I recently read an interesting article from a writer on the west coast named Eric Sondheimer. It's called,"Three Reasons Coaches Aren't Respected Like The Old Days." Sondheimer lists parents, administrators and political correctness, as the three reasons. The man speaks the truth.
Actually those three reasons should come as no surprise to anyone. Parenting or the lack of parenting is a major problem in our society as well as in the sports world.
The author writes about the time he threw his bat while playing Little League baseball, and his mother came out of the stands and took him out of the game; embarrassing him in front of his coaches, teammates, and the other fans. That kind of punishment works. I know that for a fact. You see, I threw my bat after striking out when I was ten years old playing Little League baseball in Madison, TN. My dad was my coach, and he immediately took me out of the game, and when I got home, he saw that I was so embarrassed by what I did that he didn't spank me. He must have felt the ridicule and self-loathing that I felt after throwing the bat was punishment enough.
That happened in 1961, and if you move that incident up to today, if a parent was at the game at all, he or she would take it out on the coach and blame him for their kid throwing the bat. And no the kid would not be punished when he returned home.
I personally learned a lot from my temper tantrum. I learned that it's okay to fail. After all.....in baseball if a hitter is successful just one out of three times, he could lead the league in hitting and be the MVP. I also learned that throwing a bat was a very uncool thing to do, and still is to this day. I realized these things because I was taught them at an early age. I disrespected the entire league by throwing my bat in disgust. After sitting on the bench for a while, I couldn't wait to get back in the lineup and when I did, I had a couple of big hits and drove in some runs.
Those life lessons that we learned years ago are not being taught today. Oh some parents are doing the right thing and making their kids accountable for their actions, but those parents are few and far between. As far as political correctness and administrators go, they are simply adding fuel to the fire. Principals and athletic directors are not backing up their coaches as they did years ago. Instead of supporting them they're throwing them under the bus when those parents complain. There is no longer any loyalty to be considered, no matter how long a coach has done a successful job, nor how many wins they have.
When I was a teenager, we actually feared our coaches. That fear would later be transformed into respect, and as we got older we added love to that respect. Coaches can be the most influential people in the lives of our children, but only if we as parents allow it.
Show some respect for our coaches. Give them the opportunity to become that tremendous influence in the lives of our children. Stand behind them and support them when there is a controversy. And most importantly, teach your children to respect them. I've always said that people can't really respect others until they learn how to respect themselves. That's more true today than ever before.