HS coaches - should I be concerned?

 Wrong is wrong.  I wouldn't be able to sleep at night if I stood by and did nothing - and a player ended up getting hurt or worse.

Getting "hurt of worse" from running?

Sorry, but I'm not sympathetic to the health argument..

Regarding the risks of teenagers running until they drop, without water--

Around here HS cross country is 3.1 miles, with hills.

It can be very hot in September, especially during the first couple of races.

A lot of the lower tier kids aren't in good shape.

Having run 3.1 miles with no water, in the heat,  after they cross the finish line, quite a few of them find an open spot and basically collapse, at which point most kids drink  fluids.

Nobody pays them much attention as they're gasping like beached fish--not even their moms....

That tells me something about the supposed risks of teenagers running until they drop, without water.

Not from running. From hehydration. Running until you puke (more than once apparently in some instances) and then being denied water is a huge problem. Also don't get caught up in some terrible argument that since it's February, dehydration isn't an issue.

Just my perspective but Duke Lacrosse and Rolling Stone and the UVA frats suggest getting out on the end of the diving board before the facts are in is not prudent, in this day of "instantaneous" information and rush to judgement.

My view is that it is one issue if the coach ran the team for a discipline reason.

It is another if the health of the players was endangered.  With a trainer reportedly having seen this and taken it to the AD and above, I would fully expect the trainer to intervene and stop activities which caused risks to any players health.

What we don't know is whether the trainer actually saw it and reported it and if that happened, did the trainer report something considered to be poor coaching and discipline or did the trainer report the health of the players was at risk.

The latter deserves severe discipline along with an understanding why the trainer did not intervene, if that is true.

The former is a coaching issue to be dealt with in a different manner, in my view.

Balanced between a "Sandusky" situation or a Duke Lacrosse/Rolling Stone on this message board, it seems like more and accurate information is prudent. Hopefully the AD and school leadership have that information for the OP to hear.

Anonfornow,

I'm getting a little tired of the steady drip, drip, drip of progressively revealed aggravating factors.

What started out as your mild concern about reports you didn't fully credit of baseball players running til some of them puked--which doesn't take long on most high school baseball teams--is now well on its way to becoming Bear Bryant putting the Junction Boys through their ten days of hell.

You came on pretending to ask for advice, and now you are no longer pretending. You're preening and lecturing those who took your initial post at face value.

At this point, all the information is second hand, I have no basis for evaluating the claims that boys were hurt or endangered, and it looks like you had an agenda from the beginning when you took on a pseudonym and pretended to be "on the fence."

So now I am on the fence as to whether to close this thread, delete this thread, suspend your Anonfornow user name, or suspend the user name you use for your other posts.

There is a lot of contention now going on in this thread concerning jumping to conclusions, etc. My take is that, with no noames having been advanced, the conversation is nothing more than a general conversation based on an incident that may or may not be what it has been presented as. To me, because there have been no specifics given, thus no damage done to anyone's reputation, there is no more harm done than if we were discussing a generic hypothetical situation, which we do all the time. Now, if someone starts pointing to a specific program, we will have moved onto different ground.

It's important to distinguish respecting the authority of the position from respecting the authority of the person who happens now to be  in the position. As a general rule, coaches are due respect and a certain degree of deference.  Why?  Cause it comes with the role.  You can't play the role effectively if you don't get due respect and deference.  

When things go right, you don't have to worry about that distinction. You respect your coach because he's the guy in the Coach Role.  And the guy in the coach role conducts himself in a way that merits due respect and deference.

But unfortunately,  sometimes the guy in the coach role conducts himself in a way that loses him any entitlement to the respect and deference that normally go with the  role.  The tricky thing is judging exactly when that has happened.  People will no doubt differ -- except in clear and egregious cases.  That may be the case here.  But it didn't necessarily start out seeming that way. 

Sometimes small men with very big problems use the coach role as a sort of shield that allows them to get away with serious crap.  Sometimes overly meddlesome parents and others are too quick to separate the man from the role he occupies because of their own problems and hang-ups.

Unfortunately, in  general, there are no easy answers.  When you are not directly involved,  you can sit back and watch the drama of it all unfold with detached equanimity.  You can make high-minded judgments from a distance.  But equanimity and high-mindedness are  hard to achieve when it's you and yours who are directly involved. Not at all easy to decide whether you are being an overbearing parent with problems of your own or the coach is just another small man with big problems abusing the authority of a role for which he is unfit. 

Swamp,

I'm sorry you don't like the manner in which information is revealed.  I can only present here things as I learn them. As you say, there are many things that are second hand.  I have to filter what I hear and determine if it's relevant or not. If a poster asks a question - I answer it to the best of my ability. I've been told many things over the past 48 hours that I've withheld because they aren't really relevant to this single issue.

When I made the initial post, my inclination was to just let things go.  It wasn't my son that was throwing up.  He didn't really care about the running. Why should I care?  Still though, it bothered me.  So, I asked if this is something I should be concerned with.  The initial advice was basically - maybe, but maybe not.

My only agenda here was to seek advice.  I don't need to throw anyone under the bus.  Up until this point, my son has been playing well, and is getting plenty of playing time.  I don't have a reason to rock the boat. I would still rather it be someone else that does the rocking. I'm not firing off emails to the other parents and raising pitchforks.  This is the only forum where I have discussed this topic. Even if I don't agree with opinions, listening to them leads me to make a more educated decision.

You can lock the thread and take whatever action you deem necessary.  I thank those who took the question at face value and offered their opinions.

Before you jump, remember there are 2 sides to the story.  What is the coach's side?  Frankly, what is the kids' side -- yours didn't seem to mind.  Sounds to me like it is being taken care of.  See how the parents meeting goes and proceed from there.  Good luck. 

This is not a personal attack, I would say it to anyone.  Peace!

This is GOLD!  Well said SluggerDad, well said indeed.

For those who wish to know, the parent's meeting was held last night and here is a basic synopsis...

The school's Principal and AD were the only persons there other than parents.  The Principal told us that he had received several complaints from parents regarding the running incident. His intent is to speak with all of the players individually today to try to determine exactly what transpired. He will then decide if any disciplinary measures are necessary. The AD said that regardless of the outcome, he is going to make it a point to observe practice as often as possible to ensure there are no future issues. They are going to try to have everything addressed by Monday, which is the next scheduled team practice.

I think continuing updates detracts from what I was originally seeking, which was advice given what I had been informed of.  It's not my intent to turn this into a tabloid or some daily soap opera.  So let's just leave it at this - those who should be handling the situation - are.