Worst thing you've done as a coach

In my first year coaching I put a physically capable linemen against another linemen who was very similar physically, but WAY ahead mentally and technically. I had them repeat the drill hoping the less talented kid would have an "ah ha" moment, well he didnt. He had some anger issues and blew up. HC stepped in, kid is yelling and cussed some. He thought I was trying to embarrass him and he lashed out. I still do those type of drills but I make sure ive got a better relationship with the kid first, thats also when I learned that sometimes you gotta put your arm around them. Kid quit the next day and never played again.

OH you think I have Plateaued? You haven't seen anything yet

Went to a Glazier clinic on a Friday morning not feeling the best and finding out Monday I had Influenza B.

4 & 6 sounds reasonable to me. 

Haha I was sparing you guys a long story but here we go:

Important Information- Delaware does not have a "rating" system for our ref crews. There is a total disconnect. We have the ability to "red-line" a guy from doing our home games BUT they could (and likely will) have any post-season game you may have...so obviously it's not in our best interests do do that...


Ejection was really my "tolerance of bull$hit" bucket runneth over from 5 years of coaching here. 2 REALLY bad calls one crisp evening sent me over the edge:

1) We punch it in from the 2yd line. Our kid crosses the goal line in a pile, and ends up at the bottom of the pile, ball stretched 2 yds into the endzone. No whistle yet, despite the ref standing in the back of the endzone watching it. As the RB lay there with a pile of people on top of him, with his belt on the goalline, a defender swipes the ball out of his hands 4 full secs after he crossed the goal line. 21 players on the field reacted as if the play was over and he scored. Still no whistle 5 secs after he hit the ground. A defender goes down to 1 knee, fields the loose ball while his knees are on the ground, stands up and runs 107yds for a score. I'm miffed- ask for someone to tell me what the heck happened. No answer. I deal with it but I'm steaming.

2) next offensive drive, red zone (so we have side judge deep out of bounds in endzone to either side, line judge in normal area, back judge etc) our kid beats the corner on a sluggo. Defensive back has outside leverage. He pins our kid's inside arm to his waist, essentially tackling him before our kid attempts to play the ball. He plays the ball with one outstretched arm and the CB riding him into the ground. NO CALL. I sprint immediately toward the corner of the box to see if the side judge was going to throw the flag- I asked him he said "I was blocked out," which I fully understand so I swing my eyes to where the opposite side judge should be (endzone by the goal posts when the ball was in the air) and he's nowhere to be found. He hasn't moved from his original spot, and he wasn't even looking at the play. I know the mechanics of crew and they messed up royally.  I went berserk. Asked white hat for help. He told me to "get off his field." I am now in kill mode. The white hat and I are actually friendly, which made matters worse, because instead of an easy ejection it became a big ordeal. I am in full Bobby Valentine/Earl Weaver mode, not cursing but making my point, and he keeps saying "Mike, I'm not throwing you out of this game, return to your sideline." I'm not leaving without a flag dropping on that no call or on me. My 1st year assistant coach comes out to help me back to sideline, and damn near has to pick me up belly-to-back suplex style... and I wrangle myself free to go get to the white hat again. Media said I "charged" him which both myself and the white hat clarified later as not the case.

Crowd goes nuts. Kids go nuts. I am escorted out of the stadium, but I'm so fired up I dead-nuts sprint across the field to the gate. Place is going nuts. Game ends in regulation and refs are hurried out of the stadium under hails of boos and god-knows what else was said. My community loves it's sports so I'm sure it was bad.

End of the game interview was with my DC and OC who were acting HCs with my ejection. My OC states the obvious "the decisions made tonight were egregious and we need to take a serious look at how we are holding people accountable for these things as both teams were denied opportunities. (totally a reference to not being able to rate or even communicate with the refs)" The interview spreads over media like crazy, media swings it that we were verbally abusing the refs etc. Total horse$hit.

I received another 1 game suspension, My OC was suspended for the rest of the season by our state athletics association. They almost passed the vote to give my OC a life-time suspension from coaching...for saying the what he said quoted above...but they missed by 1 vote. They also told us on Thursday night before a Friday game the following week, so we literally had NO HC and NO OC with no prep time. The state association was trying to make a point not to question them or the refs. It backfired.

So that incident was embarrassing personally, but the incident (among several others that weren't sensationalized in the media) has led to a falling out between the public and the state athletics association, to the point where state legislators are now auditing the athletics association to determine if they need to gut their leadership. The head of the association quit, they hired a new guy and he quit within 4 months. But the "good-ole-boy" club that ran it are on egg shells right now. 

So yes, I was embarrassed to say I was the match that set off the bonfire, but they had soaked it in gasoline for many years with their BS.

That's it. And I wasn't fired...my admin has my back 100%

Many year ago (I think I was 23-24) our season was over so a bunch of the staff decided to watch another local team play. Afterwards we went back to one of the coaches houses who's wife was gone for the weekend and began to drink.....rather heavily. 

By the end of the night, we were all full of liquid courage and full speed ahead! 

Here comes the bad part, which I still can't remember to this day- Apparently, me and our Dline coach had a disagreement while we were all in the coaches garage talking ball, hitting the punching bag and lifting a few weights. From what I've been told, we were so mad at each other that we were actually ready to full on brawl, hands up, doing the circle and everything before they broke us up! Pretty embarrassing!

That being said, he is now the District Superintendent for the school I coach at. Thank God we both woke up with no recollection of what happened that night or why! We both felt like fools as we did the walk of shame to the cars when our wife's picked us up that morning!    

I am the coach of the navy team in this game. The coach of the white team absolutely loses his crap at the 15:00 mark. No flags are thrown. I received a 15 yarder later in the game for saying, while in the box, "you guys are terrible" to the refs. And I stress saying. I didn't raise my voice above classroom tone. I also never left the box.

Had a kid that wanted to play MLB. And looked ok there during camp and practices as we headed into a scrimmage two weeks before our first game.

We have the scrimmage and are doing film review with players the next day.

He is one of the first ones there and comes beaming into the room asking how he looked on film. I looked at him and said I wanted to slit my wrists. I chuckled, he laughed. We did the film review. After, I apologized to him saying that I was really just joking around.

Glad he took it the right way because it was a stupid thing to say. Thankfully I have a great relationship with him and his parents several years later

First year as a HC. Probably should’ve done more research on the school and its admin. Should’ve never accepted the job.

Plenty of talent but administration opened its doors to any Tom, Dick or Sally parent or kid that wanted to complain about coaches. Same approach with teachers. Shockingly there was a culture of inmates running the asylum and mass burnout even in younger teachers.