I had a coach share that a coach at their school was telling some players in their sport not to go out for other sports. The coach had a simple question,”How can this prevented and discouraged in an athletic department.
To answer this question, I reached out to two individuals who were athletic directors. I wanted to know how they developed a “multi-sport culture at their schools.
Mike Tracey and Greg King share great advice for athletic directors, coaches, and parents.
Mike Tracey- Athletic Director at UTHS, Alleman
How did you try establish a sense of "team" in your coaching staff that made the individual coaches aware that pushing specialization was not acceptable in your athletic program?
Coach Massey has presented a tough dilemma for athletic administrators. I will share our process with you. It was by no means perfect.
When I met with our coaches at our beginning of the year meeting, I clearly defined the policy the school would follow. We encouraged our coaches to be fanatical in their attempt to attract players to their individual programs, but not at the expense of another program.
Did you ever have to address and/or discipline an individual coach for pushing a kid not to go out for a sport?
We did not want the age old message of “well you shouldn’t be playing a certain sport. Play mine.”
If a parent and/or an athlete feels that a coach is putting pressure on them not to play another sport, often they are afraid if they either confront the coach or tell an administrator what is going that the coach will "punish" the kid. What advice would you have for a parent or player who feels this pressure?
I clearly explained to our parents that if their son or daughter came home and informed them a certain coach said “just play my sport,” we had a problem. I impressed upon the parents two things. No.1, I clearly told the parents face-to-face that the coach in question was selfish and did not care about their child. No.2, l asked the parents to please tell me immediately about the coaches conversation with their child and include as many details as possible.
In all honesty, many parents refused to come forward because of the fear of retribution from the coach who had initially contacted their child. That is a sad situation for high school athletics. I explained to the parents that I would handle their fear of retribution. Sadly, too many parents were afraid for their child getting “benched” etc.
Unfortunately, I had multiple conversations with parents and kids after they had graduated, who told me how they were approached to not play a certain sport. I totally understand the coaches desire to get the best players, but I also am disappointed that not all of them thought of the good of the overall athletic program and the individual student athlete.
Any other thoughts?
I guess I am just too old-fashioned. I would approach today’s athletes and parents with the same policy. I would spend more time with the coaches as a group and individually trying to sell this approach to dealing with our kids. It shows that a coach cares about our kids not just as an athlete, but also as a young person dealing with many pressures.
Greg King- Athletic Director at Sterling
How did you try establish a sense of "team" in your coaching staff that made the individual coaches aware that pushing specialization was not acceptable in your athletic program?
One of the 1st things we discussed was we share athletes. We have to work with each other. One sport is not more important than another. Because we share athletes, it is important that we take the athletes best interests at heart. Coaches that schedule things at the same time, and then pressure the athlete to choose their sport, puts all coaches in a bad light. Whenever there was a conflict, I always told the student-athlete you choose. As a football coach, I understood that at night, there were going to be basketball and baseball games to deal with. Having your lifting, skill development or other activities in the morning or early afternoon, takes away other sport conflicts. When you give your kids a schedule ahead of time, they can usually work it out with their jobs, if they have one.
Did you ever have to address and/or discipline an individual coach for pushing a kid not to go out for a sport?
I never had to deal with this situation. Most of our coaches were good about it. I think our coaches understood that the competition and discipline of being out for another sport was beneficial to the student athlete. Having them busy doing those things than just lifting and conditioning. I had to get on coaches more for not getting their athletes in the weight room during their seasons. When sharing athletes it is important to maintain strength, flexibility, and conditioning. Losing all your strength because you are out for another sport should not be part of the process.
How do coaches put pressure on athletes to not play other sports without verbally telling them not to play other sports?
The main way coaches pressure athletes with threatening playing time. In extreme cases, it could be threatening them by saying there is no way you are getting a scholarship if you do not concentrate only on this.
If a parent and/or an athlete feels that a coach is putting pressure on them not to play another sport, often they are afraid if they either confront the coach or tell an administrator what is going that the coach will "punish" the kid. What advice would you have for a parent or player who feels this pressure?
In meetings with parents and athletes, you always try and assure them that they can come to you with concerns. Many still will not come to you. I have had a few meetings with parents as an AD that if they would have come to me a little earlier there could have been a solution sooner. On the other hand…there are parents that will think they should voice concerns on everything. I had a parent call and complain about the batting order one year!
Any other thoughts?
Coaches also must realize that a multi-sport athlete has probably 1 sport that is their favorite. For example, my daughter’s 2 main sports were softball and basketball. Her softball team in the sumer was based out of the Quad Cities. Both softball and basketball required a lot of time. She planned things out and never missed a basketball workout to attend softball. It can be done, but it takes some work. I also had many parents come to me and say, my child cannot be here during this time because we are going on vacation. My response was always….Go. You can’t replace some of those things. I always said try and get some workouts in if you can. The other thing I did to help this was make sure parents know that we were never going to do things the week of the 4th of July and then of course the IHSA dead week. Many parents would actually schedule their vacations during that time. One year the IHSA was going to institute a dead week during the 4th of July. It did not pass , but I thought this was a great idea. I told coaches and athletes to stay away from the high school and enjoy themselves.
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