Public School District Parent Coach Policy

[BuckeyeGuy]

What the heck are we talking about here, Doug? Is this some sort of systemic or institutional problem within the district? The Board has NO business getting involved with an individual school at that level at all. If there's a policy, it should read: "We trust the principals we hired and the AD's they appoint to do their jobs."

I only coach MS, but my AD has told me that the only help I'll ever get are unpaid "volunteer assistants." That means dads. There is no district policy about my DD playing for me, and there shouldn't be.

 

[Doug Romrell]

Though it will likely not be avoided, I'd like for this thread to not turn into the heated, mud-slinging arguments like we often see in some of the hitting threads.

Again, if a district-wide policy regarding the extent with which parent coaches can be used is immanent, what are your thoughts on what the wording of that policy would look like?

I might also help for posters to state (1) if they are, or have been, a daddy coach in a high school sports program, and (2) how many parent coaches were/are in the coaching staff of that program.

 

[JJsqueeze]

I am a huge fan of not having more policies in general and especially in public schools. Aren't public schools overridden with enough? As an example my girls could not wear ANY Halloween costumes to school this year because about 2 students are Jehovah's witnesses and would not be included.

Why not just decline the offer to forge the policy?

 

[BuckeyeGuy]

Though it will likely not be avoided, I'd like for this thread to not turn into the heated, mud-slinging arguments like we often see in some of the hitting threads.

Again, if a district-wide policy regarding the extent with which parent coaches can be used is immanent, what are your thoughts on what the wording of that policy would look like?

I might also help for posters to state (1) if they are, or have been, a daddy coach in a high school sports program, and (2) how many parent coaches were/are in the coaching staff of that program.

That's why I don't even venture into the hitting forums.

Here's the problem I see: how do you exclude some parent-coaches and not others? Where do you draw the line? And again I ask - is it a district wide issue? Or is the board making it a district wide issue because of a single school where the problem sorts itself as soon as some girls graduate?

If I were forced to come up with a policy, it would be this: only one paid parent-coach per team (so basically the HC's of varsity and JV); any other parent-coaches must be unpaid AC's. That's about all I can come up with.

 

[JJS]

Do you know of a NFL team where 44% (4/9) of the starting players have dads in the coaching staff? Of course, that is pure silliness--wouldn't happen.
There are private softball teams out there where there is a higher percentage of players with a dad in the coaching staff, but that's a private team.
Isn't there a slightly different standard in a public school sports program with regards to who has control of the coaching?

Any ideas on what a GOOD policy in this regard would look like? I can't imagine having the 9 fathers of the 9 starting varsity players coaching the team is okay.

If a policy is immanent, what are your thoughts on what the wording of that policy would look like?

Thanks for the clarification. From the original post I thought that the coaches were already there and their kids were just coming through the system. If that was the case, then let it be.

This is quite different though. Let me ask what size the town/school district is? Our city is big enough that we pay for 4 coaches for our school team. They will all be there for 10-15 years.

The easiest policy would be to pay assistant coaches, and keep them around for years. Only hire qualified coaches, not dads.

 

[JJS]

Why aren't teachers in the district taking these positions? Why are parents being given them? Sounds like you school wants free labor. If that is the case all I can say is that you get what you pay for.

 

[BuckeyeGuy]

Why aren't teachers in the district taking these positions? Why are parents being given them? Sounds like you school wants free labor. If that is the case all I can say is that you get what you pay for.

In our LSD, the HS coaches are hired because they're damn good coaches. If a teacher is a better coach, they can earn the spot. HC spots are paid positions, so many of the teachers try to pick up that extra paycheck, but in a LSD where they want to win...

 

[Sparky Guy]

The majority of the high schools in my area have no parent coaches. In many of the schools the teachers are unionized. So the coaching positions have to go to a teacher first if they want the coaching position before anyone else can have the position. So there's lotsa bitchin' about "Dumb" HS coaches around here. The school my DD's attended had 4800+ kids when they were there. Because we are a large urban area it's natural for those types of rules to be instituted.

OTOH.. If it's a small town with a small student body I can see small-town politics becoming a factor in HS sports. That could be why a School Board member approached the OP.

Several years back. A small town near me fired a MS state championship winning coach after the season was over. The coach called their ACE pitcher the "Horse of the staff." in a local paper interview after the season. One of the board members whipped everyone up into a frenzy and came up with a BS story about how the girl was sooooo upset about being referred to as a horse. After all was said and done the coach was gone and it came to light the DD of the board member who started all the crap. Her DD did not make the team at tryouts.

 

[CoogansBluff]

So imagine that you have the best HS football coach in America, and he's got a kid who is 10-years-old. Does the coach have to resign when his kid becomes a high school freshman?

 

[CoogansBluff]

Or are you saying there should be a policy that doesn't allow the hiring of a new coach who might have a current player on a team?

I certainly understand the concern there. DD's high school just hired a new head softball coach, and several parents were relieved that a couple of candidates w/ daughters or nieces were not chosen. Just don't know that you should make it a policy. It disqualifies some very good candidates who don't play daddy/mommy ball. Just got to hope that principal/AD are good at their jobs.