Hey guys, I wanted to share part of an article that I was asked to write for a publication. I'm not a gifted journalist or anything like that, and I am a novice in the trade. But I enjoyed doing it.
Stars Are Born
In this age of competitive sports, and all the hype it encompasses, it is truly essential to not only evaluate the black and white areas of skills, athleticism, and size/strength, but the gray areas of innate intangibles, which can be the unknowns.
I have the utmost respect for all the professionals who spend countless hours watching players compete, assessing their skills and competitiveness. These guys (and women) have the craziest task to rank players. I know first hand that many "recruiting experts" are investing time to interview the players to get a more in depth understanding of who the person is behind the player. Not that character supersedes talent, but character, work ethic, and drive can have a major influence on development.
AAU Coach Johnson had this to say, "many kids display elite skills and talent at a young age. Those traits get them highly rated as a 5 or 4 Star prospect. For some of them, that status consumes them and their families and adds pressures and expectations. In some cases, these players get surpassed in many ways by those kids who have that internal drive and passion to elevate their games. That's why players such as Taylor King starts his HS career with such hype, but kind of never lives up to his billing. The player at 15 is seldom the same player at 18. I'm glad to see the recruiting and ranking sites are having late evaluations and movement up and down."
HS Coach Lewis add, "Kids ranking are partially subjective and partially objective. There is always that human opinion influence when looking at players; and that's OK. But every year we see players come out of no where as relatively unknowns to blossom in college or become another OAD or 2 and dones. It's interesting to see what those players did to become that good. It's not just about skills, but drive, heart and mentality."
Two parents weighed in on the topic too. Ms. Patterson stated, "my son is not a phenom, but he has an athletic bloodline. I played college volley ball for a PAC 12'school and my husband played D1 soccer at the same college. I think that once my son becomes more focused on what it takes to perfect his sport and when he hits that teenage influx of hormones that we could see a different player. He plays on a highly competitive AAU team with other kids who are future stars, that are rated 5 star type kids yet my son always makes the team too. It's in him both biologically and with skills but he could be the definition of a late bloomer. Playing in college is not off his radar and we have had college coaches inquire about him already but this might be the tip of the iceberg."
Mr. Jones commented on the reserve side of things. "My son was a stud player that everyone talked about here in Alabama. He was considered one of the best players in the state. Now fast forward a few years and other players have not only caught up to him but many have passed him, at least in my eyes. Truthfully all the hype at a young age, I feel, did him an injustice in a way because it created pressure, expectation, and a lot of social media. It kind of took the fun out of if and I could see him drifting away a bit. Don't get me wrong, he will always love playing, but he needs to renew his love and passion for the art of his sport. He could easily regain his fire and be a big time college player and even a pro if he wanted, although at this point, I'd just like to see him enjoying what he once loved to play. I know i have to take responsibility too because I fell into becoming "that parent"; the marketing agent, the social media junky, and obsessed with the attention. There wasn't a day that we didn't talk about who was saying what but in the end,the only person I should have been hearing was my son."
Evaluating players is a specialize skill that involves more that just measurable traits but personal characteristics that can't be measured. Rating systems can assign stars to players and move them up and down the rankings, however, players emerge from developing at their own rate and in the end stars are born.
Stars Are Born
In this age of competitive sports, and all the hype it encompasses, it is truly essential to not only evaluate the black and white areas of skills, athleticism, and size/strength, but the gray areas of innate intangibles, which can be the unknowns.
I have the utmost respect for all the professionals who spend countless hours watching players compete, assessing their skills and competitiveness. These guys (and women) have the craziest task to rank players. I know first hand that many "recruiting experts" are investing time to interview the players to get a more in depth understanding of who the person is behind the player. Not that character supersedes talent, but character, work ethic, and drive can have a major influence on development.
AAU Coach Johnson had this to say, "many kids display elite skills and talent at a young age. Those traits get them highly rated as a 5 or 4 Star prospect. For some of them, that status consumes them and their families and adds pressures and expectations. In some cases, these players get surpassed in many ways by those kids who have that internal drive and passion to elevate their games. That's why players such as Taylor King starts his HS career with such hype, but kind of never lives up to his billing. The player at 15 is seldom the same player at 18. I'm glad to see the recruiting and ranking sites are having late evaluations and movement up and down."
HS Coach Lewis add, "Kids ranking are partially subjective and partially objective. There is always that human opinion influence when looking at players; and that's OK. But every year we see players come out of no where as relatively unknowns to blossom in college or become another OAD or 2 and dones. It's interesting to see what those players did to become that good. It's not just about skills, but drive, heart and mentality."
Two parents weighed in on the topic too. Ms. Patterson stated, "my son is not a phenom, but he has an athletic bloodline. I played college volley ball for a PAC 12'school and my husband played D1 soccer at the same college. I think that once my son becomes more focused on what it takes to perfect his sport and when he hits that teenage influx of hormones that we could see a different player. He plays on a highly competitive AAU team with other kids who are future stars, that are rated 5 star type kids yet my son always makes the team too. It's in him both biologically and with skills but he could be the definition of a late bloomer. Playing in college is not off his radar and we have had college coaches inquire about him already but this might be the tip of the iceberg."
Mr. Jones commented on the reserve side of things. "My son was a stud player that everyone talked about here in Alabama. He was considered one of the best players in the state. Now fast forward a few years and other players have not only caught up to him but many have passed him, at least in my eyes. Truthfully all the hype at a young age, I feel, did him an injustice in a way because it created pressure, expectation, and a lot of social media. It kind of took the fun out of if and I could see him drifting away a bit. Don't get me wrong, he will always love playing, but he needs to renew his love and passion for the art of his sport. He could easily regain his fire and be a big time college player and even a pro if he wanted, although at this point, I'd just like to see him enjoying what he once loved to play. I know i have to take responsibility too because I fell into becoming "that parent"; the marketing agent, the social media junky, and obsessed with the attention. There wasn't a day that we didn't talk about who was saying what but in the end,the only person I should have been hearing was my son."
Evaluating players is a specialize skill that involves more that just measurable traits but personal characteristics that can't be measured. Rating systems can assign stars to players and move them up and down the rankings, however, players emerge from developing at their own rate and in the end stars are born.
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