Walking On is no Walk in the Park
June 29th, 2009 - byThis past week I had the chance to talk with the top assistant coach of a division one basketball program that is one of the best in the country. Our conversation focused on walk-ons.
“I have always told kids that they should play at the college level where they are getting the most recruiting interest,” the assistant coach said. “Like any other program, we use walk-ons but we are very up front with them. We tell them it is highly unlikely they will play in games, or even in practice for that matter. They will be in the drills, but when we go live in practice they will be watching unless we have 3 guys out with bad ankles or something. Some walk-ons cling to that hope that one day they will play some. I tell them that if they do start playing then I get fired because it shows I am not doing the job in recruiting. The last thing I want is for walk-ons to play in games. For some reason, when a scholarship player leaves, walk-ons think that means playing time for them. We had a scholarship athlete transfer last summer. A walk-on wanted a meeting with our head coach to discuss his role. Well, his role didn’t change one bit. He wasn’t going to play because a scholarship player transferred.”
“I played Division 3 basketball and was even on the J.V. team part of that time,” added the assistant coach. “I loved playing. I’d hate to think what would have happened to me had I gone to a big school and just done intramurals. Who knows what I would have gotten into. Playing college sports kept me focused and set me up for a coaching career.”
I thought his comment about getting fired if walk-ons played was eye opening. It makes sense. It is why High School athletes need to be very careful about the walk-on route.
Final word: Another great take on walking-on by Joseph Curtis.
