Syracuse.com Survey of Coaches

[schwabach]

Hypothetical question about the bolded sentence. What do you do if the newbie is actually the better player and the potentially bitching parent is the one who's daughter is the older "vet"?

That happens a lot. In HS sports, some believe in a seniority system that trumps talent.

 

[CMMom1740]

I'm a child psychologist and deal a lot with the private schools in the area. Some of these same parents who helicopter over their child's sports also micro-manage their schooling. It seems that there is an attitude of "I'm paying $xx,xxx per year for this school, so you'd better satisfy me." My sister taught third grade for 12 years. The final straw for her (before moving from teaching to administration) was when this poor child was late practically every day, never turned in homework, etc... One day in about April, the Mom sent in a note saying, "As you know, Suzy's Dad and I are undergoing a difficult divorce. It's been very difficult on Suzy. For this reason, she won't be completing any homework for the remainder of the year, so don't ask her to." WOW. Translate that to sports and you see entitled parents threatening to get coaches fired for benching their kids, etc... This attitude is becoming pervasive in middle to upper-middle class America.

 

[Softball scholar]

One thing about the article is that I find hard to believe is that the Athletic Director (or school board) doesn't back up or support the coaches. Come on. I've been a high school coach and have kids go through high school programs, and I don't think Ive seen an athletic director take a complaint about playing time seriously. Also like the article said, there's not enough coaches. Most ADs (who are former or current coaches) will respect a coaches decisions . If ADs questioned a coaches decisions, they would be quitting left and right.
Ive seen ADs address parents complaints about situations such as cussing, verbal abuse and safety.

Ill use a real example at my kids school: A friend of mine whose DD was on the tennis team did not make a top seven varsity spot on the roster. One good thing about sports like tennis is you have challenge matches. Similar to swimming mentioned earlier, if you win a challenge match you get to play ahead of that person as you've proven your better. Of course this head tennis coach also had a DD on the team. The girl had beaten the #7 varsity girl in practice but the head coach would not let her challenge for the spot the whole season. Its obviously unfair, but the dad went to the AD, and he totally dismissed him. He almost laughed at him for making a complaint.

I think Ken Krause explanation that "this is a new business model is spot on", and the article took only the perspective from the complaining coach. A lot of the parents labeled helicopter parents are dropping $$$$ all year on the sport. They're kid is probably playing at a higher level, getting professional physical & skills training and are more educated about the current technology of the sport . The difficult part about the high school coach, is to be successful today you have to work at the sport all year and you have to work at staying abreast of current technology. A high amount of coaches who probably played 20 years ago and coaches their sport like they played 20 years ago. They probably don't read web sites like this, go to seminars or camps, nor purchase video updates.

Also one other relevant aspect is the unfair allocation of experienced athletes due to varying economic conditions of an area. This is very relevant to softball I think this has a caused a severe lack of parity in high school sports. School a gets 20 travel ball players, the same sized school b in depressed are gets one or two. Coach at school A doesn't have to do much and competes well, where a coach at School B has very little chance of competing no matter how good or how hard they work.

I think reasons like this are the real reason coaches give it up, not from parents complaining to them and ADs.

 

[Phathead]

Lots of good posts and what I belive are true. Ken probably covered it best and the more knowledgeable parents is the thing I see the most. While I can not teach pitching I can recognize better mechanics. HE stands out like a sore thumb so when I see a coach teaching it I for right or wrong immediately lower my expectations and respect for that coach even when I know some have the best intentions. Like someone else said a lot are teaching what they were taught 20 yr ago. In my demographics poll the other day the majority that replied were TB,REC,or non school. This was just a small sample and there are many other resources to learn from other than this site. I feel it shows that a lot of school coaches are not continuing their education of their sport with updated techniques or mechanics. This unfortunately have many grouping all school coachs together , when there are many who are great HS coaches , into oNE group labeled as bad. I see many parents described in the article and belive many of the coaches horror stories. Like Ken said the model is changing and like rec in many areas school ball will fall in quantity and quality if not adressed. I know I will never see my DD playing on espn at a top 25 D1 school but I have invested money in an excellent PC and lots of time. According to the article I will be "one of those parents" the school coaches don't like when I step in questioning their HE and if they don't relent and DD leaves program they will have a bleak season as she is the only viable pitcher they have. But parents shouldn't be labeled as bad just because they decide to educate themselves and not just sit quietly when a school coach refuses to put in time being up to date. I wish all school coaches were like cannon and some of the others on here. If they were some scouting would return to the schools, I wouldn't read posts.were college coaches prefer prospects not play school ball.

 

[cvsoftball]

Hypothetical question about the bolded sentence. What do you do if the newbie is actually the better player and the potentially bitching parent is the one who's daughter is the older "vet"?

I play the newbie more. Next question.

 

[canyonjoe]

I had a friend who was an AC on DD's 12U team a few years ago. Great guy who while not wealthy was very comfortable financially. His son was playing
HS baseball and going through a slump. He was talking to the coach after practice and the coach said he was thinking of moving him down in the lineup. The dad
said "I would have done it 3 games ago". The coach said that he likes to get permission from the parents as it might hurt fund raising in the future.

 

[Sparky Guy]

Athletic directors are often constrained in their hiring decisions with pressure to pick from teachers first. This can limit the talent pool.

Can I get glorious AMEN!!!!!

 

[Ksphenom]

I don't understand why anyone with an athletic child would ever play HS ball. Track maybe if you can set a couple records either state or national.

 

[YOCOACH]

One thing about the article is that I find hard to believe is that the Athletic Director (or school board) doesn't back up or support the coaches. Come on. I've been a high school coach and have kids go through high school programs, and I don't think Ive seen an athletic director take a complaint about playing time seriously. Also like the article said, there's not enough coaches. Most ADs (who are former or current coaches) will respect a coaches decisions . If ADs questioned a coaches decisions, they would be quitting left and right.
Ive seen ADs address parents complaints about situations such as cussing, verbal abuse and safety.

Ill use a real example at my kids school: A friend of mine whose DD was on the tennis team did not make a top seven varsity spot on the roster. One good thing about sports like tennis is you have challenge matches. Similar to swimming mentioned earlier, if you win a challenge match you get to play ahead of that person as you've proven your better. Of course this head tennis coach also had a DD on the team. The girl had beaten the #7 varsity girl in practice but the head coach would not let her challenge for the spot the whole season. Its obviously unfair, but the dad went to the AD, and he totally dismissed him. He almost laughed at him for making a complaint.

I think Ken Krause explanation that "this is a new business model is spot on", and the article took only the perspective from the complaining coach. A lot of the parents labeled helicopter parents are dropping $$$$ all year on the sport. They're kid is probably playing at a higher level, getting professional physical & skills training and are more educated about the current technology of the sport . The difficult part about the high school coach, is to be successful today you have to work at the sport all year and you have to work at staying abreast of current technology. A high amount of coaches who probably played 20 years ago and coaches their sport like they played 20 years ago. They probably don't read web sites like this, go to seminars or camps, nor purchase video updates.

Also one other relevant aspect is the unfair allocation of experienced athletes due to varying economic conditions of an area. This is very relevant to softball I think this has a caused a severe lack of parity in high school sports. School a gets 20 travel ball players, the same sized school b in depressed are gets one or two. Coach at school A doesn't have to do much and competes well, where a coach at School B has very little chance of competing no matter how good or how hard they work.

I think reasons like this are the real reason coaches give it up, not from parents complaining to them and ADs.

Unfortunately, I have to disagree on this point. My DW is an inner city school teacher. The administration is mostly comprised of minorities. Until this year when the Governor got a law passed that totally bypassed the local school board and appointed a CEO, the administration made excuses for the kids not passing their grade levels and pushed them forward to the next grade level even though they never did homework, couldn't read at least 3 grade levels below what grade they were attending, failed most tests due to non parent study enforcement and multiple severe behavior issues. If there were behavior problems and the kids actually assaulted the teachers and were suspended for 10 days or expelled, all it took was one phone call to the local BOE and they were back in school the next day. If the teacher filed a complaint with the police over the incident, which they needed to do in order to get that particular child banned because the administration wouldn't back them up, the teacher was pretty much either sent to the worst school with behavior problems so they would quit or they were RIFfed (Reduction in Force i.e. laid off). If it was a school Principal, their contract was not renewed. Granted, this is in a pretty bad system but there are many worse out there that we are both aware of.

I can safely say that an AD not fighting against parents with Rose Colored Glasses on would not be far behind and Administration that won't even support their teachers so that they could actually do the jobs they are paid to do.

 

[MTR]

In addition, certain aspects of coach behavior which might have been overlooked in the past are now fair game. I have seen many cases of high school coaches who lost their jobs due to inappropriate conduct such as bullying or harassment. A coach has 3 choices with the players on his or her team - cut 'em, bench 'em or play 'em. What a coach may not do is bully or harass players.

Athletic directors are often constrained in their hiring decisions with pressure to pick from teachers first. This can limit the talent pool.

In some cases, it is the law and/or part of the teacher's union contract.