I recently took over as head varsity coach of a girls team at a high school with about 450-500 students. This is my seventh year coaching, but always as varsity assistant. I didn’t get along with the previous head coach at the end of his time coaching, and he was not at all happy that I was offered the job. He has a daughter who is a senior this year. She isn’t an incredible player, but one of the best we have. I have three other seniors, only one will commit to playing ball regularly in the off season, no juniors with commitment or talent, one sophomore who is committed and getting better, and about 10-12 incoming freshman who are raw and not very talented but super excited about the game and great learners. The current 8th grade class has 3 or 4 players with quite a bit of talent. Incoming frosh and 8th grade are dedicated to the game.
So I am facing a dilemma in a couple of places. The first is that I want to set a tone that this is a NEW program, not a continuation of one from the past. I have already had one girl give me attitude about “why we aren’t doing what we did last year,” and even after explaining she kept disrespecting me until I booted her for the rest of summer ball. The coach’s daughter has not shown up for any summer ball and some players told me she’s been bad mouthing me around school to other players.
Girls basketball in this town has never been very successful, and part of it, I think, is because girls aren’t held to high standards. The problem is that when you hold high standards (or even normal standards like showing up to practice on time), kids will quit, and you might end up with 10 freshmen left in your program.
I guess I’ve reached this place where I feel like I should focus on those kids who will tow the line (show up on time, play in the off season, work to get better) even if they lack talent compared to other kids, and even if that means we only have 10 players in the whole program.

I want to have a program of integrity. I have realistic expectations, and consequences for not meeting them, and they might lead to a mass exodus of players. Should I continue to focus on developing integrity by keeping these standards, even if a bunch of players quit? Would you expect that, over time, this strategy will pay off and the program will be better off? I guess I’m hoping once I weather the storm, things will likely be better.
Does anyone have any advice or personal experience to share about this?
Thanks!

Coach,

This sounds like a bear trap.

There would be a couple of questions I would need to ask you:
1) How supportive is the administration who hired you? Do they know what you want to establish?
2) Do they understand what you may have to do in order to create the foundation you are seeking to create?
3) What are the other players you have right now in your system like? Are there ANY that are showing commitment, regardless of talent level?

I think the first thing is the current situation. If it were me, the first thing I would do was lay the situation out for the current athletic director, and discuss your intended plans for dealing with it. The reason why I ask if he will be supportive is because if you have to make the hard choices, it may mean dealing with some short term setbacks in order to establish long term foundations. If he is supportive, you'll obviously have the time to do this. If he is not, then you are going to have a difficult time.

I would tune out what the former coach is saying. It is extemporaneous noise. While people may listen, you can only control the manner and integrity with which you deal with other people. If you maintain your level, eventually people will recognize what others say as the spiteful criticism it is and ignore it.

Regarding your best player, I would sit down with her and your AD (have another person present for the conversation, do not do it one on one, it's not the age we live in anymore) and you will have to have a difficult conversation with her. I wouldn't bring up what she is rumored to have said. This can again be interpreted as extemporaneous noise. I would instead focus on your expectations for behavior, participation, and commitment that you want from her and all of your players. You can also outline the consequences for failure to meet those expectations.

In reality, this is a conversation that can be had with both your players as a team, and then individually as you outline individual expectations for what you want them to work on and where you want them to be.

It sounds like what you want to do is establish a culture of accountability and this can be done by establishing core covenants with your team. Clearly delineating your expectations in front of your players and having them sign a contract and make a initial commitment on paper may be the best thing you can do. The 8th graders and young players who will be with you will be influenced by what they see from the varsity as they are coming up. How you help that to look will have an impact on those kids as they arrive and are ready to contribute at the varsity level.

If players refuse to conform to these new standards, then I would say yes, then you have to excise the persistent negative attitudes in order to create a culture of accountability and excellence.

If you are looking for resources on this kind of team building, I would look into Proactive Coaching, which has excellent booklets and materials regarding the development and establishing of positive team cultures.

These are just some thoughts. I am often reticent to give advice on these very difficult situations. There are a lot of factors at play. Understand what your bosses want from you and how far they are willing to support you in all of this. Because the hard conversations and hard choices are going to have some short term negative impacts that you (and them) will have to weather if you decide to go that road.

Just my opinion. Hope it helps.

Thanks for the great advice. To answer your questions:

1) How supportive is the administration who hired you? Do they know what you want to establish?
My AD is very supportive and he knows I want to create a program with integrity. He isn't really a fan of the past coach, but he's pretty careful about expressing his opinions. I haven't talked to him yet about my approach of weeding out players that don't meet the expectations, but I think he'll be on board.

2) Do they understand what you may have to do in order to create the foundation you are seeking to create?
I guess this is a conversation that I still need to have directly with my AD. As I'm thinking about it, I need to say to him that if we want to finally create something successful, there must be these certain expectations rigidly set.

3) What are the other players you have right now in your system like? Are there ANY that are showing commitment, regardless of talent level?
I have had around 15 total players out for summer ball (incoming frosh through senior) - all fun and eager to learn, willing to work hard I think. Only 1 varsity player from last year and some pretty low talent JV players. But also good kids. One girl was spreading negativity about me among players so I suspended her after giving her the opportunity to sign a behavior contract (she refused). My AD was supportive but asked that I meet with the family if they want to, just to make sure they hear my side of the story.

As I think more about this, and how to build a successful program, I feel like it should be--build integrity first, worry about winning second. I just hope the community has the patience I do . . .
Thanks again