Today I wanted to explore a subject that is controversial on some fronts, but I feel worthwhile to discuss. Today my friends and I were talking about the fantasy football weekend, when we got off subject for a minute. The discussion turned to a debate on what the role of coaches should be. Let me provide a little background. Last evening a winning high school coach addressed the school board and faculty here. He stated that it was not his responsibility to help his players go to college/their chosen paths in life, his job was to win football games. As an ex-player and coach, I took offense to that statement. As a player, my philosophy was that if I go out here and risk getting hurt/playing while hurt, this guy had better have my back. Do not get me wrong, I am not saying that the coach needs to be parent/disciplinarian, but I do feel that he has an obligation to take an interest in what his players want to do with themselves. Right or wrong, coaches are looked to as father/mother figures to their players. For me, my coach was like a replacement parent figure. He gave me money if I needed and always made sure I had a way home as well as helped me find other places to play ball when I transferred twice. He also provided me with equipment and advice. When I coached, I adopted a similar philosophy. I took kids home that lived on the rough side of town as well as gave them my contact information for both home and work. I once had to go down and pick a kid up from the police station. He wasn’t in trouble, but knew his dad would beat him to a pulp for even being there. He called me and I took him home and explained that he came over to play video games. He was a good kid. I kept in touch with him when he went to college and we still talk from time to time. But not all of the kids turned out like that. I had one who I attempted to help that told me point blank that he couldn’t get out of the gang, but thanked me for taking an interest in him. 2 years later, I saw him on the news. He had been identified as being one of the leaders of a gang here that terrorized the city for 6 months. I know he got convicted, but not sure how much time he received. That haunts me to this day because I felt like I should have tried to do more to help him.
Is the coach right?
No comments:
Post a Comment