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Originally Posted by BoomerSooner
don't agree with asking the head coaches ahead of time and then going with what they say. My reasoning to this is that if we are going to do this why not just have the coaches come out for the toss and settle it all that way. I've always believed that if nothing else a coach should be able to get his captain to handle the toss correctly. If not pick a new captain.
I also do not think prompting captains to change their decision onces they've verbalized it is a great idea. Even if we know by saying kick they probably meant defer, the first time an opposing captain catches the winning captain making this mistake and the referee prompts the him to change from kick to defer the opposing captain is going to report this to his coach and then the fun will begin
All this said, I certainly agree that the choices should be given in as clear a manner as possible, and that there shouldn't be an overabundance of kids getting confused or there may be a problem with the way the choices are being given.
I had this discussion with my dad, who captained his high school football team some 35 years ago (never officiated a thing in his life) and he noted that back then the coach actually let the captain make the decision. This was back in the day when kids were held accountable for the actions/decisions. If he had screwed up and his team kicked both halves, he was pretty sure he wouldn't have been a captain anymore and that his teammates would have given him the business. Anymore society in general seems to be in favor of putting kids on the easy road and trying to prevent them from making the mistakes that teach them life's little lessons. Its similar to letting your child touch the stove to learn that its hot...anymore this concept seems outrageous to some parents that anyone would let their kid touch a hot stove, but in the end its the best lesson a kid can get. We wonder why kids are getting into more trouble these days, I think when we stop preventing kids from making the small mistakes, they'll learn enough from them to keep from making the big ones.
Now I'll jump off the soapbox.
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Excellent post!
I coached basketball for 6 years and the greatest tool I gave the kids was leanring the game and having them starting to make decisions too.
My lil sis is 11 years younger than me. She was using a calculator for relatively simple math. I stepped in and said no way. Do it in your head. Ya, you'll mess up a few times, but soon enough you will develop your own system to prevent the errors. Kids adapt.
What I won't do: accept an answer until I have a chance to verbalize all the options. I like saying, "Do you want to receive (pause), or kick the ball to them (some emphasis on 'kick to them'), or choose an end to defend."
No, about the kid burning his hand.... that might be too much.
