Middle School Athletics - Fish out of Water

I was cut from a team for the first time when I was 12 years old. I was in eighth grade and I tried out for my middle school basketball team. I had played recreational basketball for many years. I knew how to dribble and how to shoot. I knew how to not travel with the ball. But I was surprised how much about basketball I did not know. I did not know how to set or use a pick. I did not know how to do a layup properly. I did not understand how to move without the ball. I thought I knew the game, but in many ways I was lost on the court during those tryouts. I was devastated when I was told that I did not make the team. It was my first experience with interscholastic athletics and I felt like a fish out of water.

Many middle school students feel like a fish out of water. They feel out of place. They do not know if they fit. They feel this way not just in athletics but in virtually every area of life. In this season of growing, how should we think about athletics and competition? What ideas should help us steer adolescents through this period of development and change from childhood to adulthood? I want to share some thoughts from my experiences as an athletic director and principal in these middle years. I hope they help coaches primarily understand the goals God has for their players in this season as well as some strategies to accomplish those goals.