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These are not the droids you're looking for. Or maybe they are. When asked recently about black jerseys and the difficulty of balancing players' desires and his job responsibilities, Derek Dooley spoke of persuasion and influence and . . . well, here:
"There's always that balance about what the players want," Dooley said. "My 11-year-old wants to play video games all day. If I just want to make him happy, I let him do what he wants and he's going to fall flat on his face. There's a real balance in coaching in doing what the players want and convincing them that they want to do what you want them to do."
Don't do what Dooley does just because Dooley does it. And don't do what Dooley wants you to do just because he wants you to do it. Do what you want to do that Dooley wants you to do to the extent that Dooley wants you to do it if you want to because Dooley does and so do you. These are not the droids we're looking for.
. . . .
"I prefer the middle ground," Dooley told his audience. "I don't like to do what (the players) want all the time," he added. "And I don't like to tell them what to do. I like them to tell me that they want to do what I want to do. That's a key to coaching. That's the art of it.
"If you tell them what they're going to do whether they like it or not, they're going to be out there miserable, and morale's bad. Or you can let them do whatever they want, and you're going to have no control."