[divadawg]

You talk about their win-loss record (21-6). Granted, that is a wonderful record...but look at the quality of the teams they played. In 27 games 16 of their opponents had loosing records (some as poor as 1-18, 6-17, 9-16, 9-14, but I digress). There was one team with a 14-14 record and the remaining 10 had winning records including Letcher (loss), KCC (2 losses), Breathitt (loss). The early part of their schedule was more difficult than the last. After the first Estill County game all the teams had loosing records until they played KCC in the regional tournament, so not much to say for increasing scheduling challenges in preparation for the tournaments. (I feel the strength of schedule is very important in preparing for the tournament.)

It is admirable that Stevie Rogers is averaging 24.7 points per game (currently 6th in the state) and I am sure many of her skills were learned starting in grade school and on into middle and high school. She certainly held her own against KCC in spite of the fact that she was ill and had not been able to practice for a few days prior to the game. However, what were the other starters on the team averaging? Their names don't appear as statistical leaders in the KHSAA tables at this time and I think it would be interesting to look at each player and see exactly what their contributions were for the year.

As for yelling at the players. I don't have a problem with constructive criticism. Kids who participate in athletics expect to be criticized, more than likely on a regular basis. However, a little positive reinforcement is never a bad thing when you are dealing with young kids. It is, after all, the rapport between the coach and the players that makes a team click. Just look at Calipari and his fine group of players to better understand this concept.

In conclusion, it is never good to center your entire offense around one or two players because when you play a team that has scouted you and learned your scheme, it will be easy to establish an defense that will be able to contain those players and make scoring very difficult. Thus the reason to evaluate your entire team and establish a game plan that will work to strengthen your team, no debilitate it!