Another coach gets the boot for athlete mishandling.
Leavitt Fired
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Honestly this scares me. I have no idea if it's true and I will never know if it's true. The school says it did a n investigation and interviewed players who said they saw him hit the player. Then the article goes on to say other players say they didn't see anything wrong with what Leavitt did. So what happened? The president talks about how what he did was wrong and then send him on his way talking in a very glowing manner about him.
Same thing is going on with Texas Tech - we don't know what went on. The worst people to interview in these situations are the players but they tend to be the onlys who are there. Think about it like this - almost every time has players who love the coach and will do anything to protect him. Then there are the players who don't like the coach for whatever reason and will do anything to hurt him. Then there is a group who are going to do the right thing and tell the truth. The problem is who is who? Who do you listen to and how do you know which group the coach falls in?
The reason why this scares me is so far in every case (other than Bobby Knight but that was a different time) every coach is fired and this offense can be a career killer. I can see this filtering down to the high school level and kids / parents who don't like a coach using something like this to go after them.
For example - I coach football and what if during practice I rip a kid a new one for dogging it. This is a kid who's a lazy bum and I'm always getting onto him for it. Well now he's ticked and 20 minutes later I'm teaching pass pro technicques. I get a player to demonstrate hand placement on the chest plate and it happens to be this kid. As I'm teaching and show the "punch" used in pass pro and hit this kid he goes home and tells mommy and daddy I abused him. Since it's football he's got bruises on his body and next thing you know I'm in trouble.
Or same type of kid in baseball and we're working on harder hit groundballs. It's this kids turn and he boots it or it bad hops him in the face. He can now turn that into I hit his ball way harder at him because I was mad at him.
Coaches are going to physcially touch these kids in order to teach whatever sport it is but with the way some people are they are going to use this to twist things around. High school admins follow the trends going on at the college level and will start taking this type of stand fairly soon. It could get ugly I'm afraid.
I will always side with coaches until I know for a fact they are wrong because I've been accused of many false things before. This case seems to be a coach said / player said situation but this is what makes it very murky and we need to hold judgment until we know the facts
1. It does seem coach lied during the investigation. That really hurts him and makes him look guilty.
BUT
2. The player and his family are now saying the event didn't happen the way it did. So why the turnaround? What's changed that they now tell a completely different story and that even say coach shouldn't be fired.
I hope I'm wrong and this is some kind of passing trend but it wouldn't surprise me that it turns out different and bad for coaches at all levels.
Same thing is going on with Texas Tech - we don't know what went on. The worst people to interview in these situations are the players but they tend to be the onlys who are there. Think about it like this - almost every time has players who love the coach and will do anything to protect him. Then there are the players who don't like the coach for whatever reason and will do anything to hurt him. Then there is a group who are going to do the right thing and tell the truth. The problem is who is who? Who do you listen to and how do you know which group the coach falls in?
The reason why this scares me is so far in every case (other than Bobby Knight but that was a different time) every coach is fired and this offense can be a career killer. I can see this filtering down to the high school level and kids / parents who don't like a coach using something like this to go after them.
For example - I coach football and what if during practice I rip a kid a new one for dogging it. This is a kid who's a lazy bum and I'm always getting onto him for it. Well now he's ticked and 20 minutes later I'm teaching pass pro technicques. I get a player to demonstrate hand placement on the chest plate and it happens to be this kid. As I'm teaching and show the "punch" used in pass pro and hit this kid he goes home and tells mommy and daddy I abused him. Since it's football he's got bruises on his body and next thing you know I'm in trouble.
Or same type of kid in baseball and we're working on harder hit groundballs. It's this kids turn and he boots it or it bad hops him in the face. He can now turn that into I hit his ball way harder at him because I was mad at him.
Coaches are going to physcially touch these kids in order to teach whatever sport it is but with the way some people are they are going to use this to twist things around. High school admins follow the trends going on at the college level and will start taking this type of stand fairly soon. It could get ugly I'm afraid.
I will always side with coaches until I know for a fact they are wrong because I've been accused of many false things before. This case seems to be a coach said / player said situation but this is what makes it very murky and we need to hold judgment until we know the facts
1. It does seem coach lied during the investigation. That really hurts him and makes him look guilty.
BUT
2. The player and his family are now saying the event didn't happen the way it did. So why the turnaround? What's changed that they now tell a completely different story and that even say coach shouldn't be fired.
I hope I'm wrong and this is some kind of passing trend but it wouldn't surprise me that it turns out different and bad for coaches at all levels.
When my daughter was in middle school the high school softball coach was fired for making players cry. It happened after a loss that should have been a victory. He chewed them out for not being focused and making fundamental mistakes in the second half of the season. He singled out certain players for lack of leadership. Four players quit. When they asked back on a week later he refused. He called them quitters. A bunch of parents got together and got the coach's head on a platter at the end of the season.quote:I can see this filtering down to the high school level and kids / parents who don't like a coach using something like this to go after them.
This guy was a good coach. He was so interested in building a program he watched 10U to 12U rec ball games checking to see who had athletic ability and got these players in the right travel programs. Then he followed them through their middle school aged travel programs. The first class of girls he helped entered high school the season after he was fired. They led the team to four conference titles and two states appearances. The coach only got to watch from the stands. The new coach didn't care about the town program and developing talent. He only cared about how much he was riding the coattails of talent to victory. The program fell apart after the four clasees the fired coach nurtured from little kids. Most of the players are now coming out of the rec program. The team wins four or five games a season now.
Ever coached girl's sports? In 13U girl's basketball, a parent accused me molesting a girl because I gave her a couple of light knocks on the knee to get her attention. The parent called the girl's dad. The girl's dad laughed and told him I'm like her second father she spends so much time at my house. But if the parent had gone straight to the board I could have been suspended.quote:Coaches are going to physcially touch these kids in order to teach whatever sport it is but with the way some people are they are going to use this to twist things around.
Times have changed. I'm guessing my high school football and basketball coaches would have been fired in this era for the way they acted in their's.
There is no way on Earth I would ever coach a girl's sport. I respect those who do but you really got to watch it because the opportunities for "questionable activities" to happen are more than in guys sports - even if there is nothing wrong going on at all.
And in today's climate a teacher / coach is always presumed guilty until proven innocent and even then still a lot of people who think you are guilty.
And in today's climate a teacher / coach is always presumed guilty until proven innocent and even then still a lot of people who think you are guilty.
quote:There is no way on Earth I would ever coach a girl's sport.
me either...
If you have girls you would. And I believe the close connection I have with my daughter has a lot to do with all her teams (basketball and softball) I coached right through showcase ball.quote:Originally posted by Good-eye:quote:There is no way on Earth I would ever coach a girl's sport.
me either...
quote:Originally posted by RJM:
Times have changed. I'm guessing my high school football and basketball coaches would have been fired in this era for the way they acted in their's.
"Jesus Christ Jimmy, you call that a hit? Make him pee blood!"
My HS coach, circa 1969
We got helmet stickers when the opponents we hit couldn't get up right away. I wonder how that would be looked at now.quote:Originally posted by Jimmy03:quote:Originally posted by RJM:
Times have changed. I'm guessing my high school football and basketball coaches would have been fired in this era for the way they acted in their's.
"Jesus Christ Jimmy, you call that a hit? Make him pee blood!"
My HS coach, circa 1969
I've coached several girls teams, they are VERY receptive to coaching.
One day they all fell on the ground laughing when we were having a drill where they were doing some agility around buckets of balls; one of the girls moved a bucket and I said, "keep your hands off my balls"....
My face was red enough to start a fire... they laughed for 2 minutes and then it was practice back to normal...
One day they all fell on the ground laughing when we were having a drill where they were doing some agility around buckets of balls; one of the girls moved a bucket and I said, "keep your hands off my balls"....
My face was red enough to start a fire... they laughed for 2 minutes and then it was practice back to normal...
I agree. One big difference is if you chew out a boy the rest of the team is thanking god it's not them. If you chew out a girl the entire team takes it personally.quote:I've coached several girls teams, they are VERY receptive to coaching.