HOOP CLUB INFO
PLEASE ATTEND THE NEXT MEETING
All parents of Lady Mustangs players......
We will be having our next HOOP CLUB meeting
on
Tuesday, May 15th at 7:00 PM.
During that meeting we will be voting on new Board Members. The open positions on the Hoop
Club Board are:
President, Vice President, Secretary
If you are interested in a Board position, or have any questions please email
Melissa Zaprzalka at missyzap@sbcglobal.net
The meeting will take place in the The Media Center at Mundelein High School.
All parents
are encouraged to attend.
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CHECK OUT SOME OF THESE ARTICLES
Click on these titles below to read some interesting stuff.
Summer Camp
Three sessions are being offered. Enrollment in a session is based on
the grade you will be enrolling in for the 2012-2013
school year.
Session 1A: 10th-12th Graders
May 21 – May 25, May 29 – June 1
8:00 AM – 11:00 AM Main Gym
$70
Session 1B: 9th-12th
Graders
June 11-15
10:00 AM – 12:00 PM North Gym
$70
Session 1C: 4th – 8th Graders
June 11-15
8:00 AM – 10:00 PM North Gym
$60
REGISTRATION
FEES
(add $5 if you register at the door)
For Brochure and Specific Skills that will be taught Click Here
Any incoming 9th grade
student who would like to join Session 1A after their 8th grade graduation are welcome to do so at no extra cost!
Any
questions contact Coach Evans
At 847-949-2200 ext. 1316 or email him at bevans@d120.org
Parents need to get out of coaches' way
|
The world is a difficult, highly competitive place
where fairness and equity don't always rule.
So a word to well-meaning parents about their kids, high school sports and what
they might learn from their time involved. Overwhelmingly, you people love your kids to pieces and try to prepare them for life's
inevitable challenges as best as possible.
So do them a favor. Try to do some, if not all, of the following:
Remember that
the sports experience is your child's, not yours.
Let your children be challenged by strong coaches who will yell at them sometimes
and tell them what they are doing wrong and what they need to do to get better. If you trust the coach, then believe the coach and
stay the heck out of the way. Think hard before grabbing your phone and screaming at one.
I have no children, but I have worked
with coaches for close to 30 years and more than 99.99 percent of the them have your son's or daughter's best interest at heart, and
they're trying to make them better every day.
Tell your kids that sometimes, no matter how hard you work, no matter how well
you are drilled, there is just going to be someone better, and you are going to get beat. It's not the coach's fault, it's not the
officials' fault. It's just life. Accept it, move on, try to get even better so it doesn't happen again.
Be a good sport about
losing. It happens to everyone. I see kids handle losing graciously all the time. I wish more adults did.
Correspondingly, teach
your kids not to accept mediocrity; go for the medal, not the ribbon.
Expanding on those points:
Just because you spent
hundreds and/or thousands of dollars for camps and lessons since they were in third grade doesn't automatically mean your child should
be handed a starting varsity spot. You have to earn such things.
Along those lines, there are usually no grand rewards for being
the good soldier off the bench as an upperclassman, but there are intangible emotional and mental rewards for persevering and trying
over and over again.
They gain an inner strength from knowing that they have given their best, and in some small way have helped
their team get better in the long run. That kind of knowledge will help them in college and in their first job and in the many other
challenges they face in life.
Just because you have coached Little League, or AAYFL or a select basketball team doesn't automatically
make you smarter than your son's or daughter's varsity coach. These coaches aren't paid much and have, in many cases, spent many years
preparing to coach your child, have them enjoy the experience, impart a meaningful life lesson or two and win a few games in the process.
You
should encourage and praise this person because they genuinely believe in the value of human potential.
But a lot of coaches
these days are not encouraged or valued, and it's a trend that's been getting worse over the past 10 to 15 years. No matter how successful
the coach in terms of wins or losses, no matter how long his or her tenure in the current position, no matter how many alumni come
back and give stirring testimonials about the positive influence the coach had, they are always being criticized.
The days of
the coach retiring after 20 or 30 seasons with a gold watch and a pat on the back are long gone. You're lucky if you get them to last
10 years, in any sport. Their pressures are just too numerous to mention.
Sense of entitlement
In short, there is a sense
of entitlement out there that is beginning to ruin prep sports. It's just part of the reason why Marquis Hines, he of three state
championships as girls coach at Milwaukee Vincent and of an impressive 18-5 record with a youthful Homestead boys team this season,
resigned last week and will not be returning to the Highlanders for what would have been probably a truly impressive third season.
It
just got to be too much, he said.
Yes, Hines admits he yells at kids. Yes, he admits that he demands a lot from them.
But,
no, he emphatically denies that he ever laid hands on a player (as claimed by online commentators), openly recruited players (a story
that has been circulating since the moment he was hired) or played favorites. But apparently, not enough people believed him.
"Honestly,
I have by and large enjoyed these past two years," he said. "My staff doesn't get enough credit, but we've been dealing with stuff
(backlash of one sort or another) since Day One. I'm not sure what they want out here (in terms of a coach), but I'm not really here
to speak negatively about these people.
"That being said, I am a straight shooter with my kids. It's how I've been successful.
I will tell the kid exactly what he or she needs to get to the next level."
His Highlanders were exciting and fun to watch this
season. His players played with energy and life, but it came at a cost.
I'm not going to sit here and claim to know everything
about the situation and say that Hines was a saint. No successful coach worth his or her salt is. But to win in sports, to win in
life, you have to be able to sacrifice your own ego. You have to be willing to fall sometimes and then get up.
Turning program
around
It had been a long time since Homestead basketball had fallen, and it's taken awhile for it to get back up. A lot of that
was due to Hines' effort, and it will be missed, but as he noted, unrealistic expectations seeped into the situation.
"It was
hard for someone to step up and stand up to some of these parents," he said. "They expected their kids to play college ball but they
weren't aware of what it really takes to do that. And I'm not sure that that's going to get better soon (at Homestead or in the culture
as a whole).
"My dad always told me that if the coach wasn't playing me, then it must be something that I was doing wrong. I
hope I never go to a coach (concerning his own children) with a complaint."
Hines said he had close to 40 calls after his resignation
last week, almost all of them very supportive. He will move on and likely coach again.
It will be Homestead's loss.
"I have
good people in my corner," he said. "I won't lose sleep over this because I know what I represent."
Which is a coach working
hard, trying to get the job done.