Steelers players and families

The summer is over and the season is back on. With 2020 on us and our first game of the year this sat I would like to remind you that the club is all about kids enjoying domestic sport. Unfortunately I have had several emails about parent behavior in the back end of last season. In some cases this was about how parents were carrying on to their own players and coaches.

We will be actively monitoring that all players, parent and coaches adhere to the code of conduct.

Coaches:

Remember that basketball is for fun.
Be reasonable in your demands
Teach understanding and respect for the rules
Give all players equal court time – remember it is domestic basketball.
Develop team respect for opponents including their coaches.
Instil in your players respect for officials and an acceptance of their judgement.
Losing means learning – do it honably
Respect the rights, dignity and worth of every person on the court.
Parents

Encourage your children to participate for their own interest and enjoyment, not yours.
Encourage children to always play by the rules and respect the refs (they are human too)
Teach children that an honest effort is more important then a victory
Focus on developing skills and playing the game. Reduce the emphasis on winning.
A child learns best by example. Applaud good play by all teams.
Do not criticise your or others’ children – more often then not kids are doing their best.
Accept decisions of all referees as being fair and called to the best of their ability
Set a good example by your own conduct, behaviour and appearance.
Support all efforts to remove verbal and physical abuse from sporting activities
A little story from my summer. We were away and one of the first kids my son befriended happened to be from a team that beat us in the grand final last season. One of the first questions that the parents asked was “were you the coach?”….and yes I was. We lost a game we should have won against a team we had beaten during the season – the parents spoke of what great opponents our players were – a solid Grand Final – it hit home ….that our actions on or side of the court carry much further than the 40 mins of the game – memories are made.

The mate my son made is an awesome kid, as was one of his other team mates that stayed with him. Both of the players were the strength of the oppositions team that during the games as a coach we wanted to stop.

These kids on the other team are just like ours- just in a different uniform. Lets respect the refs, coach fair, teach our players that basketball develops character, resilience, makes friendships and carries awesome memories. Have a good rest of the season.