Idea to keep good coaches coaching

[OldSchoolPanther]

How about the helicopter parents and the expert (in their own minds) fans get the heck out of the way and let the coach do the things they were hired to do.

- Quit emailing them about playing time.
- Quit complaining to the AD, Principal, School Board about your kid's playing time.
- Quit whining incessantly on social medial about alleged preferential treatment for a certain segment of players.
- Quit standing on sidelines screaming profanities at coaches because you don't like an in-game decision that was made.
- Quit bitching.... period. It's a bunch of kids playing a game.

- Do apply for the job. Apparently you have all the answers, so the hiring decision should be a slam dunk.

- Don't complain if you don't.

But this is what I'm talking about with a culture of accountability. If you have a whole bunch of parents complaining all the time, the AD isn't doing his job.

As someone said earlier, most problems creep up with a lack of communication and expectations. Strong leaders who hold EVERYONE accountable is the root of a strong or poor program.

 

[OldSchoolPanther]

My question to both of you is this....

IF... a coach was not being successful would their lack of "workouts" or lack of organized team activities (outside of shootouts and scrimmages) be used by parents to complain or more importantly would this be used by administrators to criticize you in their evaluation of a coaches job performance?

I agree 100% with what both of you are saying. I think you have to create a framework for the kids to follow and if they don't follow it, it is on them. It also allows an individual player and their family to craft their schedule and time however it best fits them.

However, if team "A" (who happens to be successful) is doing a lot of organized team activities and you as team "B" are not (and are not quite as successful), will they use this as a way to criticize you, or will they be strong enough to say "the kids are not doing the work"?

While I love this suggestion, I personally think that they would need to have an OHSAA rule in place. If you simply did it as your own framework, I believe you would be giving admins and parents ammo to "oust" a coach for not doing enough.

Coaches should absolutely expect kids to work on their games in the off-season, even multi-sport athletes. How can you be a coach and not expect your players to put in the time to get better? The problem I see is that kids aren't getting better, and they're still getting roster spots.

It's not a coaches job to decide what sport is most important for a kid. A coach shouldn't minimize the expectations for their program because a kid wants to play multiple sports.

I'm all for kids playing multiple sports, but it's a hell of a hard thing to truly commit to and improve.