High School Football:Honor code aims to end parent-coach conflicts

A situation involving a high school coach and an upset parent reared its ugly head at Oakland High School in Murfreesboro last week.

It’s not the first time a parent didn’t agree with a rule, or thought he or she knew more about coaching than the coach did. Unfortunately, it won’t be the last.

Confrontations between coaches and parents, especially at the high school level, continue to be a problem, not only in our state but all across the country. Headlines and the ensuing stories describing such events take our attention away from the game and often leave the student athletes wondering who is the adult and who is the child.

An e-mail I received last week that dealt with another project I am working on led to an interesting conversation with a Florida high school administrator who is all too familiar with situations like the one described above. Having to deal with dozens of parents who appeared to have all the answers throughout the school year forced this longtime Florida coach and administrator to reevaluate how his school deals with such interruptions.

“We were continually having 40 to 50 situations each year with parents who questioned rules or regulations the school and coach had in place,” explained John Green, athletic director at Orange Park High School near Jacksonville. “It was a constant distraction at our school.”

All the turmoil forced Green and fellow administrators at Orange Park to step back and see what could be done to improve the situation for everyone involved. The answer was the creation of an honor code for both players and parents. Both groups meet with school officials at the start of the athletic season in question, and ultimately sign contracts that lay out all the rules.

Players must agree to do things like attend all practices, refrain from the use of profanity, attend classes and maintain a 2.0 GPA, respect their teammates and coaches and abstain from the use of drugs, alcohol and cigarettes.

Parents also have responsibilities. They are reminded that playing sports is not an equal opportunity situation, in that some students will get more playing time than others. The school has a silent attendance policy that reminds parents if their comments regarding coaches, players and officials are not positive, such comments should be kept to themselves.

Parents are made aware of a chain of command for voicing grievances. Meetings begin with the coach, progress to the athletic director if need be, and conclude with the principal.

Consequences await players and parents who break rules laid out in the honor codes. Penalties range from verbal warnings from school officials to life suspensions and trespassing warnings at future school athletic events.

Green says implementing the honor codes has paid huge dividends. Confrontations between parents and coaches have become rare occurrences that happen less than a half dozen times each year.

Being the parent of a student athlete is a huge responsibility. The pride that accompanies a son or daughter making a big play on the athletic field is huge. It’s equally disturbing to see your child on the sideline, waiting his or her turn to get playing time.

Like it or not, however, we all need to remember that participation in high school sports is a privilege, not a right, for both players and parents. Likewise, attending these events is also a privilege. We must remember that the games are for the students.
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Murphy Fair publishes the annual Tennessee High School Football magazine. His website (www.murphyfair.com) gives prep fans further insight into the prep football scene.