PlayerRep said:
Good and interesting post, but I don't agree with much of it (i.e. on what a coach should do). I look at this from the point of view of players and coaches. 2 of my kids played sports in college, and is being recruited now. My wife's and my families also has, and have had, many relatives play college sports. Several are playing now. Also, between my wife's family and mine, I believe we have 16 current and former coaches, many of whom coached football or basketball. So, that influences my view on this. I prefer that the coach keep his mouth shut on matters that may involve my kid or my relatives. I also don't like reporters generally, except for Kyle. Oh, and some of what is you cite about is N/A, in my view.
I appreciate the background. I've been retired from active coaching, ending in administrating, the coaching which I did for college and other age athletes for 30 years, on a daily basis. The competitor pool was approximately 30,000 athletes, and I had to deal with about 2,000 coaches, at the national and international level. I've trained, oh, perhaps 5 coaches who are currently coaching with great success nationally and internationally. Over the long time, I trained approximately 20 ultimately successful coaches, and perhaps 100 or more successful athletes. The stakes are higher, the numbers are bigger, the complications much larger, and the need to do it right much more compelling because of a sophisticated overseer, the USOC, which has far more sophistication than the University of Montana exercises over its sports teams. I am today, in fact, dealing with some issues between an NGB, USOC and NCAA on athlete representation issues, and trying to get a letter out the door.
The current best practice is that the organizations can't let the athletes try and go it alone on issues of participation, termination, qualification, scholarship eligibility, and public relations. NCAA is working on this by discussing longer guaranteed scholarships, USOC is working on this with media protocols and through employing athlete ombudsmen to assist athletes.
The sport world is becoming increasingly aware that the disparity between a 50 year old college coach earning $300,000 and a 17 year old kid signing his first "contract" is far too great to abandon the kid to the vagaries of the coach, his mood, his strategies, and of course to organizational politics as the coaches themselves are changed. As one collegiate athlete complained, "when the coach's contract was terminated, he got a huge buyout. When I got cut, I had to pay my own tuition even though I had made all my plans and changes to my life to attend that school."
As an employee of the University, I will maintain that we have a duty to the young people entrusted to our care. First, "do no harm."
