Non Faculty Head Coaches

[countrygirl11]

Should Schools system have non Faculity head coaches?

[Bulldawg45]

Should Schools system have non Faculity head coaches?

 

 

I'll make an assumption that you feel it is not a good thing....just to take a side and start the discussion.

 

Some of your more successful coaches are non faculty coaches or to put it another way, some of your least successful coaches are faculty coaches. Being on faculty does not insure success. If it did all these schools with faculty coaches would be the most successful....so in my opinion....it doesn't matter. If the school has access to a non faculty coach that played ball at a high level or had a kid that played in a D-1 program, they probably ought to take advantage of them. If a school or school system has the ability to put someone on faculty that could be coaching at a D-1 level...they probably should, but most of those people have a coaching job already.

Pat Summit said it was all about the players...great players make coaches great coaches. A great feeder program (which the coach can help put in place) is probably far more important than the people that get a few short days with the kids before they go play.

All that having been said any program needs to be run straight up. Best players play...period. It doesn't matter who mommy or daddy are. Good moms and dads want that for their kids anyway. Better to learn it now than out in the job market with a family to feed. If kids start playing because of who daddy is or mommy, it is over....the rest will be there but not give it all they have...and it takes giving everything to be successful as a team.

All that having been said if you have a parent doing it because no one else wanted to or a faculty person doing it just to make a few bucks...it is going to be a tough thing. You are really getting what you pay for there....but if you have someone that has been doing it a while, just because they love it and they want to help the kids....especially if they are moderately successful...you better leave it alone. Things could get worse real quick with athletes deciding to move to other school systems to play even if it meant losing a year to do it.

I would say is that any group of parents considering is it good or bad should consider that if you could flip a switch and change coaches tomorrow, it takes time for a new coach to come in and develop relationships with college coaches, umpires, etc. By the time those relationships are formed five or six classes could have graduated with kids that could have played college ball missing out.

Better the devil you know than one you don't.

The last thing I would say is that if a coach has a young Monica Abbott or Roger Clemens playing for them they are probably going to look like a great coach. If not...all they can do is try to teach the kids good fundamentals and hope for some breaks.

Just an opinion...what does everyone else think?

[hssportsfan]

Positives: Could get someone with great knowledge of the game and who might have been coaching some of the girls for a long time. Prevents the school from sticking just anybody in there to coach softball. Its often difficult to find someone willing to put in all of that time coaching, much less be proficient in softball. This is especially true at small rural schools.

 

Negatives: 1. Could be problems among parents. There are no parents worse than softball dads who think they know everything simply because they have coached some travel ball. Faculty coaches deal with the same thing, but they are somewhat insulated by being a school employee as opposed to just another parent.

2. Not at school to handle all of the little behind the scenes things like scheduling, officials checks, gate money, field work, transportation requests, etc, etc. In my experience school administrators would MUCH prefer having all of these things run smoothly than actually winning games when it comes to the spring sports.

[FridayMainEvent]

This isn't in direct response to the initial question, but more of a follow up on what hhsportsfan mentioned. I think a vital key to a programs success is a good relationship between the High School staff and the Travel coaches in that area. Faculty coaches are only allowed so much exposure to the players because of the restraints put into place by TSSAA. If the Head coach can convey his beliefs and teachings to the travel coach who has the girls all summer, then much progress can be developed. I believe a head coach who takes a travel coach willing to work with him and plan a good off-season strategy for player development is two steps ahead of the game! It's not a situation where one is trying to outdo the other, but a situation were both have the girls best interest at heart and are moving toward making each girl a more rounded player. These types of relationships will blossum a program faster than anything.

[Mr knowitall]

This isn't in direct response to the initial question, but more of a follow up on what hhsportsfan mentioned. I think a vital key to a programs success is a good relationship between the High School staff and the Travel coaches in that area. Faculty coaches are only allowed so much exposure to the players because of the restraints put into place by TSSAA. If the Head coach can convey his beliefs and teachings to the travel coach who has the girls all summer, then much progress can be developed. I believe a head coach who takes a travel coach willing to work with him and plan a good off-season strategy for player development is two steps ahead of the game! It's not a situation where one is trying to outdo the other, but a situation were both have the girls best interest at heart and are moving toward making each girl a more rounded player. These types of relationships will blossum a program faster than anything.

 

My daughters High School team has had 3 coaches in 3 years!!!!! However, her travel coach has put her in front of the best College Coaches in the country at the ASA A Nationals and helped her and her team play at a very high level.

 

I would say for the majority of the smaller schools in the state, travel ball would be better coached. Of course, this would depend on your level of travel ball and if your travel team was your high school team.

 

We now have a coach who is doing a good job and look forward to the season. But if she decided to leave, I would take a A level travel coach in a heartbeat if they were faculty or not!!!!!!

[Redhotz]

According to TSSAA Bylaws a schools girls softball Head coach must be a full time employee or retired educator.The only time a non-faculty head coach can be used is if he/she has been a non-faculty assistant coach for 5 years or more......TSSAA .com/handbook....Article 1 / coaches-section 9 page 9... School system who are allowing this to take place is breaking TSSAA rules and is subject to fines and suspension if reported......the head coach( full time employee) is responsible for the players,fans, lineups question a call, appeals, ect. not the non-faculty coach acting as head coach...Ever parent should read the TSSAA handbook before their child playes any sports. You could be breaking rule and not even no it...I'm not saying i agree with all the rules but they are there for a reason and we should all have to abide by them......

[CHEESEFRIES]

Schools will make a faculty member the 'coach' , but have a parent coach the team. It circumvents the rule without breaking it.

My suggestion is never have a parent of a current player coach the sport, it leaves a lot of doubt in people's minds. Fair or not.

[Cwilson]

i think when you become i faculty memeber you should take on as many challenges as possible so no i do not agree with having a non faculty memeber as a coach

[countrygirl11]

I'll make an assumption that you feel it is not a good thing....just to take a side and start the discussion.

 

Just to set the record straight, i really don't know how i feel, just wanted to know what other people thought. I for one have always been a fan of Coach Cardwell from Tullahoma. i think he does a good job with what he has, he just does not have a very good feeder program. I have attended several of his games and up until a few years ago i thought he was still a teacher. which is how i got to know him back when he coached at Coffee County. it appears to me that by not having a faculty coach you might not have the class room discpline that you need, which is what they are there for. Just a thought.

[jtk]

i think when you become i faculty memeber you should take on as many challenges as possible so no i do not agree with having a non faculty memeber as a coach

 

High School athletes deserve the best coaching available. A overworked or "challenged" faculty member probably would not fit this profile. Over the years I have seen this occur way too often. The players know when they do not have a good coach.

[shadow01]

This isn't in direct response to the initial question, but more of a follow up on what hhsportsfan mentioned. I think a vital key to a programs success is a good relationship between the High School staff and the Travel coaches in that area. Faculty coaches are only allowed so much exposure to the players because of the restraints put into place by TSSAA. If the Head coach can convey his beliefs and teachings to the travel coach who has the girls all summer, then much progress can be developed. I believe a head coach who takes a travel coach willing to work with him and plan a good off-season strategy for player development is two steps ahead of the game! It's not a situation where one is trying to outdo the other, but a situation were both have the girls best interest at heart and are moving toward making each girl a more rounded player. These types of relationships will blossum a program faster than anything.

 

 

I think too that if the high school coach's would work with the travel ball coach's the teams would be much better developed and the level of high school play would improve. My husband has coached travel ball for many years and is more than willing to help the high school girls but the coach's ego is always too big and they refuse to get anyone else involved. Some of the players in high school can't always play travel ball but do have potential to be good players with some additional instruction that the high school coach doesn't always have time for.

Just my opinion..

[asiatic2412]

According to TSSAA Bylaws a schools girls softball Head coach must be a full time employee or retired educator.The only time a non-faculty head coach can be used is if he/she has been a non-faculty assistant coach for 5 years or more......TSSAA .com/handbook....Article 1 / coaches-section 9 page 9... School system who are allowing this to take place is breaking TSSAA rules and is subject to fines and suspension if reported......the head coach( full time employee) is responsible for the players,fans, lineups question a call, appeals, ect. not the non-faculty coach acting as head coach...Ever parent should read the TSSAA handbook before their child playes any sports. You could be breaking rule and not even no it...I'm not saying i agree with all the rules but they are there for a reason and we should all have to abide by them......

 

So how can a substitute teacher be a head coach then. I have heard that in Nashville, a school had a coach before she graduated from college, and she isn't even an employee at the school, is this not breaking TSSAA rules. If you must know, it is the second largest school in the state.