I suppose that this phenomenon has been going on for a
while, but I had been too busy to notice. Unfortunately this happened to a
couple of friends of mine and the fury is burning a hole in my brain.
Two young and coming coaches, good coaches, better humans
have been fired from small struggling programs. Their sin? They did not compromise
their principles by accommodating the squeaky wheel on their team.
At this point, you may be thinking that they must have been
holy terrors, junior Bobby Knights. Nope, they were as reasonable as can be,
they were on their way to be extraordinary coaches of volleyball. Usually, when people talk about situations
like this, they will either paint the player as victims of a power mad coach
who cussed, intimidated, and physically abused the players, or they would paint
the coaches as completely innocent bystanders who are victims of an entitled
generation of weak and monstrous generation. The truth usually lie somewhere in
the middle.
In the world of sports teams and the relationship between
coaches and players, there will be disagreements, differences in philosophy as
to the strategy and tactics of the game and the efficacy of the training or
even the means of communication between the teacher and the pupil. The foibles
and quirks of both sides are often magnified by temper. Since we are talking
about competitive people, this effect is magnified by the competitiveness of
the parties involved. And the differences are usually resolved through the
Solomon like wisdom of the school administration and their ability to persuade,
cajole, and broker a compromise, a meeting of the minds. A critical examination
of the facts and a firm understanding of the personalities involved will
usually reveal the nature of the truth and the appeal of team success and the
pursuit of a common goal will usually cause the egos to deflate enough to work
together for a common goal.
This assumes of course that the school administration,
mainly the AD, is interested in having the best interest of the player, the
coach, and his athletic program in mind. Indeed, it takes a Solomon to steer
through the Scylla and Charybdis of very competitive and very ego driven
people. Many people, teams, and programs have been saved by the wisdom of the
administrators. But the recent spate of firings have demonstrated to us that
wisdom is now mostly divorced from the skill sets of the modern athletic
administrator. They are now mostly glorified bean counters with a business
degree who are completely alienated from people and far from willing to work
with human beings.
These soulless zombies are more interested in running the sports
program as businesses rather than human endeavors. When a difficult situation
involving people comes to the fore, their first instinct is for survival , and
in the interest of survival, they would rather devastate families and the
careers of coaches because it is easier to go that route. It is better to write
a small check than to risk the wrath of potential future alums and boosters. The
mission of the modern AD is no longer to create a familial ethos under his or
her leadership; instead they seek quick resolution rather than seeking the
truth. Courage and loyalty are quaint remnants of a bygone era. School
presidents have taken to look for their future ADs from under the invertebrates
crawling out from beneath the slimiest of rocks.
It is, a sad state of affairs.
