Good letter

[LarryS]

Originally posted by Brad
It's amazing to see a typewritten account of how biased things look to coaches.

At the risk of being ostracized, let me point out to everyone that it is easy to pick apart a letter written by anyone and make it sound bad. I feel it is more beneficial if we try to look at the overall point of the letter. Like I said in an earlier post, I think the coach is asking that we approach our "jobs" on the court with the same dedication and care we approach our professions. Sure there were comments in the coach's response that could have been worded better or left unsaid. However, to prove a point I took a few quotes from the official's letter and tried to do the same thing others have done to the coach's letter (not necessarily easy since I have never been on the other side of the equation);

"…unless you take immediate and aggressive action, it's going to start falling down around your ears - and it's your fault."

Typical comment from someone who fails to understand that correcting the conduct and actions of a child or youth fall on the PARENTS. It is the coach's job to teach the game. If there is a behavior problem, look at the parents. My son played baseball, soccer and basketball. Some of his coaches were jerks, but he knew better than conduct himself in an unsporting manner…and it had nothing to do with the coach.

"As the pressure on you to win has become a higher reality, it has replaced or at least reduced the pressure to demonstrate the higher ideals of sportsmanship and fair play."

Nothing like painting an entire profession with one broad brush. Sure this is true in some cases, maybe even most cases. But even in my short time as an official I have seen coaches tear into a player for his on-court conduct. There are some bad coaches, just like there are some bad officials.

"…we know that if we penalize you, we may very well not work at your school again, regardless of our skill level, because you're generally an unforgiving bunch."

If a coach says something that calls into question our professionalism, we give him/her a T, how is this comment not calling into question the professionalism of the educator/coach?

"You demonstrate to them that strong adults don't hesitate to abuse and insult other adults - and those in authority at that."

They don't need coaches for that, all the have to do is watch the news and observe real life (like a dad getting stopped for speeding and *****ing about the ticket while little Tommy is sitting next to him).

"You're their heroes,"

WAY to much wrong with this statement to type!

"And we're enablers. The kids see us tolerate that behavior."

Then it's not all the coaches fault.