- Nov 10, 2015
- 1,285
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Yeah this is the school. I think it is option B from my reading of it which is even worse than option A.
I agree. As an Athlete I could deal with A but I would walk if my school went with B. And I have no idea why anyone thinks this is a good idea. Really not smart to put a target like that on your kids back...
Hypothetically, if I were still planning to coach and this was rolled out for me next year:
Situation A - Not ideal. Unfair, but I would not die.
Situation B - I may sign my resignation AT the board meeting because that is crazy.
Sidenote: I wonder if people who take to news/legal wrangling to get kids on teams realize what they set their kids up for? Ex: Becky's mom makes big stink about her kid making Varsity. A situation like this ensues. Becky is placed there by school board. Becky is now THAT kid.
A similar thing happened here with a kid from my first few years coaching. She was on Varsity my first year, but made JV my second year because her skill level never increased while other girls' did. Her mom went to the AD, principal, and district to try and get the change but they all looked at her like she was crazy. She transferred to a different school in the district and made Varsity there. She forever had a stigma over her head because of it, which was a bummer because she was a really sweet kid, it was just her mom that was psycho.
I totally get that parents want to protect their kids, but what are they teaching them by doing this? Personally I wouldn't want to be on a team just because my mommy and daddy put up a fuss, I'd want to be there because of my skills.
The "everyone makes the team" mentality is frustrating. I had a HUGE with this issue as a first year coach this year. We had a mom who didn't agree with our decision spend weeks trying to get someone, anyone, to reverse it and put her daughter on the squad. She went all the way to the superintendent of schools. It wasn't "fair" to only cut a few, JV is a development program, ect. It got very ugly, but we stood our ground. No one would override us, so she took her kid to another school. She had made her THAT kid at our school.
We've had zero issues with this since I started at my current school and changed tryouts. Folks, if you are making tryouts some kind of big secret deal, you're INVITING tryout drama. By "big secret deal," I mean: either one-by-one or in small groups you march them through the gym like cattle on the auction block and judge their material with no one else in the gym. The doors are closed, there's paper over the windows, and then at the end of the day you post Schindler's list on the door for them to all walk up to and either celebrate or do the walk of shame in front of their peers.
Have about 5 open gyms leading up to your tryout week so that you know most of their names, and they don't walk around feeling like a number.
Have tryouts like 3-4 big practices where they work on material that's SUPER easy. You're not trying to win a competition with your tryout material, you need to know if they're teachable, and if they have the ability to do clean motions.
DO NOT allow your graduating seniors to play ANY role in the tryout process whatsoever. This invites the idea (real or imagined) that they are influencing the results based on who they "liked" the year before.
Talk to the kids who are going to get cut over the course of the week and tell them what they are going to have to do if they want to have a chance. Explain to them that their chances are slim.
Judge different aspects of the tryout skills every day, and let them all watch each other go. The ones who aren't going to make the team will SEE that they aren't as skilled as the ones that do.
Get rid of the outside judges and have the character to make a decision and stand behind it. Two types of coaches use outside judges: Those who's districts mandate that they do so, and those who are too weak-minded to stand behind their own decisions.
On the last day, pull any kid who is on the line aside privately and give them the news, good or bad, face-to-face. The ones who you give good news to will get to "have their moment." the ones who get the bad news, need to have an assistant coach or other adult school employee love on them a bit while they have their meltdown privately and call their parents to come pick them up. Give them the option of finishing the day (they never do) or leaving quietly so as not to be noticed.
Signed
"Coach who hasn't had so much as a phone call from a complaining parent in four years"