For the last three weeks I’ve talked about raising the bar for girls basketball. Now let’s get into some real talk here.

What does it really take to raise the bar?

For me, it starts with the coaches.

We need more coaches teaching and developing the kids with the necessary tools to make them successful on the court. Whether you’re a coach in high school, Bantam, club or just a parent coach, we need to step up our game to help these kids really grow.

This has been a hot topic for years now.

When you get into coaching youth basketball, you don’t get in it for the money. There’s no money in it. You do it for the pure love of basketball and working with the kids.

So can we really ask a lot from a coach in that situation? What person is going to commit 20-25 hours a week with a high school coaching job that doesn’t pay? You have daily practices for two hours, with game days being seven hours.

That’s only a fraction of it. You also have grade checks, meetings with players, parents, administrators and media and putting out fires from drama that’s going on with the team (trust me, there will be fires you have to put out!).

You’ll spend hours watching film and breaking down the game you just played or scouting the next opponent. Then you have to create a practice or game plan for the next day: What do we need to work on from the last game or practice? What are we emphasizing today? Where are we physically and mentally? What are we doing today to prepare them for the next game?

Then in real life, you have your 9-5 job, which you actually can’t have if you’re a coach. It has to be something that will allow you to be at practice between 1-6 p.m., depending on the day, and 2-9 p.m. on game days.

Oh, and let’s not forget about your family.

Here’s the kicker: You do all that for just $2200 per year. That’s the most I was ever paid.

This should give you a different perspective of your high school coach.

The commitment is hard, but we should still have high expectations for the coach, and trust that the administration hired the best candidate that will develop your child and build a successful program.

They decided they wanted to be a coach, so they’d better be competitive and prepared. They’d better do what they ask of their kids, which is work hard to improve their skills.

As a coach, you can improve by studying the game, strategies and schemes. You need to be prepared for any scenario or situation, and make the necessary adjustments in games and practices.

This is a big flaw that I see in the game today. There are not enough adjustments being made during the game.

I’m a victim of this at times but I take great pride in making adjustments to plays, defenses and strategy.

I’m always changing things up and adding things on the fly. If I see a way that we can exploit what the other team is doing, I’ll make that change.

Or if we’re being exploited, then you best believe I will be making a change.

I also think there needs to be more skill development going on in practices and even in pre-game warmups.

I feel the kids need to shoot and handle the ball more in practice. This is where they can build the confidence in their shot or in their ballhandling so come game time, they’re ready to do it.

In most gyms today there are eight baskets so the lines for drills should be short. That way every kid gets a ton of reps because development is all about getting reps.

This is why I brought up pre-game warmups. It’s another opportunity to get the kids some reps.

But when I watch, I see that kids are only getting maybe 10 shots up in 20 minutes, often waiting in Disneyland-length lines.

They work on 3-on-2 and 2-on-1 drills. In those drills, they’re not attacking the rim hard and creating a shot or foul.

How many times are you going to be that situation, especially at the pace they go in warmups?

Not all the blame is on the coach.

We need to hold the players accountable as well.

Did they prepare themselves enough before the season started? After a bad game, did they go early or stay late after practice to work on it?

As for me, when I hear complaints I often just hear about problems and excuses.

I don’t want to hear them.

Let’s not make excuses. Instead, let’s do something about it.

How do we do that?

The way to do that is to watch film and really see what went on — because film doesn’t lie.

I don’t let my kids play that victim role. I always say, “Well, you can cry about it or you can do something about it. I’m not about problems, I’m about solutions.”

Most of the time when they watch film, they realize it wasn’t what they thought happened. Now you’re able to slow things down to show them, rewind or pause it. During the game you can’t do that.

After the game you watch film, and you can show them what they can do next time to be in a better position to finish or make a play. Their recall memory isn’t there yet for most kids, and when you can show them and they see it, they’ll have a better understanding of it.

The next time when they’re in those situations they’ll be better prepared. It’ll help a lot more than telling them during or after the game.

I have a bigger impact on my players when I watch film with them. This is one of the reasons why I don’t say much during the games I watch. Most of the time I’m not even talking basketball at the games.

Working hard is one component but you add in working smart and now you’ll start to see real growth happen. Studying the game through film and getting the reps up whenever and wherever is working smart.

Let’s all do our part in raising the bar in girls basketball.

This is the last week of region games for 5A and 6A teams before their state tournament begins. The brackets for 2A will be finalized on Feb. 12 and their state tournament begins on Feb 15.

Get out and watch these girls battle it out down the stretch.

Games to watch

Feb. 15: Skyridge at Pleasant Grove (5:15 p.m.), Jordan at Timpview (7 p.m.) and Maple Mountain at Springville (7 p.m.)

Feb. 17: Lehi at Timpview (7 p.m.)

Feb. 18: Westlake at Lone Peak (5:15 p.m.)

Follow me on Instagram, @coachveeks where I post updates and clips of the games. #girlcoach