Treatment of Star Players

[OldRetired1]

How do you handle your star players?  Do you treat them like you would any other player? 

Here are some situations:
#1 Your star player is lazy in off-season workouts.  He lifts only to complete the workout-not get better.

#2 Your star player misses workouts/practice periodically due to detentions.

#3 Your star player misses workouts/practice periodically due to personal, family problems.


Do you keep him and discipline him, or just kick him off the team?

[Coach Jones]

people with poor workout ethics usually just make problems during the season. 

[Coach Kelley, PA]

I try to help where I can with the personal problems.  I treat players differently, not necessarily better, but differently because all kids are different.  What works with some kids, definitely doesn't work with them all. 

I have one hard rule that has very few exceptions.  If a player misses a practice during the week of a game, he misses a quarter beginning with the first quarter.

Before I would ask a player to leave the team, I would find out as much as I could about his problems and what is causing him to miss, attain detentions, etc., and try to help.  Eventually though, if he couldn't hold up his responsibilities, he would be asked to leave.

Again, not knowing the specific circumstances makes it really tough to answer that question.  I do think as coaches that we have a responsibility to help kids, teach them about commitment to the team but also to themselves. 

[Lions84]

1. Investigate
2. Teach
3. Correct
4. Reteach
5. Remove from Team.

There is no I in TEAM!!!

[jbird]

Before I would ask a player to leave the team, I would find out as much as I could about his problems and what is causing him to miss, attain detentions, etc., and try to help. Eventually though, if he couldn't hold up his responsibilities, he would be asked to leave.

I agree.  A couple years ago I removed a dozen players from the team.  Now I know that sounds extreme, but I gave them every opportunity to hold up their end of the bargain.  After they break the rules again, they become a distraction for the rest of the team and need to be let go.

As far as star players getting treated differently, I have witnessed both extremes.  Coddling a star player doesn't get you very far with the rest of the team.

[Coach DePriest, Sheridan]

One thing that Coach Kelley didn't mention in his post is how he coaches players who want to go on to play college football.  If a kid says he wants to play college football, we are generally tougher on him in some aspects.  Whether it is not catching a ball, being late to practice, or not taking care of classwork.  We stay on most of the kids to do right, but we tend to hold a higher bar for those that want to move on to play at the next level.

[packerfan]

I'm not a coach but I have an opinion on this topic.  If a player misses practice for no reason or gets in trouble then make him run extra or do extra drills.    If the player is a star player then he could be the diff. between winning and losing and making him sit affects the whole team and it isnt fair to the other 25+ guys on the team that worked their butts off to win the game.  I know one player doesnt win or lose a game but if they are a star player then they do have a big impact on the game.

[Coach DePriest, Sheridan]

I'm not a coach but I have an opinion on this topic. If a player misses practice for no reason or gets in trouble then make him run extra or do extra drills. If the player is a star player then he could be the diff. between winning and losing and making him sit affects the whole team and it isnt fair to the other 25+ guys on the team that worked their butts off to win the game. I know one player doesnt win or lose a game but if they are a star player then they do have a big impact on the game.

No one player is bigger than the team.  I understand your point, but as soon as you start making exceptions, you open yourself up to more problems.  In three years, we have made one exception to the rule, and if I remember correctly, he had missed practice because his grandmother had passed away.

[packerfan]

Coach Depreist, I understand where your coming from but what i'm not talking about making exceptions.  I'm talking about doing this for all of the players.  If they miss then make them do extra in practice.  In some cases it hurts a team when they dont have there star player but not in all cases.  Now if they miss for some bogus reason like they didnt want to practice then sit them.  Matter of fact players with that attitude dont need to be on the team anyways.  From reading your posts and your name you must be a coach for the Bruins.  Whatever you guys are doing is working because you have had a lof of succes as of late. 

[Coach DePriest, Sheridan]

Skipper, I understand your point, but I doubt we will change our rule anytime soon.  It has worked for us for the last three years.  Coach Kelley took some flack for it the first year, but it is just a given now for the players and their parents.  It may be something that wouldn't work as well at other schools, but it has worked very well for us at Pulaski Academy.

Extra running and work is a deterrant for many kids, but missing playing time really makes them think twice about sitting out of practice.

[pistol]

If I have an athlete that struggles with working hard in the off-season I would group him with athletes that work extremely hard.  This is something that I would do before off-season started.  For example, in our off-season we have groups of three to four.  Put your slacker in a group of hard working guys and see if their hard work motivates your slacker.  This would be the 1st step I would take.

[fullcourtpress]

I say treat them all the same. The moment you start making exceptions, you create cancer for you team. You know what they say about cancer?? Kill it or it spreads. The best thing to do is like the P.A. guys are saying, use game time to punish them. I'm no player or coach, but I believe playing time would be the answer to the problem. You would just need a coach that had the guts to sit the so called star out. I  believe that the school had the sport before this player arrived and am sure they will have it long after they are gone.

[CoachJ]

I agree with the Pulaski Academy philosophy that all athletes and situations should be treated differently.  I have an example I read somewhere.  The team was leaving for a road trip and Grant Hill was late.  He had not notified anyone or anything.  All the players thought that Coach K. was going to have the bus driver leave him because a few weeks earlier he left two other players.  Coach K. waited though and Grant finally showed.  Hill said that he got stuck in traffic after waking up late.  Coach K. did not punish him or anything.  His reasoning was that Grant Hill had not been late ever and always did the right things.  Coach K. told the team that everyone makes mistakes and the reason he left the players who were late previously was because they had not done the things they were supposed to do and it was not their first time being late or whatever.  I do agree Coach Kelley, every situation should be treated differently.

[twosportchamps]

99% of the time your stars work the hardest and are never late or miss, hence this is why they are the stars.