Coaching, Need advice

[butkus]

Eddie,

 

Coaches are good or bad usually depending on the talent level at their school. It is not easy work and having people second-guessing your decisions is not an easy thing to take. Coaches work hard in order to be prepared and give their team a chance to win. People should learn to live with their coach's decisions. If not, get a degree, get a coaching job, and then find out how easy it is.

[fanman33]

With the obvious exception of Eddie Haskel, the posts on this thread are the best I've ever read on CoachT. Thanks to all who gave good advise to the one who asked the question in the beginning. It seemed the question was asked in good faith. I hope he will follow the advise given. Thanks again to level-headed fans.

[TedLNancy]

What do you have in mind Mr. Haskell, public floggings? Maybe stocks and chains could be put in the end zone and the coaches should be placed in them and forced to watch the game tapes.

 

Coaches get way too much credit when teams do well and way too much blame when teams lose.

 

You must have players. Does anyone think Steve Spurrier is less of a coach at South Carolina than he was at Florida because they are getting whipped now? There probably are some out there who think that.

 

Coaches spend hours each week in practice with their players, watching opponents on film and putting game plans together. Then some local barber, store clerk, meter reader, lawyer... sets in the stands for 2 hours a week and knows what should have been done.

 

High School coaches must play with the hand that is dealt them. They can't go out and recruit the missing talent, unless it is walking in their hallways at school.

 

What sport did you play in high school Eddie? Elementary school kickball.

[tigersr1]

Coaching is a very simple job. Just sit in the stands on any given Friday night or stand around the field with all of the wannabes and listen to what the coach SHOULD do. Better yet go to the local coffee shop on Saturday morning and find out what shuld have been called.

 

I say let's put head sets under designated seats, buzz the listener and tell them to give us a play that will certainly work. They have 25 seconds to think of a play, get it to the coach, get it to the QB, get it to the team, break the huddle, line up and run the play. SIMPLE ENOUGH - JUST DO IT.

Great post

[tigersr1]

Just remember one thing. No matter the coaching you can't put in what God lefted out. Its easy to blame the coaches when things are going bad and praise the kids when thing s are goin well. Why is it not ever the other way around. Ed you must have a kid that plays and you think he is the greatest.

[YngballCoach]

This has got to be the "BEST THREAD EVER". I am speaking from the "other side", the coaches side. I am a current coach at a school that is 1-4 now and has been losing here for some years and every Friday in the stands you can here everything from "the coach is dumb, they are not teaching them anything, to these guys are the worst coaches in the world and with all this talent we should be........". But these same people are never at practice to see the poor work ethics(at times) or the fact that there child is not really "that" good. As a coach I appreciate this thread because there are civilized adults that understand out there............and from a coach to you I say 'thank you'. That was almost a JERRY MAGUIRE moment huh?

[StudCantrell]

I once had a coach that had a confrontation with a parent. The coach asks the parent, "Sir, I hear your the best mechanic in town?" The parent replied, "I think I'm pretty good." The coach responded, "Well sir, how would you like it if I came by your shop and tell you how to rebuild that engine. You wouldn't like it, would you?" The parent was silenced, he didn't know what to say. The coach finished up with, "Let me do my job and I will let you do yours." The parent left the room and was not heard from again.

 

The point of this story is. Let the coaches coach. If the parents think that they can do better, go to college get an education degree in a field that you can teach, pass three praxis tests, get hired and be evaluated until you get tenured (if you last that long), put up with kids in a classroom (you can't discipline them like you can your kids at home) for a seven-hour school day, practice for at least two-to-three hours after school, make sure that you stay until all your kids have gotten their rides home (can't leave them alone for liability reasons). That means you leave home at 7 am and don't get home until 7 or 8 pm. Not much time with the wife and kids huh (sometimes coaches go two days without seing their families). Not to mention game nights where you might not get home until after midnight. Football coaches travels on Saturday to exchange films and watches films with the whole staff on Sundays. Basically a seven day a week job for very little pay and very little appreciation. Plus, put up with all of the constructive criticism from the "coffee shop" coaches.

 

PARENTS, you sure that you can do the job or feel like your better off with your higher paying job after reading this. If you think you can coach, more power to you and good luck. Otherwise, take into consideration that coaches spend more time with your children than their own and they are trying their best. Support the coaches.

[Lions4ever]

I once had a coach that had a confrontation with a parent. The coach asks the parent, "Sir, I hear your the best mechanic in town?" The parent replied, "I think I'm pretty good." The coach responded, "Well sir, how would you like it if I came by your shop and tell you how to rebuild that engine. You wouldn't like it, would you?" The parent was silenced, he didn't know what to say. The coach finished up with, "Let me do my job and I will let you do yours." The parent left the room and was not heard from again.

 

The point of this story is. Let the coaches coach. If the parents think that they can do better, go to college get an education degree in a field that you can teach, pass three praxis tests, get hired and be evaluated until you get tenured (if you last that long), put up with kids in a classroom (you can't discipline them like you can your kids at home) for a seven-hour school day, practice for at least two-to-three hours after school, make sure that you stay until all your kids have gotten their rides home (can't leave them alone for liability reasons). That means you leave home at 7 am and don't get home until 7 or 8 pm. Not much time with the wife and kids huh (sometimes coaches go two days without seing their families). Not to mention game nights where you might not get home until after midnight. Football coaches travels on Saturday to exchange films and watches films with the whole staff on Sundays. Basically a seven day a week job for very little pay and very little appreciation. Plus, put up with all of the constructive criticism from the "coffee shop" coaches.

 

PARENTS, you sure that you can do the job or feel like your better off with your higher paying job after reading this. If you think you can coach, more power to you and good luck. Otherwise, take into consideration that coaches spend more time with your children than their own and they are trying their best. Support the coaches.

excellent post

[WC49]

That means you leave home at 7 am and don't get home until 7 or 8 pm.

 

Coaches also have to take care of the facilities, watch film, stay for meetings, got to freshmen and J.V. games, and more. Good coaches VERY RARELY get home as early as 7 or 8 pm. More like 9 or 10 pm... every once in awhile 11 pm. Then once they get home they have to grade papers and plan for their class they teach during the day. (don't forget saturday is a full day of work too.)...... that was a good post StudCantrell

Edited October 3, 2005 by WC49

[beethoven]

Coaches also have to take care of the facilities, watch film, stay for meetings, got to freshmen and J.V. games, and more. Good coaches VERY RARELY get home as early as 7 or 8 pm. More like 9 or 10 pm... every once in awhile 11 pm. Then once they get home they have to grade papers and plan for their class they teach during the day. (don't forget saturday is a full day of work too.)...... that was a good post StudCantrell

 

I've been on a staff that met to the wee hours, and a staff that hardly met...Quality of the work being done should be the determiner....not the quanity.

[@38320]

I'm not a coach but I see it all the time. Many of the parents are so idiotic that it's going to get to the point where we cannot even get anyone to coach. I do see high school football becoming more like college used to be and college becoming more like pro football of the past. Some of the high school programs are ahead of the others (like some school systems are ahead of others) and are leaving some of the programs in their dust. There's a lot more to high school football these days than there was in the days of yesteryear too. Hope I don't step on any parent's toes but about 70% of them don't have a clue; about football or their own children's run-abouts. And if they would put in the hours that these coaches do with the kids, they might have a better view of what high school football (and school in general) is all about.

[davidlimbaugh]

My late dad told me at an early age such great words of wisdom as:

 

"You can learn just as much from a bad coach as you can from a good coach."

 

"Don't worry about it when your coach is yelling at you. Start worrying when he stops yelling at you."

 

"There are as many ways of doing something as there are people trying to do it, but the right way is the way the person you say yes sir and no sir wants it done."

 

My late dad grew up a ballplayer. I grew up playing ball. My kids played ball.

 

No one goes to school, gets a degree, work more hours than the job description calls for, becomes farmers and landscapers and carpenters and salesmen with the goal or dream of being a bad coach.

 

Take the same broken car to ten different mechanics and some will fix it faster or better or cheaper than others. But the vast majority of them will get it fixed. Because most mechanics didn't spend years learning that trade to not be proficient at it. The same holds true for coaching.

 

And when I see parents who think their kids are the next Peyton Manning or John Smoltz I just shake my head. Most of them don't have a clue what the true odds are of a kid in high school getting a free ride to college for sports are. And most of them didn't have the life experience of growing up and playing with a major leaguer or NFL player or NBA star and see, on a daily basis, what a really good ball player really looks like.

 

So, in closing, next time you get a chance to address a coach, start the conversation with a thank you for his or her effort and committment and perhaps start a dialogue on what your concerns or questions are in a non-confrontational, how are we doing type of way. Did I mention the Thank You part???

 

And please remember, we are talking high school sports here. Kids playing a game. Nothing more. Nothing less. If your son is the next Peyton Manning or your daughter is the next Rebecca Lobo, believe me, folks in the know will find them, regardless of who their coach is or how much playing time they get.