Coach Geno Auriemma has some serious things to say to the parents of high school-age athletes.<\/p>\n
Coach Auriemma<\/a> sits alone at the top of women’s college basketball. \u00a0Despite the UConn Huskies suffering a historic upset to Mississippi State University in the NCAA Division I women’s basketball semi-finals, Auriemma undoubtedly remains one of the most revered coaches in the sport, women or men.<\/p>\n Recently, in a post-game press conference<\/a>, Coach Auriemma talked candidly about the biggest problem in today’s college recruiting. \u00a0He spoke out how difficult it is to find players who want to be great teammates and work hard to win. \u00a0A big part of his commentary revolved around parents and their relationship to the problems he currently sees in women basketball prospects.<\/p>\n “Kids inherently want to be good teammates,” he said. “I really believe that with all my heart. \u00a0Most kids, when they are on a team, I guarantee you, go watch any seven-year-olds or eight-year-olds, they want to be good teammates. \u00a0You watch them play.”<\/p>\n When they get older and starting having a little bit of success, and the parents get involved, they become not so great teammates because they are told that you are not going to get anywhere unless you shine.”<\/p>\n Auriemma knows. \u00a0He has watched a lot of youngsters play the game. \u00a0And through his eyes and words, we see and hear what the best of the best is experiencing. \u00a0And it is not pretty. Coach Auriemma is being as blunt as blunt can be. \u00a0Parents everywhere can learn a big lesson, not just in women’s basketball, but in all sports.<\/p>\n “So now, back in the day, we had AAU tournaments. \u00a0You had to win a certain number of games to qualify for the national championship. \u00a0And you play on your team, and you had to live in your state or area to play. \u00a0You played and if you lost you went home and it was devastating,” asserted the Huskies head coach.<\/p>\n Now that’s changed. \u00a0When they go to these tournaments, they’re not going to win games. \u00a0They’re going there for the coach to see them exhibit their skills. \u00a0So this idea of winning for the weekend doesn’t exist anymore. \u00a0So, it’s not their fault. \u00a0It’s just the way it is,” he lamented.<\/p>\n We see this every day as NSR scouts. \u00a0We observe how sports, for the most part, have devolved. \u00a0The quality of youth, team sports has declined to the lowest common denominator, showcasing individuals.<\/p>\n Coach Geno Auriemma goes on to say, “And I try, when we go recruiting, to identify those kids who still have an interest in being great teammates. \u00a0Not always successful. \u00a0Believe me, I’ve had my share of guys really hard to coach for that reason. \u00a0And you can trace it back, generally, to the parents, without question, you can trace it back to the parents.”<\/p>\n What will y0u, as a parent of a high school athlete, do with this information? \u00a0Ignore it or make a change which could in turn alter the course of your athlete’s chances to be a great teammate and perhaps even a great college teammate?<\/p>\n It’s on you.<\/p>\n Note: \u00a0NSR<\/a> is the worlds’ leading recruiting authority.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Coach Geno Auriemma has some serious things to say to the parents of high school-age athletes. Coach Auriemma sits alone at the top of women’s college basketball. \u00a0Despite the UConn Huskies suffering a historic upset to Mississippi State University in the NCAA Division I women’s basketball semi-finals, Auriemma undoubtedly remains one of the most revered … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":14276,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1299],"tags":[301,10,11,1071,1068,27,1076,152,31,1067,56,57,222,94,1070,1069],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13887"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/29"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13887"}],"version-history":[{"count":20,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13887\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14286,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13887\/revisions\/14286"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14276"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13887"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13887"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13887"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Post-game recruiting tutorial<\/h2>\n
A lesson for all prep athletes<\/h2>\n
Athletes Coach Geno Auriemma IDs<\/h2>\n