Coach Gets Fired - What Do You Think?

RichPA said:
It's high school. The coach lost sight of being an educator and having the kids' best interests in mind.
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My experience suggests that most all coaches do the same thing yet would work the phones and ever drive the kid to be seen.

It's a culture of team first that make the acceptable and rational exception to the rule unthinkable to them.
 
KrisM said:
I agree.
Myself, and a bunch of friends, did the multi-sport thing in HS. We were good hockey players, and played football for the fun of it. Nobody was going anywhere with football, but many guys ended up with hockey scholarships, some ended up playing professionally(including the NHL). The football coaches knew this, and it was made clear at the start of season that if there was a conflict hockey came first. The last team I played on the coach was smart enough to schedule our hockey practices at the same time as the football ones. It was impossible to do both.
The coach in the article should have communicated team policy at the start of the season, IMO.
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There is simply not enough information n the story to tell who was wrong but my hunch is that it was more the kid than the coach not communicating well. I think when you join a team there is a reasonable expectation that you will be at practice and at the games.
 
eljr said:
What is the right answer?

I don't know.
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Agreed. My kid's high school had a rule for multi-sport players - you had to finish your first before you could start the second, and so on. The coaches could not prevent you from coming in late. Sometimes they fudged a little, but if a conflict arose, "the rule" took precedence.
 
It's school. A platform for further learning and success for the individual. It's not selfish to want to further your education with a possible scholarship. It's reality, especially these days with the cost of college.
 
JohnVF said:
It's school. A platform for further learning and success for the individual. It's not selfish to want to further your education with a possible scholarship. It's reality, especially these days with the cost of college.
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I agree but I think the problem here is how the kid went about it.

Plus, I doubt this showcase did anything to achieve his goal of being recruited. If he had an established dialogue with a coach he would not have to be at a particular showcase.

If a coach had serious interest in him he would know it and the coach would travel to see him play at a time that did not conflict with his other obligations.
 
It's fitting to ask just who high school sports belong to; the coaches, the schools or perhaps the students who engage in them. Maybe they really belong to the local Dodge dealer and other town boosters.

IF (and it's a big if) the sports are for the benefit of the students then they should be allowed to play multiple sports and make or miss games as fits their needs.
 
The coach played his cards and lost. It is his choice to kick the kid off. It is the other players choice to show support for the kid. It is the school's choice to can the coach. IMO, coach was a fool to not anticipate this outcome as a possibility.

My 11th grade boy has a couple of recommendations to the NC Governor's School next summer, a five week program in Winston Salem sponsored by the state. This is a big deal, 450 kids will be selected. He is putting full effort into his application, but knows full well that football may not allow this. You cannot miss five weeks of summer conditioning and expect to be part of the team.

I'm not sure how to play this one. He is 110% motivated and dedicated to the team. However, football will never be his future. He knows it. I know it. The coach knows it. His future lies elsewhere, and a good future it may well be. Governor's School is a step in that direction. I hope coach realizes and appreciates this.

Athletics, for as much as I love them, have messed up priorities.
 
eljr said:
There is simply not enough information n the story to tell who was wrong but my hunch is that it was more the kid than the coach not communicating well. I think when you join a team there is a reasonable expectation that you will be at practice and at the games.
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I think the lack of info is clouding the issue. And communication, or lack of, was the problem. I know if one of my teammates bailed out for his own reasons, the rest of us would have been pissed. If he stood up and told us and the coaches that he had a chance at a scholarship and had to miss a game, we would have backed him up.
I also think the chance to get "discovered" at a showcase is a bunch of bull. If the kid was that talented the scouts would be all over him anyway. They'd set up a friggin combine in his HS parking lot if they had to.
 
RamblinE said:
Yes. One must put themselves and their future first. If something is holding you back, cut it loose.
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So what happens when he gets that scholarship and is part of another team?:scratch2:
Looking out for #1 is wise, but it doesn't work when part of a team. This applies to sports and other aspects of life.
 
KrisM said:
So what happens when he gets that scholarship and is part of another team?:scratch2:
Looking out for #1 is wise, but it doesn't work when part of a team. This applies to sports and other aspects of life.
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He should still make the decisions that are in his own best interest.
 
bentpencil said:
So it's best to teach the kids that it's all about #1, and f%#@ the team?
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Good grief, that's kind of an all or nothing view of the situation, isn't it?

There are several major points at play here:

1. Both the student athlete and the school benefit from interscholastic athletics. However, there is no question, NONE, that the reason a high school exists is to prepare students for the next phase of their lives. Period.

2. The student, and nobody else, decides what the next phase of his life will be.

3. If the high school allows multi-sport athletes, as tens of thousands do, then any coach who takes the position that if you play on MY team, every other team takes a subordinate position, can't coach at that high school. There MUST be cooperation between coaches of each sport.

4. If, during his athletic time at the high school, it becomes clear to the student that he has a much better future in one sport than another, and he then decides to pursue that sport, there is no way in hell that decision can be interpreted as "&^%* the other teams". That's absurd.
 
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Holy crap, people. It's a frecking HIGH SCHOOL football team player, not a multi-million-dollar-per-year contracted player!

What if the kid was skipping a game for a job interview so he could pay for pending college tuition?
What if he had to travel with his family for a vacation?
What if he had to use the time to complete schoolwork?

The coach needs a smack on the head and some clarification of what is and isn't allowed to be done (assuming it wasn't sanctioned by school officials, which really wouldn't surprise me these days).

School sports are NOWHERE near as important as people make them out to be.
My HS held a state champ titles in football, baseball for more years than I know.

Ya' know how many of those players went on to pro or semi-pro ball?
Two that I know of.

This country needs an enema
(thank you for that line, Jack Nicholson).
 
robgmn said:
The coach needs a smack on the head and some clarification of what is and isn't allowed to be done
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Again, I am voicing an alternative view - not necessarily my opinion.


The coach is hired to coach a team. They're supposed to win, whether you or I like it or not. If the team consistently loses, the coach usually gets his walking papers, unless he happens to be a teacher also.

So, how is the coach supposed to be "successful" if he can't count on his players always being there?
 
Yep. Fire the coach.

No different than a math teacher threatening to fail a student if they miss class to attend a college interview.
 
jsisk said:
Yep. Fire the coach.

No different than a math teacher threatening to fail a student if they miss class to attend a college interview.
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Completely different. How the other kids perform in the math class isn't affected by the absence of one student. Math class isn't a team effort.
 
jsisk said:
Yep. Fire the coach.

No different than a math teacher threatening to fail a student if they miss class to attend a college interview.
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bentpencil said:
Completely different. How the other kids perform in the math class isn't affected by the absence of one student. Math class isn't a team effort.
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But exactly the same in that the math teacher's job is to help prepare the student for college, so refusing to allow him to attend a college interview is at cross-purposes with his primary goal.
 
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