http://blogs.mcall.com/groller/
FROM KEITH GROLLER
We've talked about this growing epidemic for years now; over-involved parents who usually only care about one person (their child) on a sports team voicing displeasure to the point that a coach can't take it anymore.
We've seen it happen in the Lehigh Valley in sports like basketball and softball -- most recently, the Dieruff girls basketball situation comes to me.
And we hear it's happening across the state, and country, and in all sports.
The latest is a head football coach at Solanco High School near Lancaster who had enough. I don't know the guy, but from all accounts, he's a good guy and a good football coach who evidently didn't keep enough people happy. And if you're losing games and not keeping parents happy, you're in for big trouble.
Once again, it seems, the parents have won.
Here's the link (below) from the Lancaster newspaper sent to me by another area coach. I hope you'll read it and if you look at the poll on the link, you'll also see that I am not the only who thinks over-involved parents have become an epidemic and not just an isolated case here and there.
This is simply a different culture from previous generations. I call this the "It's all about me" generation.
It's about kids and their parents using high school sports merely as a vehicle to get college dollars; which, in many cases, are not as plentiful as they would like to believe.
More and more, kids, and especially their parents, could careless about how well their high school teams do. They're more concerned about getting on their AAU or club teams and getting into those seasons because in sports like basketball and softball, college coaches get to see much more of the AAU action than the high school games.
And, of course, many -- but not all -- take the attitude that if I am a AAU or travel team player, I should be able to do what I want to do on my own high school team.
I don't want to paint all non-high school sports with a broad brush. A lot of good, essential work is being done there with the right objectives adhered to, and if you have aspirations of earning a scholarship you must participate outside of your high school and play the best competition possible.
But as it relates to high school sports, the culture that comes from playing on club or AAU teams is not always healthy. Parents are much more active with the non-high school team than the high school team. They have much more say and sometimes they lose sight of the boundaries once the high school season begins.
Football was considered the last sport where the "club culture" hadn't taken over and the coaches still had control without much parental interference.
However, in football, just like other sports, kids come through the youth ranks with the fathers often serving as their coaches, moving step by step with their children up the chain to make sure they control their kids' playing time and team roles.
And when they get to high school, parents still crave that control and will make sure their voices are heard.
Not sure if that was the case with the Solanco coach, but it's happening more and more.
It's definitely not a healthy situation and my fear is that it's only going to get worse.
No comments:
Post a Comment