Have parents keep stats for you

One thing we started a long time ago is to have parents keep the stats for us. What are able to better do is coach during the game and then at half time and the end of the game, we can take a look at the stats to praise the kids on their performance. What the parents are able to see is how their child is performing. The last stat on there is points. It’s just so we have a snapshot of what’s going on. We keep stats for each half, for each player on the following things (we call it impact stats): assists, turnovers, offensive rebounds, defensive rebounds, deflect a pass, floor dives, steals, shots attempted, shots made, free throws attempted, free throws made.

We feel through this snapshot, we can see the entire game. What other parents see is those “hustle” stats. Parents KNOW that is what we look for, deflect a pass, steal, dive on the floor. That’s what changes a game. Hustle. Parents also know we don’t care about our scoring leaders. We have been fortunate to have different players lead our team in scoring and different starting line-ups nearly every week since we started coaching. We base our lineup on who we are playing and how well we feel our players are playing. We reward good effort, hustle or just playing as a good teammate.

When parents see these stats, you better believe they are emphasizing the same things we emphasize. The stats don’t lie. If we see good things on that stat sheet, odds are they (as parents) are going to be seeing the same exciting things on the court that make a difference in the ballgame.