High School Advice On Monster Coach

[retiredcheerleader86]

I have a situation i am extremely concerned about. I had resigned from my position as head coach from a program that I graduated from myself & is very important to myself & all alumni. I resigned to pursue a career & put the program in the hands of someone who could give it more adequate attention than I think I could for the next season. Awful idea. The person they hired is hated by all of the cheerleaders & their parents & the assistant coaches. I hear horror stories of her often. Parents have been contacting me upset. The AD has done little to resolve the issues & seems to support the new head coach. Many girls have come to me saying she has ruined Cheerleading for them. That part alone truly breaks my heart. This program has always been so special to those involved & it seems to be falling apart. She is overly rude to them, demotivating, threatens them about money, pushes her work onto the captains (like making up parts of the competition routine, order tshirts, etc), yells at them & tells them how "horrible" their routine looks. She has done little to fundraise, help them, or motivate them to be better. She has even gotten anonymous hate letters. Parents & cheerleaders have tried to go to the current AD. Any advice on the steps I could take to try & get my concerns heard & get this program back to good? I totally regret quitting now & now I realize my worth to the program. I am too afraid of this program falling apart.

 

[0riginal]

I would go to the AD, tell him the complaints that you have received from your girls, and see if anything happens. There's always many sides to a story so give the AD the benefit of the doubt. He may not like the new coach just as much as the other parents/girls, but maybe there's nothing he can do about it at the moment. I've learned that some school systems can be weird and there can be a lot of random rules that no one knows about... But if he just seems like he wants nothing to do with the situation, then I would speak to the principal of the school. Very tough situation, but it's awesome that you're still wanting to help! Props to you.

 

[INeverStopCheering]

I have found often times that school officials will take a platform stance of "we back our coaches/teachers and trust them to make the best decisions for those involved" because they don't want to appear weak or divided. Here is my advice to you: DO NOT STOP FIGHTING. If the AD won't listen, go to the principal. If this coach is truly being hateful, demoralizing, emotionally abusive, and detrimental, than she should be fired. But it will take all of you to get it done. If enough people complain eventually the school will get annoyed enough that they will at least look into the problem. But these have to be real complaints, professionally worded, not just "She yelled at my kid." If you really want this fixed, you can get it done.

 

[coach.elle]

An AD is not going to fire a coach mid season. However, they can "not be asked back" for the next season.

There is strength in numbers. If everyone says something small, it will be heard more clearly than one person throwing a huge fit.

 

[Tosh]

I understand how you feel and I do agree with some of the comments above, but I would say to please proceed with precaution. As a parent and ex-coach (taking this year off after 12 years), leaving or starting as a coach always bring up situations like this. I walked into the gym last night during practice and the girls were in the middle of stunting, they all stopped and mobed me because the haven't seen me in a while. I felt bad for their coach, even though it is someone I've coached with in the past, but this is how the girls feel. I will get texts from the girls begging me to come back and how bad practice was tonight, and what the coach said, and who is crying, and the list goes on. What it boils down to is that the girls misse me; yes. and their current coach has different methods and style of coaching. I could very well be that the girls are over reacting, and I must say that this goes for the parents as well. No one likes new rules and different ways of doing things. It has to be hard on the new coach as well with the girls saying things like "we did not do it this way", or "our old coach never made us run" things like that.
I would have a serious conversation with the few girls you have a good relationship with and encourage them to take the lead with the other girls encouraging them to give the new coach a fair shot. Also, I would go to a practice or two. call the new coach and tell her you just want to stop by to see how the girls are doing. If you notice something off about her/him, after practice have a conversation with the coach.....not challenging, but explain how challenging the girls can be and what you felt worked when you coached them......you never know.
Now after all this, if there still seems to be a problem, then take it to the school authorities.....but definitely try to sort out exactly what is going on before you do....
Sorry for the long post.....I cound not help think about the lifttime move "Fab 5"....
Trust but varify!

 

[SparkleSpankies]

I am a new coach to a program and I feel like I am a "monster coach" to the point that we had to have the annual every cheerleading team in the country talk: DO you want to be here, Do you want to cheer, If you are not having fun, you aren't hurting my feelings...

However, a new system is always hard and I can promise you that a very small handful miss their old coaches and that small handful can be making it hard. Currently it is hard for my varsity b/c the girls used to run the show and now I am running the show and they have very little say unless it has to do with safety concerns. They don't like that... not one bit!

However, I am always in contact with the AD and he knows the first year or 2 I am going to have struggles. If my struggles range past that, I am not going to lie, it may be me.

What I have noticed is the more people that say something the more people listen. SO I think you need to make sure more people say something.

 

[retiredcheerleader86]

Thanks everyone for your input! It has taken me a while to write a good letter to the AD and principal on this matter as it has gotten worse. I thought it would be better after competition season ended but to no avail. Many other parents are also speaking their voices. Thank you so much for giving me the courage to try to make things right for these athletes!!