AAU coaches on HS benches

[WaReAgLe3]

Is this legal? I’ve seen it more then a few times this season.

[SJF]

Should never happen!

[oldschoolhoops]

I'm conflicted about this. I think that it gets tricky, but there seems to be such a relatively small pool of people who are willing to coach these days (which is totally understandable) that it becomes hard to find people to do it who don't already have some sort of coaching gig. Also, it would be really a headache for TSSAA to police, which doesn't mean it should be allowed necessarily, but it's just one of the perceived problems with making some kind of a rule concerning it.

[BoomKing2006]

If a faculty coach from school A is allowed to train an athlete from school B, C, D... etc..  "privately" then I don't see an AAU coach who is non-faculty being an issue. Schools employ the services of non-faculty coaches all the time. 

[oldschoolhoops]

38 minutes ago, BoomKing2006 said:

If a faculty coach from school A is allowed to train an athlete from school B, C, D... etc..  "privately" then I don't see an AAU coach who is non-faculty being an issue. Schools employ the services of non-faculty coaches all the time. 

You are right about that. I think both could potentially pose problems, but again- so hard to police.

[SJF]

5 hours ago, BoomKing2006 said:

If a faculty coach from school A is allowed to train an athlete from school B, C, D... etc..  "privately" then I don't see an AAU coach who is non-faculty being an issue. Schools employ the services of non-faculty coaches all the time. 

So you are saying that a TSSAA school can employ a Coach that is not somehow part of the faculty or school employee?

[BoomKing2006]

18 minutes ago, SJF said:

So you are saying that a TSSAA school can employ a Coach that is not somehow part of the faculty or school employee?

Someone correct me if i'm wrong but the TSSAA requires certain head coaches to be faculty members: Football, Basketball, Baseball, Softball, Track and Field/Cross County. That applies to head coaches only. All other coaches (JV, Freshman, Assistant) can be non-faculty members but must pass a general background check administered by the county. The person may or may not be paid... could be volunteers and not paid. 

The topic is a little vague but I'm assuming the AAU coach was just on the bench and not the Head Coach. 

Where the problem may lie which is why this was posted in the first place is if athletes from the AAU program begin transferring to the school they volunteer or assistant coach at. At that point a violation occurs with coaching connections. The athlete would be ineligible for a year. There are a few loopholes with private schools... etc... 

[SJF]

There is an easy solution! You are a TSSAA/TMSAA Coach or you are an AAU Coach! Does not matter if you are a Head Coach or a Volunteer assistant! Choose! Can't have it both ways it can only lead to cheating! 

[BoomKing2006]

16 hours ago, SJF said:

There is an easy solution! You are a TSSAA/TMSAA Coach or you are an AAU Coach! Does not matter if you are a Head Coach or a Volunteer assistant! Choose! Can't have it both ways it can only lead to cheating! 

There are a lot of black and white solutions to a lot of the problems people have with the TSSAA but that means they would have to actually enforce things instead of finding loopholes within all the grey area they've established. 

[Play 4 Fun]

17 hours ago, SJF said:

There is an easy solution! You are a TSSAA/TMSAA Coach or you are an AAU Coach! Does not matter if you are a Head Coach or a Volunteer assistant! Choose! Can't have it both ways it can only lead to cheating! 

All these are opinions, but does this not penalize the kids? IMO the black market that has been created in the AAU game is in large part due to high school organizations such as TSSAA, etc keeping the coaches that coach high schools, etc from coaching in AAU also. What I mean by that is this. It takes the guys out that are genuinely wanting to coach basketball for the right reasons. It fills their places with people who are personal trainers or knowledgeable about the game, but most of the time really just want to make money doing it. So, it seems it would be better to have a middle ground some other way. Don't take the best teachers of the game (good HS and MS coaches) and remove them from the AAU game so that they can be replaced with people who want to cash in on the kids. Just seems counterproductive in every way IF the desired outcome is kids that are better basketball players and people. 

[SJF]

6 hours ago, Play 4 Fun said:

All these are opinions, but does this not penalize the kids? IMO the black market that has been created in the AAU game is in large part due to high school organizations such as TSSAA, etc keeping the coaches that coach high schools, etc from coaching in AAU also. What I mean by that is this. It takes the guys out that are genuinely wanting to coach basketball for the right reasons. It fills their places with people who are personal trainers or knowledgeable about the game, but most of the time really just want to make money doing it. So, it seems it would be better to have a middle ground some other way. Don't take the best teachers of the game (good HS and MS coaches) and remove them from the AAU game so that they can be replaced with people who want to cash in on the kids. Just seems counterproductive in every way IF the desired outcome is kids that are better basketball players and people. 

Some of the Coaches you are referring to are not doing it for free! Trust me they are not giving up their time out of the goodness of their heart! Maybe a few! But that is the ugly part of AAU! You can stand anywhere in this State and swing a dead cat by its tail and hit 20 so called AAU Personal Trainers! And being a MS or HS Coach does not always mean you are qualified to teach kids the game! Touchy subject but as long as a HS Coach can Coach kids in AAU there will be recruiting! 

[Play 4 Fun]

16 hours ago, SJF said:

Some of the Coaches you are referring to are not doing it for free! Trust me they are not giving up their time out of the goodness of their heart! Maybe a few! But that is the ugly part of AAU! You can stand anywhere in this State and swing a dead cat by its tail and hit 20 so called AAU Personal Trainers! And being a MS or HS Coach does not always mean you are qualified to teach kids the game! Touchy subject but as long as a HS Coach can Coach kids in AAU there will be recruiting! 

I had a key word in my post. GOOD HS and MS coaches. lol....secondly as long as there are coaches in aau, there will be recruiting? There was recruiting a long time before AAU became relevant. There will be a long time after it's gone. The more these kids get to interact with technology, the more they recruit each other and plant those seeds. A lot of times, the coach doesn't have to say anything. Also, let it be known the Insell machine that ran through Shelbyville was a recruiting monster....recruiting will happen. Transfers will happen. Those are facts. No reason to penalize the kids and take GOOD coaches out of the game.