Close

Shawn Jones

DIRECTOR, ATHLETICS

Shawn has 30 years of head basketball coaching experience combined with 11 years as an athletic director. He has coached in Colorado and Texas, and has taken teams to three Final Four tournaments and a state championship. He has seen numerous players of his continue on to compete at the college and professional level of the sport. He is also proud to have seen many of his athletes become high school and collegiate coaches themselves. As director of athletics, Shawn is a key member of Ballogy’s team, driving the company’s athletic strategy, partnerships, coach engagement, and product vision. He has been married to his high school sweetheart for 32 years and they have raised three wonderful children together. Shawn has a passion for player development and the desire to assist coaches with effective, time-saving tools of administering and assessing skill development drills.

by Shawn Jones on Jan 13, 2025

Coach long enough, and odds are you will encounter a losing streak. How do effective coaches navigate periods of losing games without ultimately suffering the biggest loss of all—losing the team?

Unless your school reloads with unbelievable talent every year, there is a high chance that one season you will find yourself on the wrong end of talent and final scores. When this happens, a good coach will be wise to remember that they are coaching more than just a game and more than just a single season. They are coaching life skills to young adults, and the lessons they impart could very well make or break their players’ life success in the next decade.

I’ve used a saying for a few years now: “We don’t lose; we learn.” That has to be the mentality a coach employs when facing a losing streak. How are we learning? Are we getting better? I have no issues (except perhaps pride and competitiveness) with losing to a better team. That’s just sports. I do, however, have an issue with losing to inferior teams. If you’re in a losing streak that includes inferior teams, you have issues that need to be corrected—far greater than just learning and getting better. You have a culture and leadership problem—a whole other discussion.

I am referring to losing games sequentially to equal or better teams. It happens. Winning is hard. If talent is generally equal, winning comes down to so many little things and intangibles. When a coach finds themselves in the midst of a losing streak, it is vital that they keep the team together and focused on learning and improving.

Identify areas where you are getting beaten. Is it the rebounding battle? Is it turnovers leading to transition points? Perhaps it’s shot selection leading to low shooting percentages. Once you identify areas that can be corrected, you can address them specifically and begin to improve. Chart the success and growth of these areas and make them focal points in your preparation. Celebrate growth and improvement in these areas to help your team learn, even in a loss. Remember—you are never as good as they say when you win, and you are never as bad as they say when you lose. Keep perspective!

Life will try to throw defeats at your players long after they leave your program. Relationships are hard, employers can be difficult to work for, sickness and disease attack our bodies, and financial situations strain everyone. It is during these times that athletics can be one of the greatest teachers in preparing to overcome the losing streaks of life. Coaches can teach players how to lose a game with dignity and class, while having the fortitude to identify weaknesses and work to improve, rather than curling up in the fetal position when things get hard and wanting to quit. Players who have been prepared to fight through adversity in sports will be more equipped to handle the challenges that life throws at them.

Finally, in the middle of a losing streak, the most important thing is the management of relationships. The period during sequential losses will either bond a team tightly together or tear it apart. It is paramount that the coach cultivates and nurtures the relationships in the locker room. Players must know they are loved and valued as people, not just as pawns in the win/loss column. This personal, human approach will go a long way in helping a team come out of a losing streak.

Winning is like medicine a lot of times. It sure does make you feel better. However, properly managing a losing streak can act like a vaccine. Navigating a tough stretch of losing can inoculate a team from losing later on. Identifying weak points, strengthening relationships, challenging players to get better, and everyone doing the little things right can be the antidote to losing that turns things around and makes winning possible again. But above all, the greatest lesson to be learned during a losing streak is to never give up, never quit, and never give in. That is a life skill that is deteriorating in our country. Teach your players to be winners in life!