Upon Further Review: Parents often go overboard
When playing sports, there’s a fine line players and parents should never cross when dealing with problems concerning the team and coaches.
If you have ever played ball, or have a child playing, then most you know what I mean. It seams to me these days coaches are bombarded with parents and players who think they should have a say-so on how a coach coaches their team.
We all have things that we might do different if we were coaching, and that’s fine. It’s your personal opinion. We all want to help out in any way we can to support the athletic programs. We have booster clubs who raise money for our programs and without them many athletic programs would suffer. Don’t get me wrong, booster clubs are great and provide a great service. But they should stick to supporting the team instead of trying to coach it.
But what happens when you think your child isn’t getting enough playing time or you think you child should be starting over someone else?
When this happens, 99 percent of us will sit down and talk with the coach and let him explain the situation. If something is going on that you don’t approve of, you talk to the coach in a private meeting or at least after practice or a game when no one else is around. Everybody has the right to express their concerns and all coaches respect parents or kids when they handle a problem in this manner.
But when things are handled differently by going behind a coach’s back, or by trying to confront them out in public in front of other players and parents, then you have crossed the line.
The situation becomes worse when not only the parent shows their immaturity but when the parent urges their kid to do it in public, also.
Maybe you have been starting for your team and midway trough the season someone else is starting is your place. If this happens maybe it’s because you’re not playing up to your potential any more and the coach has no other choice than to put somebody in who will give 100 percent.
It’s up to you to work and get back your starting job. Just because mom or dad plays a big role in the booster club doesn’t mean you have the right to start or play more if you’re not doing your job out on the field.
A few parents try to use their work with the booster clubs and work they do for the team as a way of “I’ll scratch your back if you scratch mine.” That just doesn’t work around here with our coaches, at least I don’t think so. We have coaches that want to put a winning product out on the field and work many long hours with our kids in order to make them better athletes. They don’t have time to deal with the boosters and coach our kids.
I’m sure there are parents who think other kids may be playing and starting over their kid because their families are more active in the booster club or they’re sucking up to the coach.
I know all of the coaches pretty well, and I don’t think any of our fine coaches would do that. We all want to see our kids out there playing and contributing to the team. But that comes from hard work and dedication from the players and coaches.
If you have a problem, sit down and talk to the coach first. Have a little respect and don’t confront the coach in front of the players and — even worse — the other team.