I often read articles about the younger players of today and how different they are. How are they different, well there are certainly more choices available to our youth today than when I was growing up. I grew up mostly in country Victoria in Australia and we certainly didn’t have all the choices available that the youth have today. I have really noticed it even more since I have been out and inviting some young players to our Hawks preseason trainings.
I read with interest that Chris Tupu is making sure he has included a couple of young players to help secure the club for the future. Every year I have invited different players to train only to have them drop away. This year I have decided to meet with the younger players and their parents/guardians to try to stop the drop off rate. I will be starting a squad that will possibly named the “Soaring Hawks.” This is to identify potential players who have the ability to one day represent their province in basketball and perhaps make their way to high honours. It has been some time since Hawkes Bay have produced a quality young player who has gone onto higher honours. Paul Henare and Paora Winitana have been the last player from the Bay to represent NZ at the international. Arthur Trousdel made a training squad but that is it. This begs us to ask the question why?
There is a lot of talent in the Bay area and we should have more players coming through the ranks. I certainly put my hand up as Hawks coach and say that as a club we should have done a better job. I constantly hear different reasons for these failures to bring young players through, they range from players getting their girl friends pregnant at a young age, to mum and dad not having enough money to help the players get to training, poor family environment etc. The list goes on and on but I have to ask the question “If it is so bad then why would a young person not want to leave that situation and improve their quality of life?” I just see a constant line of excuses being rolled out for some of these kids. I know there are some who have legitimate issues in their lives and it makes it extremely difficult but again we all have choices and we make those choices. I even offer to pick the kids up and drop them off. I have a couple of kids who have come to training that come from very stable family environments but then will all of a sudden not turn up. So what is it that makes players drop out? One player I had last year had a tremendous year only to put on in excess of 20 kilo’s in the off-season. I still recruited him over another player to have that player quit on the team in early January. The club had helped this young player with a job and support yet still he chose to not continue.
I would love for former young players or parents of these players from the area to give me their thoughts on why they dropped out. Because if we don’t find a way to help these players that have the potential to stay in the game then it is the game that will ultimately suffer. What stopped a player from hanging in there? Was it the fact they couldn’t step up, didn’t get the satisfaction they craved, was it financial hardship? I would love to know the reasons so we can help younger players in the future overcome these issues. It is time to stop making excuses and I mean this from all parties and spend more time on finding a solution. I love the saying “Spend 20% of your time on the problem and 80% of your time on the solution.” This is what we need to do. So please contact me to let me know your thoughts, I would love nothing better that to have a Hawks team full of local players.
With energy
Shawn Dennis
