This won't get much sympathy - Coach Being Fired..for WHAT?!
 

Check this out...from Central Indiana...

Guys a good Coach...this has parents written all over it!

This school is taking a BEATING on the Dan Dakich show which air on local radio station here in Indy....

Change at the helm? Parents rally in support of Cougars coach

This isn't very surprising. This coach sounds like an old school, hard nose coach that would get tough with his players to try to elevate their games...kinda like Geno at UConn...with similar results! His methods probably don't play well in an affluent, lily-white suburban school (I don't know anything about this school district, I'm just guessing). My guess would be he pissed off the wrong parent...he was mean to their little flowers...or she didn't get enough playing time and feelings and self esteem were bruised. Get rid of him and bring in a coach who hands out participation trophies and orange slices at the end of the 3 and 17 season.

These guys don't recognize a dedicated coach. The first reason for firing him: "First, he didn’t wear enough Greenfield-Central apparel."

You gotta be kidding. If they said that to me, I would tell them I wear a jockstrap with the school logo on it and if they didn't believe me I would show them. :cool:

Go For The Jugular ...
 

As a middle school basketball coach, try not starting the grandchild (who wants to start) of a town councilman. Even with the backing of the athletic director, you still can't fight city hall.

This "helicopter parent" (they hover over their children) thing is going too far. My son is a sociology professor at a top rated college and he tells me that he gets calls, and emails, all the time from parents complaining about their "children's" unfair grading, in a few cases, from the parents of graduate students.

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-GHhBwaJSlW...+parents+1.jpg

Millenials. Ugh.

https://youtu.be/NEsUudZvntE


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

My guess is that this will be a classic case of "you don't know what you got, until its gone." They will suffer a streak of poor performing teams and all be ashamed of what they did to him. Problem is that the Super will have retired, the AD will have switched jobs, and several school board seats will have been vacated and refilled. The shame will simply disappear and a bunch of positive influence will simply be gone. Hey, sounds as if this might have happened around where I grew up.;)

There is more to the story here, keep in mind that only information we have on why the coach was fired (the essential question) is from the coach himself, recounting what he was told in a meeting. Of course it would be in his best interest to relate the things that make the firing seem petty and keep the possibly more serious issues under wraps.

The Grass Is Always Greener ...
 

For administrators, and coaches, it's like musical chairs here in Connecticut. Superintendents, principals, and athletic directors, get a few years of experience, and then use that experience to move on to a better paying job a few towns away. Back in the olden days, when teachers didn't make a decent living wage, many coached to supplement their income, often coaching more than one sport. Now that teachers here in Connecticut are well paid, the days of a history teacher coaching baseball and basketball for many years are long gone. Many coaches aren't even teachers, with no ties to the school, or the town, that they coach in. They coach for a few years and then move on to a better coaching position.

I can't deny someone looking to make a better wage to support their family, but like I said, it's like musical chairs around here, and as an official, one never knows who one will see on the bench when they first walk into the gymnasium, or hand over paperwork to an athletic director that they've only just met for the first time.

"You can't tell the players without a scorecard." (Harry M. Stevens, 1900)

It is a reality in the high school coaching world that parents have enormous influence on whether a coaching contract is renewed or not. And, unfortunately, many parents know the correct buzzwords to use and correct buttons to push to get the coach in trouble. As I have stated before, I moved to coaching two seasons ago...in my first season, I was accused by a parent of "bullying" their son because I made him run "lines" after practice. For being late. He was 10 minutes late and so ran 10 sets of lines. Just like other kids who were late. The parents accusation to the AD was that I shouldn't "single their son out in front of the team" since he was late because they were at a family event. Fortunately for me, the day he was late our practice was right after school and so there was no "family event".

It used to bug me when coaches would complain to supervisors/assignors and use all the right buzzwords...like "he isn't approachable" or he "won't communicate"...parents have learned the same thing and are using it against coaches when their little darling doesn't get the playing time he/she "deserves".

:eek:

Take parents out of it and you have a nice thing in youth sports...

Looks like the parents at Braintree HS have too many trees and not enough brains. :p

Updated article with the emails parents sent to the coach.

Here’s The INSANE Emails Out Of Control Braintree Parents Sent Coach Kelly McDonnell That Forced The 2 Time State Champion To Resign – Turtleboy

This is an epidemic. I bet most of us could mention a local coach who was fired because an administrator refused to stand up to a whiny parent or three.

I see a lot of one-sided and non-credible information here.

We shouldn't be surprised. This is the culture we've made....and far outside of basketball. Too many people believe it is other people's responsibility to make their life better and complain as a way to get things their way instead of working for it.

The children would be millennials so the problem lies with the generation that raised them. Looking at the parents that caused this coach to be fired I would say the are in their 40s. During my short coaching experience, this generation of parent were the worst.

The best coaching job would be at an orphanage

Little Orphan Annie ...
 

Nice line. I've been saying that for years.

https://tse1.mm.bing.net/th?id=OIP.0...=0&w=169&h=159

It isn't all of them...not all parents raised their children to expect that they would be handed everything, or even anything. Some (many) have still taught their children that they actually have to earn what they want....and they'll be the ones who are more likely to move into successful adult lives while the other keep fussing about something not being fair or easy enough.

You see plenty of complainers/whiners and the doers everywhere you look. The complainers/whiners are everywhere (just look at your nightly news), but, there are still plenty of doers out there.

I can't say the problem is for sure this or that but I can say if your bank mismanaged your money you would be pissed if there was little recourse . . . Unfortunately misguided world views by parents and society alike have turned sports and school into year round training grounds for kids and their families to invest their way through to hopefully get scholarships and security out the other end. By the time a kid gets to high school their academics and extra curricular are a multi thousand dollar investment compounded over a decade, with hopes there will be a big pay off. When coach/player and elements of those dynamics don't meet "expectation" you get the same visceral reaction as if you have taken their nest egg.

I've been unhappy with daddy basketball coaches, but I kept my mouth shut and told my daughter to work harder.

When I'm at games, I sit away from other parents.

I was a daddy coach for 13 years, but in soccer. Almost all of my parents over the 13 years were great. I only had problems with 2 that I remember and both were about playing time or how I used their child.

The first was recreational and in the younger ages I kept playing time equal by sticking to a planned rotation where everyone would play within 1-2 minutes of each other over a game. The only time I deviated was when there was an injury and someone had to fill in. Yet, I had a parent complain that their child was being shorted. Being the tech person I am, I had a spreadsheet where I kept track of playing time over the season and the parent didn't have much else to say when I showed her the data.

In the other case, it was a older, more competitive level and a parent who was new to the team thought I was not giving their child a chance to play to their strengths. She played but not where her parents wanted her to be playing all the time...in the "star" positions. In practice, their child was constantly getting beat by most of the team and just was not very good. I still played her a fair number of minutes (everyone played) but she wanted always play the same position as half of the team and it was not possible to accommodate everyone as much as they wanted.

I took a couple years away from one of the teams and the parents begged me to return because the parent that took over the coaching while I was out was anything but fair...it was all focused on his daughter and it wasn't even subtle. She was good, but in soccer 1 person can't carry a team.

When I coached my daughter in travel ball from 3rd grade to 7th grade...6th grade was the first year they could play for their school team. I wasn't the coach of the school team and it was her first time playing for someone other than me. The coach did a good job with the kids IMHO....I had no complaints, probably cause I've been in his shoes and also cause "I get it". I never had crazy thoughts that my kid was the best player and deserved anything....I treated her that way coaching her. If anything, I was probably less fair to her than other kids because I didn't want that perception of being "Daddy Coach".

I never complained about anything when she played for school team and like you, I had to sit away from the other parents. The same parents of kids I was coaching in travel ball for a couple years leading into school team.

I can't say all of them but several were quite comical and animated and had plenty to say from the bleachers. I'm sure the same things I was hearing as a spectator about the school coach and/or some of these kids were the same things being said when I was the travel team coach.

I was asked once by a parent, "Why do you just sit there?" My reply was the same as it was when I would do my pre-season meeting with parents as their kids' coach. We all have a role and I'm not coaching this team, I'm not reffing the game and I'm not playing in the game...I'm here as a parent and I know my role. Cheer the kids.

I guess those that can, do...I'm a much better sports parent because I have coached and officiated. I'm a much better coach because I've officiated and I'm a much better official because I've coached...I understand the dynamic and landscape of each role. If I hadn't coached or officiated, I don't think I would have the mindset I do when it comes to youth sports in general....I'd probably be "one of those parents" and I'm so glad I'm not.

Refs-N-Coach:
By virtue of having seen the game from "both sides" [i.e., a ref and a coach] you have acquired a well-balanced perspective which has evidently provided you with the primary beneficial factor of youth sports: an ability to Enjoy the Game. Thanks for sharing!

Test

Sent from my SM-N920P using Tapatalk

Yo, what have you done with BNR?

I decided to come above ground....LOL I was testing the Tapatalk app.

Just log into the forum on Tapatalk with your Raymond ID. I'm posting this from Tapatalk right now.

Have to say, I always thought you had one of the best usernames here.

Took me a while, but I finally figured that out. You'd think an IT guy would catch on a little quicker. :o

It was actually derived from the town I've called home for the last 18+ years. Newport News is known as Bad Newz around these parts, and often for good reason. My youngest graduates from high school in June and I'll be working on selling my house and moving to a different community.

We'd love to have you up here:)

I love your username, Rich. It reminds me of my hero - Scrooge McDuck. He's "rich" too. In fact, his money bin is six cubic acres big!


https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com...146f428127.jpg

Thanks Kansas...I try. Seen and heard to much in my time and decided a LONG time ago, I wasn't going to be that guy in the stands or that coach on the sideline.

Too many parents have kids "going D1" or "to the league" that gotta get their investment back, OR they play rec league cause they couldn't even make the school team, that act like idiots...Meanwhile the kid's body language and attitude would have got him/her cut from my teams. Wonder where the kid gets it!? :rolleyes:

I hate the traffic :eek:

Probably stay local for now, on the Peninsula. Where I officiate HS basketball will be affected by 2 things:

1) Whether or not Mr. T.B. gets public school contracts here on the Peninsula.

2) Where my g/f ends up moving this summer: Richmond, Peninsula, Southside.


SORRY TO HIJACK THE THREAD. So sorta back on topic.

Neither of my sons played HS basketball (one for bad grades, the other has Asperger's), so I never had to be the parent in the stands except for some church and Rec Leagues. My oldest played in a travel YMCA league one year and I would stay away from everyone else. I did get into it with one father from our team about riding the officials.

I would never have coached my kids because I know I would have been too hard on them.

All 3 of my sons played HS ball. I coached one of them (the youngest) in basketball, but coached all 3 in HS football. Loved every minute of it, although they will tell you that I was harder on them than on the other players.

When they were playing HS basketball, I sat in the stands and cheered for their team (or yelled at them if they were being lazy). On a number of occasions, the officials from our local area (who all knew me) would motion for me to come into the locker room with them after the game and then ask for my feedback. I was never really comfortable with that as a dad...but I would keep the discussion centered on things like court coverage, rotations, etc - never on judgement calls.