Good Guys?

It is unpopular to state anymore, but there are good guys in this world and there are bad guys.

And the good guys are not the perfect guys, but they're still the good guys.

Have you ever noticed that the people who want a democracy (50% + 1) are those that are in the majority?

Oh, yea...just watch when they're not in the majority and how much they call certain issues "unfair", "discriminatory" and any other bad name you can come up with.

Yea, a democracy is nice if you're in the majority, but thank God we live in a Constitutional Republic where the majority can control issues, but the minority has rights and can be heard and can, through elections in states, etc gain an advantage.

It does not happen in any other country that is not the USA, Western Europe, Australia/New Zealand, and maybe a few South American countries.

Those places are majority rule and it is done by force.

That does not exist here.

If you think it does, you should visit some place outside of your bubble and better  yet, go live there for awhile.

It's probably actually cheaper to do so.

Then come back.

And.

Kiss the ground that you live on where freedom actually means something.

An Orphanage?

In 1996 and 1997, I had the privilege of working with Jim Mathews at New Washington High School in New Washington, Indiana for two seasons. Coach Mathews ended up winning a lot of basketball games, took his small school to success in the old one class era, and I was able to learn a lot about the game from him.

But in my, now, 33 years of coaching, I think this one quote from him rings true every single year. "Perry, the best place to coach is an orphanage." Me obviously looking perplexed because at the time, I had been coaching for only four years. "Why?" and his response...."No parents."

Now before you get offended if you're a parent you have to understand how much a head coach has to deal with. For every player there are at least on average two parents, probably more today. There are four grandparents, uncles, aunts, friends, girlfriends or boyfriends and it's high school basketball in Indiana. Everyone is a fan or played and knows a lot about the game here, so everyone has an opinion.

I am a parent, so I get it.

We love our children and we want them to be successful and "get what they deserve" and not to be "treated differently".

So here's the problem that comes around each season.

If you're a freshman on the freshman team, you wonder why you're not on the junior varsity.

If you're a freshman on the JV, you wonder why you're not starting.

If you're starting, you wonder why you're not on the varsity.

If you're on the varsity, you wonder why you're not playing.

If you're playing, you wonder why you're not starting.

If you're starting, you wonder why you're not getting more shots.

And if you're getting a lot of shots, you wonder why any shot you take is a bad shot according to the coaches.

Now, you tell me where all this confusion comes from?

It is amazing how student athletes will do what they're told and do it to the best of their ability until outside influences start to get involved.

How do I know it happens?

Because I've been doing this for 33 years and I have children, and I hear what people tell my kids and it really is what Pat Riley calls 'the disease of me'.

We like to hear good stuff about ourselves and if what we hear isn't consistent with what is happening in my immediate situation, I start to question and doubt and be unhappy.

More often than not, student athletes don't realize they're supposed to be unhappy, they just know what they're hearing isn't consistent with what is happening.

And man...these kids do not want to let all of those outside influences down.

So an orphanage, huh? Nah, parents are awesome in how they're involved in their kids lives. 

Parents are awesome because they care and love their child and really do want what's best for the team (most of the time).

I just wish all of the outside forces would process what they're saying to kids because I really don't think they mean any harm, but it does make a coaches job harder.

But hey, that's why we/they get paid the big money.

So You Want to be a Teacher?

So you want to be a teacher?

Well, let me tell you a few things that they don't tell you.

No, it's not the money, it's not the student issues, or the parent issues, or dealing with admin who have forgotten what it's like to be in the classroom, you're told all that when you're going through college or at holidays if you have relatives that teach.

All the negatives you will just have to experience for yourself and you know full well what you're getting into.

However.

There are some things that they either don't tell you or you're not prepared for when you become a teacher.

Some of your students go home to horrific lives.

They're hungry, thirsty, emotionally neglected, physically neglected and you might just be the only person that shows consistent love for them. And when you find out the personal stories of some of your students, it will hurt you.

Some of your students are addicted to drugs and alcohol.

In 25 years of teaching, I still forget that this is the story. I see them as children who haven't had to deal with the horrors of addiction yet, but you'd be wrong to think that.

If you do the teaching job for too long, some of your students will die or commit suicide.

It's awful, but if you're doing your job correctly, it will be something that hurts you ever time it happens.

Some of your students will be involved in custody hearings, have their homes burn down, or lose everything.

As a teacher, and if you're doing it right, it will hurt your soul every time.

As a teacher, you will be dealing with life issues as well and those students will get you through some of the hardest times of your life, if you're doing it right.

Lastly, all of your students will remember you and you will remember them from time to time.

They will commit suicide, die, be incarcerated, be addicted, divorced, lose their own children, get cancer, be abused, be the abuser, commit murder and be murdered.

And it never gets easier to hear these things.

But....

Those current and former students will go on to do successful things and they will include you as inspiration and you may never know how to take it.

Take the good as you take the bad...into your very being because the good will more than equal the things that are negative, but the negative are so heavy.

So you want to be a teacher?

Know this if you're doing it right it's a caring lifestyle that will affect you daily, monthly and yearly.

And the things that will keep you up at night will not be lesson plans, lack of money (maybe) or admins that are doing the new data based educational "thing".

It will be the love of your students and how what affects them, affects you.

For the rest of your life.

I'm Just a Nobody But...(Coach Knight)

I grew up playing basketball in Indiana.

Henryville, Indiana to be exact.

Not quite sure I knew at the time how big of a deal that was, but I have as I grew up, aged, and traveled around the country and the world working basketball camps.

Being a basketball coach from Indiana is a big deal, and I cannot help but think that a lot of that comes from Bob Knight being the head men's basketball coach at Indiana University for so many years. People know him.

But I'm just a nobody. I was a decent high school player with a couple offers to go and play at smaller schools, not IU like I wanted. Something about not being good enough, I guess.

Then I started coaching and this is my 33rd year and let's say that I'm a better assistant than I was a head coach. As was pointed out recently on a message board dedicated to high school basketball (crazy, huh) it was pointed out that I was a sub .500 coach as a head coach at Henryville and I am just an assistant now, but people don't forget, or are able to look up the info.

But when I travel, and coaches find out I'm from Indiana...it's a big deal.

So I wasn't good enough to play at IU, I wasn't a great head coach, and I never met Coach Knight, so why am I writing about his influence on me?

Because...it's Coach Knight and Indiana basketball. 

Knight was the sort of person you thought would be around your entire life, kind of like your parents or God himself.

But growing up in Indiana during the 1970's and 1980's, Bob Knight's influence was everywhere in basketball. From his motion offense to his man to man defense, we all did something like it.

Coach Knight's attention to detail and scouting, it's funny, I was talking to Marty Simmons (former IU player) recently and I watch old games from Knight's years at IU and how they describe him as a genius. 

I didn't see it.

And I realized why.

My high school coaches were so influenced by him that the things we did here in Indiana are so ingrained that we take it for granted.

Sure, he had his downfalls, we all do, but one of the things he is critiqued over is his language and loud yelling.

Before our culture worried so much about mental health (and we should), and the feelings of everyone, Knight taught in way that was awful from the outside, and maybe worse from the inside, but in a way that prepared you for life.

And there is no one harder on you than life.

My high school coach, Terry Rademacher, was very similar to Knight at the high school level, and I am so glad that I played for a guy who held me accountable behavior wise and on the court.

I guess hearing of Coach Knight passing yesterday, November 1, really shook me up a little because he was such a huge figure in general, but with basketball being so important to me and my family, you can see his influence everywhere.

I pray for Coach Knight's family (it includes years of former players) and friends (it also includes former players), and I hope they can take some joy or satisfaction that Bob Knight was one of the best ever at what he did and influenced so many baskeetball players and coaches. 

Some that do not know they're being influenced even today.

Even a nobody basketball player and coach from Henryville.