{"id":5593,"date":"2012-01-10T11:59:54","date_gmt":"2012-01-10T17:59:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.nsr-inc.com\/?p=5574"},"modified":"2012-01-11T17:55:02","modified_gmt":"2012-01-11T17:55:02","slug":"troubling-times-for-high-school-student-athletes-often-require-competitive-maturity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/troubling-times-for-high-school-student-athletes-often-require-competitive-maturity\/","title":{"rendered":"Troubling Times for High School Student-Athletes Require “Competitive Maturity”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Leadership Does Have Its Trappings<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Athletes are often faced with how to push their team through tough times.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Through Facebook this week we heard from a client-prospect who was disgusted with how her senior year is developing.\u00a0 Writing that her teammates are constantly complaining about the coach and the way\u00a0their practices are being run.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0She said that she had dreams and expectations that her final high school season would be fun, focused and productive. But, with\u00a0some on the team taking a\u00a0negative attitude, the year is quickly spiraling downward before it has had a chance to really get started.\u00a0\u00a0 Here’s an athlete whose hard work and dedication have pointed toward having a great, satisfying senior year, but with all the turmoil surrounding the team, she now\u00a0faces a rough three months ahead of her.<\/p>\n

Reading her words, her pain was evident.\u00a0 In response, I pointed out to her that they are wasting valuable time and energy which could otherwise be spent on improving and preparing for the upcoming basketball season.\u00a0 Further, that’s when her own character and leadership can make a genuine difference for the team. Her willingness and desire to turn the situation around is her opportunity to lead, confront the culprits head on and change their course.<\/p>\n

In\u00a0ten\u00a0years of scouting for National Scouting Report, that is, being on the ground\u00a0observing and evaluating prospects, I’ve watched this\u00a0happen and to say the least it’s\u00a0sad to see.\u00a0 No athlete escapes troubling times whether it\u00a0comes in the form of a headstrong\u00a0or difficult coach or disgruntled teammates.\u00a0\u00a0After all,\u00a0athletics reflect life and all the ups and downs\u00a0which are offshoots from living and engaging with others on such intimate\u00a0terms day after day.<\/p>\n

College coaches know that prospects face\u00a0tough\u00a0situations.\u00a0\u00a0They realize that no athlete arrives at their doorstep untouched by controversy.\u00a0\u00a0They also know that the\u00a0athletes\u00a0which have the intestinal fortitude to rise above it\u00a0or to put a team\u00a0on their back and push through it\u00a0are the ones they can count on at the next level.\u00a0\u00a0Let’s call it competitive maturity.\u00a0 And when an athlete has summoned\u00a0the courage to\u00a0push themselves and their team past the unavoidable messy\u00a0parts of\u00a0team dynamics and thus developed a higher degree of responsibility than the normal athlete by tapping into and\u00a0demonstrating\u00a0their leadership potential, that is\u00a0the moment\u00a0when a mature student-athlete and\u00a0competitor emerges.<\/p>\n

In counseling this athlete, I offered that she has several options, if she wants to see change happen.\u00a0 She can refuse to be a party to the complaining by walking away from those conversations thus not so subtly showing that she will not get caught up in the ruckus.\u00a0 She can speak out and point out that as a team they\u00a0should come together to make the most of the situation, regardless of the outside influences.\u00a0 She could work harder than anyone on the team, treat the coach with respect and try her best to lead by example.\u00a0 She could speak directly to the athlete or athletes that are spearheading the unrest, expressing her disappintment and explaining that she expects more from them.\u00a0 She could call a team meeting and encourage everyone to speak their minds and in the end be done with it.\u00a0 She could encourage the malcontents to go straight to the coach to complain.\u00a0 Or, she could speak to the coach about the problems.<\/p>\n

In any case, something needs to be done and a leader makes things happen.\u00a0 A true leader cannot stand by and watch the team disintegrate.\u00a0 Leadership has its trappings and this is one of them, but it is far better to act than it is to give passive approval by not acting at all.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Leadership Does Have Its Trappings Through Facebook this week we heard from a client-prospect who was disgusted with how her senior year is developing.\u00a0 Writing that her teammates are constantly complaining about the coach and the way\u00a0their practices are being run.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0She said that she had dreams and expectations that her final high school season would … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5593"}],"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=5593"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5593\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5604,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5593\/revisions\/5604"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5593"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5593"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5593"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}