WS Chronicle

By KP Brabham

This informative article is split into several parts to avoid losing the valuable insight provided by our local coaches. I was completely shocked about how much they had to share and know it benefits us the most to have it all versus a quote here and there.

The truth is, we as parents often find ourselves struggling with the transition when it’s time for our kids to leave one level of school for the next. We’re thinking about which school to attend, what time is drop-off or the bus pick-up, who are the teachers, is there a standard mode of dress (SMOD), and if this new school will prepare my kids for their future. Then we factor in for middle and high school that now there’s a grade point average (GPA) component on the report cards and the idea of school sports tryouts.  

The answers to most of our questions are usually given during open house and within the first few weeks of school. However, basketball can start later on in the school year, leaving parents with several unanswered questions on how to get involved. I sat with a few local high school boys’ basketball coaches and found out they had quite a bit of information they wanted parents to know.  

First up is Coach Marlon Brim of Atkins Academic and Technology High School.

Coach Brim brings 10 years of coaching experience from Parkland High School, two years from Carver High School, and is closing out his seventh year at Atkins, all schools located in Winston-Salem. He agreed with my thoughts that most student-athletes by the time they enter high school look forward to playing ball on that next level. But many parents, he explained, miss the legwork it takes to help prepare their kids for the next level. Coach Brim emphasized the importance of skill work, basketball training, getting in the gym for workouts, and definitely playing for an amateur athletic union (AAU) team/organization.

“To incoming student-athlete parents, my staff and I ask for 100% commitment, to be all in with the schedule and any changes. It’s vital for student-athletes to get the full experience of high school basketball, which includes academics and practices aside from games,” Brim explained. “When my staff hosts preseason workouts, parents who are only 50-60 percent committed put the student-athlete behind on skill sets and our weightlifting schedule that’s four to five days per week. It can become frustrating for us if parents are not communicating about family conflicts with our schedule or if transportation is needed. We know 9th-graders don’t drive, so getting to and from school is a parenting necessity. If there’s an issue, or parents have to be at work, we need to know about it immediately so we can help,” affirmed Coach Brim. “Coaches are 100% committed so we can give a ride if we need to.”

Atkins is a magnet school whose student population relies on the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools (WSFCS) magnet bus route and parent transportation. With the struggles WSFCS has had with the shortage of bus drivers, parents are met with many transportation challenges that may force sports to the backburner. Yet, Coach Brim has been steadfast in building a program at Atkins that includes student-athletes from all over Forsyth County. All middle schools have the opportunity to feed into Atkins, but Coach Brim identifies himself as a ‘gym rat’ and takes time to go watch any student-athlete enrolling into Atkins. Brim expressed that he enjoys watching AAU games that occur outside of Atkins basketball and encourages others to do so to see what’s happening on that circuit to help student-athletes improve, be better, and evaluate the different levels of talent.

Coach Brim also has eight years of AAU coaching experience at the onset of Winston-Salem’s own Chris Paul’s CP3 youth basketball program. “I really enjoyed it a lot, saw a bunch of great top competition, great players, and coaches. With the CP3 program, we were able to recruit the best talent every summer, the atmosphere was intense, and we traveled a lot to Las Vegas, Florida, D.C., and many other states.” But for public high school basketball, the likes of the CP3 program are not in view. “Coaches are not allowed to recruit players to attend the school they’re coaching at, although we do have good talent coming through all our high schools. AAU is totally different from high school from the way the game is played, how physical the games are, the atmosphere of AAU games, because parents and fans will sit right on top of you in the stands, and it can become a wild and crazy atmosphere when you have some of the best talent in the country playing.

“Coaches make the best from the best they get during tryouts. Also, in North Carolina, our public high schools are allowed 24 games of play versus 60-80 AAU games. Now that number of games is not all that great on a kid’s body.  The Nike league plays X amount of games in a weekend, but other AAU teams that are not shoe-affiliated are playing every weekend. You can’t do that on the high school level in the state of North Carolina, just the set amount of games plus the playoffs and state championships.”

However, an AAU season or an unspecified number of games for our local charter and private schools match up. The charter and private schools in addition to more games, travel more, and they operate within a shorter dead period (when no sporting event can take place) set by the state and county. “Private and charter schools can offer more than public can, that’s an advantage they have, more freedom to work out and develop kids, play more games, where we’re restricted. But, student-athletes want to play with their friends, they want to participate in the big-time public school rivalries that lack in charter and public settings, and parents hope for the strong academic component to complete the picture. All parents can’t afford private school tuition. But if a kid has a high skill set, it doesn’t matter if they attend public or private school, they can be successful. Private schools look for that, kids pretty much who are developed and kids who can play at a higher level. It’s a parental choice. I like public over private because of the rivalries across the state. Private schools are getting there, but in Winston-Salem, you have a lot of rivalries, which make for a great atmosphere in the gym. You can’t find that same atmosphere in private schools.”

At Atkins, the former principal, Mr. Joseph Childers, who’s no longer with us, branded Atkins with academic excellence. Brim added, “At Atkins, academics are first, and without it, you can’t play college basketball. We know working hard in the classroom carries over into athletics. At Atkins, yes the academics will be challenging, and our student-athletes plan to succeed. My staff and I allow time for the players to spend with teachers, attend study hall, and meet with their teachers. Whatever it takes! We have kids with high GPAs who do extra to make sure everything is on point. With all our kids, as coaches, we make sure we’re in the circle of their academic process. We want to be in the know of their academic standing. We want teachers to come to us with issues, tutoring, etc. We want to be involved. Parents have to know and understand we are included.”

After the team is rostered, Brim explained how the number one question parents want to be answered is the debate over playing time. Once the program is rostered, Brim and his staff host a parent meeting to highlight critical points, discuss effective communication via parent meetings and their Groupme app. Brim stated he, among most coaches worldwide, asks his parents for at least a 24-hour waiting period for conversation after a win or a loss. “For middle school parents, it is challenging to transition and there are a lot of moving parts. We have varsity parents to help 9th-grade parents to make adjustments smoother. We also meet with the 9th-grade team as a separate group to help parents understand the process, schedule, to make it easier and smoother,” stated Brim. Added to the uncertainty of it all, Brim shared that “middle school parents have to help their kid understand they’re coming in to work hard, to get better every year. Everyone has to know the expectation of the program. Parents and players have to know some play 9th grade, on Junior Varsity (JV) or are good enough to play varsity as a 9th grader. It’s good to have a discussion to figure out what your kid’s goals are, but note there’s no guarantee to make any team.

“In middle school, there are about 10 to 12 games for the season, so parents definitely have to get their kid in another setting to stay active.” Brim added, “Some parents don’t see the bigger picture of what all it takes to get that scholarship to play ball on the college level. We all want the best for our kids, we all want our kids to be successful.  You have to let things play out. Some parents jump the gun on that, they want it right away. When kids leave schools for another school, sometimes they get it and sometimes not. It’s not just at Atkins, but the other high schools in Winston-Salem too. A lot of schools have this issue. If it doesn’t work at one school, they’ll jump from school to school. And that’s a recent case of not getting something instantly or thought something was promised, but it doesn’t work out, then parents are moving them somewhere else. But kids and parents have to learn to work through it in order to be great. Parents have to be willing to allow the coach and the school to do the best for their kids. Sometimes you have to let things play out to let it be successful. Trust the process. The process isn’t an instant gratification scenario, but our world today has us acclimated to instant gratification. Look at Stetson Bennett IV, the University of Georgia’s quarterback. He went from a walk-on to a national championship. He stuck through the process where kids would have gone into the transfer portal when things didn’t necessarily work out. But he stayed with it and led the University of Georgia to that national championship. Sometimes you have to sit back and let your kids get coached and work hard at whatever it is to reach goals and a lot of parents just don’t do that.”