Warning

I have to stop coaching this population. Unfortunately, my mind and heart have not been in sync on this matter. I have agonized over this for the better part of two seasons. Even though I'm naturally equipped to reach many of these deeply troubled students, my intuition has lead me to feel that continuing to coach these characters could be a dangerous long term proposition.

A majority of the young men I work with are not able to think beyond very narrow parameters. A few have displayed sound reasoning, but those individuals have been the exception. Over the years I have offered countless quotes to my players for reflection. Each time, I've been blown away by their inability to even formulate an opinion about why I asked them to examine a particular statement. For example, a couple of years ago I asked my players to tell me their thoughts on the following quote and got nothing but blank stares in return: "Everybody wants to be great, but few are willing to become great."

I've had players who, despite their inability to pick up the most basic concepts on the court, believed that they should be playing significantly. Very few guys I've coached in four years display any willingness to work on their weaknesses. As a matter of fact, when asked about their weakness(es), many have been unable to identify obvious deficiencies.

Realizing the extent to which many of them are shut off, I've gone to great lengths to identify the ones who can develop the capacity to think at a basic level. For the most part, I've been able to find the safe ones but there have been times where I almost gave the wrong guys a chance, like Gangster.

One of my players, Softie, recently shared some news with me about Gangster. For years, Gangster has been trying to play for me but something has always happened to derail his efforts. I've never been totally comfortable with giving Gangster a chance, but just recently I started to re-examine my treatment of Gangster. Because of everything I'd been hearing about his activity locally, I wouldn't give him a chance. Since I hadn't seen Gangster around recently, I asked Softie for an update on him.

Me: I haven't seen Gangster around. Is he still trying to come here for school?
Softie: He ain't gonna be in school for awhile, coach.
Me: Oh yeh. Why's that?
Softie: He about to do time!
Me: For what?
Softie: He tried to rob some drug dealer for dough and broke into the wrong crib..
Me: What?
Softie: Yeh. Instead of breaking into dude's crib, he got into this other chick's crib and shot her in the leg.
Me: How much time is he looking at?
Softie: Like 6 to 10 years. And you know what's stupid, Coach?
Me: What?
Softie: He went and turned himself in, like he was tryin to do the time or something. He ain't ever been to jail so I guess he's tryin to get his cred now.

I went online to research this story, and it was true. Not only did Gangster shoot an innocent person  in the leg while breaking into the wrong house, he also pistol whipped the person living there then turned himself in a few months later.