How Would You Handle This As A Coach

Probably. But I wasn't at practice or open gym or the game. 

I once saw this type of situation blow up on a HS coach. He normally didn't run players after a game, but chose to at an away game as punishment for poor play. One of his players had a history of seizures and this player passed out during the sprints.

Once this happened, parents from both teams started screaming at the coach. Wild scene. Kid was fine. Later learned the kid may have faked it.

We took a run-rule beating the first game. We had a short post game chat. I am not big on talking too much after the game (check out domingo ayala's video about post game speeches).  We talked about the positive and talked about the negative and how to improve in practice the next day.....then again we only had one practice before we played our first district game.

 Coach needs to get his ego out of the way & TEACH the game! What's he doing in practices? 

Some things can wait until next practice, other things can't, and must be verbally acknowledged by all parties promptly after a bad loss.  

Saw a visiting varsity team cough up a bad loss in the bottom of 7th the other night.  Coaches took team to the farthest nether-region of our RF for some QT.  All players "on a knee" for at least 30-mins as coaching staff appeared to be talking to them.  No yelling, no physical displays.  Clearly a "teaching moment." 

Appearances do matter, so it's important to take some sort of action immediately after a bad loss.  It's also a way to show respect for the game, especially if the players did so poorly that it bordered on disrespecting the game.  I do not agree with public displays of punishment like running that looks more punitive than say the pitchers running poles post outing.  It is embarrassing to see coaches run kids immediately after shaking hands (I'm talking seconds after) for a bad loss.  

30-minutes on a knee listening to a lecture isn't fun.  Plus, I am sure there would be some additional re-education come next practice in a more appropriate setting, and hopefully something that is productive and has a point to it, rather than public shaming post-game, on an away field no less.  

baseballmom posted:

 Coach needs to get his ego out of the way & TEACH the game! What's he doing in practices? 

Do not know that as I was just an observer and seeing how this was handled has just been bouncing around in my head.  These are HS teachers and at least the HC played in college. I think the inability at that moment to communicate and teach (oddly enough their career) the game played a big role in how it was handled.

#1 Assistant Coach posted:

Some things can wait until next practice, other things can't, and must be at least verbally acknowledged by all parties promptly after a bad loss.  

Saw an away varsity team  cough up a loss in the bottom of 7th the other night.  Coaches took team to the farthest nether-region of our RF for some QT.  All players "on a knee" for at least 30-mins as coaching staff appeared to be talking to them.  No yelling, no physical displays.  Clearly a "teaching moment." 

Appearances do matter, so it's important to take some sort of action immediately after a bad loss.  It's also a way to show respect for the game, especially if the players did so poorly that it bordered on disrespecting the game.  I do not agree with public displays of punishment like running that looks more punitive than say the pitchers running poles post outing.  It is embarrassing to see coaches run kids immediately after shaking hands for a bad loss.  

30-minutes on a knee listening to a lecture isn't fun.  Plus, I am sure there would be some additional re-education come next practice in a more appropriate setting, and hopefully something that is productive and has a point to it, rather than public shaming post-game, on an away field no less.  

Completely reasonable response to a tough loss.

I guess it comes back to individual preferences and management style.  Coaching is management and I think it reflects a lot on the program and the guy running it.  Mistakes are going to be made....it is high school baseball not the Boston Red Sox versus Washington Nationals. 

Taking a knee after a game is talking about what the team did well, needs to improve upon, and discussing the effort level on the team.  I think most coaches will agree that as long as there is mental and physical effort that is something they can always build on with a player or team.  Negativity and lack of effort (and discipline) is something that needs to be addressed behind close doors.... never in public especially in front of another team.  JMO.

100 coaches....100 approaches. 

Bad games happen, but when it is the first game the coach might feel he needs to "shake things up" so that it doesn't become the way the year goes.  This holds more water if leading into the game there was a complacency/overconfident sense by the team.  Getting whipped will get their attention if they care at all.  If they don't care - there is no amount of screaming or motivation a coach can give to change that.

If they aren't good enough....that is different.  All the running in the world won't change that either.  It is time to spend some quality time picking up grounders and working in the bullpen - assuming the coach is capable of improving players.  Even if he isn't there will be some value to the reps.

Then there is this....is this something the coach has done previously?  It then might fall into the "Coach being Coach" category.  Screamers are screamers.  It can be worse if the school does not get whipped frequently.  This can be potentially volatile if parents take on the coach.  The result will almost certainly be chaos.  If coach survives the challenge he might feel untouchable and if he were damaged now you decend into the parents committee chirping on everything which is probably the worst possible outcome. 

My opinion is that screaming and punishment has limited value and diminishing returns to the point of being counterproductive.  Especially so if teens feel "humiliated" publicly.  Generally, coaches are better served if they resist these tactics and focus on improving in practice.  It is fair to acknowledge the story's about how the coach "pushed" teams to be better than they would have been otherwise.  AKA the Vince Lombardi school.  Having a coach challenging players for better performance undoubtedly has value but like anything else it needs to be tempered and fit the players involved.

Son's old travel coach would have a 30 mt breakdown after EVERY game.  When it was summer and 90's, that sucked!  At night he would send an email and for each kid would make two observations one positive and one something he saw with a swing, throw, an error, etc.  But always would end with positive thoughts.

Played a HORRIBLE game once.  Kids formed up.  Coach sat there....Didnt say a thing for like 2 minutes.  Shook his head and told them they needed to figure this one out themselves.  Said don't leave till they did.  He got up...Walked to his truck and went home.   Parents were like....lets go....Kids were like HELL NO.  They talked among themselves for about 15 minutes before we left.

There was a case of less was more....  

Were I to start over I would not even have post game conferences. RAther I would begin next practice with game reflections and teaching moments. 

There have been lots of good threads on this topic.  As Matt mentioned above, no one else but the coaches and players were at the practices or gym workouts.  Every coach has his own style.  Many will use multiple methods to best reach players and team - sometimes encouraging, sometimes instructing, sometimes suggesting, sometimes being humorous, sometimes being more harsh, etc.

  Maybe the coach is on an ego thing or maybe it was just time to send that type of message.   Maybe the coaches aren't good teachers of the game or aren't optimizing their time to teach or maybe they are making every effort possible and the group of kids just don't care to learn.

I will say for the first several years I coached HS age players I was often completely bewildered that we would practice a given area till our hands bled and then in a game it looked like a totally foreign thought to them.  Then I kinda figured out they were teenagers.   I constantly put the blame on myself and the staff when it looks like we  haven't found the best way to reach a player or the group with the right teaches.  We'll keep trying new approaches and learning more about what makes each individual tick, what makes the particular group tick.  But baseball has a lot of complexities.  Teens have a lot of complexities.  A few nights ago, there was too much lack of focus at practice.  The young coach that is "the buddy" and never yells spoke up.  Loudly.  He and I had talked about this prior.  Message got through to the players.  

Coaching HS baseball can be a blast and very rewarding.  But it is a long, never ending path.  So much to teach, so little time.  That goes mostly unrecognized from the bleachers.

As a side note, there are now restrictions in our state federation in regards to running after practice.

Not the way I would have handled it.  But, way to early to start debating the issue on a message board.  

A few thoughts on public humiliation...

Yes,  things almost always should be handled in-house.  But there are ample circumstances that lend themselves to immediate action, which results in public humiliation.  We had a recent game where a player had a poor AB in a big situation - 3rd out.  He took to the field defensively and hadn't let it go.  Warming up, he was firing the ball to his teammates in a potentially dangerous manner.  First time, teammate spoke up.  Player didn't listen and continued.  I yanked him out of the game abruptly and with some firm remarks.  I'm sure it embarrassed the hell out of him.  I'm also sure it won't happen again.  Normally great kid and I sorta felt bad but I have no doubt it was the best course of action for the circumstance.  I could have made it effective by just removing him and addressing it later.  But, no matter how firmly I would have addressed it later, not as effective.  

When I was a kid, I didn't listen once when called to come inside for dinner - was outside in our back yard with friends messing around by a pond.  My dad walked out and I knew I was in trouble.  Normally, it would be "get inside" and I'd get a taste of the belt.  This time, he didn't say a word, grabbed me and tossed me into the pond.  40 years later it's funny as hell but humiliation in front of friends was WAY more effective than another belt lash behind doors.

I am not against yelling or even running sprints to shock a team that has drifted off mentally at some point during the season. That does run its course if that's your go to and loses effectiveness. I don't think the optimal time to do it is as the other team packs up. I think if you pull that out on the first day when its been you and your staff solely responsible for working with them for the last month to prepare for this day you risk being tuned out real fast.

I think on all teams good practices are had and bad practices are had. Teenage boys are goofballs and can miss the boat on big important points.  Although it doesn't always seem so they are pretty smart and even if they don't mention it know when things get weird.  I think that after getting dressed down and running sprints there may be a few players wondering if there was a little too much you guys and not enough all of us in that effort to correct problems.

I'm not one to criticize another coach, especially without a ton of background info

I can say that on any team worldwide, if some players start to tune out the coach there will be other players more than willing to come off the bench and do what the coach asks.  The bench can be a great assistant coach for players who think they are bigger than the game or who think they are entitled to a starting spot

In years prior, our HS coaches would make the kids run after every game.  It was basically 40 yard sprints in between comments -- both good and bad.  Seemed to serve two purposes -- conditioning and focus. 

As for running and/or public humiliation, I think it depends on the kids and especially the respect they have for the coach.  If they have no respect for him (because he's a doofus), they will resent it.  If they respect him, it will work wonders. 

I've told this one before.  Back in my day, the Sophomore football team had a hard nosed coach.  When things weren't going well, he made them run.  One time in practice he cancelled it and made the start running laps.  After about 30 min. the kids where done and started throwing their equipment in the center of the field, striping all the way down.  The coach got "madder" and "madder" yelling all kinds of stuff to them (back in the day you could curse).  The kids kept doing it until finally it was over.  That team was undefeated as sophomores (couldn't break .500 under a new coach as Jr/Sr.).  The coach loved those kids and they loved him back.  It was something to be seen.  There was a mutual respect there.    

I learned a long time ago that in situations like this I have as much to do with it as the players did.  Either they are under prepared or we should not have scheduled that game.  The only time I have put my players through situations like that is when we play a team that we should beat and they decide to not live up to the standards that have been put forth.

At what point do you as the coach own the performance of your team on game day? Who is responsible to prepare them to compete? Who is the coach of this team? Maybe the coach should have ran while everyone screamed at them?

So let me get this straight. Your players who just got embarrassed on the field need you to throw them under the bus in front of everyone present in order to "get it?" That's what its going to take to get them to field better, pitch better, hit better basically perform to the level you expect them to play? Then is that what you do at practice every day? Have them run sprints while you scream at them each day at practice.

Or Coach is this your way of telling everyone present "Hey it's not our fault they sucked today. It's all their fault and were going to show you we care by embarrassing them right now in front of you."

It used to offend me greatly when we would spank someone and the opposing coach would take his players to the outfield and start running them as he berated them. Really Coach? Your kids had no idea how to take a primary lead or a secondary lead. They didn't know how to run a cut play. They were horribly coached and prepared and your going to run them? You need to take your as s out there and run because your a freaking joke.

NEVER whip your child in public. Never berate your child in public.

Me personally I would have said: "I apologize guys. We didn't prepare you properly to compete today. I promise were going to get to work tomorrow on becoming better players a better team and better coaches. We got a lot of work to do and were going to get it done."

We talk so much about today's kids and how they don't hold themselves accountable and how they feel entitled. Maybe that's because we have too many adults who don't hold themselves accountable? Your team is a reflection of you Coach. Own it.

Nailed it. You just hit a home run Coach.

Glad that this went into golden posts.

My sons fav expression, the fish stinks from the head down.  Period.

"Golden Posts," also known as Coach May's greatest hits.

I surely want have to hijack this thread and dominate the conversation but it has made me think of a few things. Do you want your players to be driven by the fear of your wrath? Do you want your players to be driven by the fear of failure? Do you want your players to be driven by the desire to win?

How do you build that fire that consumes your program? How do you get your program to the point where they want it and understand what it takes to get it? If you have to punish a player for lack of a desire to compete, lack of focus, lack of execution what went wrong? Can you punish a player in to understanding what it takes? Can you punish a player into something you have failed to properly communicate to him? What if you yourself don't know what it takes?

If I tell you that if you don't get the bunt down your going to have to run 10 380's is that proper motivation that will lead to success? If I coach you to properly bunt then put you in situations where you can gain experience in practice to have success will that lead to success? If I yell at you, berate you, criticize you, run you because you failed to execute a hit and run will that make you execute better? If I make hit and run situations part of our daily BP routine and Scrimmages, if I coach you on the finer details of the process and then put you in those situations in practice will allow you to have a better opportunity for success?

Coaches have the ultimate leverage over players worthy to be coached. It's called the line up card. It's called actually being part of the program. It's called winning instead of losing. If a player and or team can not be motivated by those factor's no amount of "discipline" is going to amount to a hill of beans, imo.

Coaching, teaching, communicating, painting a picture of where you are and where we want to go. Preparing them for success. Getting them to understand what you understand. Getting them to coach themselves, teach themselves, communicate between themselves, discipline each other, hold themselves accountable to the principles that they believe in their hearts will make them winners.

Practice is a place to grind. It's a place to Coach. It's a place to teach. It's a place to gain experience. It's a place to reinforce. It's a place to work out the kinks. It's a place to put pressure on players and at times force failure on them. It's a place to force success on players. The games? Man that's show time. That's where you just go out and perform. If you and your players have invested what it takes to be a winner and you don't win NO ONE should have to say a word. It's pain. It hurts.

I want my players to know when they are on the stage I am with them. We are prepared for the show. We are in this together. I am as invested in the outcome as they are. I am as responsible for the outcome as they are and they are as responsible as I am. We will celebrate together and we will hurt together. And we will fight like hell to make sure no one takes from us what we have already earned in our hearts. And if they do we will fight like hell to make sure it doesn't happen again. And if anyone is going to get the credit for losing I will own it. And if anyone is going to get embarrassed it's going to be me. And if anyone is going to get credit for the win it will be my team.

Family doesn't air their dirty laundry in public. Family doesn't show divide in front of other people. Family doesn't let anyone mess with family. And family doesn't disrespect family. No way I am going to embarrass my boys in front of anyone outside of our family. We may fight but your never going to see it or know it. And when it's game time we will be prepared. That's your job Coach. Do it.

And that's all I have to say about that.

Thank you Coach May!

Ja'Crispy...Why don't you send these posts to that "so-called" coach! Copy it ALL (especially C May's instruction!) & mail it to him! 

I usually hate threads like these because they turn into a generalized coach bashing session BUT I have a feeling this guy is a clown although there's a lot to the story we don't know.  I"m going to say this - sometimes you have a great team who does great work in preseason and offseason workouts.  Then they just stink it up to start the season.  That is frustrating because you've taught them, they know it but they don't perform it.  I'm our assistant softball coach again this year and we have a very talented team.  We looked great in offseason and preseason workouts.  We talked about maturity and mental toughness to get through adversity.  Then we played our first game and got destroyed 10-0.  It looked like we had never picked up a ball, bat or glove before.  In the after game meeting I lit them up.  No cussing and no individual insults but I didn't hold anything back and questioned whether they wanted to win or not based on how they approach the game mentally.  It was pretty mean but I approached it from an overall team perspective instead of individuals.

Right now we are sitting at 6 - 2 and 2 - 1 in conference.  We have mercy ruled three teams and are 4-1 against 3A and 4A (we are 2A) teams.  In a game against a 3A team we were down 5-0 after 2 innings with some very suspect umpiring.  Came back to win 13-5.  We are playing really good right now.  The other loss came to a conference opponent and the beginning of the game was very similar to the first game - came out playing tight and scared.  After 3 innings we were down 7-0 and on the way to a mercy rule ending.  But the 4-7 innings we won 3-1 but overall lost 8-3.  We turned a 4-6-3 double play and started pounding the ball everywhere.  After the game I didn't lose my mind again but I made the comparisons to the first game and how we started out.  Talked about the maturity and mental toughness that was lacking then showed up later in the game.  Made the comment that I would have loved to seen this game played all 7 innings the way we played the last 4.  No idea if we would have won but been really fun to watch.  Then I talked about what's great about baseball and softball is we have the next day.  We played a really good 4A team and turned around and beat them 10-2.

There isn't one strategy that works all the time.  You have to know your team and how they respond to certain reactions and stimuli.  My girls are competitors but they don't know how to win yet - or at least win the big games yet.  I felt it was time early in the season that it wasn't acceptable to play bad and they needed to live up to their potential.  Yeah it could have blown up in my face but I didn't think it would.  I have a great relationship with my players and they know I care about them more as humans than players.  When you have that then you can do a lot of things to motivate and not hurt the relationship or motivation.  Now if I blow up after every game then it will lose it's meaning and it will hurt the relationship.  That's why I didn't blow up after the conference loss - they already feel bad so why make it worse so I can get some weird pleasure out of it?  It was a teaching moment to help them improve as players.  Have a huge conference game tonight with two starters out on a school trip and I still feel pretty confident but if we lose then we will use it as a means to help us get better.

Like I said I was just an observer at a moment in time and don't have every single fact.  I know HS Coaches are usually underpaid for what they do and I would really only go after one for things that risk a players health.  This is just something that was bouncing around in my head for a few days. Like Fenway said coaching is management and the way it was handled I thought was poor management, nobody would seriously handle something like that at work.  I think there were a lot of very good responses from people who get it. I think Coach's mic drop moment nailed the whole thing.

Not to repeat myself but after the first Clemson game Monte Lee apologized to fans that he didnt prepare his team for the first series. While we all know that players have to take personal responsibilty and do not always perform as expected, but it takes a special coach to publicly take blame for the teams poor play.

On another note, if a team does deserve some type of punishment, running isnt always the right answer because some players just LOVE to run.

TPM posted:

 

On another note, if a team does deserve some type of punishment, running isnt always the right answer because some players just LOVE to run.

 

Same thing at officer candidate school. Things were set up so whatever we did was wrong and the usual punishment was pushups. I happened to be great at pushups, so "punishment" meant a brief space of time when I knew I was doing what I was supposed to, knew I was doing it right, and knew I wouldn't get yelled at. 

This thread seems the perfect opportunity to revisit Coach Fitz's Management Theory,

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03...ent-theory.html?_r=0

Submitted without comment.  

Not to hijack the thread, but hoping to take advantage of the good thinking and sharing going on here.

Situation: highly competitive arch rival game, won with a walk off single.  Teams have been chirping at each other through out the game and as game intensified, chirping got worse.  No obvious action by either coach to discourage chirping.

Kid who hits walk off yells at opposing bench (which is along first base line).  Unclear what he said but they don't react well.  Winning team has mob World Series like celebration, even though it is just a middle of the season game.  Celebration seems to be as much to rub it in as it is to simply enjoy the moment.  Then a couple F-bombs are shouted at the losing team.  Coaches complain to each other, civilly. Nothing much else happens, but there's lots of ill will.  Any recommendations on how the winning coach should approach his team, especially the specific kids who he know dropped the F-bombs and hit the gamewinner?

My first, admittedly not well thought out impulse, is to bench the miscreants for the next game.  Would appreciate other thoughts.

smokeminside posted:

Not to hijack the thread, but hoping to take advantage of the good thinking and sharing going on here.

Situation: highly competitive arch rival game, won with a walk off single.  Teams have been chirping at each other through out the game and as game intensified, chirping got worse.  No obvious action by either coach to discourage chirping.

Kid who hits walk off yells at opposing bench (which is along first base line).  Unclear what he said but they don't react well.  Winning team has mob World Series like celebration, even though it is just a middle of the season game.  Celebration seems to be as much to rub it in as it is to simply enjoy the moment.  Then a couple F-bombs are shouted at the losing team.  Coaches complain to each other, civilly. Nothing much else happens, but there's lots of ill will.  Any recommendations on how the winning coach should approach his team, especially the specific kids who he know dropped the F-bombs and hit the gamewinner?

My first, admittedly not well thought out impulse, is to bench the miscreants for the next game.  Would appreciate other thoughts.

Kids drop f bombs all the time. If it was just a competitive game why would anyone get benched?  Talking trash is part of every high school game I see. The good thing is the kids move on, parents dont.

This was on the Golden Posts thread....seems like a fitting response to OP's question:

Post by Coach May:

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

At what point do you as the coach own the performance of your team on game day? Who is responsible to prepare them to compete? Who is the coach of this team? Maybe the coach should have ran while everyone screamed at them?

So let me get this straight. Your players who just got embarrassed on the field need you to throw them under the bus in front of everyone present in order to "get it?" That's what its going to take to get them to field better, pitch better, hit better basically perform to the level you expect them to play? Then is that what you do at practice every day? Have them run sprints while you scream at them each day at practice.

Or Coach is this your way of telling everyone present "Hey it's not our fault they sucked today. It's all their fault and were going to show you we care by embarrassing them right now in front of you."

It used to offend me greatly when we would spank someone and the opposing coach would take his players to the outfield and start running them as he berated them. Really Coach? Your kids had no idea how to take a primary lead or a secondary lead. They didn't know how to run a cut play. They were horribly coached and prepared and your going to run them? You need to take your as s out there and run because your a freaking joke.

NEVER whip your child in public. Never berate your child in public.

Me personally I would have said: "I apologize guys. We didn't prepare you properly to compete today. I promise were going to get to work tomorrow on becoming better players a better team and better coaches. We got a lot of work to do and were going to get it done."

We talk so much about today's kids and how they don't hold themselves accountable and how they feel entitled. Maybe that's because we have too many adults who don't hold themselves accountable? Your team is a reflection of you Coach. Own it.

Dospeloteros posted:

smokeminside posted:

Not to hijack the thread, but hoping to take advantage of the good thinking and sharing going on here.

Situation: highly competitive arch rival game, won with a walk off single.  Teams have been chirping at each other through out the game and as game intensified, chirping got worse.  No obvious action by either coach to discourage chirping.

Kid who hits walk off yells at opposing bench (which is along first base line).  Unclear what he said but they don't react well.  Winning team has mob World Series like celebration, even though it is just a middle of the season game.  Celebration seems to be as much to rub it in as it is to simply enjoy the moment.  Then a couple F-bombs are shouted at the losing team.  Coaches complain to each other, civilly. Nothing much else happens, but there's lots of ill will.  Any recommendations on how the winning coach should approach his team, especially the specific kids who he know dropped the F-bombs and hit the gamewinner?

My first, admittedly not well thought out impulse, is to bench the miscreants for the next game.  Would appreciate other thoughts.

Kids drop f bombs all the time. If it was just a competitive game why would anyone get benched?  Talking trash is part of every high school game I see. The good thing is the kids move on, parents dont.

Thanks, Dos.  Yelling  " f-you school name" to the opposing team is not typical in our league, hence the question.  I don't think the parents even heard it; it was between the players.  Coaches complained to each other.  "Boys will be boys" is one legit response.

Ja'Crispy posted:

The situation is there is a HS team that took a slaughter rule rule loss on the opening day of the season. Obviously a lot of errors were made. Pitchers got too much of the plate. Middle infield was horrible (strangely enough these were the same kids that pitched). The team was not prepared to play this game. After the game the all of team was lined up an a foul line in the OF and had to run sprints as the the other team watched. The coaches screamed the whole time various things about mistakes that were made . In this area we have had official practices since Feb 27 and open gyms for about another month before that. 

I am not worried about the running or the screaming as these are V players and won't get their feeling hurt.  Although, the screaming and running did come off as a bit of a clown show. My contention is that with a month plus to prepare a team to play, and make the lineups, the coaches have to take a huge chunk of the blame as well. Handling this as they did I think they are running a risk of mentally losing their team after the first game.

I think it would have better to have a get together at the next days practice and have a talk about hitting the reset button and work on correcting mistakes.

Thoughts?

Until you suit up for a real game you just never know. If the coach doesn't make some adjustments then you are in trouble. After 8 games 3 starters are now role players and 3 role players are now starters. Our batting has been moved all over. My son who caught every inning last year is now  the 2nd baseman. Our 3rd baseman is now our 1st baseman and our 3 batter from last year hits 9th. I would worry less about the running and screaming and more about lack of adjustments. No spot is safe and it shouldn't be.

smokeminside posted:

Not to hijack the thread, but hoping to take advantage of the good thinking and sharing going on here.

Situation: highly competitive arch rival game, won with a walk off single.  Teams have been chirping at each other through out the game and as game intensified, chirping got worse.  No obvious action by either coach to discourage chirping.

Kid who hits walk off yells at opposing bench (which is along first base line).  Unclear what he said but they don't react well.  Winning team has mob World Series like celebration, even though it is just a middle of the season game.  Celebration seems to be as much to rub it in as it is to simply enjoy the moment.  Then a couple F-bombs are shouted at the losing team.  Coaches complain to each other, civilly. Nothing much else happens, but there's lots of ill will.  Any recommendations on how the winning coach should approach his team, especially the specific kids who he know dropped the F-bombs and hit the gamewinner?

My first, admittedly not well thought out impulse, is to bench the miscreants for the next game.  Would appreciate other thoughts.

Coaches should step in and control the chirping when it starts, not after it escalates.

Shut up and play would be my advice. 

Dospeloteros posted:

 

  Talking trash is part of every high school game I see.

I don't tolerate my own team talking trash. 

I don't care if our opponent does it.

freddy77 posted:

Dospeloteros posted:

 

  Talking trash is part of every high school game I see.

I don't tolerate my own team talking trash. 

I don't care if our opponent does it.

My son plays football and baseball. Football is downright nasty, probably because it is so physical. To me I don't really care. Every game ends in handshakes and even hugs. The are young men with alot of testosterone. He'll my sons team talks shit to each other. 

freddy77 posted:

Dospeloteros posted:

 

  Talking trash is part of every high school game I see.

I don't tolerate my own team talking trash. 

I don't care if our opponent does it.

Same.

cabbagedad posted:

freddy77 posted:

Dospeloteros posted:

 

  Talking trash is part of every high school game I see.

I don't tolerate my own team talking trash. 

I don't care if our opponent does it.

Same.

+2