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Post by seagull73 on Jan 29, 2010 17:21:30 GMT -6
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Post by touchdownmaker on Jan 29, 2010 17:31:46 GMT -6
“Our society and our educational system are all about making it easier for kids,” Martin said. “We’re not holding them accountable. When you’re 43 years old and you’re not doing your job, you’re getting fired. No one is patting you on the back and saying, ‘Do it better tomorrow.’ So why should we do that with these kids?
“We shouldn’t be trying to make it easier on them? Life isn’t getting any easier. It’s only going to get harder.”
Holy Cow, does that ever hit the mark.
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Post by alneufeld on Jan 29, 2010 17:38:40 GMT -6
We've sacrificed kid's character on the altar of self-esteem. "Don't push kids because it might make them feel bad." Amazing! I may get fired myself, but if a parent barged into my office and questioned my play-calling, I would lose it!
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Post by touchdownmaker on Jan 29, 2010 17:46:14 GMT -6
There are kids who wont even come out unless they KNOW they will be starters. Its unreal.
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Post by bluedevil4 on Jan 29, 2010 19:25:28 GMT -6
This article is exactly how the coach at my high school got fired.
I also had a complaint filed against myself and my assistant because we kicked a mom's kid off the team. We kicked him off because he was always getting written up in class, and the mom complained it's not our job to discipline her kid. She went on to say that when a kid gets in trouble, he should sit down with someone and discuss the consequences of his actions, and not be disciplined.
It makes my stomach hurt. ARGH!
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Post by Coach Vint on Jan 29, 2010 20:29:51 GMT -6
Thank you for posting that article. It demonstrates the huge transformation our society has gone through. The reason is very simple. About 25 years ago administrators decided everyone could be a winner. No one was going to be allowed to lose anymore, and we had to lift up everyone's self-esteem. I am sure they meant well, but somewhere this led to a lack of accountability.
The fact is that every one of us will experience many failures. If we are willing to learn from each failure and work hard to improve, we will become successful. This does not mean we will reach our goals. It means we will be the best we can be. The real problem is kids expect everything to be handed to them. We have shifted to an entitlement society.
My grandfather had a great way of hiring people on the farm. He would take them to a pile of dung next to a fence. He would tell them to shovel the entire pile to the other side of the fence. When they finished they had to let him know. This took four or five hours as the pile was six feet high. Once they finished they would tell him. He would then tell them they had to shovel the pile back to the other side of the fence. If they did this without questioning him or complaining he hired them on the spot. If they even looked at him cross-eyed for a second they didn't get the job. I learned very quickly that college was a good choice.
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Post by coachinghopeful on Jan 29, 2010 21:08:03 GMT -6
There are kids who wont even come out unless they KNOW they will be starters. Its unreal. Haven't there always been kids like that? We had a bunch of them in my school when I was in HS. I might not be as old as some, but I'm not a kid anymore either... Maybe I'm too young to remember the good ol' days, but I saw a lot of this firsthand when I was in HS over 10 years ago. Our HC made wholesale changes to a successful offense to make the well-connected stud QB happy. Scrapped a flexbone that helped us get our 1st playoff appearance ever. We went 3-7 that season, despite returning almost everybody (did lose a stud HB/WLB though). The following season the QB's dad shows up in the lockerroom at halftime of a loss to rip the rest of the team for letting his son down. This came after his freelancing actually helped put us in the hole in the first place. QB's parents then got the HC fired because the changes and level of control wasn't enough. They make sure their handpicked assistants got to be HC and OC. You see, the QB's grandparents were wealthy and the whole family was heavily involved in local politics, so they could do this. Those coaches actually gave QB's mom a headset and let her have input into the playcalling and let the QB have input into the starting lineup and system. His dad was "official statistician" and wanted to make sure his boy's numbers looked good, regardless of the game situation. QB had Div. 1a talent, but his attitude and mechanics problems led to him going Div. 1-AA. He quit after 3 days of not being named starter over a good returning Soph. Last I heard he's awaiting sentencing for stealing a bag of cash from the armored car company he worked for. After living through that situation, nothing much surprises me anymore. If anyone's curious what happened to the coaches who enabled the parents in this... The QB's handpicked set of coaches stuck around for 6 more years and had some success (high point was a 6-5 record, best in school history), but were forced out after a series of scandals. Since they "needed the athletes" they got in the habit of recruiting players who were kicked out of nearby schools for some pretty serious discipline problems, then looked the other way when these kids did bad stuff on their watch. The last straw came when the OC personally got the school sued for $1.7 million over sexually harrassing and threatening a female student. Case is still pending, IIRC. They later allowed the same kinds of stuff with another stud QB, who dumped them and transferred a week before his senior season so he could "play for a winner" in both football and basketball. THAT kid had some recruiting interest from Auburn, but he fell off the recruiters' radar after the transfer. He and one of the guys his old coaches recruited are now in prison following a home invasion/bad drug deal. |
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Post by wolfden12 on Jan 30, 2010 7:00:56 GMT -6
Absolutely great article. It hits on so many key points that not only college coaches are facing but also high school coaches. The times have changed and parents and players are more sensitive however; I don't think it is on the parents to become involved with how the coach is treating their son or daughter unless as stated in the article they are in danger. The article I felt gave great insight through a variety of eyes and demogarphics and allowed to see where coaches and their styles possibly are heading in the future.
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Post by indian1 on Jan 30, 2010 8:39:23 GMT -6
I agree that parents are probably getting crazier, and get way too involved in their son's athletic careers.
I don't think that being a coach is a license to act like a jacka$$ though. There are some points made in the article about the players having to handle tough situations because they will face tough situations in life and that's true. I'm a huge believer in that. But you show me any example in society were its ok for a boss to cuss out, grab, slap, berate, or humiliate a subordinate. The point can always be made without doing any of those things. Any coach who NEEDS to do that stuff is weak in the area of self control or creativity or both.
Should sports be a tough crucible for the players? Absolutely 100% YES! Does that give coaches a license to be abusive? NO. Coaches gotta be smart enough to teach their sport and make it really tough, really demanding and challenging without being abusive in any way. It can be done. That's what makes the great ones great.
Of course some kids won't play because its tough. You don't want them anyway. Of course some parents will b!tch, because that's what parents do. Those things shouldn't stop us coaches from doing things the RIGHT WAY and letting the chips fall where they may.
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Post by dubber on Jan 30, 2010 10:17:39 GMT -6
How far off is the sociologist? According to Edwards, the sociologist, those examples illustrate the pressure that today’s coaches are under to win, which helps explain their fervor when things go awry during workouts or in games.
“Some of these coaches are trying so hard for that Nick Saban or Urban Meyer-type of contract,” Edwards said. “Then you combine that pressure with the fact that schools have become less and less patient with coaches who don’t bring them a BCS bowl berth or a national title.
“That’s the thing people are missing. You have to understand the environment that they’re operating in. It can create a volatile situation. That’s been evident with the situations that have occurred the last few months. The only thing that amazes me is that we haven’t seen more of it.”
Even though Carter said Leach was in the wrong for his treatment of Adam James at Texas Tech, he said he can’t help but sympathize with his former coach.
“The pressure to win is so great that sometimes it may cause coaches to do something they wouldn’t normally do,” he said. “They want to keep their jobs, and sometimes it causes them to do things that may be inappropriate.”
Edwards said sometimes those “inappropriate” actions involve coaches intentionally berating an underachieving athlete until he decides to transfer.
Edwards
“That way,” Edwards said, “a scholarship frees up so the coach can go sign another player that may help get him a big, new contract.”
Another problem, Edwards said, is that coaches are having more and more trouble relating to their players because of the cultural gap that exists between the two groups. He said not enough is being done to bridge the gap between white coaches and black players, which often leads to conflict and rebellion because the two sides don’t have enough respect for one another.
“At the end of the day,” Edwards said, “you have a situation where it’s Lawrence Welk and Pat Boone talking to Snoop Dogg, Ludacris and Vanilla Ice in the locker room. They don’t get it. They don’t understand it.”Another academic who really doesn't get it.......... Bottom line is this: Kids have to know you care about them. Especially as a HS guy, my players have to know Coach has their back, and is concerned about their grades, life, hunting prowess, whatever. And I genuinely am. After that, I follow a very simple formula......I can be very confrontational with the good/gifted players. These kids who are starters and all-conference types can handle me lambasting them. For the kids who are "program guys" and developmentally behind, I am freaking Mr. Rogers..........as long as they are putting forth effort. Bottom line, KIDS ARE YEARNING FOR SOMEONE TO CHALLENGE THEM!!!!! As long as you take care of the first part (relationship built), these silly instances of "abuse"  stay where they should be: in house. |
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Post by thakatalyst on Jan 30, 2010 15:17:52 GMT -6
How far off is the sociologist? According to Edwards, the sociologist, those examples illustrate the pressure that today’s coaches are under to win, which helps explain their fervor when things go awry during workouts or in games.
“Some of these coaches are trying so hard for that Nick Saban or Urban Meyer-type of contract,” Edwards said. “Then you combine that pressure with the fact that schools have become less and less patient with coaches who don’t bring them a BCS bowl berth or a national title.
“That’s the thing people are missing. You have to understand the environment that they’re operating in. It can create a volatile situation. That’s been evident with the situations that have occurred the last few months. The only thing that amazes me is that we haven’t seen more of it.”
Even though Carter said Leach was in the wrong for his treatment of Adam James at Texas Tech, he said he can’t help but sympathize with his former coach.
“The pressure to win is so great that sometimes it may cause coaches to do something they wouldn’t normally do,” he said. “They want to keep their jobs, and sometimes it causes them to do things that may be inappropriate.”
Edwards said sometimes those “inappropriate” actions involve coaches intentionally berating an underachieving athlete until he decides to transfer.
Edwards
“That way,” Edwards said, “a scholarship frees up so the coach can go sign another player that may help get him a big, new contract.”
Another problem, Edwards said, is that coaches are having more and more trouble relating to their players because of the cultural gap that exists between the two groups. He said not enough is being done to bridge the gap between white coaches and black players, which often leads to conflict and rebellion because the two sides don’t have enough respect for one another.
“At the end of the day,” Edwards said, “you have a situation where it’s Lawrence Welk and Pat Boone talking to Snoop Dogg, Ludacris and Vanilla Ice in the locker room. They don’t get it. They don’t understand it.”Another academic who really doesn't get it.......... Bottom line is this: Kids have to know you care about them. Especially as a HS guy, my players have to know Coach has their back, and is concerned about their grades, life, hunting prowess, whatever. And I genuinely am. After that, I follow a very simple formula......I can be very confrontational with the good/gifted players. These kids who are starters and all-conference types can handle me lambasting them. For the kids who are "program guys" and developmentally behind, I am freaking Mr. Rogers..........as long as they are putting forth effort. Bottom line, KIDS ARE YEARNING FOR SOMEONE TO CHALLENGE THEM!!!!! As long as you take care of the first part (relationship built), these silly instances of "abuse" stay where they should be: in house. Dubber, nice post. You've been money lately  I agree with your post. Kids need (excuse me, I'll use your word here) are YEARNING for someone to provide them with structure, as well. I've personally seen - and I'm sure we all have - how kids excel or suffer from organizational structure. I'm by no means a great teacher or coach, but in my classroom or defense, I strive to ensure that we have our own traditions, rituals, and rules. It makes the kids feel comfortable and a part of something because they helped come up with those things. It helps establish relationships with kids...and once you have those relationships, you've got them (the kids). At this point, one teacher's "punishment" is another teacher's tough "love." |
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stay where they should be: in house.