National High School Basketball Coaches Association The NHSBCA Is Busy All Year Long Dave Archer

The NHSBCA is Busy All Year Long by Dave Archer, Sr. Director of Operations, NHSBCA

The National High School Basketball Coaches Association continues to grow in numbers and activities. Below are a few of the items we are working on now.

NABC ATLANTA CONVENTION The NHSBCA leads the high school coach portion of the annual NABC Convention. Clinics, meetings and gatherings are planned to meet the needs of high school coaches that gather in Atlanta.

JUNE 2020 NCAA D-I SCHOLASTIC RECRUITING EVENTS Building upon last year’s highly successful June events, the NHSBCA has been working collaboratively with the NCAA and National Federation of State High Schools on the June 2020 versions. The NHSBCA leadership has held phone conferences almost weekly since August to try to make a logical comprehensive nationwide plan of the number and location of events. Additionally, each of the eight NHSBCA Geographic Regions are working collaboratively for their areas.

SCHOLASTIC BASKETBALL COACHING PROFESSION IS AN ALL-ENCOMPASSING JOB As we all know – “coaching scholastic basketball is one of the toughest jobs that everyone thinks they can do.” The number of challenges that high school basketball coaches face continues to increase in variety and number.

Coaching scholastic basketball used to be an extracurricular activity that you practiced after school and played games on some evenings. You coached because you loved the game of basketball and wanted to help student-athletes develop their skills, learn teamwork and discipline. And it was a seasonal commitment! Basketball coaches throughout the years have focused on teaching and drilling individual and team skills, in addition to game strategies.

We have always had a list of “off the court things to pay attention to.” That list of items has continued to grow. Here are some of the things on today’s list: Mental health of players…bullying…social media… players and their parents intense desire to showcase their skills (or lack of) to earn a college scholarship… travel basketball…who has the most influence on the scholastic player? – school coach, travel coach, personal trainer?...social acceptance…anxiety… depression…time management…expectations of increasingly unreasonable parents…player leaving a practice to go to an off-season workout for another sport…and will the NCAA new “image and likeness” initiative work its way into scholastic sports?

The NHSBCA has the national presence and networks to try to help current and future scholastic basketball coaches do their jobs. Our plan is to email a survey to every varsity scholastic coach in the country this spring. The survey will be used to gather data about challenges coaches face as well as solicit ideas that will help coaches. Working Groups of NHSBCA leaders will prepare a draft of actions that the NHSBCA could initiate. The NHSBCA Board of Directors will discuss options and develop an action plan during their annual Summer Conference to held in Cleveland, Ohio, in July.

About the NHSBCA The National High School Basketball Coaches Association also serves as the High School Congress of the NABC. About thirty-five state basketball coaches’ associations and representatives of some states that do not have a basketball coaches association work together to improve scholastic basketball and scholastic coaches. The NHSBCA is the national voice for high school basketball coaches, working to foster high standards of professionalism and to support coaches. The NHSBCA conducts two general meetings per year, one at the NABC Convention and the other in July. Additionally, the NHSBCA Executive Committee conducts monthly phone conference meetings. For additional information about the NHSBCA, visit www.NHSBCA.org.