Games are not in fact "Rewards" to everyone

sometimes kids dont have a choice in the matter because family does indeed come first...parent once told me "we have been planning for this trip for weeks" and I said "ive been planning for this season all year. "

My starting left tackle told me he was missing the last game to go on a weekend vacation with his family. I asked him if was upset and he said, "Umm, I dunno, yeah I guess".

If my parents scheduled a trip that would cause me to miss a game...when i was a kid...there would have been hell to pay. I would probably have gotten beaten with a spoon, but I wouldn't go down without a fight.

I had a kid HAVE to get a haircut and the ONLY time he could get it was during thursdays practice. Said it was the only time his mom could schedule an appointment. He was our Starting Left Tackle. He didn't start or even play the game on Friday. Parents wanted to know what gives?

This same kid is going to be missing our next to last game to go to the National Vo-Ag convention. I am not going to play him the next game when he gets back either. Too bad he is a Sophomore and is good and is a pretty good kid too.

Oh ya his mom held him out of practice on Labor Day (Monday) said it was a holiday. I asked the kid what they did. He said I dunno just watched TV all day.

Gotta love parents. LOL

That's a situation where I think the coach has to be firm with the rules from the start of the season. Miss a practice that week, you don't start. Miss two, you don't play, miss three, your gone. I think you have to make an example out of kids that miss games for even things like vacations that have been planned for weeks. They obviously knew they would be playing football that season, so did the parents, so this was a blatant disregard for his team and the coaches.

I have a firm belief your priorities should be god, family, education, then football, but if your getting stiffed by parents that obviously don't care enough about the program to change plans while a season is in progress, you either sit the kid or cut them.

S.R.

Maybe you should reread my post a little more careful if you don't understand.

The point is, if your priorities are in order, everything falls into place easily.

As a parent, scheduling a vacation when you know your boy will be in the midst of football preseason or season, shows a complete disregard for others and disunites a team. I WANT my kids to spend time with their families more than anyone, but once they sign on to play football, they also have an obligation towards their football family as well. Hence, putting your priorities in their proper place and keeping your word is a must. Have you ever saw the tennis balls/rocks/sand/water in the jar illustration? I will show this to my boys before every football season starts.

That is a character issue on the part of the parents and this will tend to trickle down to the young man, which in turn could infiltrate your whole team if left unchecked. We can't be blind about what little things if left alone can explode into big things within a team and destroy unity. What you tolerate you encourage. Woodrow Wilson said it well:

“If you will think about what you ought to do for other people, your character will take care of itself. Character is a by-product, and any man who devotes himself to its cultivation in his own case will become a selfish pig.”
— Woodrow Wilson, 28th American president

Someone on here said it right a long time ago... don't remember who so I can't give them credit but: You don't know what their family situation is at home.

Drives me nuts, even with our own coaching staff. We had a parent's meeting at the beginning of the year, laying out some rules:
1. Excused misses for practice include death in the family.
2. We will practice labor.

Three players had family members mysteriously die just before the labor day weekend. Coaching staff went nuts, head coach announced that no one else could die and everyone was expected to be there.

You can't control the parents, whether they want to be honest and say they are going on vacation, or lie and say Aunt Matilda died. I've told our kids that family comes before football -- if their family are a bunch of liars who don't consider football important, then that sucks for football, and for the kid. Don't punish the kid.

One parent called my d-coordinator's home at 9pm Friday night to discuss why her son doesn't play much. He was unable to take the call because would have been in the 4th quarter of our Homecoming game when she left the message. She was well aware we had a game because she pulled him from practice early on Wed. to get his tux!

She called him because "that *@#$ head coach won't return the 2 messages I left for him tonight!"

Have him come in during lunch, break time, to see as much film as possible. Give him some copies to take home. Do any players live close enough to go over the film, new plays, etc.