Hoop Mom: Recruiting

Teresa offers her thoughts on coaches who recruit stronger players for certain games or tournaments.

Just wondering what you think of coaches who recruit or whatever word you like to use when they pick up stronger players to go to tournaments with an already established team (unless the team has only seven players and they need help). Which is the right thing to accomplish – developing your team players and playing them or winning with pick-up players to advance further and sitting your own players?

Wondering

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Dear Wondering:

I’ll start with two words: It depends.

Different coaches have different agendas. Some want to win no matter what it takes. Others really don’t care about wins and losses, but focus instead on player development. Most coaches I know fall somewhere in the middle of these two extremes.

The bottom line is, coaches need to be honest with players and parents about their policies regarding pickup players – and those policies should be outlined before a player joins the team. Parents and players also need to do their homework about the team and the coach before they sign up to play. If you ask other parents or coaches, they will generally be able to provide an honest assessment of what they’ve heard or experienced regarding the coach and/or team in question.

The reputations of most coaches in a given area are pretty well known and most people know the coaches who routinely bring in players to win tournaments. If you don’t want your child to be in a situation where she regularly sits on the bench during an important game while a stronger outside player gets the start, find another team.

The bottom line is, I wouldn’t have my daughter on a team where the coach routinely recruits new players to substitute for the regulars during tough games. I strongly believe in the value of winning and losing with the players you have. But some parents like to be part of a winning team regardless of how much their kids play.

Of course, certain circumstances justify bringing in some strong pick-up players – such as when a team has qualified for a national AAU championship. In that case, the competition is fierce and the strongest teams recruit from other teams in their region anyway, so it only makes sense to bring the best players along to remain competitive.

Hoop Mom

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Teresa Wippel is team manager of the Warriors Basketball Club, a 6th Grade girls' team from the Seattle area, and mom to Warriors post player Amanda Waldron. In her other life, she is a freelance writer and editor. To ask Teresa a question, email her at

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