Morgan Wootten
Morgan Wootten
Morgan Bayard Woottenis an American former high school basketball coach. From 1956 to 2002, he coached at DeMatha Catholic High School in Hyattsville, Maryland. He has the second most wins as a head coach in the history of basketball on any level, behind Robert Hughes. A number of his players went on to play in the NBA, including Adrian Dantley and Danny Ferry. Wootten gained legendary status in 1965, when his DeMatha team beat Lew Alcindor's Power Memorial Academy and...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionCoach
Date of Birth21 April 1931
CountryUnited States of America
I'm glad the NCAA is pushing back the 3-point line a foot. I'm a big supporter of the 3-point shot; it's exciting. I hope the high schools adopt the same rule.
Players would empty their souls to me; you cannot fathom the stories I've heard, everything from the good to the bad. I tried whatever I could to work things out.
It's amazing the things you hear from your players talking to them one on one. I never embarrassed a player, I spoke with him alone.
That's the beauty of coaching. You get to touch lives, you get to make a difference. You get to do things for people who will never pay you back and they say you never have had a perfect day until you've done something for someone who will never pay you back.
I fell in love with coaching. I loved interacting with young people, having the opportunity to make a tremendous impression on them.
If I can pay the bills, I'm happy.
Evaluate wins and losses objectively, focusing more on effort and execution than on the outcome of the game
Leadership starts at the top.
The big thing is to make a winning effort. Im not obsessed with wins.
To be successful in coaching you have to treat your team like a family. The leader needs backing from everyone.
You get to do things for people who will never pay you back and they say you never have had a perfect day until you've done something for someone who will never pay you back.
You are the real teachers. You have these children when they are at their emotional peaks and lows. That's when they are the most pliable. It doesn't take any intelligence to send a kid home with his head hanging between his knees. But to send him home with his head up every night might show a little coaching.
True basketball coaches are great teachers and you do not humiliate, you do not physically go after, you do not push or shove, you do not berate, if you are a true coach. If you humiliate or curse them, that won't do it. Coaches like that are not coaches.
It's often been said that you learn more from losing than you do from winning. I think, if you're wise, you learn from both. You learn a lot from a loss. You learn what is it that we're not doing to get to where we want to go. It really gets your attention and it really motivates the work ethic of your team when you're not doing well.