Sports America, Inc: We Do Everything But Play the Game

Issue #105
by Wayne Ellis, Sports America

"Tuxedo Players" Need Not Apply
Playing the Game the Right Way… To the Tune of 1300+ Wins

Last week, The Winner’s Edge caught up with Morgan Wootten, the country’s all-time winningest high school basketball coach.

Coach Wootten began our chat by sharing with me a quote:

In coaching basketball, you coach the game, but more importantly, you coach for life beyond the game.”

It formed the foundation of his 51-year coaching and teaching career and ultimately allowed him to post some of the most remarkable achievements in coaching history, including:

More than 1300 career victories, believed to be the record for high school coaches
1,274 - 192 won-loss record in his 46 years at Dematha High School in Maryland, for an .869 winning percentage – first all-time at any level, for a basketball coach with more than 500 wins
44 straight seasons with 20 or more wins at Dematha, longest streak ever

For an extended summary of Wootten's career, see the Post Game Highlights at the end of this article.

But if you asked Coach Wootten himself, he’d probably tell you that the biggest highlight of his career was the 30-year stretch that saw every senior on his team earn a full college scholarship. That’s more than 250 kids who went on to college for free (or close to it) thanks to Coach Wootten.

Not Coaching Today... But Teaching Forever

Coach Wootten hung up his whistle for good in 2002, but he’s still active in the basketball community with his camps, speaking engagements, charitable organizations and as the Player Selection Chairman for McDonald’s High School All American Basketball Game.

So, in keeping with the spirit of the earlier quote, we asked the Coach which of the lessons that he emphasized during his coaching career held true now, outside of the actual game. His answer was typically concise: “Play the game the right way.”

It’s the same thing he would say to young players, to help them become the best players possible. And, even though we didn’t ask, it’s probably the same answer he’d give to the question of why he was so successful in his coaching career.

So, we asked how does someone play the right way?

Coach Wootten had a number of excellent examples to describe the right way to play, but perhaps the best way is to first show you what isn’t the right way to play.

Don’t Be a “Tuxedo Player” If You Want to Succeed

Coach calls players that don’t play the right way, “Tuxedo Players,” and even if you’ve never heard that term before, you probably already know what he’s talking about...

This is the player that would rather show off dribbling between his legs at the top of the key than hit an open cutter going toward the basket… the kind of player who considers a fade-away three-pointer a better shot than a 12-foot backboard jumper because it’s harder to make.

Unfortunately, ESPN and other highlight shows seem to be drawn more frequently toward "Tuxedo Players," leading to a generation of kids sorely lacking in fundamentals. Left unchecked, some of these players are good enough to get by at the primary or high school levels on pure talent.

However, once they find themselves at the next level playing against kids who may have the same or better physical skills, they’ll also come up against players who do have fundamental skills, and when that happens these “Tuxedo Players” will get burned.

Fundamentals Start Early, and So Does the
Wootten Summer Camp

Playing the game right starts with fundamentals. These include everything that you might think of as a basic basketball skill: passing, dribbling, rebounding, shooting – and all of the individual components that make up these skills.

Coach Wootten’s Summer Camps (put on with his son Joe, the Head Basketball Coach at Bishop O’Connell of Arlington, VA) are specifically designed for boys ages 6-18 and girls ages 9-18 to improve their fundamental skills. Of course, along the way, they’ll also become better basketball players, and hopefully better people.

Each day at camp contains at least 3 fundamental learning periods. Each camper also has the option of taking part in two more optional fundamental periods – one in the morning and one at night. These fundamental skills include:

Developing greater agility in the players
Improving ball-handling (dribbling and passing) skills
Shooting skills, along with moves to help players get a good shot
Team (and individual) defense principles, such as stance, spacing and steps
And much, much more

At the end of each week, the campers get detailed report cards telling them which skills they need to work on, and the specific drills that can help improve that skill.

In addition, each day, the campers participate in games or contests that help reinforce a fundamental skill or provide an outlet for demonstrating their mastery of these skills, such as: 1-on-1 or 3-on-3, foul shooting (and other shooting games such as knock-out), ball handling, agility drills, etc.

In a sense, the Wootten Camps never end, as each camper is given an individualized workout sheet detailing the drills and skills they need to create their own workouts away from camp.

Playing the Game Right Establishes Values

Coach Wootten’s camps also helps young players to understand that playing the game right involves decisions and skills not readily displayed on the court.

For example, playing the game right has a great deal to do with respecting the game and yourself. Players that respect the game don’t cheat or bend the rules to get an unfair advantage. They strive to become the best player, and the best team, inside of the rules. Same goes for their bodies.

Respecting your body means not putting things into it that can give you an unfair advantage or alter your reality. It means competing on a level playing field, both internally and externally.

Coach Wootten’s camp helps kids to understand that the values they learn on the court also apply off the court. Each day, the campers participate in group activities like skits or plays that dramatize making the right choices on and off the court. Often these are humorous events, but the lessons they teach are very real.

As Coach Wootten says, “Beware of the choices you make, because they make you.”

By keeping the focus on playing the game right, learning fundamentals and respecting the game and themselves, campers come out of the Wootten Summer Camps better equipped to compete on and off the court. If you’d like to learn more about Coach Wootten’s Camps, you can go to his website at: http://www.coachwootten.com/.

Immortalized for Playing the Right Way

One final comment about the quote that Coach Wootten shared: it’s engraved on the award presented by the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame that bears his name. The Morgan Wootten Award for Lifetime Achievement is presented each year to one boys' coach and one girls' coach to recognize and honor their extraordinary results in (and significant contribution to) the game of basketball at the high school level.

The inaugural winners of the award are Jack Curran of Archbishop Molloy High School in Briarwood, NY; and Leta Andrews of Granbury High School, located in Granbury Texas. For more information on these two worthy recipients, visit http://www.hofmag.com/content/view/549/190/

Conclusion

To have done something right for 51 years is commendable, in and of itself. However, when you’ve done that better than anyone else has in history, that’s Hall of Fame caliber. It just so happens that Coach Morgan Wootten was inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame on October 13th, 2000.

But that’s only one validation of a career that’s succeeded on so many different levels. By providing a solid role model to his players, by helping players, coaches and children learn to “play the game right” both in basketball and in life, Coach Wootten really has earned a place in the humanitarian hall of fame as well.

For more information on Coach Wootten himself, or his camps, visit his website at: http://www.coachwootten.com/

Post Game HIGHLIGHTS

Morgan Wootten’s career highlights and honors:

At the time of his induction, compiled a 1,213-183 record, first all-time among high school basketball coaches and the highest winning percentage (.870) of any basketball coach with more than 500 wins
Upon retirement, Coach Wootten had posted more than 1300 wins – making him the winningest coach in the history of U.S. sports
Under Wootten, DeMatha has won mythical national championships (1962, 1965, 1968, 1978, 1984)
Wootten's 1984 team (29-2) was USA Today's national champion
USA Today National Coach of the Year, 1984
Two DeMatha teams have gone undefeated (28-0 in 1977-78 season; 30-0 in 1990-91 season) Wootten's game against Bladensburg on January 5, 2000 marked his sixth decade of coaching.
Wootten has coached in the 1950s, 60's, 70's, 80's, 90's and now in 2000.
Owns the longest continuous streak of 20 or more win seasons with 42 With DeMatha's win over Pallotti on January 15, 2000, Wootten became the first basketball coach, at any level (high school, college or pro) to reach 1,200 wins
DeMatha has won 31 conference championships
Team has finished ranked No. 1 in the Washington, D.C. area 20 times in the last 33 years
DeMatha teams have been ranked No.1 in the Washington Post in 21 of the last 38 years
Recorded his 1,000th career victory on January 22, 1993, making him the first coach to reach this milestone – at any level, professional, collegiate or high school
During his 46 years at Dematha, Coach Wootten’s record included 1274 wins vs. only 192 losses
The 1965 DeMatha team broke the 71-game winning streak of Lew Alcindor's Power Memorial team
Over 20 of his former coaches or players are now coaching on the collegiate level, including: Sidney Lowe at North Carolina State, Derek Whittenberg at Fordham, Mike Brey at Notre Dame, Heath Shroyer at Wyoming, Ronnie Everhart at Duquesne, and Joe Mihalich at Niaagra.
Roughly 150 of his former players have played college basketball, while a dozen have played in the NBA, including Adrian Dantley (now, Asst. Coach of the Denver Nuggets) and Danny Ferry (now GM of the Cleveland Cavaliers)
Wootten has also coached such notable players as Kenny Carr, Sidney Lowe, Derek Whittenberg, Joe Kennedy, Adrian Branch, and current CBS Sportscaster James Brown.
Basketball Hall of Fame's John W. Bunn Award (1991)
First recipient of the Walt Disney Award presented to the top sports coach in the United States (1991)
Honored by the Naismith Club as the Outstanding High School Coach of the 20th Century
Former "Washingtonian of the Year"
Charter member, Washington, D.C., Basketball Hall of Fame
Chosen by Sports Illustrated as one of "the 50 greatest sports figures from Maryland"

For more information on Coach Wootten’s Summer Camps, visit the following website: http://www.coachwootten.com/

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