I really don't think things are much different now than when I was playing in high school. I can remember my father, who was a popular, well known youth baseball coaches in my area for 20+ years having the same complaints about parents that "are ruining youth sports". Parents have always complained (although social media and electronic media make it easier to be heard) and booster programs have always had a little too much influence on things. My first HS school football coach, who had a state title under his belt, was ran out by boosters who thought his Wing T offense was dated and too run oriented, despite the fact we had the second leading receiver in the state. Stories like this and the ones you hear now go back as long as there have been high school sports. It's not new, and like many things, our view on today's events are clouded by our memories of "the good old days", which are highly selective.

 

Some of the issues sit with coaches themselves. Too married to old school methods of instruction and motivation. Or guys who are too slow to recognize issues or don't communicate well with parents. Mix that in with the greater demands on coaches , especially in the offseason, and the greater demands that are being placed on teachers, it's easy to see why less people want to get into or stay in the coaching profession.

As a younger person on this website it gets very tiring hearing how spoiled rotten and just overall miserable our generation is... I hope we can turn it around and be as perfect as the older generations someday :deadhorse:

As a younger person on this website it gets very tiring hearing how spoiled rotten and just overall miserable our generation is... I hope we can turn it around and be as perfect as the older generations someday :deadhorse:

 

^^^Completely agree.

 

It's equally tiring to keep hearing how my generation is doing a lousy job of raising our kids. The common refrain of "kids are too soft", "too entitled", "too lazy" etc, is getting old and tired too. As a parent and a coach, While I do see some kids that fit into those buckets, there are many, many more that work extremely hard and are just great citizens. And those are the kids that make it very easy to continue to coach. And if I want to continue to coach, I have to keep evolving and improving as the game and times continue to change. And if I don't, I'll find myself out of a job pretty quickly, and it would be my fault...not the parents, not the school board.

I really don't think things are much different now than when I was playing in high school. I can remember my father, who was a popular, well known youth baseball coaches in my area for 20+ years having the same complaints about parents that "are ruining youth sports". Parents have always complained (although social media and electronic media make it easier to be heard) and booster programs have always had a little too much influence on things. My first HS school football coach, who had a state title under his belt, was ran out by boosters who thought his Wing T offense was dated and too run oriented, despite the fact we had the second leading receiver in the state. Stories like this and the ones you hear now go back as long as there have been high school sports. It's not new, and like many things, our view on today's events are clouded by our memories of "the good old days", which are highly selective.

 

Some of the issues sit with coaches themselves. Too married to old school methods of instruction and motivation. Or guys who are too slow to recognize issues or don't communicate well with parents. Mix that in with the greater demands on coaches , especially in the offseason, and the greater demands that are being placed on teachers, it's easy to see why less people want to get into or stay in the coaching profession.

 

This is a good point. Maybe social media and the college recruiting industry has exacerbated some things, but complaining about coaches, playing time, scoring, etc. has always been around. Some coaches are better at dealing with this stuff (and winning helps) but I suspect that's also always been true.

We had 5 head coaches (bball) in 5 years.

 

Several were removed by DIRECT parent involvement. What amazed me was how easy parents could push a coach out who needed the job to feed and care for his family.

 

I wonder how they would like it if their jobs or businesses were terminated?

My opinion is it is truly worse overall. I volunteered to coach a 11u travel team of girls 3 years ago. I had no kid on the team. I told the parents we are going to play a mixture of teams better than us and some about equal --- BUT , But the 11u year means we play lots of 12u teams with a years experience at this age group . The team had solid , talented kids but had never ventured out to play travel ball. I replaced a dad they ran off because they said he was not available enough to push the team and practice them . I got the following text after the 3rd or 4th weekend " the parents met and decided it would be best if you stepped aside , the girls are no longer having fun and we think they just need to get back to having fun " I smiled and said OK , see ya later .

I've seen coaches handle these situations very well and I've seen coaches crumble to parents complaints and crying.

 

Biggest issue is that Parents think losing an At-Bat or two in little league is going to set their little slugger back and keep him from making it to MLB. A really good coach has to manage parent expectations as much as developing the players.

 

Son's coach used to meet with parents each year and tell them up front he would never discuss playing time with them, but he would sit down with the players any time and discuss playing time. He said if you want to know why your son isn't playing more, Ask him...because he knows.

 

A meeting before the season starts for both players and parents is paramount, that way everyone knows what to expect.....and if you don't like it, you don't have to play.

A meeting before the season starts for both players and parents is paramount, that way everyone knows what to expect.....and if you don't like it, you don't have to play.

 

Are there any coaches that work for a school that don't have this meeting?

 

While this meeting is important, it's even more important that you stick with and follow through with the guidelines and standards that you outlined in the meeting. It's easy to talk about, but much harder to execute. Those that don't are going to be almost guaranteed to have trouble.

 

I also think coaches get in trouble by making these meetings adversarial. No need to make it a "it's my way or the highway" type speech. Have some open dialogue, explain why you do things the way you do. Give parents an outlet for complaints, but provide a strict framework as to how those complaints should be handled. By showing you are at least approachable and willing to answer questions (albeit on terms that you set forth), you can at least demonstrate you are a reasonable person and have the kids and the teams best interest at heart.