College Coaches Avoid Dysfunctional Teams

No family is perfect. No team is perfect, either.

It is how teams work through and around their dysfunction that matters. Like families with divergent interests, values and beliefs, teams can be hard work if they truly want to stay intact.

At National Scouting Report, our scouts watch prospects every day at games, matches, meets, combines, tournaments and showcases. We may be exposed to more interplay between coaches, athletes and parents than anyone anywhere. What we see can be exhilarating or disturbing, depending on the dynamics we observe. And these are the very same undercurrents college coaches see.

Few teams are fortunate enough to avoid drama, jealousy or favoritism. Rarely does a group of athletes in a highly competitive environment go through a season without some turmoil.

I can’t tell you what a joy it is to see these types of teams play, socialize and consistently pull together. College coaches automatically gravitate toward them.

However, watching teams mired in some kind of silly ruckus is like being witness to a repeating train wreck. Actually, it can get so ridiculous at times that the whole mess can be humorous. Mostly, though, it is so sad to see adults and kids lose their minds over things which matter little in the big picture.

If NSR scouts see these things happen, college coaches do, too.

As scouts, we try to sift through the brouhaha to find prospects worthy of our help. That’s not the case with college coaches. They will walk away from a dysfunctional team and its players without so much as a how-do-you-do.

Coaches and parents should keep this in mind because, in the end, bad behavior not only reflects on everyone in the organization, it hurts those athletes wanting college coaches to seriously consider them as recruits.

That is awfully hard to do when antics become distractions.