|
|
Post by patrock19 on Mar 8, 2012 9:46:11 GMT -6
Coaches,
I need your help and ideas. I am at a high school in Colorado and am trying to convince my administration that cancelling practices on Monday (two times per month) is not a good idea. At this point they don't want to hear about what it means to me (especially game week). Any arguments that I could bring to them would be helpful.
|
|
|
|
Post by dsa0305 on Mar 8, 2012 10:43:55 GMT -6
Why do they want to cancel practices? Is this an effort to save money? How much money could be saved in an activity that takes place outside, after school and uses no electricity? Are they going to take away some of the money that is paid to the coaches?
|
|
|
|
Post by fantom on Mar 8, 2012 10:50:53 GMT -6
Faculty meetings?
|
|
|
|
Post by wick3399 on Mar 8, 2012 10:54:45 GMT -6
I guess I would point out whether or not your competition is doing the same thing. If other schools are not eliminating Monday practices, then you're players and your team will be at a disadvantage every single week. No parent or player wants to be at a disadvantage before they even step onto the field.
|
|
|
|
Post by ajreaper on Mar 8, 2012 11:06:31 GMT -6
In my experience those administrators who were neither players or coaches do not understand that practice is EVERYTHING. They do not get its value and importance and in the case of game week the impact of robbng you of 25% of your preperation time for that weeks game. Ask them if they would ever take away 25% of the prep time for state mandated tests? To a coach that is exactly what they are doing to you. I'd also let them know that you'd have no choice but to hold manditory Saturday practices on those weeks and you'll have to explain the need to do that to the players parents.
|
|
|
|
Post by patrock19 on Mar 8, 2012 11:20:08 GMT -6
Sorry, staff meetings
|
|
|
|
Post by Chris Clement on Mar 8, 2012 11:39:23 GMT -6
How much could you possibly have to say to one another that requires two entire staff meetings a months in addition to being in the same building all day and, presumably, having a bulletin board in the staff room and e-mail lists.
|
|
|
|
Post by veerman on Mar 8, 2012 11:59:42 GMT -6
We sometimes have them every week on Wednesdays. They are pretty good about letting the coaches come in at 7am the following morning though, sometimes we have to be there though.
|
|
|
|
Post by wingtol on Mar 8, 2012 12:04:44 GMT -6
Can't you practice after the meetings?
|
|
|
|
Post by fantom on Mar 8, 2012 12:08:55 GMT -6
How much could you possibly have to say to one another that requires two entire staff meetings a months in addition to being in the same building all day and, presumably, having a bulletin board in the staff room and e-mail lists. Nothing. That's not the point with these guys. |
|
|
|
Post by fantom on Mar 8, 2012 13:00:14 GMT -6
How much could you possibly have to say to one another that requires two entire staff meetings a months in addition to being in the same building all day and, presumably, having a bulletin board in the staff room and e-mail lists. at my last school we had 6 meetings per month. every other monday - 2 hour meeting and every wednesday - 1 hour meeting Complete waste of time. They never had enough to talk about so the principals always tried to use the remaining time with some kind of staff socializing activity to get us to talk to each other   Perhaps if they hadn't been such dumb@$$es they would have been invited to go to O'Connor's after school on fridays with 90% of the teaching staff. You know it's bad when my small school principal was always there but she refused to tell the other 4 or invite them. I stand by my previous convictions - some administrators are nothing more than non-athletic, geeky kids who were probably bullied or ignored, so now they have a degree, and the power and for the first time in their life they feel cool because they are in charge, so they bully the athletes/coaches and use teacher meetings as some kind of self gratifying ego trip to be the center of attention. With a lot of these guys it's all about: 1. Gratifying their egos (and getting back at the kids who picked them last in gym class, in some cases) and 2. Making themselves look good so that they can move up into bigger and better things. |
|
|
|
Post by darebelcoach on Mar 8, 2012 14:06:24 GMT -6
We have a faculty meeting 1 Monday a month from 3:00 to 4:00. We practice afterwards. Has your administration said that you can't practice after the meeting? If they haven't, then don't cause a big problem with the administration (because they aren't going to listen to you anyway) and just start practice a little later on those days.
If you have coaches who aren't teachers at the school, have them start the practice prior to you getting out there.
Unless they said you can't practice at all on those days, I wold find ways to adapt your practice on those days rather then causing a problem that will more than likely only cause you more headaches in the long term.
If they said you can't practice at all, then I would have a serious problem.
|
|
|
|
Post by fantom on Mar 8, 2012 14:12:22 GMT -6
We have a faculty meeting 1 Monday a month from 3:00 to 4:00. We practice afterwards. Has your administration said that you can't practice after the meeting? If they haven't, then don't cause a big problem with the administration (because they aren't going to listen to you anyway) and just start practice a little later on those days. If you have coaches who aren't teachers at the school, have them start the practice prior to you getting out there. Unless they said you can't practice at all on those days, I wold find ways to adapt your practice on those days rather then causing a problem that will more than likely only cause you more headaches in the long term. If they said you can't practice at all, then I would have a serious problem. What do you do with the kids while you're waiting for the meeting to end? |
|
hwkfn1
Junior Member
Posts: 258
|
Post by hwkfn1 on Mar 8, 2012 14:23:38 GMT -6
Can you practice first thing in the morning? We've had to do that when we have Parent-Teacher conferences. Kids don't mind being done with practice early and get home decently after school.
|
|
|
|
Post by kwesterlind on Mar 8, 2012 14:24:29 GMT -6
My school does not allow any extracurricular activities (including all sports) to meet, practice, or compete on Wednesdays. This is due to the academic load at the school. We are also limited to two hours total time (practice and meetings) in the other days.
To compensate, we basically Los the thursday walk through and need to be live. Also, we started running a voluntary study hall/film meeting at the HCs house in Wednesday. This is the only time we watch film with the kids (they do watch on Hudl).
It is not perfect, but you can make it work. We actually won state this year (small charter league) while practicing 80% of what our competition did.
|
|
|
|
Post by darebelcoach on Mar 8, 2012 14:27:50 GMT -6
I have 4 coaches on my staff who are not teachers, so they get to the school and make sure the kids are getting taped, dressed for practice and then get them out to the practice to start their dynamic warm-ups, etc. We don't start practice until 3:45 on a regular basis though, so we are only talking about 15 minutes or so until myself and my assistants are out to practice.
This might not work for everybody, just what we do at my school.
|
|
|
|
Post by coachbrek on Mar 8, 2012 16:36:10 GMT -6
Can you practice first thing in the morning? We've had to do that when we have Parent-Teacher conferences. Kids don't mind being done with practice early and get home decently after school. Those are my thoughts exactly. |
|
|
|
Post by cnunley on Mar 9, 2012 8:37:31 GMT -6
We've been very fortunate to have a Principal that lets us miss meetings because of practices.
We have 3 teachers on our football staff. The principal would typically ask us to catch up with him the next day during our planning period or have 1 of us stay for the meeting to then catch the other 2 up after practice on what we missed.
However, the middle school principal (Female if that matters) in our strand does not allow her coaches to miss meetings for ANY reason. The Head middle school basketball coach had to arrange supervision for his team to ride the bus to an away game and begin dressing/warm-ups because he wasn't allowed to miss the meeting. He had to drive to his own game and barely arrived before tip-off. Team lost. Ridiculous.
|
|
|
|
Post by coachbleu on Mar 9, 2012 9:02:54 GMT -6
Some things that I thought of while reading this:
1. Just don't go to the faculty meeting. See what happens. Force his hand (and be looking for a job)
2. Practice on sunday, then bring em back for a short practice on Monday after the faculty meeting.
|
|
|
|
Post by rystaylo on Mar 9, 2012 11:33:32 GMT -6
We would rotate between offensive and defensive coaches going to the meetings.
|
|
|
|
Post by Coach Bennett on Mar 9, 2012 18:40:06 GMT -6
Can you get a "voice" that's not yours start advocating for the kids and the need for Monday practices? Seems like a lot of administrators sway with the wind when it comes to politics so how would yours deal with a grass roots movement?
|
|
