We attended a couple of junior college practices this week and watched one team who had 4 regulars out due to injury and other issues which got us thinking about how important veteran leadership is.
Just watching the practice and how the players reacted to the change of drills you could see the coaching staff get more frustrated as practice went along as first year players struggle with recognizing a drill and getting it started quickly. As most of us deal with, practice time is finite, we don't have the luxury of wasting time in the gym as there is another team or group coming in after you. Wasting valuable time while players figure out what spots to go to or what to do next is the last thing that you want to be doing in practice.
However, it is exactly this kind of recognition that separates good teams from mediocre teams; the ability to quickly realize change and capitalize on it. The old adage rings true, the best thing about freshmen is they become sophomores.
The role of veteran leadership also helps mentor players, not only in where to go and what to do, but what to look for in a certain game situation. If you're running a zone offense and a hi/lo feed is available on a reversal, a veteran can point that out and reinforce the coach's philosophy on playing a zone. There are thousands of nuances within the game that a veteran can transmit to a younger player than can increase their learning rate.
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