Coaches not to blame for all discipline problems

I’ll admit that I’m an optimist by nature.

I don’t always see the glass as being half full, but I try to.

Maybe that’s one reason I don’t come down hard on high school coaches when things are going badly.

Sometimes it would be easy for me to take potshots at a coach, but, at a high school level, that wouldn’t do anybody any good. I have to work with high school coaches without the buffer of a media relations department.

By the same token, just because I have to work closely with someone, and I’m not as critical as some people might like, that doesn’t mean I don’t understand the frustrations of local fans.

I see those frustrations in comments on our message board, and I hear them in different places in the community. I’m single and don’t have any kids, but I can relate to parents wanting their sons and daughters to play on good teams with good coaches that will give them a chance to win and succeed.

Something is wrong when a team gives up 182 points in its last four games. And yes, coaches should shoulder a large part of the blame when their team doesn’t perform up to expectations.

I often read or hear about undisciplined teams or players, and there is no doubt coaching is part of that discipline problem on the field.

However, it is absurd to blame the complete lack of discipline on a coach or a coaching staff. While it’s the job of the coach to have a disciplined team, it’s the job of a parent to raise a disciplined child, who will be a more disciplined player, which in turn will help build a more disciplined team.

High school athletes are usually 14 or 15 years old by the time a coach gets them. That coach and his or her staff might have the athlete in a basketball or football class for 50 minutes each day and then at practice another two hours after school during the three months a sport is in season.

And remember, that time the coach spends with an athlete there also are other athletes at the practice and in the class. A coach might get a few minutes each day to instill discipline in the individual athlete, but they will only get limited results if discipline isn’t encouraged by parents.

In more than a decade as a sports writer, I’ve sat in the office of more than one coach as they spoke on the phone to a parent about some academic or disciplinary issue that had nothing to do with athletics.

If a kid is a hothead at home it might not be the coach’s fault when the player commits a personal foul in the heat of a football game. And don’t be surprised if the kid that shows no respect for authority gets called for an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty for talking back to a game official.

Yes, coaches are responsible for the actions of their team, but by the same token parents are responsible for the actions of their children on those teams.