Motivation, intensity, toughness

Piggybacking on the earlier Spencer Butterfield post:

Coach Malecki, 
September 23, 2011

After watching some local recruiting efforts lately, I think back to a young man I coached at South Gate HS, in the late 90's. Ronald Johnson, was a two-sport star for us in football and basketball. Ronald played JV as a frosh, and was a three year starter for the Varsity basketball team. We played in the Southeastern League with Bell, Huntington Park, Garfield, Roosevelt, Jordan, Jefferson, Locke and Fremont. Ronald played center for us at 6'3.

Our head coach, Tony Loza, now at LA Harbor, called dave b at rockfish and begged him to have Ronald on his teams. Even when Ronald was in football he played for Rockfish on the weekends. He worked out with his brothers at the gyms almost every night. To say he became pretty good was an understatement.

Ronald was all city for two years, all league for three years, and all state his senior year (jason kapono's year). This kid could rebound, handle it, defend it, score it. He avg about 25 per game and 11 rebs. This after being double and triple teamed throughout the years.

Long story short NO ONE WAS RECRUITING HIM.

Then our good friend, Chris Madigan, who was at CSLA, he came over with Coach Yanai from Dominguez Hills that year, watched Ronald and was AMAZED no one was recruiting him. Ronald's grades were not stellar, but he always passed classes. Did that scare away schools?

I used to hear coaches say, he doesn't do this or that. Not a good enough athelete, etc. All we ever saw was a fierce competitor.

Coach Yanai came to a workout and offered Ronald that day. The only other school interested was Cerritos College. Ronald was a four year starter at Cal State LA. He was a three year all conference players, D2 All American and the ALL TIME LEADING SCORER in CCAA Division 2 history.

The moral is...it is hard to measure heart. It is hard to project how much someone wants something...we are all looking for "ready made players" and making something takes time and lots of work. I've always felt that toughness, work ethic and character far outway lazy athleticism, and entitlement.

So get into the gym, work on your free throws, shoot 100's of shots per day and you might be the next Ronald Johnson. I never have watched a player one time and made a final decision on them. Watching their travel team, hs team and at practice were mandatory before we made a decision. The final straw was were they tough and would they work hard!

Life and Basketball aren't always fair.

Coach Malecki
icemenbball@aol.com

p.s. I appreciate any feedback.