Children of China

My 11 days in China have come to a close.

I accepted an invitation from a friend and former coaching associate from Bethune-Cookman University. He has travelled the world assisting with various coaching clinics and seminars. We have discussed me being a part of these basketball odysseys before but I never put much stock in these whimsical hoop escapades. That was until I got a call and asked if I wanted to accompany him to China to assist a guy who needed two experienced coaches to help him in China. He wasn’t sure if it would happen but he wanted to line up another coach, just in case.

I told him I was interested and hung up the phone with a smirk.

My phone rang again in the morning and things instantly moved at a feverish pitch. We were scheduled to leave in nine days and I needed a Visa to go with my passport. I wondered what had I gotten myself into.I found out from Toronto to Shanghai was fifteen hours non-stop! It was going to be way too late to secure an exit row seat for my 6’6 carcass and I was going to stuffed into the seat built for the 5’7 guy. Ugggggghhhh.

My family was more excited than me, as they understood the significance of the opportunity. Any husband worth his salt knows his wife knows better than he does, especially mine. I call her TWTKE …..behind her back. That’s the acronym for The Wife That Knows Everything.

My daughters and wife were 125% correct!

It was a great experience.

We landed in Shanghai and there was no one there to meet us. Shanghai is roughly three times the size of NYC, so we were in panic mode because my friend Rick hadn’t been there before, either. An hour later we were picked up and talk about being thankful!

There are so many things to say but here are a couple of observations from Shanghai, Hong Kong airport and ZhongShan, Guang Dong.

First throw out everything you know about Chinese food from America. No General Tso’s, egg foo young, lemon-pepper chicken anywhere. I was in panic mode.

There was a restaurant that had french fries and I put in a double order and everyone reached in to devour them. It was too late to tell them it was my meal and not a appetizer for the table.

They eat so healthy it is amazing. The meals are loaded with vegetables. My diet has completely changed, at least for now.

They do stare at tall people, a lot. They often walk up and ask for you to take a selfie with them.

There is so much to absorb about the beautiful culture and legacy it made my head spin. But the exuberance and beauty of their children is breathtaking.

When they are in the gym, they absolutely love basketball. I have been around basketball my entire life and I have never seen anything like it. Their faces light up like glow sticks in the dark. They hang on your every word even though few understand English. They try to emulate every drill you show them. If you make a shot when you are demonstrating something, they cheer like it’s the NBA Finals.

To be a small part of the establishment of basketball academies in that country was really special.

Seeing my Florida A&M University Basketball MEAC Championship rings was one of the highlights for the students. They took hundreds of pictures of the rings, posted them on social media, wore them and nearly fought over the chance to touch them.

Sports had a way of making the flight shorter and the world smaller. The flight is not comfortable but the bright light in the eyes of the children of China make it more than worthwhile.

I would squeeze into that seat again for the chance to make a small difference.

Mickey Clayton, former Men and Women’s conference winning basketball coach at Florida A&M University, Owner/CEO of INSiiGHTS Sports

Tallahassee Student-Athletes become Teachers

by Mickey Clayton

Usually the chronicles of life teaches those involved in sports how to deal with the complications of life. This year the situation was reversed as life used the teams to show the community how to deal with the challenges of life.

Take the improbable journey of the youthful collection of basketball players from Florida High School and their youthful coach Darryl Marshall. None of them old enough to remember the state tournament being anywhere other than Lakeland and many of them not even knowing where Lakeland is. They attack their goal with a tenacity absent in many older and more mature teams as they don’t let others decide their fate by minimizing their lack of experience. They discounted those who tried to hang a weight scripted with “too young” around their necks. They continued to believe in themselves.

The same could be said for the youthful squad of the FAMU High School Baby Rattlers who blended youth and experience to craft another state championship. Minus the signature dominating players of the past, the Baby Rattlers embodied the “heart of a Champion” and refused to falter when pressed. They focused on one thing and wanted to prove the naysayers wrong. Their laser eyed focus was obvious when they were faced with an opponent that tried to physically intimidate them with hard fouls. They responded to the challenge of their much larger opponent and dismissed them with a series of lightening Rattler bites. The much smaller and younger Baby Rattlers left the court as champions, again.

Lincoln High School boys team continues to take body blows as the Trojans continue to stand tall. When faced with losing their coach amidst a whirlwind of accusations, the team continues to use the swirling winds to shape a stronger unit. The tempest stripped the team of frivolous distractions and forced the team to focus on the team goals that they set at the beginning of the season. In dedicating their season, they have become a team with a cause. Their commitment and focus should be a beacon to those dealing with individual problems.

The Girls of Rickards were a team devoid of any seniors. They dominated the regular season and didn’t often taste the bitterness of losing.The journey to Lakeland was high-jacked inside the gym of Jacksonville Ribault High School. They accomplished a lot and many have applauded them but the goals they set for themselves have not been actualized. Will the narrowing focus of their youthful stare motivate them to achieve their collective goal? The hardening of the jaw lines on the faces of the Lady Raiders will be a storyline for next year.

The Godby Cougars have fought and clawed the entire season. Coach Coville may have crafted his best job this year. He completely replaced his starting unit, replacing his graduating seniors. They blocked dissenters out and followed his lead. The heart of the Cougars could not be questioned. They realized and maximized their strengths as they masterfully hid their deficiencies. When the reality of life set a blind pick on them, they stood up and brushed themselves off. They did not complain, they did not whine, they honored their fallen Cougar and continued to play.

There is a lot to be said about the boys and girls that play basketball in the city called Tallahassee. These emerging men and women come from assorted backgrounds, various ethnic backgrounds and have different objectives in life.

We can all take a page from them as our children have become teachers.

Tallahassee should be proud of them.

The writer, Mickey Clayton currently owns and operates an on-line sports talk show at www.INSiiGHTS.com (@INSiiGHTS) and is the Executive Producer of the weekly television sports show on WCTV 2, INSiiGHTS High School Game-of-the-Week.

Don’t Leave your Child’s Future to Chance

Coaching and parenting are both extremely difficult jobs and while some aspects of the two are inter-changeable, many important ones are not. I have been a Division I Head Coach in women’s basketball and a Division I Head Coach in men’s basketball, as well. I have won championships in both. I coached on the traveling team circuit and coached my three daughters. That is a whole different story in itself, believe me. I also played collegiately.

I have since retired but I get asked a lot of questions about the game and the recruiting processes.

Here are just some of my thoughts and I would love to hear yours, too.

As an traveling team coach, it amazed me the number of times a college coach would ask, “…who else is recruiting him/her?”

Why does that matter? Does that validate to you the individuals talent level because state college is or is not recruiting them?

Advice: Do your homework, coach. Get ahead of the curve, often times a student and their parent remember the first offer and first college contact.

True stories: My institution signed a 7’1 kid who was a playground legend who attended a church school, without athletic sport teams. He had TWO offers and played in the NBA when he left our school.

Another MEAC school signed a 6’10 high schooler, who had NO college offers. He led them to a conference championship and is currently playing in the NBA.

INSiiGHTS televised a game with a running back who eventually ended up leading the state of Georgia in rushing. At the time of the broadcast he had no offers. I personally called three institutions who didn’t follow up. Now several SEC schools are recruiting him. Perhaps they have been watching our games

Advice: Never put all of your confidence in the coaches, always be involved in the process.

True stories: I had just stopped coaching collegiately and had far more confidence in coaches than I should have. When my daughter was a senior, my youngest daughter told me she had found a box that was full of letters from college coaches addressed to her sister. Being young she didn’t think anything about it until she found out that we never received those letters from the colleges and that the Coach subsequently had thrown them away.

There were two All-State selections from a record setting program. We had been unable to break the code to reach them. Much later, it was revealed that the coach was saving them for another school and was blocking all communication from other institutions. That particular University decided not to offer either of them.

I received a phone call telling me they were going to sign with a small NAIA school because no one had extended an offer to them. I got there immediately and was fortunate to be able to sign. One ended up being a 4-year starter for us and the other a 3-year starter and both graduated.

Advice: Don’t believe that if you’re good enough coaches will find you. There is some degree of truth to the comment but don’t leave it all to chance.

True stories: We were able to recruit a high number of kids because we received information about a kid and sometimes from the family and sometimes from the student, themselves.

We signed one young lady who was in Sports Illustrated as a part of a segment they called, Faces in the Crowd. The segment showed various sports accomplishments of people from all over the country. She had scored some mind-boggling number of points in a game and stated she was coming to our institution. At that point in time, we had never heard of her. We researched the potential student-athlete and offered her a scholarship. She started for nearly three seasons and graduated.

Parents, do not leave it to chance.

Contact potential college coaches – do it the right way to get your child in front of coaches.

Find out how, with a tried and true system, developed from our experiences.

Click here for information on our R.E.A.C.H. Program

Our template is proven to work for children of all sports.

The writer, Mickey Clayton (@MickeyClaytonFL) has served for over forty years in athletics at Florida A&M University. He currently owns and operates an on-line sports talk show at www.INSiiGHTS.com (@INSiiGHTS) and is the Executive Producer of the weekly television sports show, INSiiGHTS High School Game-of-the-Week.