I got a great e-mail from a guy from Minnesota named Lou Suski, and he gave me permission to post it on this blog (still don’t like the word blog, never will - don’t ever call me a blogger). I really liked his point about the fact that only a couple of players per grade ever become starters.

Derek,
Hi!  Wow, I don’t really know where to begin.  What a great idea for a book!  I loved your interview with Perk this AM.  I was a youth basketball coach for ten years from the time my son started playing in first grade until my daughter finished travel ball as an 8th grader.  As I coached both of my children through house and then travel to include AAU in Spring, Summer and Fall, I literally coached over 1000 games.  I can fully relate to your experiences.  Fortunately, I had the opportunity to play in high school and a year in college.  So, I knew a little about the game.  Too many parents have never played, coached or refereed and have no clue about the game but try to coach from the sidelines and “referee” as well.  I can honestly say that in all my years of coaching I only had 3 games where the referees were so bad that they effected the outcome.  The worse thing was that the games literally turned into rugby matches as you mention in Chapter 29.  Part of the problem is that we have too many parents AND coaches who have never played and have no idea of the rules.  While I often got excited with my players and pushed them to play hard, I seldom had issue with the referees…except when kids were getting knocked to the floor and no fouls were being called - typically both ways.  I always told my players and parents that our main goal was to have fun.  Also, in youth sports on the travel teams where every parent thinks there child is a star, you have 10 girls in one grade on a team and the reality is that maybe half of them will even make the varsity and 2 or 3 will ever become starters.  That was the reality with the teams I coached.  Well, good luck with the book and with refereeing.  I will look for it next time I am at the book store.
Thanks again for doing this.
Lou Suski

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