St. Louis Public High School Girls Basketball Prognostications - 10/31/2021

 

Tomorrow is the first official day of basketball tryouts and it is always a challenging aspect of being a high school coach to reshape the team and develop chemistry with a new group of players, often many of whom have not played at the varsity level.  

It has to be both challenging and rewarding.   Challenging to find enough talent to put a representative team on the hardcourt and rewarding when all your hard work as a coach, and all the hard work the team members put into the tryouts and pre-season practices, all come together with a resounding YES!  Of course, not all teams and not all coaches come into pre-season with the same level playing field.  For some teams, a highly oiled feed program brings talent to the high school each year.  For some private schools, a good job of recruiting results in a full-court of talent.  For other schools, transfers and new student-athletes make for successful chemistry.  For the less fortunate of coaches, you get what you get and it is sometimes a frustrating and challenging task to make a basketball team out of the hand you were dealt.

For Vashon last year, the pandemic created a situation where a number of great athletes from different schools in the area, all ended up playing for the Wolverines.  When some schools opted not to start practices until January, I think some kids moved to schools where they could play in November.  Some athletes might have played AAU with some Vashon kids and opted to transfer into the school.  Whatever the situation, Vashon had a dream season with the abundant talent that gravitated to them.

I am not sure I would have the patience to coach a whole new group of kids.  You kinda get spoiled with the kids you had for four years and then they are gone and you start all over.  So, hats off to all you coaches that are getting ready for the new season.  You will do great things for these kids, even if they don't win a single game all year.  Coaches make a difference and kids never forget the time they played on a varsity team.


Here are my St. Louis Public High School Girls Basketball Prognostications:




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