Sorry to see Bob go. The Beechwood gig should attract some very qualified suitors. The program will continue to succeed if it embraces the things that "went right" and build on that. A good leader will recognize that. Is there a health concern at all? Last year at Holmes in a playoff game Bob could hardly walk from the dugout to the 3rd base coaches box.

He is a great coach no doubt, but it has nothing to do with Wins and Losses. If you know anything about the new administrator (Former Principal returned to be Super), he is very focused on the entire experience for the students and athletes. If a majority of the players are not enjoying the experience, then there's a problem. It creates a very negative environment for all. I can assure you that this is the case. Call them babies, call it it unrealistic, but I believe that student athletes should expect to enjoy the entire experience of high school athletics. Over the past few years, most of these players simply were not.

 

With all due respect Old Sports Dad, if this is true then IMO cry me a river!! Since when do the inmates run the asylum? When these kids are in the workplace are they now going to cry to their boss and say, "the supervisor is not making my job an "enjoyable experience", he needs to go". It is not a right to play HS sports it is earned by hard work and following what your coach(es) teach you. Some may not like what the coach tells you or how he comes off, but I would venture to guess that the majority of former players are better men and having played under Bob Meyerhoff. My former HS coach was the biggest-you know what-, however I learned more about life than I did baseball playing for him.

With all due respect Old Sports Dad, if this is true then IMO cry me a river!! Since when do the inmates run the asylum? When these kids are in the workplace are they now going to cry to their boss and say, "the supervisor is not making my job an "enjoyable experience", he needs to go". It is not a right to play HS sports it is earned by hard work and following what your coach(es) teach you. Some may not like what the coach tells you or how he comes off, but I would venture to guess that the majority of former players are better men and having played under Bob Meyerhoff. My former HS coach was the biggest-you know what-, however I learned more about life than I did baseball playing for him.

 

I will have to disagree, my man. Without commenting on BW because I know none of the facts I think there is a line that can be crossed by the coach AND it's the responsibility of the administration to watch that line. Wins and losses is not enough to overcome crossing that line. These are kids who are not yet in the workplace so I DO have different expectations for them. They do NOT get to run the asylum but the coach doesn't have free reign to take the fun completely out of it. Too many coaches have figured that out to excuse a coach who hasn't.

With all due respect Old Sports Dad, if this is true then IMO cry me a river!! Since when do the inmates run the asylum? When these kids are in the workplace are they now going to cry to their boss and say, "the supervisor is not making my job an "enjoyable experience", he needs to go". It is not a right to play HS sports it is earned by hard work and following what your coach(es) teach you. Some may not like what the coach tells you or how he comes off, but I would venture to guess that the majority of former players are better men and having played under Bob Meyerhoff. My former HS coach was the biggest-you know what-, however I learned more about life than I did baseball playing for him.

 

I am going to disagree with you lawnboy. You can be tough and still have players respect and enjoy their experience. No one is saying it needs to be a day at the playground. But it shouldn't be Paris Island either. There has to be some balance and something enjoyable about the experience even though you worked your tail off every day. There needs to be positive feedback in the mix.

Therein lies the rub. Winning is fun. When the winning stops then the warts are exposed. I know there is a new general in charge, but I will credit the school that cans a coach immediately after winning a region or state crown. Waiting for a bad season is an easy out for the leadership at Beechwood. As I said before, in my opinion, they can do whatever they want, and have, but to say they handled this with even a little bit of class would be a stretch. Similar to the Listerman situation at CovCath a short while ago.

I am a believer that any coach whose style runs to an extreme (i.e. players coach or old school tough) has a shelf life before the message becomes stale. The "players coach" will eventually be called out for being too soft and losing control of the program and the old school tough coach hired to bring discipline will eventually be told he he is out of touch with the kids of today and he is running off players. I think it is more of a societal issue than any coaches style. Administrators are under a great deal of pressure some real and some percieved to make sure every student has the perfect high school experience.

 

The days of seeing coaches staying in the profession for 20+ years and coaching at the same school are probably over. The coaches who will last are those that have the ability to walk the line somehere between players coach and tough old school disciplinarian and still win enough games to keep boosters happy. I am not too sure how many of those guys are walking around.

We are 5 pages and nearly 100 posts into this discussion. I think it should be clear to everyone who has followed the thread what led to this move by Beechwood. I will say one more thing - unless you are close to the program, you don't know and likely are not going to know the extent of dissatisfaction in the team that caused Beechwood to not renew the contract. I believe everyone at Beechwood who has more details they could share, respects Coach Meyerhoff and doesn't want to take the discussion any further. As to the wins and losses, if Beechwood had won 20 games this year, I believe this thread would still exist.

We are 5 pages and nearly 100 posts into this discussion. I think it should be clear to everyone who has followed the thread what led to this move by Beechwood. I will say one more thing - unless you are close to the program, you don't know and likely are not going to know the extent of dissatisfaction in the team that caused Beechwood to not renew the contract. I believe everyone at Beechwood who has more details they could share, respects Coach Meyerhoff and doesn't want to take the discussion any further. As to the wins and losses, if Beechwood had won 20 games this year, I believe this thread would still exist.

 

Great Post VOR. As usual, you are exactly correct. You have an insane ability to get right to the point in a clear and concise manner without offending anyone. I'm very jealous of your writing skills and your ability to convey your thoughts so clearly.

 

It would not be fair to Coach Meyerhoff to ellaborate any further or give anymore examples or details. He did a great deal for the program and everyone is grateful.

 

Kelly

Clyde and Voice Of Reason, I respect your opinions and you both made good points, but I like the old school tough coach that 4pointplay mentioned.

He is a great coach no doubt, but it has nothing to do with Wins and Losses. If you know anything about the new administrator (Former Principal returned to be Super), he is very focused on the entire experience for the students and athletes. If a majority of the players are not enjoying the experience, then there's a problem. It creates a very negative environment for all. I can assure you that this is the case. Call them babies, call it it unrealistic, but I believe that student athletes should expect to enjoy the entire experience of high school athletics. Over the past few years, most of these players simply were not.

 

I can live with this and agree that it seems it was time for Bob to move on if this is the way things were moving.

Don't know Myerhoff personally. Haven't seen anything out of the ordinary when attending a few games in which BW was involved. However I have seen a few Harrison County games and Myerhoff can't hold a candle to HC's head coach. That guy is "Hitler-esque" in my opinion. I've actually been embarrassed for his kids at times and I'm as old school as they come however he seems to hold on to his job.

Don't know Myerhoff personally. Haven't seen anything out of the ordinary when attending a few games in which BW was involved. However I have seen a few Harrison County games and Myerhoff can't hold a candle to HC's head coach. That guy is "Hitler-esque" in my opinion. I've actually been embarrassed for his kids at times and I'm as old school as they come however he seems to hold on to his job.

 

I would agree. Still, when you're not around the program everyday, you just can't have any idea what the day to day dynamic is. I'm of the opinion that baseball is a hard enough game to play...it's also pretty easy to know when you've made a mistake ( and for everybody else to know watching). There is so much failure in the game, playing for someone who is constantly yelling and on your back is just not fun. Most long term successful baseball coaches focus on fundamentals, and getting the most effort out of their players, while being able to be part time psychologists. Errors and physical mistakes are going to happen....beating a kid up over them over and over won't prevent or fix the mistakes.

Don't know Myerhoff personally. Haven't seen anything out of the ordinary when attending a few games in which BW was involved. However I have seen a few Harrison County games and Myerhoff can't hold a candle to HC's head coach. That guy is "Hitler-esque" in my opinion. I've actually been embarrassed for his kids at times and I'm as old school as they come however he seems to hold on to his job.

 

As I said before-check out his record and state championship seasons.

 

Wouldn't last ten games in a different environment if his ways weren't producing wins.

Combo of place and wins has to be in place for success. (Oh yeah and some talented kids.)

I would agree. Still, when you're not around the program everyday, you just can't have any idea what the day to day dynamic is. I'm of the opinion that baseball is a hard enough game to play...it's also pretty easy to know when you've made a mistake ( and for everybody else to know watching). There is so much failure in the game, playing for someone who is constantly yelling and on your back is just not fun. Most long term successful baseball coaches focus on fundamentals, and getting the most effort out of their players, while being able to be part time psychologists. Errors and physical mistakes are going to happen....beating a kid up over them over and over won't prevent or fix the mistakes.

 

Yes. I was just trying to make a point, if not all that well. The guy at HC has been getting on his guys publicly on the field of play for years. I know he has been successful, but as old school as I am, I look at this at times and I think to myself the kid that just got chewed out cannot be having that much fun. Or is it he knows this "comes with the territory" to play for that coach with that successful program? I have to think the kids who play for Meyerhoff know this as well.

Don't know Myerhoff personally. Haven't seen anything out of the ordinary when attending a few games in which BW was involved. However I have seen a few Harrison County games and Myerhoff can't hold a candle to HC's head coach. That guy is "Hitler-esque" in my opinion. I've actually been embarrassed for his kids at times and I'm as old school as they come however he seems to hold on to his job.

 

Do we really have to refer to Hitler here who was an insane madman that took great pleasure in killing human beings? This is only about "ruff and gruff" high school baseball coaches that rub certain people the wrong way. Let's keep things in perspective please.