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Post by superpower on Jan 7, 2009 13:08:57 GMT -6
I used to make a big deal about haircuts and facial hair, but my stance has changed. Now I tell them as long as it is not hanging out of their helmet, it is okay.
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Post by tye2021 on Jan 7, 2009 13:27:27 GMT -6
I think it oughta be the other way around, to be honest. Kids without the pride to wear their jerseys at school are clearly trying to avoid being identified as a football player or aren't proud of being a member of our team, which is thoroughly unacceptable in my eyes. If you don't want to wear your jersey to school, what changes once it's gametime? Maybe he just doesn't want to draw any attention to himself.
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Post by tim914790 on Jan 7, 2009 13:33:25 GMT -6
Good luck enforcing a hair rule. Leave it to a HS baseball coach to try and be like the yankees. Did I mention Ihate Baseball? and HS baseball coaches?
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Post by coachmacplains on Jan 7, 2009 16:02:21 GMT -6
I think that in our school we face these types of issues more than most simply because of the unique boarding aspect of it. Kids carp about rules, to be sure, but we don't tolerate it, and they respect that. Everyone, from the local community all the way to the national federation govern some aspects of appearance and draw arbitrary lines; if in our locality it happens to be a bit too "restricting" in the minds of the kids, so be it. Our guys get a heavy enough dose of the idea that wallowing around complaining about simple rules of decorum is a waste of time when trying to accomplish the goals we set together. Having said that, I do think that to make up bogus rules to "see if they will comply" runs the risk of appearing antagonistic. But there is no reason to get hung up on the little stuff. If a kid won't play on the team because he can't wear non-matching socks, then maybe he found his way on to the wrong team. My experience, though, has been that those that are most likely complain usually don't, because they buy into the bigger picture.
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Post by k on Jan 7, 2009 17:51:15 GMT -6
Life is often about doing things we do not like to do or having to work with or for some one we do not like. My attitude is no one is greater then the team and this is how we do things. Not sure how dressing uncomfortably shows that no one is greater than the team. If you were stressing the team aspect you'd have them in their jerseys so its not that. Further since it comes top down and not bottom up it doesn't seem like its "about the team" but more "about the coach wanting us to wear a tie." Good thing I decided to be a teacher and coach then huh? As to needing to wear a suit and tie to make good money that was probably true last generation. Much less so now. =)
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Post by k on Jan 7, 2009 17:54:24 GMT -6
Wow, I have heard of people not wrestling because they have to wear a singlet, but a suit and tie? Compare how long you wear the singlet to how long you wear the suit and tie. =) Eh maybe and maybe the arbitrary and ridiculous dress code hurts the entire team. =)
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Post by k on Jan 7, 2009 17:59:23 GMT -6
Do any of you have rules as far as hair? My wife taught at a school that the baseball coach wouldn't let them have hair that touched the collar. Any have anything like this? Our head baseball coach does that. When he offered the JV / first base coach job to me I turned it down because he told me the condition was to shave every day and never wear my hat backwards (I don't have the long hair). He cut a kid last year after he cut his hair to accommodate the coach...
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Post by mariner42 on Jan 7, 2009 19:16:13 GMT -6
Holy triple post! Back to Tye's suggestion about not wanting to draw attention to themselves by wearing their jerseys, I don't think it's that simple. With our particular culture at our school, playing organized sports in general and football in particular is almost a counter culture movement. Skating, surfing, skimboarding, all the alternative sports get a lot of attention.
When I see certain kids not wearing their jerseys, it's not that they don't want the attention, it's that they are afraid to stand out from their peers, although I don't necessarily think 'peers' is the right word. Honestly, as a coach I want to have a team full of young men who are strong in convictions and confidence and are not afraid to stand out from the crowd.
Take Michael Jordan and Tim Tebow. Both AMAZING athletes within their sport, both widely recognized and famous, both had incredible work ethics and an intense will to win. Michael Jordan never stood for anything other than Nike's paycheck and the dollar sign. Tim Tebow was addressing thousands of high school students about Christianity when he himself was in high school. You can be {censored} sure he wore his game jersey to school that day, and it wasn't because he wanted all the girls to look at him (probably a little, but it wasn't the main factor). It was because he was proud to be a part of something.
I want my boys to be the types that can stand out from their peers, do the right thing, speak what they believe, and act as they see fit. Wearing their jerseys to school on gameday may seem like a stretch of logic, but if we don't encourage them to start somewhere, they may never learn to be those kinds of young men.
Your situation may vary from mine, in fact it almost certainly does, but I still think that simple things like wearing one's jersey to school goes a long way towards fostering the kind of environment we want to see.
Edit:
WTF is it with baseball coaches, my best friend had the exact same situation happen with a goatee he was proud of. Coach told him he had to shave it, he complies, coach cuts him anyways.
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hawke
Sophomore Member
Posts: 209
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Post by hawke on Jan 7, 2009 22:00:41 GMT -6
Hair, beards, earrings, etc. NO GO!!!! I'm very old school and proud of it. Patton once said "if you want to look like a soldier, dress like a soldier." It may not make them better athletes but it makes them better football players because they now learn discipline. Incidentally, Phantom played for us many years ago and I'm quite sure he can testify to some of the things we demanded. But in today's world if I did one half or even less of what I did then I probably be in jail.
Hawke
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Post by CoachCP on Mar 1, 2009 23:59:33 GMT -6
Personally, I want them to be comfortable, but within reason. That goes for all phases of the game, on the field and off. For instance, when I become a head coach, if the offensive linemen or defense want to wear sleeves, they can wear sleeves in a game. I want them to put themselves in a position where they will succeed. Its a team game, but players must win individual battles. If wearing an arm band gives them the self confidence to do that, so be it. They can't wear jewelry underneath the helmet though. Its my job, and my fellow coaches jobs, to look professional. They are still in school, and this is supposed to be fun. Though some aspects of our program will hopefully help them in a job someday, dictating their dress is not one of my key areas of concern. Things like responsibility (like wearing mandatory equipment, like the fricken elusive butt pad) are much more critical.
The only mandates I'd make is on gameday, only those who will be on the sideline or field on game day wear their jerseys, whichever one it is. Everyone else wears some team shirt if its provided by us.
As for the socks on the field, I always liked wearing the same color as the top. For us, that would be blue socks at home and white socks away, and long enough to be tucked under the bottom of the pants. IF you don't have socks, you can buy some for us for the "Coaches Fund", or if you don't have money at that moment, you will do O.P.I. until you get us the money for the socks we gave you(usually its cheap). O.P.I. is Opportunity for Personal Improvement (aka... extra conditioning).
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