After rereading my post, I’m afraid I did not properly articulate what I was trying to say.
Coach Beatty tells all parents/players at the beginning of every year that he is there to win games. The kids that play will be the ones he thinks are going to help him win. He has said directly, indirectly and in a million different ways that he is not concerned about being liked or disliked. I wish I had a dollar for every time someone has said “He is what he is” when referring to Coach Beatty. He is there to win games. Period. End of story.
My experience with his players has been that, by the time they graduate, most understand what he is all about. The conclusion many reach is - Great football mind. Yep. Great guy. Nope. But most weren’t looking for, expecting or needing a Great guy. They were looking for someone to teach them how to play good high school football, which Coach Beatty does.
As far as the statement that Coach Beatty “does well building the character of his kids” – much of the character building is a result of the effort and discipline required to be part of any successful team, football or otherwise. Building character, which is often cited as one of Coach Glaser’s strengths, is not Coach Beatty’s primary objective – winning games is. Nothing that I have seen or heard leads me to believe that, outside of a handful of players each year, Coach Beatty even considers how what he says or does affects a player. I don’t think it’s tough love or a “parental relationship”, it’s just his way of running his football team. Coach Beatty’s propensity to call out players during practice seems to have increased quite a bit over the last few years, to the point of being uncomfortable to observe last year, which I believe contributed to the reduced numbers in this year’s Senior class. When players who are used to being successful (in school and sports) run into Coach Beatty’s “style” there is going to be a certain amount of wreckage, and hard feelings among players and parents.
The only complaint about his style I consider legitimate is that you don’t always know what is going to land you in Coach Beatty's dog house, and once you’re in his dog house, it’s almost impossible to get out. This has left many players very frustrated, and feeling that they weren't given a fair chance to demonstrate that they could perform.
As TD pointed out, this thread isn’t supposed to be about Coach Beatty, but I did want to clarify my comments.