Big Game, Big Mistakes...

Two years ago, after coaching high school boys' basketball for sixteen years, I stepped across to become the head girls' basketball coach at my home town high school. I have to tell you that I was very nervous about making the change. Ok, I was scared to death. Yes, I had a lot of coaching experience and I had enjoyed a lot of success. But, I knew nothing about girls.

I was told on a daily basis, sometimes several times a day that girls were so different than boys. I was told with my style that I would have the girls crying in no time and that most of them would quit. I was also a little nervous about the teams' history. The program had not had a winning season in fourteen years. In fact, most years they were lucky to win more than two or three games.

Through all of this I took the position and was extremely excited about the way our first season together worked out. I did make the girls cry once in awhile. But no more than I had made my boys cry. Only two girls quit out of the twenty-three that started, and we finished the season with a fifteen and seven record. Making the playoffs for the first time in fifteen years and returning ninety five percent of our offense the next year, I was on top of the world.

Now, as the second season is winding down I found my team nineteen and two overall and twelve and one in league. Now we had to get ready to play the biggest game of their lives. Last night we faced the team in our league who was also and twelve and one for our league championship and a guaranteed birth into the State Playoffs. I knew this game was going to be crazy and so did my girls.

The night before in practice I tried to keep the girls relaxed. I explained to them that the game was important and that our little gym would be packed to the rafters. I explained to them that it would be hot and loud. I also told them I wanted them to have fun and just enjoy the ride. When the left the gym I knew they were tight and I had know idea what to do about it.

The next day I had the team eat lunch together and watch the game of our previous match up with that night opponent, a game in which we won. As the girls ate and watched the game I could tell they were extremely nervous. The girls hardly said a work and I could almost hear the butterflies in their stomach. But, I still did not know what to do.

When it came time for our pregame talk I reminded the girls to relax and have fun. It was pointless to remind them that it was just another game as we could hear the noise of the packed crowd getting louder and louder. When the girls ran out for warm ups I watched them scan the crowd and I could see them getting tighter and tighter

The first quarter started and we allowed our opponent to outscore us twelve to two. My girls missed their first eleven shots, many of them lay-ins that bounced so hard off the backboard I thought it was going to crack. We played our opponents even the second quarter and went into half down by ten or eleven.

During half time the girls relaxed a little bit and focused hard on the adjustments I wanted them to make. They left the team room ready to play the second half. We cut into the lead quickly, but when I missed a great opportunity to make a key substitution we again allowed our opponent to go on a run and we started the forth quarter down by eleven or twelve.

My girls they control in the forth quarter and cut the lead to six with five minutes left to play. But again, instead of making a substitution to give a couple of our key players a quick rest, I made the same mistake I made in the third quarter. The girls gave us a shot to win as the game was winding down, but instead of calling a time out to set up for a good shot, I stood their and watched them force up a bad shot as the final horn sounded.

Coaching basketball for all these years I had hoped that I would not make these types of mistakes. I told the girls after the game that we were fine. We still are the number two team in league and we just have to win one of the next two games to get to the state playoffs. None of this was a lie, it is one hundred percent true. I just hope that I don't make a mistake that keeps them from achieving their goals.