Academically "Dragging kids across the finish line"

I think it's OK to be selective about who you drag across the finish line.  Concentrate on the kids with high character.

 

I don't think you're obligated to put a lot of time and energy into ensuring the potential "terrible clubhouse guys" are academically eligible to play on your team.

I can't tell you what happens behind the scenes at our HS but I can tell you the process our school uses.  I have a son at the school and my wife used to be a Dept. Head in the school.  Its a large school, about 900 kids per class.  Our school has stricter legibility guidelines then the state.  Every Thursday a grade report for every athlete is provided to the athletic office.  The coaches are notified of any student who is in danger of loosing their weekly legibility.  The coaches will notify the student of this and let them know where they are failing.  It then becomes up to the student to follow up with the proper teacher to correct their eligibility problem.  If they can fix the problem by the end of the day Friday they remain eligible for the next week.  If they can not fix it, they become ineligible starting Monday of the next week through Sunday.  I believe if they are on the ineligible list 3 times during the season they are dropped from the sport.  In addition if you your semester ending grades make you ineligible your are ineligible for the entire next semester.  This will carry over from the previous year.  So if you are ineligible at the end of the Spring Semester when school resumes in the fall you are ineligible for that semester.   

 

According to my wife most coaches do not get directly involved with correcting problems.  The onus of fixing things is on the student.  

Hi Coach,

I respectfully disagree with both positions.  One of the most rewarding things about coaching is being in a position where you can be a positive influence on young people.  For the basketball coach, I think it is great that he looks to help his players with their studies but he should make it a point to offer that help at all times, sending the message that academics is priority #1 always - not just when athletic eligibility is at stake.  For yourself, I would embrace the opportunity to try and push those "lazy" kids in the right direction.  Offer any help needed while at the same time being clear about attitude and behavior standards with the team.  Many troubled kids have sports as their only motivator and will respond favorably only in this environment.  With the right "coaching", this can then translate into other parts of their lives. 

My kid's high school was similar. Not passing in homework could make a kid ineligible the following week. The coach received a list. He would pull the kid aside and tell him he better see his guidance counselor first thing in the morning. They had until the end of the day the following Monday to fix the problem or they were ineligible that week. 

 

My son graduated in the top twenty in his class. He was on the list three times senior year (my daughter was the good child). It was always for not getting homework in. A lot of the team had a bad case of senioritis that year. It drove the coach crazy. I believe only one kid hit the ineligible list.

How kids view grades has to do with the environment where they live. In turn schools and coaches may have to deal with it differently. Kids at a high school with a 90%+ on to college rate are going to view grades differently than kids whose view is, "What do grades matter? After high school I'm going to work in the mill."

OK so I have no idea how eligibility was auto corrected to legibility....

How could the problem (not passing) be fixed by the next Monday? 

 

Not passing in homework or scheduling a missed test due to absence could cause a failing grade for the week causing ineligibility. Getting the work done eliminated the problem.

Our school also has ineligibllity carry over. Ex football player fails in spring, sits out some next Fall until grades r up to par. Now if player is Sr., and does poorly spring semester he "gets away w it" I guess. But we r at highly academic school where 90% or more go on to college, only few play at D1 levels in sports. Most  Sr. Know how import it is to keep grades up. 

Curious where some of these kids at your school will end up in 10 yrs. are they good enough to get to next level, or will they be working at min wage job because they never took school seriously?

 

Same as RJM.  There are instances where a kid missed a day and they had a test.  The test is in the computer system but its showing a 0 for the score.  In some instances they teachers may activate an assignment in the system before the students hand it in.  Those will pull the grades down in the system and may make it look like a student is failing.  Our school also allows students to re-master a topic.  The philosophy is that we are not here to make you regurgitate info on a test but to make sure you understand the material.  If a student fails a test they usually allowed to take a make up test after relearning the material.  If a student fails a test and then demonstrates that they have mastered the material they can pull their grade up.  

 

Finally, if they are borderline the teachers may allow them to do some extra credit to pull a grade  up.  

Good points all around everyone. Thanks for sharing your experience and opinions. 

 

I probably could have provided more background info: I'm not sure the exact percentage of kids that go to college, but its def. not 90%. i would guess more around 60-70%...i hope. So in a class of 30 (yes our school is that small, our senior class may have +-30 kids) 20 might go to college. Its a very rural area with a very high poverty rate (60+% free/reduced lunch last I checked) Lots of it is generational poverty also. The main industries are logging and farming, there is a mill nearby that closed within the last 5-10 years, but that was the big employer around here. most people that make a decent living are traveling tradesmen (lots of boiler welders, as our school has a good vocational program for it) Most people that don't work in those industries work at something like a grocery store, or maybe at an old folks home or hospital nearby, or are unemployed and receive state assistance. Our school is in danger of closing within the next few years due to shrinking enrollment and consolidation talks. This has severely diminished our sense of school pride and identity.

 

Theres lots of kids who barely ever leave town or the state. a trip to the mall (about an hour drive away) is a really big deal for some of the kids around here. There has also been a terrible, terrible increase in things like meth lab busts in our area in the past few years. 

 

So, education is not exactly held in high regard around here. And the culture of our community is at a real crossroads right now. Also, some kids have had such little opportunity to experience the world outside of this town that they dont know any different and dont see a way out. When you say "there is a whole world out there" they have very little understanding of what that means. I'm lucky enough to have grown up in Boston and moved up here in 8th grade as a kid, so I had some cultural experiences and such that kept me in touch with that type of thing. I knew i would have a life outside of this town when i graduated. It wasnt going to just be "well, i guess ill go work in the woods for my uncle." Over the years, instead of trying to lift kids up out of this hole, our school has jumped right in and enabled this type of culture. We have grown infamous in our region for being low achievers and for "pushing kids through." However, we have a new, experienced, from the area, principal this year and i think he really gets the whole situation and where we need to be going. No more free rides. we need to inspire.  

 

we have a huge deficit of aspirations around here. 

 

Looking back at a soccer coach who was very successful here when i was in high school, i remember that he did a lot of team get togethers outside of practice... trips to the bowling alley...anything. just having fun and spending more time with the kids. keeping them out of trouble and with each other to build chemistry. at the time, i didnt really understand it: "why are you inviting the team to your house to watch the UFC pay per view fight, thats got nothing to do with soccer...God forbid anything would happen, he could get in serious trouble." But the more i think of the state of things in the area, I now agree with a lot of the things he did, although i will try to keep them mostly baseball related outings. Theres a new indoor baseball facility that was just built about an hour drive from us, theres a couple colleges that I would like to bring the kids to watch a game at...things like that. Make their world a little bigger and maybe their hopes and aspirations will follow suit.

 

 

Cabbagedad- I totally see where you are coming from and was expecting at least one of those types of responses. I very much respect your views and have been a big fan of a lot of your posts around here. I also do pride myself in coaching not baseball but life for these kids. Thats why i check in with these kids throughout the year, not just when i need them, but when they might need me. But let me pose a situation for you and tell me what you think:

 

You have a junior who is middle of the road talent wise, a poor-average student, and barely ever has his head in the game, also has discipline issues in school. Freshmen and sophomore year, this student barely got his grades together enough to play basketball, and then they went right back down to crap as soon as the season ended. By junior year, do you keep pushing back practice till 4pm because you have to keep him for academic detentions per team policy to get him up to snuff. now the rest of the team is being effected, grows resentful, and have no reason to not follow suit. "it doesnt matter if i screw around, coach will be there to drag me along" Or do you cut your losses? I hate to say i'd ever give up on a kid, but, there are times when you have to do whats best for the team. This is the type of situation I'm talking about. 

 

I have been regularly checking in throughout the year with ballplayers who have academic or disciplinary issues to see how they are doing. I see them in the hall and give them the little "hey Johnny, how are things coming along this year? keeping it together? we are excited for a big season, I'll be looking for you to work hard to earn that 2b spot. I'm here to help if you ever need anything buddy." If I've been checking in with you and you say everything is fine for 6 months, and then 2 weeks before baseball theres a frantic rush to get your stuff together, you might have to miss the first week to make up, this is a pattern over the years, your somewhat of a liability to the team even if you are eligible...do I even want you on my team?

 

Think about academics. If a kid is at risk of staying back, the school doesnt just tell them at the end of the year "hey, you flunked, see you again next year" they start meeting with the parents and such as early as Nov.-Dec. to work on getting a student on track. Then when April-May rolls around. the kid has either made their own bed, or rose to the occasion. Thats how I'm thinking of running my team. Not setting the bar at the beginning of the season and lifting kids up over it myself. 

 

Please continue to discuss and share thoughts. 

I totally agree and think you are on the right track.  (I came away with a different impression from your second post than your first)  It has to be a two-way street.  The kids have to know what is expected from them and make sincere efforts to uphold their end of the bargain. 

 

I think we are in similar situations in some ways.  We are not a large school with an abundance of baseball talent where every player is motivated just to try to earn a roster spot.  We have had to nurture as much as demand and gradually build an environment where there is more pride and higher expectations.  Sometimes we'll play ultimate Frisbee for conditioning.  We might have a pizza day if it's raining. The kids that bleed baseball didn't need this stuff but the team and program as a whole did.  In your first post, you mention that you want "hard working, motivated, intelligent kids on my team. Kids who know how to handle pressure and stress and hold high standards for themselves."  We have those... but not a full roster of them.  We have to find ways to develop those who don't fit that mold.  I will say, however, that each year we move the bar in that direction.  And, now, with more and more kids buying in, it becomes easier because they help set the expectations for the others.

 

Each individual young man out there is motivated by different things.  Get to know them enough to know what buttons to push, how best to reach down and get their best efforts.  At the same time, team comes first.  For example, I wouldn't move the team practice time to accommodate detention time.  That's rewarding the wrong thing.  I would, perhaps, make myself available to get that player extra reps before or after practice to make up for what he missed, assuming he is working to correct whatever landed him in detention in the first place.

 

You are going to win some and lose some in getting players to respond.  Be clear about expectations and when a player is hurting the team, is not responding and has exhausted his chances, it's time to move on.  Identifying that moment will become more clear with experience.  The wins are awesome.  Both kinds.