Issues with a high school coach

[Pharmseller]

Definitely

Defiantly

Not the same word.

P

 

[Jamie930]

My daughter had a horrible bball coach in HS. She was scoring +15 a game in 8th grade and started as a freshman and the scoring continued.
This coach had not won a single game in the 2 years before. The four years she played they made the playoffs.
To make things even worse this coach won coach of the year.
He would have been a better coach just sitting there and letting the girls play and sub when necessary.
He would give up so easy, then he had a stupid play that was like keep away on the 3 point line. Even the parents from the other team would ask what he was doing.
I talked to AD her senior year about him and how most of the girls weren't coming back if he was coaching.
I think he saw the writing on the wall and quit with my daughter leaving.

Basically you just have to deal with it.

 

[bluetick78]

Having been a HS player, and years later, a HS coach, there's a few things to take into account that most people don't think of. When a team is losing games, no one is happy. The players, coaches, parents, AD, administration, boosters, and Alumni are all unhappy. Typically the coach gets blamed, and sometimes that's where the blame belongs. As a coach though, there's a whole other world to coaching that no one else sees. You naturally feel immense amounts of pressure to maximize your team's potential. Then there's parents, oh man, the parents. Every parent on earth has raised the most talented athlete ever to cast a shadow, and they will contact a coach any time of day or night to plead their child's case. The administration is the most difficult part however. Unfortunately, most schools have some or all of their athletic administrators chosen by various methods of favoritism, especially AD's. Many of these individuals have very little or no experience operating a program within the state guidelines.
Now, I'm not defending the coaches behavior in the OP's post in any way. I am attempting to shed light on "the other side" of HS athletics that most parents and players never see. Successfully getting a team through a season, regardless of how many wins they chalk up, is incredibly difficult. If injuries are minimized, skills get better, and non one quits, that's a win in most cases. If you or your child don't like how the HS athletic experience is going, you as a parent have some options. Volunteer to help at practice or run the scorers table. Ask to be involved with SOMETHING. If you are going to ask a coach questions about your child's performance; start off with "what can I do to to help my kid be a better player?" Then go do it. Some coaches are just plain bad....but not many. Get involved. Try to understand what the coaches want to see happening, and help your player to do those things. You as a parent are mainly responsible for raising your child. If you teach them to be critical of teachers, coaches, and teammates, then those behaviors will stay with them forever and affect them and their success as an adult. Enjoy the time they get to spend playing sports. It's such a short window with such lasting effects. And most important, Calm Down. Your child WILL make mistakes. Lots of them. Don't try to blame their mistakes on other players or the officials. In fact, don't talk about them at all. That's the coaches job.

 

[T-town]

Some people are just not good at the job they are hired to do, coaches included. Those people should be replaced.

As stated previously, there's a bunch of layers to the onion of a high school team. Some parents bitch about anything and everything and become white noise to administrators and coaches. Others never want to speak up because they believe it could negatively affect their child. Playing time discussions, "Coach, what can i improve on to get back in the lineup, on the court, or on the field", should be handled by the players themselves going to the coach. Coach behavioral issues should be brought to administrators' attention by another adult.

When there is a genuine "bad coach" and the parents who never complain, start raising concerns to administration, changes should be made.

Been dealing with this the past few months with baseball. Makes you mad to watch these kids waste a year of ball because somebody was bad at their job.

 

[Unknown]

Around here school sports are all political. A pretty good percentage of the kids starting are connected to the school board, the superintendent, the athletic director, the coach etc. Needless to say the trophy cases don’t need to be expended for most team sports, and a lot of talented kids get the shaft. My kids went to a huge district and the pool of talent to pull from is huge. Should have some really strong teams, but they don’t. The exception are track and swimming where the time clock dictates who gets involved and who doesn’t. Those trophy cases are ever expanding.
But you can’t fight city hall

 

[Zak406]

I almost quit hockey because of a bad coach at 14.

Thankfully I saw the writing and went to a different organization which ended with me playing some junior hockey and then in college. Glad I didn’t quit.

What I will say is this.

Fair game for coaches at the highschool level- calling out performance good and bad, shortening benches, playing the best players. All fair.

From what I read. Not acceptable is making fun of kids. Calling kids pussies or bitches.

What needs to be remembered though is once your playing for a “job” which most college and highschool athletes are it becomes a job so being called out good and bad should be expected. I think a lot of people have a hard time understanding that. However that doesn’t mean you call them names or belittle them. It just means you have a job and you better do it. There are jobs on the line for coaches to get the most out of players. Some coaches are better at doing it than others. My most consistent and best play came when I had a hard nose coach who would tell you that you played well when you played spectacular. Say nothing when you played good or well enough. And finally you knew not to play bad or your getting an ear full. I’ve seen many kids parents who couldn’t handle little Jim being told he played bad or wasn’t good enough. Hell I saw players who couldn’t handle it. At the end of the day though name calling and making fun of kids is a no no in my book. Most everything else is fair game.

It certainly got a lot harder in juniors and college in regards to performance and consistency. You need to be on the ball