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Post by tippecanoe41 on Oct 9, 2017 23:10:27 GMT -6
I'm almost to the point of telling kids that they need to start drinking a lot of Beam and Coke. They get too sick to be ordered to go to school by their mothers like once a week, and I haven't been to a doctor in 15 years. Not saying it would be my best advice as a coach, but according to known evidence, it would at least stop the sickness problem.
Anyone noticed sickness related absences getting crazy the last 10 years? I literally missed two practices in my high school career. And this is not something I tell to make people think that I'm a total bad ass, because that's not the case. It's actually just that my mom didn't care if I was on death's door, haha, my @$$ was going to school and I wasn't going to miss practice. That's how all my teammates parents were about 13 years ago.
I missed only two practices that I remember. One of those was when I was a senior and it was during two-a-days. The first practice was at 3 pm - ish, and the second around 7 PM - ish. I made it to the second practice to show my face and watch what was going on, at least. I had rolled my truck at 11:30 PM the night before and flew out of the rolled up window. I had around 100 stitches and staples all over my body. I wound up in a girls's yard who was two years older than me and she freaked out upon finding me because I had so much blood rolling over my face that I couldn't see through it. I was actually thrown threw an opening between two trees that was only a few feet wide, so I must admit I had a little bit of euphoria going to help me move, thinking that God wanted me to live forever, having given me such good luck on the "toss." haha. I probably would have took the whole day off or more.
However, my mom forced me to stop by practice and talk to coaches and watch, wearing some nurse's scrubs that I stole because they had cut my clothes off, and I was still more than a little bit loopy from a concussion and like 12 hours of morphine drips and whatever pills I was given, and my mom made sure to run me by the school before going home to talk to coaches and see what new stuff was being introduced in practice that day. HAHA. And, like I say, I think most of the guys I played with had parents that would have done something very similar. Today, I don't know more than a couple kids on our team whose parents would demand or even suggest this type of commitment to something.
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Post by carookie on Oct 9, 2017 23:27:19 GMT -6
I've got a few. and I hate to be the downer of the bunch because I do have plenty of funny ones. But, the most heartbreaking excuse I ever heard was from a Freshman kid. We usually didn't dress Freshmen for varsity games, but because this kid had really worked hard and had been showing that he could do some stuff on special teams for us so that we could get a break for a couple guys who were playing thin varsity positions, he was going to dress and start on, I believe, kickoff and punt. He came to us Thursday and said that there was no way he could be at the game on Friday. We're thinking what the hell and expecting a lame ass excuse. Instead, he tells us that his mom has plans to go out partying with her friends, and he has to stay home to watch his younger brother and sister. I've said it many times, but it's crazy how often people don't realize that as coaches we have to be social workers. It's wild. Obviously, I've got others like this like I'm sure all of you do. I worked at a school in a large metropolis that serviced the homeless community. I would say the living condition for many of these families was that they would get a few families together, pool their money, and rent a motel room for as long as they could. Then bounce around between this situation, a shelter for a few days, another motel, etc. Despite this I would have students be absent many times due to similar situations (mom went to the casino and din't get back until early in the morning was a common one). I think of those parents every time I read posts about "kids these days"- most of those parents were born in the 60s and 70s and yet look how they behave.
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Post by silkyice on Oct 10, 2017 8:20:46 GMT -6
I've got a few. and I hate to be the downer of the bunch because I do have plenty of funny ones. But, the most heartbreaking excuse I ever heard was from a Freshman kid. We usually didn't dress Freshmen for varsity games, but because this kid had really worked hard and had been showing that he could do some stuff on special teams for us so that we could get a break for a couple guys who were playing thin varsity positions, he was going to dress and start on, I believe, kickoff and punt. He came to us Thursday and said that there was no way he could be at the game on Friday. We're thinking what the hell and expecting a lame ass excuse. Instead, he tells us that his mom has plans to go out partying with her friends, and he has to stay home to watch his younger brother and sister. I've said it many times, but it's crazy how often people don't realize that as coaches we have to be social workers. It's wild. Obviously, I've got others like this like I'm sure all of you do. I worked at a school in a large metropolis that serviced the homeless community. I would say the living condition for many of these families was that they would get a few families together, pool their money, and rent a motel room for as long as they could. Then bounce around between this situation, a shelter for a few days, another motel, etc. Despite this I would have students be absent many times due to similar situations (mom went to the casino and din't get back until early in the morning was a common one). I think of those parents every time I read posts about "kids these days"- most of those parents were born in the 60s and 70s and yet look how they behave. Kids these days comments are coming from coaches. 90% of us coaches were the "model" players. Not that we were perfect, but we were the guys that made workouts, didn't miss practice, studied football, knew our assignments, really cared, etc. Coaches compare the average kid to themselves and forget their friends/teammates who missed practiced or blew assignments, etc.
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Post by fkaboneyard on Oct 10, 2017 13:31:37 GMT -6
I worked at a school in a large metropolis that serviced the homeless community. I would say the living condition for many of these families was that they would get a few families together, pool their money, and rent a motel room for as long as they could. Then bounce around between this situation, a shelter for a few days, another motel, etc. Despite this I would have students be absent many times due to similar situations (mom went to the casino and din't get back until early in the morning was a common one). I think of those parents every time I read posts about "kids these days"- most of those parents were born in the 60s and 70s and yet look how they behave. Kids these days comments are coming from coaches. 90% of us coaches were the "model" players. Not that we were perfect, but we were the guys that made workouts, didn't miss practice, studied football, knew our assignments, really cared, etc. Coaches compare the average kid to themselves and forget their friends/teammates who missed practiced or blew assignments, etc. Good post. I don't know about you guys, but the kids that drive me the most nuts are the kids that are exactly like I was.
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Post by 19delta on Oct 10, 2017 18:03:25 GMT -6
Anyone noticed sickness related absences getting crazy the last 10 years? I literally missed two practices in my high school career. And this is not something I tell to make people think that I'm a total bad ass, because that's not the case. It's actually just that my mom didn't care if I was on death's door, haha, my @$$ was going to school and I wasn't going to miss practice. That's how all my teammates parents were about 13 years ago. Yes. And it gets worse every year. I always have several students who, for whatever reason, just can't make a full week of school. Guaranteed that they will miss at least one day. Can't make a full week. I'm sure they will be very successful adults... My two years of varsity football, I didn't miss a single practice. Actually got hit by a car one day. Was walking down to the practice field from the locker room through the parking lot when another student backed her car up without looking and ran right into me. I went up and over the trunk and landed on the parking lot on the other side of the car. Fortunately was not hurt as I was wearing shoulder pads and practice pants. Anyway, a bunch of other players ran up to me and another went to get a coach. Coach wanted to call my mom and tell her what happened but I talked him out of it (this was 1991...no way a coach or teacher would do that today). I really wanted to go practice for a couple reasons. First, at the end of the season, the guys who didn't miss a practice got a cool "Ironman" t-shirt that was really prestigious. You couldn't miss a single practice for any reason at all. So, not a lot of guys got one. I made the Ironman club as a junior and I was damned if I was going to miss out on it as a senior because of some woman driver. The second reason was that I really wasn't that good. And if I missed practice, there was 2-3 guys just as good as me who would have taken my reps that day and there was a good chance I would never get my spot back.
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Post by 19delta on Oct 10, 2017 18:06:14 GMT -6
Kids these days comments are coming from coaches. 90% of us coaches were the "model" players. Not that we were perfect, but we were the guys that made workouts, didn't miss practice, studied football, knew our assignments, really cared, etc. Coaches compare the average kid to themselves and forget their friends/teammates who missed practiced or blew assignments, etc. Good post. I don't know about you guys, but the kids that drive me the most nuts are the kids that are exactly like I was. Few things irritate me more than being in a teacher's meeting and there are other teachers having side conversations, grading papers, playing on their phones, eating or drinking, etc, etc. And they are ALWAYS the teachers bitching about their students doing these same things!
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Post by cwaltsmith on Oct 11, 2017 8:49:43 GMT -6
I worked at a school in a large metropolis that serviced the homeless community. I would say the living condition for many of these families was that they would get a few families together, pool their money, and rent a motel room for as long as they could. Then bounce around between this situation, a shelter for a few days, another motel, etc. Despite this I would have students be absent many times due to similar situations (mom went to the casino and din't get back until early in the morning was a common one). I think of those parents every time I read posts about "kids these days"- most of those parents were born in the 60s and 70s and yet look how they behave. Kids these days comments are coming from coaches. 90% of us coaches were the "model" players. Not that we were perfect, but we were the guys that made workouts, didn't miss practice, studied football, knew our assignments, really cared, etc. Coaches compare the average kid to themselves and forget their friends/teammates who missed practiced or blew assignments, etc. I came to this realization about 2 years ago. I used to pride my self on treating every kid like they were my own. I would tell parents in my parent meeting, that I was going to treat their kid as if he were mine. Problem with that is most haven't been raised like mine. I'm not perfect but try to do and make kids do right. Alot of these kids not only haven't been taught that missing practice is bad.... they have been taught by example that missing isnt a problem and not communicating isn't a problem because their parents miss and don't communicate. Its definitely not the same job it was 10 to 15 years ago.
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Post by blb on Oct 11, 2017 9:00:30 GMT -6
The last few years I was HC I started telling them at Parents' Meeting that we may make their kids be more disciplined-responsible and hold them more accountable than they do.
Only flaw with that is the "problem" parents who really needed to hear it seldom came to such meetings.
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Post by tippecanoe41 on Oct 11, 2017 22:22:04 GMT -6
Anyone noticed sickness related absences getting crazy the last 10 years? I literally missed two practices in my high school career. And this is not something I tell to make people think that I'm a total bad ass, because that's not the case. It's actually just that my mom didn't care if I was on death's door, haha, my @$$ was going to school and I wasn't going to miss practice. That's how all my teammates parents were about 13 years ago. Yes. And it gets worse every year. I always have several students who, for whatever reason, just can't make a full week of school. Guaranteed that they will miss at least one day. Can't make a full week. I'm sure they will be very successful adults... My two years of varsity football, I didn't miss a single practice. Actually got hit by a car one day. Was walking down to the practice field from the locker room through the parking lot when another student backed her car up without looking and ran right into me. I went up and over the trunk and landed on the parking lot on the other side of the car. Fortunately was not hurt as I was wearing shoulder pads and practice pants. Anyway, a bunch of other players ran up to me and another went to get a coach. Coach wanted to call my mom and tell her what happened but I talked him out of it (this was 1991...no way a coach or teacher would do that today). I really wanted to go practice for a couple reasons. First, at the end of the season, the guys who didn't miss a practice got a cool "Ironman" t-shirt that was really prestigious. You couldn't miss a single practice for any reason at all. So, not a lot of guys got one. I made the Ironman club as a junior and I was damned if I was going to miss out on it as a senior because of some woman driver. The second reason was that I really wasn't that good. And if I missed practice, there was 2-3 guys just as good as me who would have taken my reps that day and there was a good chance I would never get my spot back. I think you nailed the issue we are having right now by saying that you had a bunch of guys behind you. I coach with a bunch of guys who played 10-12 years before me. That's the main reason they cite for being present at practice and for going so hard that coaches had to get onto them for going way too hard in drills that were supposed to be 3/4 speed. If they didn't show up every second doing things that made the coaches realize that they were playing for keeps, there's no way that they could have kept their jobs. For us right now, numbers are just so incredibly down. It's like -- starting OT, then varsity guy who can move from Center to OT, then freshman OT, haha. It's crazy.
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eagleoc
Sophomore Member
Posts: 208
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Post by eagleoc on Oct 18, 2017 7:07:07 GMT -6
"Coach, I can't be at practice today, I got stung by like 50 yellow jackets." Actual quote via text.
"_______ and _______ will not be at the varsity game Friday or the jv game Saturday. We will be taking a family trip to the Nascar race." Not an exact quote but pretty close.
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Post by carookie on Oct 18, 2017 9:00:12 GMT -6
Good post. I don't know about you guys, but the kids that drive me the most nuts are the kids that are exactly like I was. Few things irritate me more than being in a teacher's meeting and there are other teachers having side conversations, grading papers, playing on their phones, eating or drinking, etc, etc. And they are ALWAYS the teachers bitching about their students doing these same things! I used to work with a teacher who straight up knitted in every teacher meeting; literally two needles and yarn. Sat right there and knitted the whole time. Real nice lady, kind of a free spirit type, don't know how she always got away with it.
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Post by 3rdandlong on Oct 18, 2017 10:43:50 GMT -6
The last few years I was HC I started telling them at Parents' Meeting that we may make their kids be more disciplined-responsible and hold them more accountable than they do.
Only flaw with that is the "problem" parents who really needed to hear it seldom came to such meetings.
So true. Those meetings tend to be "preaching to the choir" kind of meetings. Then when you have an issue in-season with a parent and ask them "did you come to the meeting?" The answer is always "no."
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Post by coachd5085 on Oct 18, 2017 18:50:12 GMT -6
The last few years I was HC I started telling them at Parents' Meeting that we may make their kids be more disciplined-responsible and hold them more accountable than they do.
Only flaw with that is the "problem" parents who really needed to hear it seldom came to such meetings.
So true. Those meetings tend to be "preaching to the choir" kind of meetings. Then when you have an issue in-season with a parent and ask them "did you come to the meeting?" The answer is always "no." Why is the kid playing if the parent did not attend the parent meeting? I realize it is tough, but if the meeting was important enough to have, it is important enough to hold kids out until they attend the meeting or meet with coaches/sign a contract type thing
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Post by bartimus58 on Oct 24, 2017 20:12:28 GMT -6
Had a kid tell me he couldn't come to practice because he had to watch his younger brother. I asked how old his brother was. He was 13. And no, there wasn't anything developmentally wrong with him.
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Post by bartimus58 on Oct 24, 2017 21:15:42 GMT -6
Had a manager text me during camp, "Coach, I can't make the afternoon practice. I have heat stroke." I had him sitting in the pressbox filming our morning scrimmage.
Same kid text me throughout the season with excuses from back pain to dirt bike races.
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Post by dubber on Oct 25, 2017 6:12:41 GMT -6
It's not only players who make excuses. We had a coach have to leave a summer camp program after receiving a text message from his wife. The coach shared the message with us: "Come home now, I'm ovulating!" Nine months later he was a daddy. That stuff is undefeated
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Post by dubber on Oct 25, 2017 6:52:08 GMT -6
So true. Those meetings tend to be "preaching to the choir" kind of meetings. Then when you have an issue in-season with a parent and ask them "did you come to the meeting?" The answer is always "no." Why is the kid playing if the parent did not attend the parent meeting? I realize it is tough, but if the meeting was important enough to have, it is important enough to hold kids out until they attend the meeting or meet with coaches/sign a contract type thing That wouldn't be realistic for us.....and I assume many others
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Post by coachd5085 on Oct 25, 2017 18:42:24 GMT -6
Why is the kid playing if the parent did not attend the parent meeting? I realize it is tough, but if the meeting was important enough to have, it is important enough to hold kids out until they attend the meeting or meet with coaches/sign a contract type thing That wouldn't be realistic for us.....and I assume many others I don't necessarily agree. If not a parent meeting..a signed parent contract for those that can't make it. Perhaps a DVD explaining it etc. Again, if it is important enough to ask/mandate the parents who are going to show up to go...it is important enough for all. If not, well football isn't required. Or no parent meeting at all. Either works.
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Post by dubber on Oct 26, 2017 11:06:37 GMT -6
That wouldn't be realistic for us.....and I assume many others I don't necessarily agree. If not a parent meeting..a signed parent contract for those that can't make it. Perhaps a DVD explaining it etc. Again, if it is important enough to ask/mandate the parents who are going to show up to go...it is important enough for all. If not, well football isn't required. Or no parent meeting at all. Either works. There are times to be absolute. For us, this ain't one. The parent meeting handles a great deal.....like "don't approach a coach after a game"......stuff that needs said. But if a kids parents can't make it, or more aptly, refuses to prioritize it, we aren't going to leave that young man off our team.
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Post by StraightFlexin on Oct 26, 2017 11:15:38 GMT -6
I don't necessarily agree. If not a parent meeting..a signed parent contract for those that can't make it. Perhaps a DVD explaining it etc. Again, if it is important enough to ask/mandate the parents who are going to show up to go...it is important enough for all. If not, well football isn't required. Or no parent meeting at all. Either works. There are times to be absolute. For us, this ain't one. The parent meeting handles a great deal.....like "don't approach a coach after a game"......stuff that needs said. But if a kids parents can't make it, or more aptly, refuses to prioritize it, we aren't going to leave that young man off our team. A player can not help if his parents can not attend or doesn't care about their activities. It seems like it would punish the player for having a poor parent.
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Post by fkaboneyard on Oct 26, 2017 13:06:54 GMT -6
There are times to be absolute. For us, this ain't one. The parent meeting handles a great deal.....like "don't approach a coach after a game"......stuff that needs said. But if a kids parents can't make it, or more aptly, refuses to prioritize it, we aren't going to leave that young man off our team. A player can not help if his parents can not attend or doesn't care about their activities. It seems like it would punish the player for having a poor parent. Exactly. Are you going to tell the next Baker Mayfield or Bryce Love to beat it because his parents are morons?
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Post by bleefb on Oct 26, 2017 21:53:00 GMT -6
I've had kids whose parents never showed for ANYTHING, including Senior Night. I had one parent show up for Senior Night, but the JV game went too long so he just left. Didn't even tell his kid he was leaving. The look on the kids face when we started the introductions and he realized his Dad had lift broke my heart. I escorted him instead, but he had tears in his eyes the whole way. Some parents are just bad. Kids don't get to pick them.
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Post by dubber on Oct 27, 2017 8:43:31 GMT -6
I've had kids whose parents never showed for ANYTHING, including Senior Night. I had one parent show up for Senior Night, but the JV game went too long so he just left. Didn't even tell his kid he was leaving. The look on the kids face when we started the introductions and he realized his Dad had lift broke my heart. I escorted him instead, but he had tears in his eyes the whole way. Some parents are just bad. Kids don't get to pick them. Been there
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Post by coachtua on Oct 31, 2017 8:28:24 GMT -6
Had a kid miss practice Monday because he was trying out for the surfing team. We had a kid miss practice because " the sets were too good to come to practice"...
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Post by fshamrock on Nov 1, 2017 12:19:30 GMT -6
along the same lines, what's the deal with kids that get hurt just not showing up anymore? I'm pretty sure that until recently when a kid got hurt and couldn't play, he still showed up to practice and games. helped out where he could, and was around the team here lately at two different schools i've been at a kid gets hurt and we never see the kid again, they just hang out in the training room until they are cleared to participate, and forget showing up to games. I asked one and looked at me like I asked him the dumbest question in the world "why would I come to the game if I can't play?" weird
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Post by larrymoe on Nov 1, 2017 13:58:42 GMT -6
So true. Those meetings tend to be "preaching to the choir" kind of meetings. Then when you have an issue in-season with a parent and ask them "did you come to the meeting?" The answer is always "no." Why is the kid playing if the parent did not attend the parent meeting? I realize it is tough, but if the meeting was important enough to have, it is important enough to hold kids out until they attend the meeting or meet with coaches/sign a contract type thing Because if they don’t play, we’d have about 8 kids on the team. Not being super critical, but I wonder sometimes what planet some of you coach on sometimes.
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Post by larrymoe on Nov 1, 2017 14:03:13 GMT -6
"Coach, I can't be at practice today, I got stung by like 50 yellow jackets." Actual quote via text. "_______ and _______ will not be at the varsity game Friday or the jv game Saturday. We will be taking a family trip to the Nascar race." Not an exact quote but pretty close. Had a kid miss a Friday game and a JV Monday game because his dad took him to a lineman convention. Not like a football lineman, like an electric lineman. Kid’s a 14 year old freshman.
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Post by blb on Nov 1, 2017 14:37:50 GMT -6
along the same lines, what's the deal with kids that get hurt just not showing up anymore? I'm pretty sure that until recently when a kid got hurt and couldn't play, he still showed up to practice and games. helped out where he could, and was around the team here lately at two different schools i've been at a kid gets hurt and we never see the kid again, they just hang out in the training room until they are cleared to participate, and forget showing up to games. I asked one and looked at me like I asked him the dumbest question in the world "why would I come to the game if I can't play?" weird At our first team meeting before practice started we told kids that even if they were injured and could not practice they were expected to be at practice (much less game).
If they weren't, I would assume they quit, although that never happened that I can remember.
You're either a part of the team, or you're not.
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Post by blb on Nov 1, 2017 14:53:01 GMT -6
We had a kid miss practice because " the sets were too good to come to practice"...
What are "sets"?
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Post by coachd5085 on Nov 1, 2017 18:49:27 GMT -6
Why is the kid playing if the parent did not attend the parent meeting? I realize it is tough, but if the meeting was important enough to have, it is important enough to hold kids out until they attend the meeting or meet with coaches/sign a contract type thing Because if they don’t play, we’d have about 8 kids on the team. Not being super critical, but I wonder sometimes what planet some of you coach on sometimes. So if only 8 kids' parents make it to a parent meeting..why have the meeting? That is my point. Either the meeting is important, or it isn't.
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