In Defense of the Coach - Your Coach

[obbay]

Bashing comes easy on this site.

its not this site, its the internet.

I agree that this guy has had limited exposure to the coaching world. good read though, I liked the Syracuse article better.
Perhaps he can tell us why our HS softball coach talked a player out of running track to play softball and then sat the player on the bench.(player was a good athlete). (Don't try to explain it, he was trying to get more money into the program, regardless of the effect on the kid.)

our HS coach is not a teacher and was grandfathered in from before they had state regulations regarding coach qualifications.
sure he really does love his team, but he does nothing to improve himself as a coach or learn more about the game. he has some coaching techniques that he has carried over from coaching boys that don't work for girls, especially teenaged girls, that are more hurtfull than anything else, but he doesn't know. our team is not a real team. its mostly a girls club with a handful of players who don't fit in - this is supported by the coach

 

[canyonjoe]

I remember a meeting with DD's first TB coach. He asked for some things he thought he could improve on. We made a list and discussed. My final comment to him
was if you asked me to make one that told us all the things you did right it would be 20 pages long. It's so easy to dwell on a few bad things but when you add up all the good things most coaches do you wonder how they have enough time to do it all.

 

[Cannonball]

First, let me say that I am not perfect. In fact, I'm far from it. One of the guys I grew up with once commented on me and teaching/coaching by remarking, "I can't believe that they let you around kids." In fact, one of the reasons I coach is because I believe my life was saved by my HS Baseball Coach. Norris Dorsey is one of the best men I have ever met. He believed in me and gave me a chance when no one else would. I had gained this reputation as a "bad kid" and I seemed to be in fights all the time. If you grew up where I did you would know that fighting was necessary for survival. If you didn't, you became a "to whom something happened." I am never going to be in that category.

Coach Dorsey knew my reputation and yet, he gave me that nickname, "Cannonball." It was because of an incident in a game we played against a conference rival. Long story short, I played with abandon. He loved it. It didn't take me long to understand the method to his madness. He cared about kids as much as winning. I've tried to do the same. This is my 31st year of HS Coaching. I've been the head coach in 4 sports. We've done a lot of winning. Anyone who really understands coaching knows it isn't really the coach. It is the kids. I have been blessed with the players I have been able to coach. Monday night was our Senior Night for Girl's Golf. One of the Granddads asked to speak. He told some stories about me and coaching baseball. He then said that he told his granddaughter that I was the single most intense coach he had ever seen in his 30 years of umpiring. His Granddaughter then told him I was a big teddy bear. He couldn't believe it. I learned from my HS coach that there is a time for everything and that players have to know you care about them more than you do about winning. As one of my buddies says, "it is about winning kids and not winning games." I've always thought that if you "win kids" you will win games because of it.

Finally, I'll speak about the true nature of coaching. I've spoken at too many of my players and former player's funerals. Still the families asked me to speak and I would never turn them down. My wife wanted to know one time about how much money we spend on my players. I don't know and I don't care. It is a lot. The rewards are greater. I sometimes feel guilty about all of the time I've spent away from my family. As I might have mentioned once, I was so wrapped up one year in trying to win a state title in basketball that I forgot to put up a Christmas Tree for BB and I didn't get her a gift. I learned a lot that year. I have on the wall of my classroom a letter for the parents of those players that I received after we were eliminated late in the state playoffs. To paraphrase, it says that I want to win state and they don't. It says that I think that they are basketball players but they are soccer players. It says that "drive their children too hard and am unforgiving" meaning that I want perfection. Long story short, it asked me to resign so that their daughters could have "fun." I did and watched that program go from averaging 19-20 wins a year to zero wins one year. I guess they had fun. After that year, I promised BB that I would place her first over all other things. I coach now with a different perspective. This year in Girl's Golf will be my first losing season. I do have our conference Champion on my team. Still, we are not very good. I've seen the best and the worst in parents, administration and players. Believe me, there are so many more positives than negatives. I have 2 years left to coach. It will be like tearing my heart out when I am done but I know it is time for me to move on.

 

[JAD]

I am sure there are some great HS coaches, but there are also some real duds....same holds true for TB, but in TB parents have a choice and crappy coaches teams quickly fold. In HS the crappy coaches get tenure and can be there for decades...