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Keady: Parental involvement not always a positive
March 27, 2005
BY TAYLOR BELL
After completing his 25th and final season as Purdue's head basketball coach, Gene Keady was asked to reveal the most significant change he had experienced in his long and successful career.
Shot clock? No. Three-point line? No. Recruiting? No. Street agents? No. AAU influence? No. Shoe wars? No. National television exposure? No.
"Parents,'' Keady said. "Now we call parents 'helicopters' because they are always hovering over their child. They should let the coach and the child learn about each other. Parents are motivated in many ways. They live their lives through their child or they don't think the coach will develop their child enough to be an NBA player or isn't giving their child enough playing time.''
Keady, who coached for 47 years at the high school, junior college and college levels, hastens to emphasize that uppity or disgruntled parents weren't the reason he didn't enjoy much success in recent years. But he admits some of them made his life less enjoyable.
It wasn't that way when Keady arrived at Purdue in 1980. In those days, recruiting was more civil.
In Chicago, Keady went to boys clubs to scout talent in the summer. In a time before rental cars, he learned of all the stops on the El, where to get off to get to schools on the South Side and West Side. He successfully recruited two of the best players ever produced in the city, Manley's Russell Cross and Mount Carmel's Melvin McCants.
"In those days, you would go through the high school coach and the parent only,'' Keady said. "You would sell the high school coach and make him understand what you were doing. You could outwork other college coaches because you could go on the road all the time. The hardest workers got the best players. You didn't have to sell AAU people or shoe people.''
But Keady began to notice a change in the early 1990s. For a man who was used to doing things his way and the right way, it was a tough initiation.
"We started to get hassled by AAU coaches and street agents,'' Keady said. "They started to get greedy. They wanted to get money through the kids who would be professionals. They turned recruiting into a profit-making business. Now AAU coaches have more influence on kids than their high school coaches or even their parents. And colleges have to adapt to the change.''
In 2000, Keady had a team that almost qualified for the Final Four. But recruiting began to struggle. Good players weren't interested in coming to Purdue. Keady wanted to know why. Upon investigation, he learned that some parents were bad-mouthing the program to recruits. Later, he learned the same negative approach was being used on other campuses.
"It was always the parents whose sons were lazy or didn't have self-motivation, and they were blaming the coaches for their failures, instead of asking their kids to shut up and listen to the coaches or telling them to get jobs in the summer,'' Keady said.
When he began to feel parental pressure about five years ago, Keady arranged for parent meetings before the first exhibition game. He brought in athletic trainers and academic people. He outlined his philosophy. But not every parent bought into his program. It was very frustrating.
"Parents are involved too much,'' Keady said. "I tell them not to call me on Sunday night to ask why their kids aren't playing more. One parent called and said his kid wasn't shooting enough three-pointers because another kid was shooting too much. Well, the truth was his kid was shooting more than anyone in the history of Purdue.
"Parents should understand that coaches aren't trying to ruin kids. But they get out of whack because their kids are named to All-America teams and they think they are better than they really are, that they don't need coaching. All the great players I have coached never thought they were very good. They had confidence but didn't think they were very good so they had to work harder. Kids who have bad attitudes and don't produce think they are better than they are.''
Keady's advice to parents?
*"Let your child and the coach work it out. A coach will try to make a kid the best he can be. Go to class and get a degree in case you don't get drafted and make it as a pro.''
*"Support the coach and investigate him to see if he is true to his word. Make sure your son works on his fundamentals and goes to class. Remember, only 1 percent of college seniors will get an NBA tryout. If you have a 6-10 kid who can play, he probably will make the NBA. From there on down, it's a lot of hard work.''
Keady said his 47-year career in basketball was blessed with 42 years of great relationships with parents. "It was just the last five years ...'' he said.
"It was amazing that it went on when we had so much success doing it the right way. Don't they watch what we do? If I hadn't been at Purdue for so long, I could see why they would second-guess me. But I have no regrets whatsoever. Most parents totally backed what I said and knew I would treat their child right. But not all parents are like that.''
Copyright © The Sun-Times Company
March 27, 2005
BY TAYLOR BELL
After completing his 25th and final season as Purdue's head basketball coach, Gene Keady was asked to reveal the most significant change he had experienced in his long and successful career.
Shot clock? No. Three-point line? No. Recruiting? No. Street agents? No. AAU influence? No. Shoe wars? No. National television exposure? No.
"Parents,'' Keady said. "Now we call parents 'helicopters' because they are always hovering over their child. They should let the coach and the child learn about each other. Parents are motivated in many ways. They live their lives through their child or they don't think the coach will develop their child enough to be an NBA player or isn't giving their child enough playing time.''
Keady, who coached for 47 years at the high school, junior college and college levels, hastens to emphasize that uppity or disgruntled parents weren't the reason he didn't enjoy much success in recent years. But he admits some of them made his life less enjoyable.
It wasn't that way when Keady arrived at Purdue in 1980. In those days, recruiting was more civil.
In Chicago, Keady went to boys clubs to scout talent in the summer. In a time before rental cars, he learned of all the stops on the El, where to get off to get to schools on the South Side and West Side. He successfully recruited two of the best players ever produced in the city, Manley's Russell Cross and Mount Carmel's Melvin McCants.
"In those days, you would go through the high school coach and the parent only,'' Keady said. "You would sell the high school coach and make him understand what you were doing. You could outwork other college coaches because you could go on the road all the time. The hardest workers got the best players. You didn't have to sell AAU people or shoe people.''
But Keady began to notice a change in the early 1990s. For a man who was used to doing things his way and the right way, it was a tough initiation.
"We started to get hassled by AAU coaches and street agents,'' Keady said. "They started to get greedy. They wanted to get money through the kids who would be professionals. They turned recruiting into a profit-making business. Now AAU coaches have more influence on kids than their high school coaches or even their parents. And colleges have to adapt to the change.''
In 2000, Keady had a team that almost qualified for the Final Four. But recruiting began to struggle. Good players weren't interested in coming to Purdue. Keady wanted to know why. Upon investigation, he learned that some parents were bad-mouthing the program to recruits. Later, he learned the same negative approach was being used on other campuses.
"It was always the parents whose sons were lazy or didn't have self-motivation, and they were blaming the coaches for their failures, instead of asking their kids to shut up and listen to the coaches or telling them to get jobs in the summer,'' Keady said.
When he began to feel parental pressure about five years ago, Keady arranged for parent meetings before the first exhibition game. He brought in athletic trainers and academic people. He outlined his philosophy. But not every parent bought into his program. It was very frustrating.
"Parents are involved too much,'' Keady said. "I tell them not to call me on Sunday night to ask why their kids aren't playing more. One parent called and said his kid wasn't shooting enough three-pointers because another kid was shooting too much. Well, the truth was his kid was shooting more than anyone in the history of Purdue.
"Parents should understand that coaches aren't trying to ruin kids. But they get out of whack because their kids are named to All-America teams and they think they are better than they really are, that they don't need coaching. All the great players I have coached never thought they were very good. They had confidence but didn't think they were very good so they had to work harder. Kids who have bad attitudes and don't produce think they are better than they are.''
Keady's advice to parents?
*"Let your child and the coach work it out. A coach will try to make a kid the best he can be. Go to class and get a degree in case you don't get drafted and make it as a pro.''
*"Support the coach and investigate him to see if he is true to his word. Make sure your son works on his fundamentals and goes to class. Remember, only 1 percent of college seniors will get an NBA tryout. If you have a 6-10 kid who can play, he probably will make the NBA. From there on down, it's a lot of hard work.''
Keady said his 47-year career in basketball was blessed with 42 years of great relationships with parents. "It was just the last five years ...'' he said.
"It was amazing that it went on when we had so much success doing it the right way. Don't they watch what we do? If I hadn't been at Purdue for so long, I could see why they would second-guess me. But I have no regrets whatsoever. Most parents totally backed what I said and knew I would treat their child right. But not all parents are like that.''
Copyright © The Sun-Times Company
