The Other Side of the Fence

Everyone knows the timeless cliché, "the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence." I know in my own life, I've found that to be true more often than not in so many areas, from changing jobs to changing boyfriends to changing basketball teams. Speaking of basketball, the trend these days seems to be that people are constantly searching for "greener pastures." Who are these people doing the searching? Well, for the most part, it's the parents. Who can fault them really? They are each simply in search of the "Holy Grail" of basketball for their own child. Each player will pasture, if you will, with one team for a length of time, but as soon as another coach comes along and spreads a little "fertilizer" the parents are ready to pack up and jump fence.

The question, then, is what is it parents are truly looking for in a youth basketball program? Success? What is it about one program that is so attractive and makes a parent want to pasture elsewhere? Why do other parents feel that same program is a step above? Is it that we are all just color blind and we can't really tell how green the grass actually is? Maybe that's it . . .

Regardless of the actual answer, what we are finding more and more of lately is that the most important component among the masses is to play on a "winning" team. "Winning," to the majority, means the team's actual win – loss record. It means by how many points did your team beat the other team? . . . However, a great man named John Wooden once said, "Although I wanted my players to work to win, I tried to convince them they had always won when they had done their best." I believe the message that we send each young athlete is important – You HAVE won because you have given your best effort. Coach Wooden also believed that "success comes from knowing that you did your best to become the best you are capable of becoming."

The players that "team hop" because their W column has a smaller number than their L column may never truly know success because they have spent their entire youth career looking for the greener grass and never finding the program that pushed them to become the "best (they) were capable of becoming." I never fully understood all of the clichés my parents used on me, but I AM always careful about comparing my grass to someone else's.

Toby Harbin