Bess 1
Bess 1 Interview Material

The vocation I would one-day love to have is to be a “big time” women’s college basketball coach. Even if I do not become “big time,” and I am just a regular coach that is also fine with me, because Proverbs 22:1 says, “A good name is to be chosen rather than great riches, and favor is better than silver or gold.” Ron Greene was the first guest speaker that we had the opportunity to hear speak in class. He is a very well known and accomplished non-profit executive with an extensive record in helping children grow into what they aspire to be. He provides leadership, management and direction to boys and girls club organizations in completing its tasks of developing children into positive, productive, open-minded, and responsible adult citizens. Ron Greene’s overall goal if nothing else is to impact lives of people positively and that is also the goal I have set forth for myself in pursuing this career. As long as I am able to impact lives positively through my coaching, that will make it all worthwhile. I interviewed Morris Brandon who is my former AAU coach, who is now an assistant coach at Virginia Union University. He has coached many basketball teams, on all different levels, starting from Boys and Girls Clubs all the way up to the college level. He enjoys this job to the fullest because it allows him to impact lives positively, and he also gets to be around the game that he loves.
Although there are great advantages to his career, Coach Brandon also experiences some disadvantages. These disadvantages include: not being able to please everyone, and not being able to “call the shots” completely because he is not the head coach of a program yet. Even though he is not the head coach or a “big time” coach yet, he is not envious but, he is not satisfied and is working his way up to become the boss when his time comes. Coach Brandon loves his career but with advantages and disadvantages he also faces many different challenges. Some of these challenges are: learning how to deal with different personalities, being able to remember that girls are not boys so therefore, you cannot treat them as if they are, and being able to bring the right players into the basketball program each year. He has many books that influenced his career. Some examples are, How to Be Like Coach Wooten, Leading With the Heart, and The Coaching Planner. These are simply a few.
Bess 2
Bess 2 Coach Brandon has always been known for giving excellent advice, not only excellent basketball advice but excellent life advice as well. The pieces of advice he gave me in pursuing a coaching career are: learn that everyone cannot deal with the same things or same ways of communication, don’t worry about pleasing everyone because it is impossible, and love what you do and who you do it with and for. Ethical Dilemmas Competitive sports have a great impact on our culture. Sports can influence the values of millions of players and spectators. In sports today, there is a great and growing concern about the moral and ethical behavior of the people placed in leadership. Rule violations within intercollegiate athletics have risen, which has led to increased pressure on leadership to encourage positive ethical behavior. A result of the growing concern has been established by the codes of ethics made by intercollegiate conferences. Because we know that intercollegiate athletics has its share of ethical dilemmas the concept of morality is very important. Examples of ethical dilemmas in intercollegiate athletics are but are not limited to: 1) rule violations, meaning allowing a player to play regardless of the fact that the may not have all of the academic requirements to play or playing ineligible players; 2) the recruiting of amateur athletes by professional agencies; 3) whether athletes are being exploited by not being paid for their athletic endeavors; and 4) failure to keep standards by coaches or administrators, such as improper language or behavior.
Bess 3
Bess 3
In 2013, Mike Rice, the former Rutgers men’s basketball coach was caught on film verbally and physically abusing players at practice. This abuse involved: extensive use of profanity, grabbing and pushing players around, and also throwing basketballs at players. Coaches are responsible for adhering to the ethical standards set forth by the code of ethics for the NCAA. Mike Rice’s failure to adhere to these standards by exhibiting improper language and behavior ultimately cost him his job at Rutgers University. The Louisville men’s basketball scandal where the former assistant coach, Andre McGee, paid for sex and stripper parties on the Louisville campus for players and recruits is also an example of improper behavior and failure to adhere to the code of ethics set forth by NCAA leadership, which cost him his job also.
Resolutions to these ethical dilemmas could be simple. Coaches and administrators could abide by the rules and codes of conduct set forth by intercollegiate leadership, but the ideas of having the best team, winning the most games, and money are the reasons why coaches and administrators sometimes exclude the rules and codes of conduct. Case Study Chapter two case study entitled, The Bachelor Party, is about a man named Sam who was invited to a bachelor party by his manager Gordon. The bachelor party is in Miami, where they meet up with Wall Street traders with whom there company does business. The traders execute buy and sell orders for the mutual funds under Gordon’s company. Gordon and other co-workers have taken trips paid for by the traders before so Sam seems to think it is fine, although he knows that mutual fund companies are barred by law from accepting gifts from traders since the choice of traders is supposed to be governed by the best interests of investors. The trip is paid for by the traders, and they board a yacht where there is liquor, women, and drugs. Everyone has a good time, but when Sam returns home he begins to have reservations about the festivities that took place. He has lunch with his friend Laura who works for a fund manager at the firm. He talks to her about the party and makes it clear that Gordon is his supervisor. She tells him that the trip is a “breach in company values,” and that taking gifts from traders is not allowed. She also tells him that violations such as these should be reported to his supervisor, but Gordon is his supervisor. He also points out that sports tickets were given to a senior executive at the firm multiple times. What process should be taken to achieve greater ethics? I believe Sam should not have participated in the festivities if he had any reservations about the trip once he figured out what was going on. Gordon is his supervisor so he cannot report the illegality to him, but he could report it to another executive of the company that is not being given free sports tickets, or the board of the company. Not saying anything to anyone who determines the consequences would be unethical because what took place was against the law.
Bess 4
Bess 4
Valuable Lesson Learned
In conclusion, the book Coach Brandon told me to read was entitled, Leading with The Heart, written by Mike Krzyzewski and Donald Philips. As you can tell from the title the book is about leadership and elaborated on many different important points about leadership, but the most valuable pieces of information I learned from this book were: 1) how to earn leadership; 2) how to practice leadership; and 3) how to use leadership positively in not only taking your organization to the top, but also positively impacting the lives of many different people.
Bess 5
Bess 5