meant that they would not play in the early part of the game, and then eventually the
coach would put them in the game, but it could be late in the first quarter, into the second
quarter, or even in the second half of the game. Both coaches would have a player sit out
of an entire game if they missed a practice for a second time. At Deer Valley, for the first
missed practice, it was the coach’s discretion with regards to the penalty. Tom may have

given a verbal warning or not started a player in the next game. However, if a player

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'Ibm

 

 

missed practice for a second time, he also would not play the athlete in an entire game.
Ed gave players a warning the first time the team member missed a practice, and then
they sat out part of a game if it happened again. However, both Ed and Tom had a policy
that they could remove players from the team if they had a third episode of a missed
basketball game or practice. These were the strictest penalties for missing a practice or
game of any of the coaches. It was their belief that the players should make a
commitment to being a member of the team. Ed and Tom emphasized a focus on one
sport—basketball. They did not want to have to compete for a player’s time or attention
with other, outside activities. At Townsend, Dave did not have specific penalties in
place, but when conflicts arose, he reminded players that basketball should have been the
priority during the season. Generally, coaches who had policies related to missing games
applied them to both their A and B teams. There was no variation within the same
school, their rule related to missed practices and games applied to all players. Although
there were some general similarities, each coach had a set of rules for these situations that
was based on their own opinion.

It is challenging when players miss a practice or game. Each coach had to
develop his or her own policies related to this to encourage students to not miss
additional basketball activities. The busy lives of middle school students presented a
coaching challenge. A few coaches such as Scott and Sam were supportive of other
activities and did not enact strict penalties. However, all coaches wanted their players at
practices and games. As the coaches were further examined, another difference among

them was the institutional support provided to each of them by their school.

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Institutional Support and Resources for the Program

The school and administration are expected to provide support and resources to
the athletic program in order for it to be successful. General support in terms of the
school providing typical supplies and equipment were fairly equal at each of the seven
schools. However, greater difference arose in the physical facilities provided to the

coaches for the basketball practices and games. Additionally, facility usage time varied

 

at one particular middle school, and support in terms of the school district providing two

 

coaches versus one for each grade level varied by school. I?
Facilities themselves that were available to the coaches varied in the research

study. Lori coached at Eagle Middle School where two gymnasiums were available for I

practices. This allowed most practices to be held at convenient times after school. It

During one home game in particular, Lori was able to use the second gymnasium with the
A team for a few last minute offensive practice items during the half-time of the B game.
At Central, Sam’s team was provided with a large dome which had four full size
basketball courts. This allowed multiple teams to practice after school. In addition, the
facilities were state of the art, and the students had a sense of pride playing in their dome.
These two coaches had facilities that were better than the typical middle school in the
study. The schools where Scott, Dave, Jennifer, Ed, and Tom coached had only one gym.
Tom had another challenge of institutional support that he was challenged by each week.
At Deer Valley parochial school, facility usage time was a concern. Unlike any of
the other six coaches, Tom had to hold practices on each Sunday. This was because the
gymnasium was used for bingo as a school fundraiser on Mondays and Thursdays.

Additionally, at Deer Valley the games on Thursdays were moved to Wednesdays. This

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schedule was a disadvantage for Tom because he was not able to have a practice the day
before a game. He had a practice on Sunday, and then there were no practices until
Friday after the games on Tuesday and Wednesday. The other schools were able to have
practice on Monday, a game on Tuesday, and then a practice on Wednesday. This was
very beneficial because the coaches could work on a skill or plays that may have not been
working well in the Tuesday game before the next game on Thursday. However, at Deer
Valley, Tom had to follow the schedule that was made available to him, and he did the
best that he could with the practice times he was allotted.

Another challenge to some of the coaches was the number of coaches provided by
the school for the basketball program. Scott, Lori, and Sam all were part of a two coach
staff for their respective grade level. Scott used the second coach as an assistant and he
coached both the A and B teams. Lori and Sam were only responsible for coaching the A
teams, and the other coach was responsible for coaching the B teams. An additional
coach allowed for extra supervision at practice, more individualized attention, and it
lowered the player-to-coach ratio. Two adults was also an advantage to supervise the
students during games, bus trips, and other related activities. Dave, Tom, Jennifer, and
Ed were the sole coaches for both the A and B teams for their respective grades. This
often brought forward challenges in terms of running multiple drills at practice
simultaneously and supervising the students at all times throughout the season. Most of
these coaches conducted practice activities with the large group. Tom scheduled A and B
team practices separately, but for him this created a much larger time commitment to

practices. However, this was a sacrifice he was willing to make in order to have practices

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with a lower player-to-coach ration. The number of coaches hired by the school district
had an effect on the activities that the coach could conduct at both practices and games.
Financial resources of the school districts also affected the coaches. Ed was
excited to have new uniforms for his team. Other teams wore uniforms that were not
new, and there was a noticeable difference in the uniforms of Maplewood and some of
the other schools. Also, at Central, a recent bond issue allowed for the renovation of the
dome facilities. These financial resources affected the programs, and. even though
coaches at the other schools tried to let limitations affect students as little as possible, at
times it was unavoidable. For example, during games coaches would sometimes compete
against schools that had better facilities or newer uniforms, and they realized that these
other schools had advantages provided by the financial resources of their school district.
Each of the schools in this study provided a different level of support to the
respective basketball programs. Eagle and West had larger facilities. Some schools
provided two coaches for each grade level, while other schools only had one coach.
Financial resources at some schools such as Maplewood allowed the students to have
new uniforms. Although all of these institutional resources may vary by school, each
coach continued doing the best possible job that he or she could with the resources made
available. This was one challenge that coaches could not control. They had to make the
best of coaching with the resources provided to them by their school. Another factor that
was different for each of these coaches was their connection to the high school basketball

coaches and programs.

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Middle School Coaches’ Connection to the High School Basketball Programs

This study revealed that most of the middle school coaches had some type of
connection to the high school basketball programs. This allowed the middle school
coaches to teach the middle school students the same offensive and defensive plays used
at the high school level. Although these relationships were not required, it seemed both
the high school and middle school coaches embraced the idea. Middle school coaches
could talk to the high school coaches and learn offensive and defensive plays, coaching
strategies, and other information about the sport. In at least one case, middle school
coaches attended in-service meetings about the sport with high school coaches.
Additionally, the high school coaches were available at all times as a resource for many
of the middle school coaches in the study. In terms of building a complete basketball
program in the district, this connection between the two levels can strengthen the overall

program. The main advantage is that it provides the high school level with players who

have already been exposed to the program’s philosophy and strategies for two years at the

middle school level. At the middle school, these coaches can be a great resource for the

middle school coaches. The middle school players can also learn plays at the seventh and

eighth grade level and carry them into high school. They do not need to learn new plays.

Some of the coaches had a very strong connection to the high school. Lori and Ed

had good relationships with the high school coaches. They talked to the coaches often,

and Lori’s team was even visited by the high school varsity coach at a practice. He spoke

to the players about the high school philosophy and offensive and defensive plays. Lori
felt that this relationship with the high school was a great benefit to her. She was

provided with plays, resources, and philosophical ideas related to coaching. She also felt

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that this connection gave her a sense of more importance. Other coaches including Scott,
Dave, Jennifer, and Sam had a lower level of connection to the high school coaches.
Scott knew the coaches at the high school and would call them on occasion. He
communicated with them early in the season, and he utilized some of the same plays in
his coaching. He was aware that the middle school is the feeder program to the high
school. Similarly, Dave and Jennifer may connect with the high school coaches a few
times throughout the season. Sam also talked to the high school coaches. Sam was
challenged with keeping students in the Central School District. Often players left the
district between middle school and high school. He sometimes talked to the coaches at
the high school to discuss this concern and develop strategies to keep students from
leaving the school district before entering high school. In terms of specific plays and
coaching strategies, Sam had many plays of his own for the team, and he did not rely on
the high school coaches for these.

At Deer Valley, Tom mentioned that there was not a good connection between the
middle school and high school basketball programs. He would like to see this improve.
Recently, a new coach was hired at the high school, and he hopes this will improve the
connection between the two programs. The high school girls’ basketball program is
currently struggling in terms of wins and loses, and it is not as strong as neighboring
districts. Tom is hopeful that improved connections can help strengthen the programs at
both schools.

The level of connectivity between. the high school coaches and middle school
coaches varied in this study. Generally, most coaches had some communication with the

upper level coaches. These coaches could provide the middle school coaches with

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resources and ideas to improve their coaching. This connection can be an advantage for
both levels, improving the overall girls’ basketball program.
How Coaches Measure Their Own Effectiveness

The school administration’s hiring of an effective coach is crucial to the success
of middle school athletic programs. Coaches have a large impact on middle school
young adolescents. Coaches’ behaviors also not only influence the enjoyment of the
sport by the participants, but these behaviors can also influence participants’ perceived
success, effort, and preference for optimally challenging activities (Black and Weiss,
1992). The coach plays a crucial role in the development of a young athlete. According
to Vaughan (1984), an effective coach will also have the young adolescents’ well being
in mind as a priority whenever developing coaching strategies for middle school athletic
programs. Coaches should make it a priority to help young adolescents set goals, which
they will help the students accomplish by continually motivating the young athletes
(Hansen et al., 2003). Each of the coaches in this study had a different measure of
effectiveness. However, some similarities existed between the coaches in the study with
reference to how each coach perceived his or her own success. These areas included
teaching the fundamentals and basic strategies of basketball, coaching to have fun, and
being a positive motivator and modeling responsibility as well as good character for the
young ladies on the team.

The most common measure of effectiveness among all of the coaches was their
desire to coach their players in learning the fundamentals of basketball and to see
improvement in the athletes’ skills throughout the season. If they could teach the basics

of the game at this level, and see progress throughout the season, many of the coaches felt

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that they were coaching effectively. Tom was one coach who emphasized the
fundamentals in his coaching.

I like to make something easy. Fundamentals are important, like the lay-ups.

Basic pick and rolls is what I try to do (on offense). The easiest thing is to get the

ball and go, that way you don’t have to set up an offense. Then we can go, and

we don’t have to set up anything. We beat their defense down. I tell them all of

the time. I just try to make it easy. We don’t have too many plays.
Tom’s emphasis on the fundamentals was observed in his practices. The team worked on
inbounding the basketball, free throw shooting, lay-ups, and transitions from defense to
offense. During a shooting drill his comment to the players illustrates his emphasis on
the fundamentals, “Get the ball, square up, and shoot. Get your own rebound and square
up and shoot the ball right.” Other coaches in the study stressed the fundamentals and the
basics of the game as well.

The case study of Scott was another example of a coach who measured his
effectiveness by gauging if throughout the season the players learned the fundamentals
that he taught them. As a seventh grade basketball coach, Scott strived to coach the
fundamentals of the game including rebounding, understanding the outlet after a
defensive rebound, passing, and free throw shooting. During a practice, Scott watched
the team on offense. He counted the passes to emphasize to the players the importance of
passing during an offensive play. He said, “One pass, two passes, three, four, five, six.”
He did not want them shooting the ball until they made at least six passes. Scott stated
that he emphasized to the students the importance of learning the fundamentals of the
game of basketball. Teaching the fundamentals was a priority for Scott as the seventh

grade basketball coach. One strategy that Scott used to teach the fundamentals in game

situations was that he would often talk to the players on the bench first before talking to

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players in the game when he needed to give coaching advice to the players. Scott shared
why he coached in the manner.

When coaching, a priority has to be coaching the kids on the bench. It’s hard to
coach the kids while they are in the game. It’s too hard to coach the kids in the
game, but I do try, probably too much. My goal is that we work in practice on all
of these things, and then they go into the game and react and play. I do turn
around and coach the girls on the bench so that maybe it will carry over, and they
will remember it when they get into the game. Hopefully by the end of the season
they will remember a few things.

 

This coaching strategy was effective for Scott to coach the basic fundamentals to the
players. Scott utilized. this strategy of talking to the players on the bench in order to place
an emphasis on teaching. He took advantage of all “teachable” moments by talking to the

players on the bench, as the players in the game could not always hear him or focus on

 

what he was saying. Scott also at times talked to the players on the other team who were I
sitting behind the team. For example, at the beginning of the B game, he explained to the
A players seated behind him to watch what types of plays they were running and whether
or not they pressed, as more than likely this was the same type of play that they would
see in the A game. Similarly, Lori turned to the A team during the B game, and also
instructed them to watch the game and determine what type of defense the other team
was play. Dave is an example of a coach who did not have the opportunity to speak to
the A team during the B game, as the A team was seated across the gymnasium in the
bleachers. However, Dave did coach with an emphasis on the fundamentals. He taught a
limited number of out-of—bounds plays and offensive plays. Dave’s motto was to “Coach
a few things well.”

Lori also coached with an emphasis on the basic skills needed in the game of

basketball. During practices she stressed the importance of basic agilities and drills that

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taught the players how to move down the court in a shuffling motion. “Keep your knees
bent,” she said as they practiced the drill. Later they worked on lay-ups and rebounding.
As they were practicing, she told the players, “Good. job, keep working on it.” Although
throughout the season, the team learned a few offensive and defensive plays, Lori
focused primarily on the basic skills which included pick and rolls on offense, boxing
out, and ball handling. Lori, unlike some of the other coaches, distributed a packet to the
players early in the season which outlined basic inbounding plays, defensive strategies,
and a few offensive plays. She reviewed the packet with the players, and they ran
through the plays and strategies at practices. Lori coached with a strong emphasis on
basic skills. She felt that she needed to emphasize the basics of the game in middle
school. Then they will already know the fimdamentals as they enter high school, and
there they can focus on learning the strategies of the game.

As the lone coach at West, Jennifer coached the A and B teams slightly
differently. She coached the A team to be competitive, and the B team to work on the
basics of the game and skill development. During a B game, just before the second half,
the team was warming up on the court. Jennifer was right on the court working with the
team. She threw the ball to the backboard and the girls were in two lines to fight for the
rebound. In the second half of the game, Jennifer spoke to the players on the court about
boxing out. Boxing out was one of the basketball skills she wanted her players to learn
during season. Jennifer later explained that she coached the girls about the basic
fundamentals of basketball including boxing out. She wanted to be sure that they learned
how to box out as the season progressed. But this could be a challenge. Jennifer said at

the end of the season why this was difficult.

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Only a few of the team members significantly improved in boxing out at the end

of the season. It is a hard skill for some of the girls to do because girls at this age

don’t like to be that physical.
In the later part of the game on offense, a West player was holding the ball tentatively.
Jennifer yelled, “Shoot.” She wanted the players to be aggressive and have the
confidence to shoot the ball whenever they have the opportunity. As the games ended,
West lost by four points. In the locker room, Jennifer talked with the team and made a
connection to basketball fundamentals. “The game started and we weren’t aggressive.
But you guys fought back. But then you got tired. In the end, tell me the number one
thing that cost us the game.” A player said, “We didn’t box out.” Jennifer answered,
“That’s it. We didn’t play at the end—we decided to watch them play. We need to work
on being more aggressive and getting the rebounds. We’re going to need more practice,
and we do need to work on'boxing out. But we have something to work on, right? You
were much more aggressive in the end. Be proud of your hard work. Be proud of your
bruises, your marks, and your chin. Bring it in—one, two, three, hounds!”

Jennifer’s coaching strategies demonstrated an emphasis on coaching more
aggressively than many of the other coaches. This resulted in Jennifer having a more
offensive minded coaching philosophy along with her emphasis on the fundamental skills
of the game. Jennifer utilized the press on defense which is not common in middle
school basketball. She also continually encouraged the players to be aggressive while
rebounding and to not be afraid to shoot the ball on offense. Sam was another coach who
ran a number of plays with an emphasis on the offense. He taught them an extensive

number of more advanced plays that were effective and wore down the other team. On

the contrary, a coach such as Scott focused more on the general fundamentals and did not

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have such elaborate offensive minded coaching philosophies as some of the other
coaches.

The case studies of Ed and Sam also demonstrated coaching the fundamentals of
the game. However, these coaches also emphasized development of more advanced
offensive plays to use in the games. Practices contained work on basic firndamentals
such as dribbling, shooting, and passing. However, they also taught the athletes offensive
strategies using picks, transition plays between offense and defense as well as other more
advanced offensive plays. During the halftime of games, Ed used the whiteboard to
emphasize and review specific offensive plays. During the games, Ed called the plays
while the point guards were dribbling up the floor with the ball. When players came out
of the game, he took time to go over plays with them at the bench using a small
whiteboard. Sam also taught the players on his team a number of advanced plays to
utilize during games. Sam relied heavily on a swing offense that he taught the players
based on an offense developed by his high school coach. Sam played basketball himself
through college, and he utilized many of the skills that he learned playing at those levels
with his coaching of the seventh grade team at Central. Sam coached the girls plays that
were advanced and most other seventh grade teams would not be running in games. Sam
explained why he coached at this level, even with skeptics of his strategy.

You know, some people say that I coach up higher than the girls are capable of

learning. I kind of think that young people can learn whatever you teach them as

long as you have a good way of teaching them. I can only teach the way that I

used to play. I know pro sets, some college sets, and some high school sets. If I

have a group of girls who I think is capable, like this group here, then I teach

them advanced skills.

Sam utilized practices for work on the basic fundamentals of basketball, but he also spent

time coaching advanced skills to the players. This focus on both fundamentals and

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advance skills worked well for the team. The players improved their individual skills,
and the team also experienced success.

Many of the coaches in this study stated that they determined their coaching
effectiveness depending on if the middle school students had a fun and enjoyable
experience playing on the basketball team. Although the coaches were teaching the

players the fundamentals of the game, some offensive plays, defensive strategies, and

 

other technical information about basketball, all of the coaches wanted the players to

 

enjoy being a part of the team. Many stated they would be doing something wrong if the
students were not having a positive experience and having fun being a part of the team.

Involvement in athletics is one of the most positive activities in a middle school young

 

adolescent’s life (Kirshnit, et al., 1989). .1.
One of the keys to the students enjoying the experience playing a sport is that the
school administration employs coaches who like to work with middle school students and
have an understanding of young adolescents. In fact, an important component of a
middle school level athletic program being successful is the school hiring coaches who
have a fundamental understanding of the middle school young adolescent (Lirgg, 1995).
Scott, the coach at Pine Junior High School, was an example of a coach who had a
fundamental understanding of young adolescents, and he also thoroughly coached the
game as he made it a priority for students to have fun at practice and games. He wanted
students to enjoy all aspects of being a part of the team. Scott made drills in practice fun
by interj ecting humor. At the end of a practice which ends with running drills, to make it

more fun, rather than just running the girls had an opportunity to shoot free throws to

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determine how much they will run to end practice. Scott stated that he wanted the
players to have fun. He mentioned this emphasis:

Sometimes I look at their faces after a game. If they haven’t had fun, I don’t care

if we won by 20 points, or lost by 20, if they didn’t have fun; it’s not worth it to

me. We work hard, but I want the girls to have fun as a member of this team, and

I think they do.

The case study of Lori also demonstrated a coach measuring effectiveness by
whether or not the students were having fun while participating in the sport. During a
practice, Lori joked with the students about her shoes. She had a friendly demeanor with
the players. She had forgotten her own shoes and borrowed from another coach. A
student joked with her about the shoes that she was wearing in practice that day. Lori
provided a comfortable atmosphere for the players; they were having fun at practice, and
working hard as well on drills and other activities to prepare for an upcoming game.
During a game, Lori’s friendly and relaxed demeanor was apparent. She was wearing a
large ring the night of the game. The girls noticed the ring and laughed. She was pleased
during the B game that the A team players cheered loudly for their teammates. Just
before the A game during the pre-game talk in the locker room, she acknowledged her
appreciation for their positive attitudes and she also motivated them to play hard. She
told the players, “You know what; I love to see you guys being excited and cheering for
the B team. You sounded awesome back there. It makes a big difference.” As the team
gathered in a close circle for a final cheer, the players looked at the ring again and
laughed. One student asked if it was real. “The ring is to bring us good luck,” Lori
answered. “It’s costume jewelry ladies, trust me, but it’s going to bring us good luck

tonight.” Lori mentioned that the previous two games she was quite intense in her

coaching, and they lost both games. On this evening, she intentionally was more relaxed,

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hopeful that the more relaxed atmosphere would result in the students playing better in
the game. They did win the game that evening, and Lori attributed this to her emphasis
on making the game an enjoyable experience for the players.

Other coaches also emphasized fun in their coaching actions. At a Friday
afternoon practice, Ed instructed the players to play a game in which players all had a
basketball and were dribbling. The goal of the game was to knock the ball away from the
other players, and to be the last player dribbling. Ed also had a basketball and was
participating and attempting to knock the ball away from the other players. Ed’s
participation contributed to this drill being firn for the players. In another practice
activity, Ed divided the players into two teams. They all had a ball and tried to steal the
ball away from other players on the opposing team. If a player’s ball was stolen, she had
to switch teams. After the activity Ed asked them, “Why did we just do that drill?” One
player answered, “So we play as a team?” “Yes, that is right,” he said. “We need to play
as a team, and we need our guards to attack. That is something we didn’t do in
yesterday’s game.” Ed later explained that this practice was slightly different than a
typical pre- game practice. It was more relaxed and geared toward fun activities that the
player could still benefit from to improve their skills as they participated in them. Sam
also realized the importance of the players enjoying their experience as a member of the
basketball team. During a practice, Sam paired up with each player, and then Sam and
the player would run up the court and back passing the ball back and forth. The ball
never touched the floor. The players seemed to enjoy Sam participating in the drill.

Sam also planned other activities throughout the season to make the team experience fun

for the players. He organized a bowling party on a Saturday afternoon. Additionally, on

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the Monday following the last game of the season, Sam planned a banquet for the players
and their families. Sam saw value in students having fun while participating on the team.
Dave also at times would joke around and have fun with the players. After a game that
Townsend won, Dave entered the locker room and told the team, “Nice job ladies. Nice
job.” A player responded, “Nice job coach,” and everyone laughed. This is just one
example of jokes and an emphasis on fun that were intermixed throughout Dave’s
coaching. He valued the players laughing and enjoying the experience on the team while
learning as well.

A. final measure of coaching effectiveness was the coaches’ effort to be a role
model for the players, modeling responsibility, being a positive motivator, and teaching
them about character. Coaches indeed have a large impact on middle school young
adolescents. Coaches who display encouragement, positive reinforcement, and
instruction with less criticism have players who enjoy sports more and have higher levels
of self-esteem (Smith et al., 1983). The type of advice and feedback that coaches give
athletes also influences the student’s perceptions of ability (Chambers, 1991). Coaches
measured their effectiveness if they could see a noticeable improvement or development
of character in the students between the time the season started in August until it ended in
late October.

The case study of Lori demonstrated character development. She stressed
teamwork, and showing good character. She taught the players about working together to
reach a common goal. She worked throughout the season to change the players’
emphasis from a focus on themselves to a focus on the team as a whole. Lori’s coaching

techniques were positive and supportive. Throughout games she would yell positive

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reinforcement such as “nice shot” or “good job,” which motivated the players to continue
to work hard. Lori’s actions impacted her team members. Coaches such as Lori, who
value equal opportunities for students and who display more encouragement, positive
reinforcement, and instruction with less criticism have players who enjoy the sport more
and have higher levels of self-esteem (Smith et al., 1983). Lori’s emphasis on character
development was a positive attribute which made her a role model for the players on the
team. As a coach, she had a positive influence on the lives of the team members.

Jennifer also was a positive role model for the players. She strived to teach the
players about teamwork, and she wanted to players to learn about what it means to have
pride playing in a team uniform and playing for your school. She provided positive
feedback and motivation during practices and games. Ed also instilled the value of
teamwork, and he provided his team members with positive reinforcement and
motivation throughout games and practices. At a practice, as a team building activity for
the last twenty minutes of the afternoon, Ed took the players from the gym to the art room
at the school to create banners for a teammate; this demonstrated his emphasis on
teamwork. The players worked on banners for a teammate who had surgery during the
week, and who had been out of school. The banners were hung in the gym the next week
when the player returned to school. Ed gave them some basic instructions, but he let the
players decide how to create the banners. This was an activity he planned to teach the
players about teamwork, and caring for other members of the team.

Each coach measured their effectiveness with an emphasis on key components in
their coaching. Throughout the research study, specific actions of the coaches became

apparent which they utilized to measure their effectiveness. Coaches strived to teach the

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players the basic skills and fundamentals of basketball. It was also a priority that the
students had fun and enjoyed their experiences with the sport. Finally, the coaches were
positive role models for the players and taught them teamwork skills and the importance
of character. As coaches measured their own effectiveness, these are some of the
attributes that they thought about throughout the season. We also can examine the
coaching behaviors from the study in a discussion related to the established coaching

standards.

Coaching Standards

The Michigan High School Athletic Association (MHSAA) established an athletic
code for coaches. This code contains twelve coaching standards that this organization
recommends should be followed by middle school coaches in Michigan (MHSAA, 2005).
We can now examine the twelve coaching standards, and which of these became apparent
in the research study, and which standards where observed to a lesser degree throughout
the duration of the observations. Adherence to the MHSAA coaching standards was
evident in many of the participants’ coaching practices.

Two of the coaching standards were related to communication with players and
parents. The first standard states that that coach will develop an understanding of the role
of interscholastic athletics and communicate it to players, parents, and the public. The
other standard related to communication states that coaches will develop an up-to-date
knowledge of the rules, strategies, precautions, and skills of the sport and communicate
them to players and parents. The case study of Scott provided a coaching philosophy that

aligned with these two standards. Even though he had never formally reviewed the

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MHSAA coaching standards, Scott’s coaching actions demonstrated these two standards.
In an effort to effectively communicate the role of basketball in a student’s life, Scott
held a parent meeting on the second day of practice. He discussed all aspects of the team
from the practice schedule to academic eligibility. He also talked to parents and students
about his procedures and rules as the coach of the team. In addition, throughout the
season, Scott communicated about the skills needed for basketball and the rules of the
game by talking to the players on a regular basis at practice. Scott strived to have
effective communication with both the team members and their parents. Lori is another
coach whose coaching actions aligned well with these two standards. Lori gave a
handout to parents early in the season which stated her team rules and procedures. She
stressed to the parents that family commitments come first, before basketball. She
discussed that she would check students’ academic eligibility on a regular basis.
Additionally she reviewed her policy if students missed practice. Lori also demonstrated
meeting this standard by handing out the packets of plays and information about
basketball at the team meeting early in the season. She was diligent in her
communication with players about the rules, strategies, and skills of the game. Tom and
Ed also met these standards. As previously mentioned, Tom made it clear to his players
early in the season the role of basketball in their lives as compared to family, academics,
and outside activities. Ed also met with students and parents at the beginning of the
season to communicate the role of basketball as an interscholastic sport in the lives of the
members of the team. He taught the students the rules and skills of basketball, and

appropriately communicated them to players and parents.

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Two coaching standards related to positive modeling were also observed. These
standards state: Coaches will develop, communicate, and model policies for athlete’s
conduct and language in the locker room, at practice, during travel, during competition,
and at other appropriate times; and coaches will present a clean and professional image in
terms of personal appearance, and provide a positive role model in terms of personal
habits, language, and conduct (MHSAA, 2005). Jennifer and Ed were examples of
coaches that were positive role models for their players. They modeled appropriate
behavior, and they led activities that related to being a positive model. Scott and Lori
also modeled behavior for the students. In fact, Lori placed a large emphasis on being a
role model for the players, and helping them develop character as a member of the team.
Scott in his general behavior exhibited appropriate behavior, good sportsmanship, and he
developed a positive working relationship with the assistant coach. These standards were
well noticed in the coaches as they carried out their duties and responsibilities.

Two of the MHSSA (2005) coaching standards were related to relationships with
players. They stated that: coaches develop fair, unprejudiced relationships with all squad
members; and coaches allow athletes to prove themselves anew each season and do not
base team selections on previous seasons or out-of-season activities. Scott worked
diligently to develop positive relationship with all players. In fact, he also encouraged
the students to develop fair and unprejudiced relationships with each other. If Scott
noticed a problem between two teammates, he stepped in to help with the problem. Scott
worked with players to resolve any issues.

I’d rather they players talk to each other (if they have a problem). But,

sometimes, they won’t. They will talk to their friends, and that can create even

more problems. If I have two girls who aren’t getting along, I’ll bring them right
together. I give them each one minute, I tell them not to be mean to each other,

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and then we talk about it together. But they are all pretty good at hiding it from
me. It doesn’t happen too often, but it does happen. I do what I can to solve the
problem.
Dave also developed fair relationships with each player on the team. As a non-faculty
coach, he did not know these girls prior to the season. This enabled him to fairly place
students on either the A or B team without regard to performance the previous year. In
this situation, this was an advantage for Dave. He rated each player early in the season
without regard to previous basketball experience. This seemed to be an advantage of
being a non-faculty coach which allowed for a fair assessment of the players’ skills at the
beginning of the season. Dave also mentioned that he strived to have the players develop
positive relationships with each other. If he noticed a conflict between players, he
handled the situation immediately.
If there is a conflict, I would pull the girls aside. I would sit them down, and get a
solution in place. Girls can be critical of their teammates. I teach them to be real
teammates, and I teach them the team concept. We have to walk that line as to
how we’re going to help each other. But I would definitely address any problems
with those players individually.
Sam’s coaching philosophy adhered to these coaching standards as well. He had fair
relationships with all players and a fair selection process. One strategy at Central the
coaches used to balance the A and B teams was they didn’t put the best 12 players all on
the A team. They put the best six or seven players on the A team, the next six or seven
on the B team, and the rest of the players were evenly balanced. This balanced of the skill
level of the players allowed the coaches to more evenly play the girls in each game.
Another coaching standard observed was: coaches will give the highest degree of

concern and attention to the athlete’s physical well being. All coaches were concerned

about the players’ well being. Coaches were concerned for players and always aware of

127

 

 

their well being during practices and games. They were given drink breaks as necessary.
Coaches were observed helping tape fingers and tend to injured players. Specifically,
Jennifer was concerned for the players’ emotional well being. During a game, the West
players were beginning to become frustrated about the game. At one point one particular
player was called for her fourth foul of the game. When Jennifer subbed her out of the
game, she exited the game and was crying. “You can’t come off like that,” Jennifer told
her. She later talked about what happened in the game.

This season frustration, crying, and pouting was a big goal for the A team

members to get over. That player thought it was not her fault when she would be

called with a foul. She would cry because she had to come out of the game. It

took awhile, but eventually they learned to control most of their frustrations. I

noticed in one of our last games of the season that none of the A team players

fouled out, and they were very supportive of one another on the bench.
Middle school coaches need to be aware of the physical and psychological readiness of
each team member (Vaughan, 1984). By addressing the emotional responses of the A
team players to a foul, Jennifer was assisting them to develop their psychological well-
being and emotional maturity in game situations. As Jennifer noted, this was one area the
team worked on to improve throughout the season, which they did by the last few games
of the year as team members supported one another when someone fouled out rather than
becoming upset.

Other standards related to teaching respect for school authorities and officials, as
well as teaching players strict adherence to game rules and contest regulations were
observed. Lori at one point in the season penalized some players for reacting to the
crowd and overreacting to officials calls. She talked to them about appropriate behavior

in games. All of the coaches taught the players the rules of the game. Coaches such as

Scott continually talked about the rules throughout the games by directing comments to

128

the players on the bench. If he noticed something on the floor, he explained to the
players what he saw and how they could improve. Other coaches worked game rules and
contest regulation discussions into team meetings and practices. Lori and Dave gave out
handouts which outlined not only team plays but also basic game rules. A lack of
instruction about these standards was not observed. Players were respectful of officials,
and players were observed to have knowledge of the game.

Another standard observed was that coaches will allow athletes time to develop
skills and interest in other athletic and non-athletic activities provided by school and
community groups. Scott and Sam were supportive of players’ involvement in activities
unrelated to basketball. Other coaches such as Lori, Jennifer, Tom, and Ed had policies
related to missed practices and games because of other activities. Students were
penalized to varying degrees for each occasion that they missed a basketball activity.
Although Tom did not have a specific policy, he often reminded players that basketball
should be the priority in their lives outside of school. This standard was observed with
the most conflicting results. Some coaches approved of outside activities, while others
did not. Ultimately, each coach has to develop the policy that is most appropriate for
their school and will be supported by the school administration. Additionally, it was a
benefit to coaches who communicated their policy to parents early in the season. This
allowed players and their parents to understand the coach’s individual policy related to
this issue.

Two final coaching standards were observed less frequently in this research study.
The first of these standards was that coaches will present privately, through proper school

authorities, evidence of rule violations by opponents; and counteract rumors and

129

unproven allegations of questionable practices by opponents. Rule violations by other
teams or questionable practices were not observed. When asked what they would do if
they encountered this situation, coaches were unsure. Scott commented that he was not
sure how he would handle such a situation. He had never encountered this before.
Generally, from my observations, it appeared that intentional rule violations by teams
occur less frequently at the middle school level than the high school level. The other
standard that was not observed was that coaches attend required meetings, keep abreast of
MHSAA policies regarding the sport, and be familiar with MHSAA eligibility and
contest regulations. Although all of the coaches were aware of polices and rules related
to the sport as well as eligibility requirements related to academics and school
enrollments, none of the coaches attended MHSAA meetings related to basketball. From
discussions with middle school coaches, in most districts, high school coaches attended
these meetings. Additionally, difficulty missing school or work to attend these meetings
and a lack of funding prevented middle school coaches from attending these MHSAA
basketball meetings. In the schools observed, high school coaches attended the meetings,
and relayed the information to the middle school coaches. Also, school athletic directors
would provide rules updates and other information that they received from the MHSAA
to the coaches to keep them informed of any rules changes or other information that they
needed to know.

The MHSAA published coaching standards for middle school coaches. These
standards were observed, and many of them were a part of the coaches’ philosophies as
they worked with middle school adolescents coaching basketball. Interestingly, although

coaches adhered to several of these standards, many of the coaches had never read

130

 

 

 

 

through them or attended an MHSAA coaching workshop. Additional training for the

coaches related to the standards would be helpful to them in the future.

Competing Values Framework

Introduction

The competing values framework can specifically be adapted to
managerial/leadership roles. Quinn (1988) used this model to explain the four models of
the competing values framework at the managerial level (Figure 2). The rational goal
model emphasizes in people the need for high achievement through directive leadership
as well as goal and task orientated leadership. With the human relations model, the
manager’s concern is relationships with people, and the manager’s power is based on
these relationships. With the internal process model, decision making is hierarchical and
power is based on the influence of information. Leaders are conservative and cautious.
Finally, in the open systems model, the leadership style is inventive and includes risk. In
this model, there is a high need for growth, development and stimulation. These four
models seem distinct and different. It is hard to imagine a leader being involved with
different quadrants of the framework. However, the competing values framework
presents ways to see managerial leadership in new ways, where it is possible for leaders

to engage in behaviors at two opposite points in the framework.

131

Figure 2. The Competing Values Framework of Leadership Roles

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Human Relations Model Open Systems Model
Flexibility
-Mentor Role l —Innovator Role
-Group Facilitator Role -Broker Role
-Supportive Style -Risk Taking Style
. Longer Time Horizons External Focus
Internal Focus Shorter Time Horizons
-Monitor Role -Producer Role
-Coordinator Role -Director Role I
‘ I
-Conservative, Cautious Style -Goal Orientated
Control
Internal Process Model Rational Goal Model

 

 

 

 

 

Competing Values Framework and Middle School Coaching

The competing values framework can be utilized to examine middle school
coaches as they are faced with multiple challenges while they are coaching middle school
adolescents. There are four quadrants of organizational structure as represented in the
competing values model for middle school basketball coaches (Figure 3). Just as the

theory suggests a manager can engage in multiple behaviors in more than one quadrant, a

132

 

Figure 3. The Competing Values Framework and Middle School Coaching

 

Human Relations Model

-Coaches promote a positive experience
for the players with basketball

-Coaches develop relationships

-The team concept is emphasized

-Understanding of other commitments

-Makes sure playing time is equal

Longer Time Horizons

Open Systems Model
Flexibility

-Uses resources

-Solicits parent support
-Risk taking style
-Teaches advanced skills

-Players call plays on the court

External Focus

 

Internal Focus

-Coordinator role
-Conservative, Cautious style
-Connection to high school

-Teaches fundamentals of the game

Internal Process Model

 

 

 

Shorter Time Horizons
-Competitive/would like to win
-Sets goals for the team
-Coach calls plays from the bench
—Best players in close games

Control
Rational Goal Model

 

 

coach may also demonstrate different behaviors found in various components within the

framework. A coach may even move from one quadrant to another as they are carrying

out their coaching responsibilities during games and/or practices. Coaches also can select

the integrator role, which allows them to observe the current environment, and select the

best coaching strategies, or the most important quadrant of the competing values

framework, to best meet the needs of the middle school basketball players at that

moment.

133

 

 

 

 

Scott was an example of a coach who occasionally moved into different
quadrants, but was primarily remained in one quadrant—the human relations model.
Scott had many of the characteristics of a coach in this quadrant. He was understanding
of other activities that may conflict with basketball, and he was diligent to have equal,
playing time for all students in games. He emphasized team development, and he wanted
the players to enjoy their experience on the team. Although he was competitive and he
wanted to win, he kept in mind his focus on the human relations quadrant as he
emphasized values such as equal playing time and skill development. However, because
he built a strong program, winning came as a natural byproduct of his coaching
philosophy. His coaching values certainly were based on the human relations quadrant of
the competing values framework.

Middle school coaches are challenged by competing demands as they carry out
their coaching responsibilities. It is common for coaches to have beliefs and values that
fall under more than one quadrant in the competing values framework. For example, a
coach’s emphasis on teamwork and character development with an internal focus on the
needs of the team will be in the humans relations quadrant of the model. However, that
same coach may be task driven, goal orientated, and highly structured which is in the
rational goal model quadrant of the competing values model. A coach who may value a
conservative style of play with an emphasis on fundamental skills of the sport as well as
valuing a strong connection to the high school program will fall in the internal process
model. A coach who emphasizes more advanced skills and teaching complicated
offensive plays would fall under the open systems model. If they are coaching in a close

game, coaches may not play everyone equal minutes in the game. They want to make the

134

most of the available resources by playing the best players near the end of the game. The
coach will now be in the rational goal model of the framework. As each middle school
coach develops his or her own coaching philosophy, they will likely fall primarily into
one or two specific quadrants. However, as they are coaching during practices and
games, it is common for coaches to move .from one quadrant to another. These opposite
beliefs can exist in a system, and oftentimes they do as coaches are faced with multiple
challenges and difficult situations while they are coaching. The competing values model
demonstrates that these conflicting coaching behaviors can exist simultaneously and the
coach can still be effective in teaching and coaching middle school athletes about the
sport. Similarly, coaches who can play the role of the “integrator” can often be termed
effective coaches. These coaches can observe their own coaching and be a reflective
learner. I saw evidence of the integrator role as coaches such as Sam and Lori reflected
upon their coaching behaviors and discovered ways they could improve in their
instruction at practices or games. For example, both of these coaches reflected on a
practice drill and developed a better way to teach it in the future.

Coaches who can balance all of these competing values will make better coaches.
In fact, their cognitive complexity, or ability to reconcile opposites within an
organization, can be considered an indicator of coaching effectiveness. An effective
manager, or effective coach will have the ability to integrate seemingly opposite
approaches to management and many roles will become blended (Quinn, et al., 2003).
Effective coaches realize the importance of various goals in the different quadrants; thus,
they are able to integrate their coaching strategies in a way that emphasizes multiple

goals from different quadrants of the competing values framework. For example, as a

135

coach plays the role of a facilitator in the human relations model, once every member of
the team understands the other players’ role, team members are more willing and able to
act outside of their own role. A coach playing the director role in the rational goal mode
may find that this increases his or her flexibility and he or she moves to the upper half of
the competing values framework which included the open systems model and human
relations model. Sam is an example of a coach who was faced with a paradox as he tried
to integrate a variety of roles as the seventh grade coach at Central Middle School. Sam
fit into the human relations model. He developed strong relationships with the players,
he cared about them, he was understanding of other commitments, and he emphasized the
team concept. Sam was also at times in the rational goal model quadrant of the
competing values framework. Sam was competitive, he wanted to win, and he had high
expectations for the team. He would play the better players in close games. Sam also
was in the open systems model as he coached advanced defensive and offensive plays
and was more of a risk taker as he tackled difficult offensive plays for the seventh grade.
Additionally, at times he selected the integrator role as he observed the environment,
learned from his experiences, and was able to select the best role of the competing values
framework for the current situation. Sam was faced with a paradox, as he had to battle all
of these competitive tensions. However, he was able to effectively balance and integrate
these different roles. This leads me to conclude that what Sam has accomplished is an
example of how an effective coach carries out his or her duties. Sam was an effective
middle school basketball coach as he balanced these various tensions in the competing
values framework. When reaching this conclusion about effective coaches, one may

theorize that there is an overarching value that helps effective coaches in balancing these

136

tensions. I would propose that this higher value is coaching with an emphasis on the
team members playing for enjoyment of the game. It seemed as Sam moved from one
quadrant to another, he did not lose focus on his emphasis on players enjoying the
experience playing middle school girls’ basketball. A coach such as Sam, who can
balance the various tensions and conflicts in his own coaching value system,
demonstrated that he can be termed an effective middle school basketball coach.
Another coach who handled the paradox of different roles in their coaching
responsibilities was Lori at Eagle Middle School. Lori greatly emphasized many of the
qualities of a coach in the human relations model. She made it a priority to teach the
players about character. She stressed the team concept, and she taught the players
throughout the season to focus less on themselves, and more on teamwork. Lori wanted
the players to know what it means to play for a team. She also taught the players
responsibility. Lori’s philosophy included getting all players in games, but she admits in
a close game, some players may be in the game more than others. This is an example of
a shift towards the rational goal model. In this model, as a coach Lori is competitive and
she would like to win. In a close game, she may call plays from the bench. Early in the
season, she stressed goals for the team, and she handed out an organized packet of plays
while she outlined the season’s goals. Although Lori fluctuated between the human
relations model and rational goal model, similarly to Sam, her emphasis on enjoyment of
the game was always present. Whether it was at a practice, a pre-game huddle, or
exuberant coaching during a game, she seemed to also interject a moment of fun or
humor into her coaching. As Lori developed her coaching values, she was an effective

middle school coach. She balanced the competing tensions, and she seemed to never lose

137

focus of her coaching philosophy, and her goal for the students to enjoy their experience

as a member of the team.

Conclusions, Implications, and Recommendations

This research study provided a great deal of descriptive data about the actions and
behaviors of middle school girl’s basketball coaches. The coaches utilized knowledge
about the middle school philosophy to guide their coaching. They had to take into
account the unique emotional needs of middle adolescent players. At this level, coaches
had to develop their own coaching philosophy for working with middle school youth.
They also had to decide if they should emphasize winning, equal opportunities for all
players, or a combination of these priorities. Furthermore, the emotional needs of middle
school students had to be considered throughout the season at practices and games.
Coaches also designed the goals for their program. They had to determine whether or not
they were striving to improve players’ skills now at the current time as seventh or eighth
graders, or were they attempting to contribute to building a stronger district wide program
by having a closer connection to the high school coaches? They also had to consider any
potential sacrifices for the current team in deciding to emphasize a closer connection to
the high school. These were challenges that each individual coach had to handle as they
developed their own coaching philosophy.

The author enjoyed planning, organizing, and carrying out the research study. It
was interesting to conduct cross analyses of the seven coaches in the study. Differences
in coaching strategies and philosophies became apparent. In the study, it was expected to

be determined that faculty members made better coaches then non-faculty coaches.

138

However, the study revealed that effective coaches were composed of both school faculty
and non-staff members. There was not a noticeable difference in the activities of these
two groups of coaches. The author was pleased to discover a sample of coaches who
were effective and successful as they coached middle school girls’ basketball. If the
study were to be repeated, it would be interesting to examine these seven coaches for
multiple years. The findings from each year could then be compared to see if they carry
out their coaching responsibilities in the same manner each season. One might expect to
find improvement in their coaching as they coached over multiple seasons. Another
study could investigate where these coaches learned their coaching behaviors. Did they
learn from their own coaches while they were in middle school and high school, college
level coaching classes, and/or from current coaching colleagues? It would also be
intriguing to seek out inexperienced coaches, or new coaches, to compare their coaching
activities to the highly regarded coaches in the current study.

Recommendations can be made about middle school coaches. During the
research it was discovered that most middle school coaches were not aware of the
established coaching standards which were published by the Michigan High School
Athletic Association. School districts could be of great assistance to their coaches if
administrators provided coaches with the MHSAA coaches’ manual and a copy of the
established coaching standards which outlines expectations for coaching. Each
individual school likely also had their own expectations for coaches, but the MHSAA
standards are consistent for all schools in Michigan. Most coaches did not attend the
MHSAA updates and rules meeting held throughout the state before the sports season

began. It is recommended that schools send middle school coaches to these meetings.

139

Coaches can learn valuable information about the sport, information about rules changes
for the upcoming season, and have an opportunity to discuss coaching with MHSAA
officials. Finally, schools may consider enrolling their middle school coaches in the
Coaches Advancement Program (CAP) sponsored by the MHSAA. This is a 36 hour
training program that is divided into six segments. CAP provides coaches with additional
training about techniques and skills that can be used to coach middle school adolescents
on topics which include: effective instruction, sports medicine and first aid, effective
communication, managing time, teaching technical skills as well as strength and
conditioning, healthy living, controlling emotions in pressure situations, resolving
conflicts in athletics, and other current issues in educational athletics (MHSAA, 2006).
This research contributed information which can assist in the hiring and
evaluation processes of coaches at the middle school level. During the hiring process,
school administrators should seek candidates who have an understanding of the middle
school phiIOSOphy. Candidates need a basic understanding of the specific sport, and
particularly have a focus on being able to teach middle level adolescents the fundamental
and basic skills of the game. Coaching candidates should also express a desire to make
the experience of playing a sport enjoyable for members of the team. Finally, ideal
coaching candidates will emphasize character development, teamwork, and will be a
positive role model for the athletes. If school administrators seek out these basic
attributes in coaching candidates, they will be more likely to find a potential coach to
work with the middle school students in their school. During coaching evaluations, the
key attributes of middle school coaches could be used in a rubric (Figure 4) to evaluate

coaches. Items to be considered in a middle school coach’s evaluation could include:

140

connection to middle school philosophy and relationships with middle school students;
emphasis on teamwork in their coaching; demonstrating positive role modeling for the
athletes; having an emphasis on making the sport activities enjoyable for the participants;
and effective communication skills with the players and their parents. These suggestions
could assist in the hiring and evaluation procedures used for middle school coaches. This
will lead to hiring and retaining the best qualified individuals for coaching assignments at

the school.

141

Figure 4. Middle School Coaching Evaluation Rubric

 

Coach’s Name:

 

Performance Standards

1. Exceeds Expectations

2. Meets Expectations

3. Meets Requirements But Needs
Improvement

4. Does Not Meet Requirements

 

 

RATING:

COACHING VALUES & TRAITS

 

. Connection to middle school philosophy and relationship

building.

-Considers the emotional and physical need of players

-Allows team members to prove themselves anew at the
beginning of the season

 

. Emphasis on teamwork and rapport with players.

-Works to have a good rapport with the players

-Develops a plan to emphasize the team concept

-Designs practices and other activities to develop team
building

 

. Professional conduct/role modeling.

—Models conduct for players at practices, games, in the
locker room, and during travel

-Teaches by example respect for officials and other
coaches

-Presents a professional image/represents school well

 

. Emphasis on enjoyment of the sport by players.

-Plays all students in games
-Athletes are enjoying the experience on the team
-Not an overemphasis on winning

 

 

. Effective communication with players, parents, and staff.

-Communicates appropriately with players
-Conducts a parent meeting early in the season

 

142

 

 

6. Emphasis on fimdarnentals of the sport.
‘ -Teaches fundamentals and basics of the sport
-Helps players develop their own performance goals

 

7. Adheres to MHSAA and school rules, regulations, and
standards.

—Has received and read the MHSAA standards
-Follows the MHSAA coaching standards
-Attends MHSAA update meetings when possible.

 

8. Knowledge of the sport and contest rules.

-Teaches adherence to game rules and regulations

’ —Has experience with the sport
-Attends coaching workshops to gain knowledge about
the sport

 

9. Outstanding accomplishments during the season.

 

 

10. Areas of suggested improvement/other comments.

 

143

 

 

 

 

 

Middle School Coaching Research

Future research related to middle school coaching could provide additional
information to supplement the findings found in this study. Research could be conducted
in a different sport to determine if the research findings of girls’ basketball coaches are
applicable to other middle school sports. Also, it may be useful to conduct research with
coaches over the course of multiple sport seasons to determine if their actions are
consistent with different players over the course of many years. Another potential future
study is related to the connection between middle school and high school athletic
programs. This study could investigate the contributions a middle school program makes
to the high school program. Also, further study of middle school coaching from the
perspective of the school administrator may provide additional information about middle
school coaching and what makes a coach successful at this level. Other studies could
examine how coaches came to their behavior model, as many were unaware of the
published coaching standards. It is hoped that the findings of this research study
contributed to the knowledge base about middle school coaching as well as provided
other researchers and school administrators with useful information about middle school
coaches, and that this study will be a catalyst to further research by other colleagues in

the area of middle school athletic coaching.

144

 

 

APPENDICES

145

 

 

APPENDIX A

Coaches’ Informed Consent Form

146

 

 

 

APPENDIX A

Coaches’ Informed Consent Form

You are being asked to participate in this doctoral research study by Mike Prelesnik, who
is examining the coaching activities of middle school athletic coaches. The dissertation
study is in partial fiilfillment of the requirements for the PhD at Michigan State
University. The investigator will collect qualitative data from observations of a minimum
of one practice and one game, as well as from participant’s responses to interview
questions. Each observation will take approximately two hours and the interview will
take one hour. If there is a compelling reason, additional practices or games may be
observed if you agree. I request that the interviews be tape recorded in order to
supplement the investigator’s field notes. Observations will not be recorded in any
manner.

All information obtained from this research will remain confidential. Pseudonyms will
be used for coaches and schools in the dissertation and any subsequent publications. The
privacy of all participants will be protected to the fullest extent allowable by law.
Participants are under no obligation to the investigator and may terminate involvement in
the study at any time. Your participation in this study is voluntary. You may refuse to
participate in certain procedures or answer certain questions, or discontinue your
participation at any time without penalty.

There are no known risks associated with participation in this study. Participants will not
benefit from this study. However, their participation in this study may contribute to the
understanding of middle school athletic coaching and will help administrators and
coaches understand and gain more knowledge about how coaches balance the challenges
as they strive to follow the established standards for coaches, adhere to middle school
principles, and try to field a competitive team. Research will not begin until the
appropriate permission has been granted by the school’s administration.

If participants have questions about the study they may contact the researcher, Mike
Prelesnik, or the chair of his dissertation committee, Dr. Susan Printy. Contact
information is below:

Dr. Susan Printy, Dissertation Chair
407 Erickson Hall

Michigan State University

East Lansing, MI 48824

(517) 355-4508

sprinty@.msu.edu

147

 

4'1"

 

 

If you have concerns about your rights as a research participant you should feel free to
contact the Institutional Review Board (IRB) directly. Contact information is below:

Dr. Peter Vasilenko, Chair

Human Research Protection Program

202 Olds Hall

Michigan State University

East Lansing, MI 48824-1047

Phone: (517) 355-2180 Fax: (517) 432-4503
email: irb@msu.edu

I hereby consent to participate in this study. I permit the tape recording of interview
sessions.

 

 

Participant’s Name Date

 

Participant’s Initials to verify
consent for tape recording of the interview

148

 

 

 

 

 

APPENDIX B

Administrator’s Permission Form

149

 

 

 

 

APPENDIX B

Administrator’s Permission Form

You are being asked to give permission for Mike Prelesnik to conduct a study at your
school. The study examines the coaching activities of middle school athletic coaches.
The dissertation study is in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the PhD at
Michigan State University. The investigator will collect qualitative data from
observations of a minimum of one practice and one game, as well as from participant’s
responses to interview questions. Each observation will take approximately two hours
and the interview will take one hour. If there is a compelling reason, additional practices
or games may be observed. The interviews will be tape recorded in order to supplement
the investigator’s field notes. Observations will not be recorded in any manner.

All information obtained from this research will remain confidential. Pseudonyms will
be used for coaches and schools in the dissertation and any subsequent publications. The
privacy of all participants will be protected to the fiillest extent allowable by law.
Participants are under no obligation to the investigator and may terminate involvement in
the study at any time. The coaches’ participation in this study is voluntary. They may
refuse to participate in certain procedures or answer certain questions, or discontinue
their participation at any time without penalty.

 

There are no known risks associated with participation in this study. Participants will not
benefit from this study. However, their participation in this study may contribute to the
understanding of middle school athletic coaching and will help administrators and
coaches understand and gain more knowledge about how coaches balance the challenges
as they strive to follow the established standards for coaches, adhere to middle school
principles, and try to field a competitive team. Coaching observations and interviews
with coaches will not begin until permission has been granted by the school
administration.

If participants or school administrators have questions about the study they may contact
the researcher, Mike Prelesnik, or the chair of his dissertation committee, Dr. Susan
Printy. Contact information is below:

Dr. Susan Printy, Dissertation Chair
407 Erickson Hall

Michigan State University

East Lansing, MI 48824

(517) 355-4508

sprinty@msu.edu

 

150

 

If there are concerns about the rights of research participants, you should feel free to
contact the Institutional Review Board (IRB) directly. Contact information is below:

Dr. Peter Vasilenko, Chair

Human Research Protection Program

202 Olds Hall

Michigan State University

East Lansing, MI 48824-1047

Phone: (517) 355-2180 Fax: (517)432-4503
email: irb@msu.edu

I hereby give my permission for Mike Prelesnik to conduct this study with coach(es) at

 

School Name

 

 

School Administrator Date

151

APPENDIX C

Letter of Invitation to Coaches

152

APPENDIX C

Letter of Invitation to Coaches
Dear Middle School Coach,

1 am a doctoral candidate at Michigan State University in the Department of K-12
Educational Administration. As partial fulfillment for the Doctor of Philosophy Degree
in K-12 Educational Administration, I am working on my dissertation study. This study
will be a qualitative study of coaching activities of middle school athletic coaches.

Middle school athletic coaches have a variety of challenges they are faced each day.
They strive to field competitive teams, they follow guidelines of coaching standards
published by the MHSAA, and they must have an understanding of the middle school
adolescent and the middle school philosophy. This research study will examine the
activities of coaches as they strive to develop a competitive team and how they handle the
variety of coaching expectations in order to determine if their activities support middle
school principles and show evidence of adhering to MHSAA coaching standards. Any
conflicts in their own coaching beliefs and how they are reconciled will also be noted.

You have been recommended by your school’s administration as a potential participant
for this research study. The participants for this study are to be current middle school
girls’ basketball coaches of any level of coaching experience.

I will observe the participants at a minimum of one practice and one game. Additionally,
I will conduct one interview with you to ask follow up questions related to the
observations from the practice(s) and game(s).

A coach’s participation in this study is strictly voluntary, and all information about the
participants and their schools will remain confidential. Names of participants and
schools will not be identified in this study without written permission. You would be
under no obligation to the investigator of the study, and you could end your participation
in the study at any time.

Thank you for your consideration. I will be contacting you in the near fiiture to discuss
this study in more detail and to determine if you would be interested in participating.

Sincerely,

Mike Prelesnik

Doctoral Candidate

Michigan State University

Department of K-12 Educational Administration

153

BIBLIOGRAPHY

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