Varsity Coach Quintin Johnson

9th Grade Coach Kedrick Williams Sr
Coach Kedrick began his basketball coaching career in 1999 with the Minneapolis park and recreation board. From there, Kedrick started his own youth athletic non profit where he continued to develop young athletes in the city of Minneapolis. In 2007, coach Kedrick coached his first girls team with Richfield traveling basketball. Coach Williams often tells people this was his greatest coaching challenge. The girls where not very skilled but they had huge hearts and a strong passion for winning. After losing the first game, the girls went undefeated the remainder of the season and on to win the 7th grade championship. Coach Williams talks about it being a learning lesson and credits his daughter who played point guard. Being up 3 points in the final minutes in championship game he made the coaching decision to take his daughter out of the game and put in a player with better free throw percentage. His daughter has refused to play basketball since that moment.
***Lesson: be able to fully explain decisions to players and be clear on expectations.

When asked what do you hope for the freshmen team, Coach Williams responded “My only goals for the girls this year is to first and foremost be successful “STUDENT athletes”, continue to learn basketball IQ and correct fundamentals. The girls are being prepared to succeed in the near future”. Coach Williams’ philosophy in coaching freshmen has always been to develop slowly so that they learn quickly and when they are ready they will contribute often. When speaking to parents coach Williams often leaves them with the following. I was at a coaching conference and the results of a survey of AAU athletes, both male and female were read aloud. The question was a 2 part question what is your favorite part of playing basketball and what do you like least?  The results were based on over 500 student athletes ranging from age 13-18 . Answer my favorite part of playing AAU is “I get to make new friends” …over 90%  answered that their least liked part of playing was the car ride home with mom and dad. To my parents try starting the conversation like this ….Thank you for giving me the pleasure of seeing you play.