Soccer coach gets fired

[jmbeck]

For his obviously rabid nature and threat of endangering children.

Story Here.

Full Letter Here.

Personally, I blame all this on Brutius.

I'm sorry, it's damned obvious what he was trying to do. Hey coach, if you move to the Birmingham Area sometime in the next 6 years, I'll sign my daughter up for the Green Death!

 

[jmbeck]

For his obviously rabid nature and threat of endangering children.

Story Here.

Full Letter Here.

Personally, I blame all this on Brutius.

I'm sorry, it's damned obvious what he was trying to do. Hey coach, if you move to the Birmingham Area sometime in the next 6 years, I'll sign my daughter up for the Green Death!

 

[Shmuley]

He'll be on Hannity within 2 weeks. Us disaffected wasps need a hero from time to time, I reckon.

However, I'm conflicted by the fact that I'm cheering for a commie pinko soccer enthusiast.

 

[cowbell9]

...and it s/b that way again. Soon. I'd be the first in line to sign up my 7 year old girl to play for that dude.

 

[DawgatAuburn]

There are plenty of times in life when it's easy to be funny. Don't try to force it when it's not a sure thing.

 

[Agentdog]

I have no idea if the guy's letter was in jest or not. I hope it was but he still should have refrained.

With that said, I like this quote...."This isn't two hours of free babysitting."

I coached my daughters U8 soccer team last year. While I don't put alot of emphasis on winning or losing, I do try to teach them fundamentals and a basic understanding of the game. They only thing I ask of them is to listen and pay attention for 2 hours out of the week. To make a long story longer, one early season practice last fall, the team was not paying attention and talking. I repeatedly asked them to listen. This kids are in 1st and 2nd grade, they know how to be quiet and listen. Anyway, so they continued to not pay attention and could not execute the drill because of this. So, I did what any coach would do. I said, OK y'all line up on the goal line and start dribbling to the other goal line and back until I say stop. They ran the length of the field (approx. 35 yards long) about 7 times. Anyway, a parent got extremely mad about it and that kid did not show up for another practice the rest of the season ( and was not at many practices previous). The kid did continue to come to games. Arriving just moments before kick off most of the time. This kid was one of the very ones not following directions.

This is the kind of stuff you run into now-a-days. I understand parents not wanting their kids yelled at and being called losers for not winning. However, people now-a-days don't have enough respect to show up on time (or at all) for practices or games. Then when the kid does show up and doesn't have a clue. They start backbiting the coach. On top of that, most parents don't even call you to give a heads-up or reason for missing. Maybe it is just the soccer recreation league, but parents think sports is little Susie or Johnnie's free play time and the coach is out there to supervise while the kid does whatever the hell he or she desires. Meanwhile the parent plays on the blackberry talking about the house they are building.

My daughter moved up to classix soccer (traveling/all star team) this spring. It is much better as far as participation and parent interest. For you young guys, when you have kids. Don't bother with the recreational leagues.....little parent interest or involvment. Do the classix teams/travel teams. Most of the traveling teams are a little overboard as far as number of games and etc. However, at least you have parents who will bring their kids and not have a problem when you try to be a coach.

 

[cowbell9]

nm

 

[QuaoarsKing]

And I was about to say "geez, about time"...I know it's just college women's soccer, but he has an SEC record of about 8-36 or so (can't remember exactly) over the last 4 years, getting worse each year, including 0-11 this past year...

 

[DawgatAuburn]

To me, sending a letter like that would immediately make me question the maturity and responsibility of the author. Were parts of it funny? Sure, but very few, and a lot of the attempted humor was interspersed with other things that were just realistic enough that it would make me wonder how much of it was in fact his true feelings. (Terrible sentence) For instance, if my child was sick and going to miss a game, should I call him or Coach Mac (the designated good guy)? I really don't know the answer. I concur with him about winning at any age and striving to win but his remarks about hoping the other team is bleeding is just wrong. You don't say that, even in jest, especially poorly attempted jest. Being offended at the mention of other six and seven year old kids bleeding is not a case of being PC. That's just common sense, something this guy doesn't have much of.

I don't know.......I just get the feeling that the letter expressed things closer to his true attitudes. I would probably let my child play on the team, but I would keep a close eye on things for a while.

 

[cowbell9]

...killing the competetive spirit of our country's youth. Youth, by the way, who will be our leaders in the future.

 

[jmbeck]

I was proud of every third place trophy or ribbon I ever received. I could have cared less for any participation trophy or ribbon. I'm pretty sure that was a common sentiment amongst all my friends.

 

[Agentdog]

The trophy companies love it. The leauge where I am, I do not know of one team that does not get a trophy each season. The parents insist on it.

 

[Stansfield]

I agree with his philosophy, but he just sounds like someone who would get on my nerves.

 

[DawgatAuburn]

The one part of his letter I have no problem with is the part about competing. Might have gone a little overboard on the diatribe about second place, but certainly there is nothing wrong with fostering fair and healthy competition amongst kids.

 

[futaba.79]

Try little girls' gymnastics. I've been to meets where they'll line up everybody that participates and give them a ribbon. They'll have gold, silver and bronze medalist and then they'll hand out ribbons for every other place in the meet. You'll have some poor girl standing there in last place and they'll announce "and in 15th place is______." It's incredible.

 

[jsireland]

sometimes reasonable restraint is the best path, and demonstrating sound judgment goes a long way when coaching.

my girlfriend coaches two youth handball teams. one of the teams is a league higher than they should be, and they SUCK. lost every game so far. on the team ski trip, one parent criticized the kids, saying they need to try harder - to the point they have to throw up. that kind of thing is a bit much, esp when dealing with beginners.

i find his letter also a bit much, when esp dealing with beginners. not necessarily grounds for a huge uproar, but it's a definite lapse in judgment.

 

[jmbeck]

...and by all means, that should be done at all costs.

But, the letter was meant for the parents. It wasn't meant to be read to the children.

Had I received the letter, I'd have simply laughed it off as a guy that's trying to make a joke. I'd rather have a coach with a sense of humor that wants to win coaching my daughter than a hard *** with no enjoyment in life. I want my daughter to be taught fair play, competition, and when she busts her *** kicking too hard and misses the ball, to be able to laugh at that afterwards too.

But hey, that's just me.

I just think it was blown way way out of proportion. Had he simply said "if you're easily offended stop reading", I'd be more concerned. But he also said "or if you're busy". To me, that meant what he was writing next was a total waste of time.

 

[jsireland]

and i'm not saying he should have quit. if it were my kid (and thankfully i'm childless, drinking a gin and tonic in the sun after work) i wouldn't have been so bothered.

but there are parents who are more protective than others. combine that with parents who don't catch his point, and you have the situation as it unfolded.

my only point is that he showed a lack of judgment. i've coached youth sports as well, you don't keep the peace by starting the season and jerking a bunch of 6 year old girls' parents around.

keep in mind, this may well have a been couple parents complaining and then blown over. he sounds at the least a bit out of touch. he probably got irritated with dealing with it, and decided it wasn't worth his time. all indications show that he got fed up and quit on his own.

 

[PosterFormerlyKnownAsRFAA]

he has never met. They don't know him. He doesn't know them.

That was a pretty big chance he was taking. He should have used better judgement (even if I agree with 90%) of the letter.

 

[msudawg12]

this was funny and sad all at the same time. His letter had humor that people can't get past and he quit because of pampered parents that want a 5th place team to get a trophy (this is ********).

That being said, it wouldnt have beena s bad if it had beenf or a 12 yr old boys team

i feel bad for the guy and his wit which has officially lost its audience

 

[PosterFormerlyKnownAsRFAA]

I volunteered to coach at the last minute and was given a team comprised of the kids left after the "long time" coaches picked the best players. They were either in their first or second season or they were just flat out bad. No big deal, you can still have fun. Well, the first practice, to break the ice, I set up a game of "World Cup." Basically, you break off into teams of two and pick a country to "represent." You play on one goal with a goalie (myself in this case). Basically, the only rule is that you have to yell out the name of your country prior to shooting for the goal to count. Anyways, if you get people who know how to play it is a damn good mini-game. We play, a few of the kids are clearly better than the others. Several of them are clearly not cut out to play sports. One kid in particular avoided the ball, avoided contact, and generally avoided doing much of anything. After the game, I'm talking with all the kids and see that "one kid" pass out. He was only out for a few seconds, but got up crying. Of course, I thought this kid was going to die and I'm scared shitless. His mom was upset and didn't hesitate to let me know it. To a point, I could understand...except that it wasn't like he was run nearly to death or forced to work too hard.

Anyways, I called them about 9:30 that night to check on the kid to see how he was doing. His mother wasn't very friendly. His father got on the phone and said something to her (which I didn't understand, but could tell she didn't like it). I told him I was sorry for what happened and that I was just wanting to check on how he was doing. He laughed, said don't worry, he is upstairs being coddled by his mom while playing video games. His exact words were, "it is the same **** she let him do all summer. Instead of being out playing he sits on his *** playing video games and watching TV." From there he basically called his kid soft and said this is his mothers doing and that his son doesn't have a clue about work!

I had various issue with that kids mom all season. The kid clearly had no interest in playing but she insisted.

 

[OMlawdog]

If you want to have fun, and not care about who wins and loses that is fine, go play at the YMCA, they don't keep score and everyone gets a blue ribbon.

Here we keep score. This was 14 and under AAU basketball and was almost 15 years ago, and though I have a problem with some people's attitude about winning at all costs for certain ages, under 10, I think if channeled correctly the idea of winning = good, is not a bad thing for children to learn.

You don't want children to learn: do nothing, don't try, don't care = good, participate, try hard, work hard = good; There has to be some level of accountability.

As someone who has recently coached youth sports, we had a rule that if you showed up late for practice that you had to run a lap before you began practice. Of course the kids had no problem with this rule because it wasn't a very long run and they understood the principle behind it, if Im late I have to run. Seems simple enough. Of course, one day a parent brought their kid late to practice and I told the kid "Give me a lap", and the kid didn't complain, in fact his response was "Sure thing, Coach." Now the parent sees this, and makes the comment to me, that it wasn't the kid's fault that he was late, that it was her fault, and she didn't think it was right that he should have to run the lap, and so I said, "Well you can run the lap, if you want"

 

[Todd4State]

and anyone that knows me knows that I have a pretty warped sense of humor- Thanks Jackie, Ron, and LT- so I have said and done things that people take the wrong way sometimes.

I, like Dwight on The Office, have had to write "letters or regret" or made a speech of regret. It's alway pretty dumb and hollow, and usually is just an attempt to make some other person feel important about nothing. I'm actually numb to it now, and actually have a form letter written out for such instances.

Anyway, I can sympathize with the coach. He's probably a genious like me stuck in a world of uptight people who take everything way too seriously.

And I can say from experience that his mistake was not necessarily writing the letter, but not making sure that EVERYONE knew that it was a joke. All he had to do was type something at the end like- I'm not being serious, let's all have fun and a great year." or my personal favorite , (sarcasm) or (j/k).

 

[SLUdog]

I try to teach the fundamentals of soccer and want them to win. However, this is way out there. I don't tell my daughter she won when she did not. The kids pay attention to the score more than I do.