Up-Close Learning
November 18, 2014
Nearly 100 coaches gathered at the MHSAA office on Saturday, Nov. 1, for more than six hours of learning in Level 1 of the MHSAA Coaches Advancement Program. What occurred that day demonstrates the MHSAA’s commitment to a particular teaching and learning model we have chosen for its effectiveness, not its ease.
It would have been much simpler to put the 100 coaches in a single room and rotate three lecturers in front of them, and still simpler if everyone participated online in the isolation of their homes. But CAP is not delivered in either of those ways.
Rather, on Nov. 1, the nearly 100 coaches were placed in three separate rooms, so the presenters could see everyone’s eyes and read everyone’s faces and address everyone’s questions and concerns.
And, within those smaller rooms, the coaches sat in pods with four or five other coaches for more practical and often deeper discussion than the larger group setting allows.
Meanwhile, in an even more intimate fourth room, another 20 coaches completed the sixth and final level of the Coaches Advancement Program.
In an online world there is still a place for face-to-face teaching and learning. This is especially true in coaching where interpersonal relationships have more to do with determining success and failure than Xs and Os.
Members of the Same Team
April 2, 2013
The Basketball Coaches Association of Michigan (BCAM) is a leader among our state’s high school coaches associations, as well as of its counterpart organizations for the sport of basketball across the US.
The MHSAA has partnered with BCAM in numerous ways, including the “Reaching Higher” program to help prepare high school student-athletes for the college experience and in the “Top Shooters” and clinic aspects of the “March Magic Hoopfest” which will return in 2014 after taking a year off due to facility conflicts at Michigan State University.
One of the longest MHSAA-BCAM partnerships has been the Basketball Officials and Coaches Communications Committee (BOCCC). One of the committee members, Mitch Hubbard of Reading High School, offered these candid and insightful comments in BCAM’s March 2013 Monthly Report:
Look Through Someone Else’s Window
I sat through the class nodding my head in agreement. I kept thinking of situations where if people would do this, many conflicts could be avoided. If only people would look at both sides of things, then the world would be a better place.
This season I took on the position of athletic director. Part of the job is to greet the officials and escort them back and forth to the locker room. For the first time in my career, I have had good, honest, open conversations with guys that I have known for years. I found out that these guys have families, careers, injuries, honors, and all kinds of day-to-day happenings. Some live close by and some travel long distances to referee. I was amazed as to just how much these guys were like me!
Officials and coaches want the same thing. They both love the sport and want to protect it. We need to work together to improve and enhance the game. Communication and relationships between officials and coaches is critical. We need to stop and take the time to “look through someone else’s window” and appreciate them.