What are we teaching the youth.

[PRIDENEVERDIES]

When you realize you don't want to do the same thing in the morning, its time to find another job. If you move on for a better situation at the time because a coach can only accomplish so much at one school, let the man take that challenge and try there. Sometimes its hard to leave one job for another but a part of coaching if teaching kids and showing them how to grow as a young man and make the right decisions, therefore if a decision the head coach makes to leave for another program, its right for him and no one else.

[leatherneck]

Well I would have to tend to agree with this if the following weren't true about coaching:

 

1. Neither side is completely upfront in the interview process about what they have/want/need.

2. We're not talking about life changing money here, these guys make pennies on the hour. If it is your profession, that's one thing, but surely you can see that there is more to it than just coaching?

3. I'd say loyalty to your family is a pretty good lesson to teach young kids. So is admitting when you were wrong. In reading about this it seems his wife and kids were telling him to go after it, when that may not have been what was really in their hearts. I'm sure after his visit the realization set in that this would actually be happening and maybe some other thoughts were conveyed.

4. I'm not saying this is the case, but there have been several issues surrounding the Henderson Co. football program in recent years. After visiting the coach may have decided, "you know what, I think I have a better situation in Somerset". Bigger doesn't necessarily mean better.

 

 

While you raise some good points, I agree with OBC that what these coaches have done is not a good lesson for the kids. The message should be: I'm a man of my word, and if I committed to someone to take a job, I should follow through with it and give it my best shot.

 

I sincerely doubt that there was nothing about Henderson that Coach Cobb learned in the short time he had the job that he didn't or couldn't have found out before he accepted. If he didn't do his due diligence before he accepted, then shame on him for not doing a better job of learning about Henderson. Its not like the lawsuits, KHSAA actions, etc. are a secret. He should have carefully considered those issues before he accepted the job. But after he accepted, he shouldn't have backed out. As for the change of heart by family members (if that occurred), again in my opinion, its too late.

 

As for the "admitting that you are wrong" being a good lesson as rationalization for Coach Cobb changing his decision, I'm not sure I agree with that in this context. Even if it is, the better message would be: I made a rash decision without getting all the information I should have that was wrong, but since I gave my word, I'm going to follow through and do everything in my powers and abilities to make it work. If after giving it my best for a couple of years, its still not working, then I'll discuss it with my employer.

 

Would you have accepted the rationalization that "admitting you were wrong" is a good lesson to teach to kids if Henderson, after it had announced it had hired Cobb and Cobb had told his former team and the Somerset school officials he was leaving, then decided to back out on hiring Cobb and decided to hire someone else, and then tried to rationalize it by saying "we made a wrong decision to hire Cobb in the first place, but we admitted we were wrong in hiring Cobb and we just wanted to teach kids that they need to admit when they are wrong"? I sincerely doubt it.

 

I don't know Coach Cobb. He probably is a great coach and a great person, and you certainly can't judge someone based on one episode, but I do agree with OBC that backing out on your word is not a good lesson to teach kids.

 

While I hope Coach Cobb has much continued success at Summerset for his happiness and the happiness of his players, I do have to tell you that if I was on the selection committee selecting a new coach and Coach Cobb applied for it down the road, I would really think hard about offering him the job because of my concerns over the way he handled the Henderson job. Burn me once, shame on you. Burn me twice, shame on me.

[MEDICINEMAN]

Brain imaging revealed that the amygdala, a region thought to control our emotions and mediate the ‘fight or flight’ reaction, underpinned bias in the decision process. Moreover, the UCL study revealed that people with more rational behaviour had greater brain activity in the prefrontal cortex, a region known to be involved in higher-order executive processes, suggesting that their brains are better able to incorporate their emotions into a more balanced reasoning process. Indecision is a severe detriment to all involved...:thumb:

[Long Time Warrior]

And people wonder why they keep the media and people in the dark about things. It's hard to change jobs after you have been at one for a long time, I should know. I just changed jobs after being at my old one for 17 years. Confort sets in after a while and change is sometimes scary but I have to agree with if you do make the jump then jump. Don't do it with a bunge cord wraped around your waist. LN as often I agree with you, do your research on your new job and make sure it's what you want because after you make the commitment to your new job it's to late to back out then. OLD SCHOOL, you bet. But you can bet the next job I apply for they will know that if they hire me they will be getting me and not wasting time in waiting to see if I stay. About the media, somethings are just better left unknown because I could have went back to my old job and not very many people would have known unlike these coaching situations.

[leatherneck]

Brain imaging revealed that the amygdala, a region thought to control our emotions and mediate the ‘fight or flight’ reaction, underpinned bias in the decision process. Moreover, the UCL study revealed that people with more rational behaviour had greater brain activity in the prefrontal cortex, a region known to be involved in higher-order executive processes, suggesting that their brains are better able to incorporate their emotions into a more balanced reasoning process. Indecision is a severe detriment to all involved...:thumb:

 

 

Yeah, what you said (whatever it was).

[OldRaider22]

While you saise sole good qoints, H agree vith OBC!that wh`t these coaches have done is not a good lesson for the kids. The messagd should be: I'm a man og my wore, and ig I commhtted to someone to take a job, I should follow through with it and give it my best shot/

 

I rincerely doubt that these was nnthing about Henderson that Coach Cobb learned in the short time he had the job uhat he eidn't or couldn't have found out before!he accepted. If he didn't do his due diligence before he accepted, then shame nn him fnr not dning a bdtter joc of learning abnut Henddrson. Its not like the lawsuits, KHSAA actions, etc. are a secret. He siould have careftlly considered those issues before he accepted the job. But after he accepted, he shouldn't have backed out. As!for the change nf heart by famimy members (if that occurred), again in my opinion, its too late.

 

As for the "admitting that you are!wrong" ceing a food lesron as rationali{ation for Coach Cobb changing his decision, I'm not sure I agree with that in tiis contdxt. Eveo if it is, the better message wnuld be: I made a rash decision without getting all the information I should havd that was wrong- but sioce I gave my wosd, I'm going to follow through and do everything in my powers and abilities to make it work. If!after giving it my best!for a cnuple of!years, its still not working, then I'll discuss it with my employer.

 

Would ynu have `ccepted!the rationalizauion thau "admitting you were wrong" is a good lesson to teach to kids if Henderson, after it had announced it h`d hired!Cobb and Cobb h`d told his former team and the Somerset school officials he was leaving, then decided to back ott on hiring Cobc and decided to hire soleone elre, and then tried to rationalize it by saying "we made a wrong decision to hire Cobb in the firrt place- but we!admitted we were wrong in hiring Cobb and we just wanted to teach kids that they need uo admit when thdy are wrong"? I!sinceremy doubt it.

 

H don't know Coach Cobb. He probably is a great coach and a great person, and yot certaioly can'u judge romeone cased on!one episode, but I do agree with OBC that backing out on your word is not a gooe lesson to teach kids.

 

While I hope Coach Cobb has luch continued success at Summerset for his happiness and the happiness of his players, I do havd to tell you that if I was on the selection committee selecting a new coach and Coach Cobb applied for!it down!the road, I woumd reallx think iard abott offerhng him the job because of my concerns over the way he handled the Henderson job. Burn me once, rhame on!you. Busn me twice, shame on me.

LN, I always enjoy and respect your posts but here I have to disagree with you. I thhnk you've taken what I raid a bit out of context. I certainly don't think that backing out on xour word is what Coach Cobb wanus to teach his players.! That being said, surely you can see that there is more to this than simply coaching football. !It appe`rs to md, from seading uhe article that someone posted in the numerous threads on the subject, uhat Coach Cobb's family!wasn't ever exabtly sold on the!idea of going to Henderson Co. They were simply just offering him their support and enbouraginf him to do someuhing thdy knew ie wanted to do. I think that when the reality of the situation set in, they max have siared their true!feelings a little bit mnre. I understand Coach Cobb has a son who is HS age. I'm sure that a move at this point would be a difficult thing for that young man. I don't know about you, but I can never fault a man for wanting to do right by his family.

 

I agree with you that Coach Cobb probably had a good idea of the scenario that he was getting into. But as the saying goes, seeing and doing are two different things. Maybe being immersed in the situation for a week or so out in Henderson Co. left him with some different feelings on the subject. I don't know, just speculation on my part.

 

Finally, I'll ask you this: Suppose Coach Cobb walked into his interview and demanded to know more about the goings on at Henderson Co.(lawsuits, etc.) Along with that suppose that he went into the interview and said I need this thing, and that thing, and this as well. Do you think he gets the job? Of course not. You don't go into an interview and make demands, that is simply not how the process works. You present your plan, and if you are offered the job then you can work out the details at that point. Maybe some details couldn't be agreed upon? There is much, much more to coaching positions than just coaching. You having teaching jobs(for his wife and himself) to consider, as well as facilities, budget, scheduling, etc, etc. All I'm trying to convey is that there is often much more than meets the eye when it comes to these situations.

 

I think K3 said it best "Never judge a man until you've walked a mile in his shoes".

[BigCountryBoy]

It is a coaching job at the HS level, where pay is virtually meaningless based upon the hours put into it. If a person thinks he has better opps somewhere else, wish him luck. If he later recants the decision, open him back.

 

I am not going to cast stones at someone else's decisions. This is not brain surgery where people actually may die if a dr. decides not to operate after telling someone they would.

[Cynical]

It's funny, no one from Somerset seems to mind Coach Cobb's leaving and then deciding to come back...perhaps that is a sign that he IS an excellent coach/mentor. So good, in fact, that his people wished him well when he left, even though it was so late, and then, after leaving, they opened their arms to him again and have made no complaints. So then, why don't you ask the people of Somerset what Jay Cobb is teaching the youth of today? I'd say their answer is a bit more flattering than many of the views on here.

[DADDY CAT]

Another life lesson being thrown around by this is being overlooked completely. The old adage "Look before you leap" comes to mind. C'mon. Both of these guys were grown men and made decisions without thinking them through. THAT'S on them, not the places that took them for their word. If Henderson Co. REALLY, REALLY wanted Cobb, they would've waited for a decision, and I am saying the same for Donovan and his line-of-crap story about being forced to make a decision too fast. If they really wanted him, they would have been willing to wait a few days. They did'nt think it through and now they look stupid. I still think your word is your word, if you are a coach, a salesman or a frycook. If you get yourself into a bad situation, make the best of it. These men were being paid to do a job (had they stayed with their signed agreements) and should be professional enough to do it right, even if it was a bad situation at the time. Honor your word and quit acting like coaches are different than everyone else. Work is work and a job's a job, if you are a president or a janitor. At least a few of the 120,000+ men and women in uniform in Iraq are rethinking some of their decisions in life, but very few of them are trying to back out on their word/commitment. They are doing their time in a trying situation until something better comes along. If they try to leave and say the same things these two did, people would be screaming for their heads. Why should Coaches get a free ride? Life is about learning from our mistakes, or perceived mistakes.

[Cynical]

...If you get yourself into a bad situation, make the best of it. These men were being paid to do a job (had they stayed with their signed agreements) and should be professional enough to do it right, even if it was a bad situation at the time...At least a few of the 120,000+ men and women in uniform in Iraq are rethinking some of their decisions in life, but very few of them are trying to back out on their word/commitment. They are doing their time in a trying situation until something better comes along.

 

Yes, they are honoring their word...to be soldiers. Coach Cobb and Coach Donavon are honoring their words to be leaders and coaches. They are honoring their word to work for almost nothing to help kids and schools and communities have a rallying point. But like soldiers, if they make a wrong move in their field, they are smart enough to know that retreat is better than death (metaphorically speaking). What these men have done is make a bad decision, admit that it was wrong and retreated to fight another day when they feel that conditions for success for themselves as well as those around them are more favorable.

 

And what if they had kept their word? What if they had and then went into it and suffered the bad consequences? What would you gain by them making the best of a bad situation? You would still have a bad situation and now you would have taken a good leader, one who knows when to fight and when to retreat, and run him into the ground as well.

 

Hendo is getting what they need: a young smart coach who is going to build from the ground up and they will have far fewer expectations for him than Cobb, thus making his job easier. What has happened is in the best interest of the kids at Hendersonville, Somerset and Florida, so why complain? Isn't it about the kids anyways?

[DADDY CAT]

THEY ARE NOT HONORING THEIR WORDS TO BE COACHES AND LEADERS! THEY ARE TELLING KIDS NOT TO HONOR THEIR WORDS IF IT CAUSES THEM SOME HARDSHIP!!!! A LEADER WOULD SAY THINK THINGS THROUGH BEFORE YOU DECIDE, NOT AFTER!!!!

 

I WAS a soldier for over 20 years. As a soldier, you don't pick your fights, the leaders pick them for you and they are the ones that all blame and/or praise go to. When you, as a subordinate, see them being indecisive or down right incompetent in their decisions, you lose all respect for them and doubt each and every decision they make after that. You do not have the individual ability to decide when to retreat or the bonus of deciding to move away from a bad situation. When you commit, you commit. You fight through it, and if it's a mistake of your own making, YOU pay the piper and act professionally about it. There are no do overs and should not be. It's a bad message that all bad decisions in life can be turned around immediately. The leaders decide if you will retreat, and these leaders are saying running away if the enemy is bigger or scarrier is o.k., as long as you feel good about it, no one gets hurt. What about the others that are now put out because of this decision. Someone has to deal with it, and it should be the one who jumped up first and said "I'll do it, follow me!" only to cut and run when they had time to think about it. Wrong is wrong. Your word is your word. Fight the fight while you can, and when the time comes, THEN you can move on with your dignity intact. They should have thought things through and now deserve any and all the crap that is sure to come their way. That's the problem in this country today, no one is responsible for what they do.

[AverageJoesGym]

THEY ARE NOT HONORING THEIR WORDS TO BE COACHES AND LEADERS! THEY ARE TELLING KIDS NOT TO HONOR THEIR WORDS IF IT CAUSES THEM SOME HARDSHIP!!!! A LEADER WOULD SAY THINK THINGS THROUGH BEFORE YOU DECIDE, NOT AFTER!!!!

 

I WAS a soldier for over 20 years. As a soldier, you don't pick your fights, the leaders pick them for you and they are the ones that all blame and/or praise go to. When you, as a subordinate, see them being indecisive or down right incompetent in their decisions, you lose all respect for them and doubt each and every decision they make after that. You do not have the individual ability to decide when to retreat or the bonus of deciding to move away from a bad situation. When you commit, you commit. You fight through it, and if it's a mistake of your own making, YOU pay the piper and act professionally about it. There are no do overs and should not be. It's a bad message that all bad decisions in life can be turned around immediately. The leaders decide if you will retreat, and these leaders are saying running away if the enemy is bigger or scarrier is o.k., as long as you feel good about it, no one gets hurt. What about the others that are now put out because of this decision. Someone has to deal with it, and it should be the one who jumped up first and said "I'll do it, follow me!" only to cut and run when they had time to think about it. Wrong is wrong. Your word is your word. Fight the fight while you can, and when the time comes, THEN you can move on with your dignity intact. They should have thought things through and now deserve any and all the crap that is sure to come their way. That's the problem in this country today, no one is responsible for what they do.

 

Teaching high school and coaching high school football is not the army. Those noble souls that are in the military fight to give us the right to be able to change our mind. This whole "he made a decision and if he made it too quickly he should have to honor it" is simply a martyr mentality. We only live one time and we shouldn't have to spend it being miserable. Sure everyone is responsible for their actions and maybe Cobb and Donovan don't deserve to be celebrated for reversing their decisions. The thing is if you were Henderson Co. and you had just hired a Coach and that Coach contacted you and said that they had a change of heart after talking to their family and they wanted to return to their previous job would you want them to stay even if they offered to fulfill their commitment. To me it is better to be honest, admit you hadn't weighed things out enough and that your heart really wasn't in the move. To simply have kept your mouth shut, followed through on the move and then tried to make the best of it would not have been fair to Henderson Co. As for Somerset taking him back: The administration, fans and players understood why he would have taken the Henderson Co. job and were thankful for his work at Somerset over the years. When they found out that he and his family preferred it here why wouldn't they want to take him back. It isn't like he snubbed Somerset for a money grab. He originally took a job back where he grew up that was a bigger school near his and his wife's parents. Everyone understood it. That's why he was welcomed back. I just fail to see where it would have been such a noble act to have went on to Henderson Co when your heart just wasn't in it. To me that would have been a much bigger disservice to Henderson than simply resigning the job.

[Cynical]

THEY ARE NOT HONORING THEIR WORDS TO BE COACHES AND LEADERS! THEY ARE TELLING KIDS NOT TO HONOR THEIR WORDS IF IT CAUSES THEM SOME HARDSHIP!!!! A LEADER WOULD SAY THINK THINGS THROUGH BEFORE YOU DECIDE, NOT AFTER!!!!

 

I WAS a soldier for over 20 years. As a soldier, you don't pick your fights, the leaders pick them for you and they are the ones that all blame and/or praise go to. When you, as a subordinate, see them being indecisive or down right incompetent in their decisions, you lose all respect for them and doubt each and every decision they make after that. You do not have the individual ability to decide when to retreat or the bonus of deciding to move away from a bad situation. When you commit, you commit. You fight through it, and if it's a mistake of your own making, YOU pay the piper and act professionally about it. There are no do overs and should not be. It's a bad message that all bad decisions in life can be turned around immediately. The leaders decide if you will retreat, and these leaders are saying running away if the enemy is bigger or scarrier is o.k., as long as you feel good about it, no one gets hurt. What about the others that are now put out because of this decision. Someone has to deal with it, and it should be the one who jumped up first and said "I'll do it, follow me!" only to cut and run when they had time to think about it. Wrong is wrong. Your word is your word. Fight the fight while you can, and when the time comes, THEN you can move on with your dignity intact. They should have thought things through and now deserve any and all the crap that is sure to come their way. That's the problem in this country today, no one is responsible for what they do.

 

Ok, you win. Cobb is a bad person.

 

He should have honored his word, thus leaving Somerset without who they wanted, giving Henderson a coach filled with remorse, a family unhappy with a decision, a team in Somerset without a leader they love, and a team in Henderson with a leader who’s there halfheartedly.

 

Great strategy. Horning his word would have been best for all.

 

By the way, when has Cobb denied any fault or dodged in anyway that what he did was unprofessional? Seems to me he has assumed plenty of responsibility.

[BuckNut]

 

By the way, when has Cobb denied any fault or dodged in anyway that what he did was unprofessional? Seems to me he has assumed plenty of responsibility.

 

 

And in a radio interview blamed the media for allowing the thing to get out of his control.

[DADDY CAT]

O.K., I give!!!!

He's great and Donovan's great!

Both are excellent models in decision making for kids.

"Kids, go ahead and make any decision you want without fully thinking it through or expecting reprecussions. Never honor anything you say or commit to. It's not important. Somebody will ALWAYS be there to give you your old job back or make everything great again. EVERY mess can be wiped clean. Abide by these teachings and how can anything ever go wrong for you?"

Good luck with that in the real world, boys and girls!!!

I'll not say anything else about it and move on to something else.