Hilarious article out of New Jersey

[badmonkey]

Stop being obtuse..there were other things in that article besides the thing you are focusing on. You think it is ok for a male coach to make jokes (which appeared to be mean in nature) about women menstruating? You don't think that could be embarrassing to some young ladies? How would you like it if your DD's head coach told her she was hitting like she was on her period? So yes I was combining a few of things in that article to make a point..my fault.

Also, for the record, I had plenty of coaches who were asses. I had a basketball coach in HS who threw basketballs at our heads if we screwed up. My college baseball coach hazed us as freshmen by making us chew tobacco and then swallow it so we would puke. He also put us all in a room and and initiated a conversation about our first sexual experiences. The same guy called me Tourette because I was inclined to have emotional outbursts when I didn't perform as well as I wanted to.

Just because nobody ever said anything back then doesn't mean it was right. I can tell you one thing it didn't do, it didn't make me any better a ballplayer.

Finally, as you seem to be new, ask anybody on here: there is nobody as far away from being a coddling parent than me....

That coach sounds like a jerk, but that nickname he gave you is an All-Time great.

 

[_MIA_]

That coach sounds like a jerk, but that nickname he gave you is an All-Time great.

Actually no it wasn't. Calling me a jackass would have been appropriate whereas using a neurological disease, which people have due to no fault of their own, wasn't.

 

[Westwind]

When I look at everything kids need to do to get recruited these days and stay in a program “snowflake” is the last thing that comes to mind.

Its not easy to be a college athlete.

Its also not easy to be a college coach. Sheesh, this is a mess.

 

[riseball]

When you dig into the details in the article and look at the Rutgers Softball website you find some interesting facts about Erin Collins. Her bio states:

• Baltimore All-Metro Player of the Year (2017)
• Baltimore Sun Top 10 Athlete of the Year (2017)
• Four-time Baltimore County Championship finalist (2014-17)
• Four-time all-county team selection (2014-17)
• Named Baltimore all-metro selection as a junior in 2016
• Two-time team captain (2015 and 2016)
• As a junior, finished the season batting .589 with 26 RBIs, 20 runs, 11 doubles and three home runs
• Compiled 412 career strikeouts as a pitcher in high school
• Four-year varsity starter and three-time captain on the volleyball team
• Four-time all-county selection (2013-16)
• Regional champions and Maryland State semi-finalists (2014-16)

Sounds like she was all that an a bag of chips in High School. Probably a highly recruited big fish.

She hit .198 as a Freshman and .183 last year as a Sophomore outfielder at Rutgers. As the article states - "By the fifth sprint, Erin Collins, a 20-year-old sophomore outfielder, began to feel dizzy...Trembling and woozy, Collins tried to keep up, she said, until she blacked out. "

FWIW - She was a Civil Engineering Major headed into her Junior Year where academically it starts to get real.

So is this the case of a great player driven out by a sadistic coach, or perhaps an under performing player realizing that college softball is not for them? You be the judge.

 

[badmonkey]

Actually no it wasn't. Calling me a jackass would have been appropriate whereas using a neurological disease, which people have due to no fault of their own, wasn't.

Sounds like the point was to get you to look at your behavior. I'm sure jackass would have been like water off a duck's back to you.

 

[_MIA_]

Sounds like the point was to get you to look at your behavior. I'm sure jackass would have been like water off a duck's back to you.

No the point was to belittle me. He and I didn't have a good relationship, for various reasons including some that were my own doing, from pretty much the start. If he wanted me to look at my own behavior he should have told me I wouldn't play until I changed yet I started at 2B and hit second my Sophomore year until I decided to quit (didn't really have anything to do with him). As a matter of fact that should have been what all of my youth coaches should have told me, starting with and especially my father, but nobody wants to sit the cleanup hitting SS.

Also yes, calling me a jackass probably wouldn't have worked since that was part of my own vocabulary which I used to berate myself

 

[bmakj]

My DD had to do the same thing at SC. Her take was they are weak, probably needed to go. If they are not capable or unwilling to add up the cost of a meal, do you really want them on the field during a game? For that matter if simple addition is a challenge, how did they get into Rutgers? Who doctored their SAT score?

can you do my taxes going forwards, since apparently you have never made an arithametic (sic) error? for that error, maybe the appropriate punishment is the team has to pass the hat to reimburse the $6, maybe even tell them to collectively come up with $60, with the extra $54 donated to charity of their choosing (you, like a real world type consequence for a relatively minor mistake)?

not saying I am for coddling, but some of what is alleged goes beyond the line. let the process play out. the coaches should be allowed to defend themselves (although the husband leaving to me is a little sketchy), but do not trash the players either. remember, in the end, it is a game, and I highly doubt any of them are getting a 100% ride, so it should be at least somewhat fun.

I think at the very least that all practices/trainings for this team for the foreseeable future need to have an independent athletic trainer (ie not associated with softball program) in attendance, and their word on what is too much is law. This is not "Junction Boys".

 

[ANNASDAD]

When I look at everything kids need to do to get recruited these days and stay in a program “snowflake” is the last thing that comes to mind.

Its not easy to be a college athlete.

Its also not easy to be a college coach. Sheesh, this is a mess.

Yep, great post Ww!

When Anna was 15, the president of our organization got Mickey Dean when he was still at James Madison to come down and do a team one day camp. At the first water break or the first opportunity I got to speak to her, she said "dang he's mean!!" I responded with "nah, the more he talks the more I like him!"

He was definitely a no frills, no BS type of coach, he was hard! And that was 300 miles away from his program, and dealing with a team full of girls he didn't know, imagine how he is with his girls!

The last 20 minutes of the camp, he grabbed a bucket and headed to the bleachers, he sit on the bucket in front of the bleachers and yelled at the girls to come over and have a seat. He said........you've got a D1 coach here in front of you, ask me anything you want, don't hold back!

He basically ended it saying, being a full time student athlete is one of the hardest "jobs" you girls will EVER have, at the end of the day all you want to do is get some food in you and lay your head down! And if you can endure this, I feel confident you'll do very well in life! I also remember him saying accolades were NOT for while you're playing, they come 20 years later while you're talking to your kids or holding a grandchild and looking back at the memories of being a college player!

When a Auburn game is on now, I always look forward to watching him coach because of that camp! He's one tough dude!

 

[Westwind]

It's like four years of boot camp.

Maybe not exactly. Close though.

 

[BlaineAB]

Athletics are supposed to be fun and an opportunity to test yourself and grow, not a job or some sort of macho-test or survival of the fittest.

Whether you're a softball athlete, discus thrower or a swimmer, there will be some parts of your training that you'll find tedious or challenging. Getting through challenging training with your teammates helps build esprit de corps.

Softball isn't the only sport where the Bear Bryant approach to coaching STUDENT-athletes is being challenged/questioned.
About time.