That was the general consensus among the coaches at the annual District 12-5A and 16-4A media day at Dead Fish Grill in Belton on Wednesday.
But before the coaches could wave the crying towels, share their bad jokes and plea for other area coaches to go easy on them, they were all admonished by Baylor women's coach Kim Mulkey in a fairly intense opening speech to play better defense and never be afraid to discipline their team.
In her speech, the national championship coach didn't hold much back for the coaches, telling them, "I've seen some of your teams and they don't play defense," along with, "Never be afraid to discipline a player. A lot of you coaches are scared to because you think you might lose a big game. Well, if you discipline and you bench your star, and let the team know you will, you will win in the end. You may lose that game, but you'll come out ahead."
But along with the stern words, Mulkey praised the work of the coaches, saying she could never do what they do but added they all share the same reason for coaching.
"You coach to help kids," she said. "You coach because there's a little bit of competitiveness in you and you want to see what it feels like to be in that ultimate championship game. There's nothing like winning a state championship. There's nothing like winning a national championship. Nothing.
"But out of all the coaches out there, there's only a few that have a championship ring. Don't gauge your life or success on never winning a championship."
Mulkey began the festivities talking about the one thing that most of women's basketball world is talking about: 6-8 freshman Brittney Griner, who became a sensation in high school with her dunking ability.
"Those of you who have not been to a women's game, you need to come see this woman play," Mulkey said. "And you need to get there early enough for pregame warm-ups to watch her. Because in our lifetime, you won't ever see it again. You'll never see a girl play above the rim and dunk any way she wants to like her."
mhood@temple-telegram.com
