High School Geno Spoke To Me. Does He Speak To You Too?

[OldskoolKYcheercoach]

This has practically gone viral on my twitter feed from coaches across all sports and cheerleading, so it may not be the first time you've seen it. Geno Auriemma is the head coach of the UConn Huskies women's basketball team. He is the winningest coach in NCAA history. He has won more national titles than John Wooden. His team is currently on a win streak of more than 100 games over more than 3 seasons.

A few weeks ago, when I was trying to decide if it was worth it to buck the system and set my program up in a way that would allow me to easily "bench" athletes without hurting the rest of the team, I was about 85% sold. I kept battling with the decision. About a week or two ago, this clip of Geno popped up on my FB newsfeed. Geno spoke directly to me with some of my own thoughts about "cheer divas."



What do you think?

 

[oncecoolcoachnowmom]

I fluctuate game lines and front row based on a combo of skills and attitude.

I agree.

 

[ScottyB]

Geno is so good

 

[Official OWECheer]

Title creeped me out for a sec LOL. Didn't know who Geno was, but I'm definitely sharing this video.

"I'd rather lose than watch kids play the way some kids play." AMEN.

 

[ErinS]

I saw this the other day and wholeheartedly agree with him

Fortunately, unfortunately UConn WBB team is stacked to where if Katie Lou Samuelson, Kia Nurse and the other starters start acting like disinterested divas, the other 7 players are still better than the majority of their competition...if not all of their competition

Insightful as it is, the way his recruiting is set up, he has the luxury of humbling his athletes in this manner....whilst other coaches will have to do it back at practice and not on gameday


So I'm not saying I disagree (because I wholeheartedly agree), I'm just saying everybody ain't Geno and everybody ain't coaching Geno type teams. He's coming from a position of privilege in this respect. So I don't see many people able to apply this philosophy in the same manner with the same success.




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[Keep_Believing]

Wow!

 

[OldskoolKYcheercoach]

I saw this the other day and wholeheartedly agree with him

Fortunately, unfortunately UConn WBB team is stacked to where if Katie Lou Samuelson, Kia Nurse and the other starters start acting like disinterested divas, the other 7 players are still better than the majority of their competition...if not all of their competition

Insightful as it is, the way his recruiting is set up, he has the luxury of humbling his athletes in this manner....whilst other coaches will have to do it back at practice and not on gameday


So I'm not saying I disagree (because I wholeheartedly agree), I'm just saying everybody ain't Geno and everybody ain't coaching Geno type teams. He's coming from a position of privilege in this respect. So I don't see many people able to apply this philosophy in the same manner with the same success.




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You make a valid point about his roster, but I disagree that other coaches HAVE to wait until they are back at practice. I think there's solid evidence to support that when coaches place the character of their athletes above winning, that the wins will come regardless. Failure to do so breeds mediocrity and underachievement.

Look at my beloved University of Kentucky Men's basketball team. Perennially the best recruiting classes, and yet they routinely lose games in the regular season that they should win handily. I watched Bam Adebayo last night play the role of "palms up guy" the entire first half every time he would get nudged by a UCLA defender. End result: one of the top recruits out of his graduating class had zero field goals in the first half.

 

[ErinS]

You make a valid point about his roster, but I disagree that other coaches HAVE to wait until they are back at practice. I think there's solid evidence to support that when coaches place the character of their athletes above winning, that the wins will come regardless. Failure to do so breeds mediocrity and underachievement.

Look at my beloved University of Kentucky Men's basketball team. Perennially the best recruiting classes, and yet they routinely lose games in the regular season that they should win handily. I watched Bam Adebayo last night play the role of "palms up guy" the entire first half every time he would get nudged by a UCLA defender. End result: one of the top recruits out of his graduating class had zero field goals in the first half.

While Kentucky MBB is good year after year, they don't dominate the way UCONN WBB dominates and that is my point. UConn has a 110 game winning streak. There's not a single women's or men's bball team that can presently boast of that record. Even the best teams have taken an L. Aja Wilson, Kaela Davis and Allisha Gray can chose to act like divas today and tomorrow and Dawn Staley can elect to bench them....and a loss to FSU is all but guaranteed


I've watched MaKayla Epps act less than favorably during a game, but Mitchell knows he doesn't have the luxury of leaving her on the bench as punishment


You can't say that for UConn. Their best players can show out....they're still gonna beat Oregon with their bench.

If Kentucky's best men's players show out today and ole Brad is forced to play the whole game a loss to UNC is all but guaranteed.

If Sindaruis Thornwell, Chris Silva, PJ Dozier show out today and Frank Martin benches him, a loss for Carolina to Florida is guaranteed

I can't think of a single team that men or women's that is essentially guaranteed with out their best other than UConn WBB

Maybe a perennial powerhouse like U.K. Or UNC could say the same thing but....they're one and done machines. Rosters are heavily underclassmen. They recruit well, but they don't stay to build up that type of undefeated dominance yearly with the same players

Geno is coaching a different beast, so his philosophy is easily applied to his program

Dawn Stanley once benched Bianca Cuevas-Moore for throwing a towel in the second half of a game. A mess.


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