MY VIEW: A tribute to coaches

By Jeff Hare

I am a high school football official. It has been enjoyable, and I plan to continue doing it for the foreseeable future. It seems like that, the more I on the field, the greater respect I gain for the men and women who teach the game to our youth. I am talking about the coaches.

Let me start out by saying that the majority of the coaches I have met are very knowledgeable dedicated people. They love their sport, and working with young people. Make no mistake, there are a few jerks in coaching, but in my 12 years as an official, I can could count those guys on one hand.

A few years ago I was having dinner with a successful high school basketball coach from Illinois. He told me something that I found very interesting, and I have repeated it often.

What he said was that coaches and officials have the same problem. That is the guy who pays five bucks to come to the game and thinks he knows it all. When I think of the abuse that we officials take, I think it would have to be far worse for a coach. Me, I have to deal with an obnoxious fan for 3 hours on a Friday night. The coach has to deal with them every day. Then they have to answer the questions. Why did they lose, or why did they win by ‘only’ two touchdowns. Then it is inevitable why isn’t this boy playing, or why is this boy playing? And it goes on and on for these guys.

What makes it worse for coaches, is the fragile nature of their existence. Everyone who has ever put on a whistle knows that he is hired to be fired. He is only as good as his last game. When you see what Florida State did to Bobby Bowden, then you realize that there are very few exceptions to that rule. Coaches at all levels, many times are afraid to put down solid roots, or get too attached to a place. They all know that on any given day, a defensive back can slip in the mud, or a shot at the buzzer can be missed, and all that they have worked for, and all of their dreams can be gone. It is a tough life that very few can survive unscathed. And it is even tougher on their families. I feel for them when they have to tell their teenage children that they are no longer welcomed in the community, and they will be moving.

People will tell me all the time that they can coach. Usually, I just chuckle. Mostly it is the five dollar guy. They think because they play Madden Football video games, or they have watched a sport their entire lives, and ‘understand it better than anyone’. Of course they have no idea what coaching entails, the time it takes, or the sacrifice that is made. It is easier to watch games on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, and complain. Then they can tell their buddies what they would do, and the are the smartest football guy in the world. And ‘lets fire the coach’. They really don’t know much, but they know they want their team to win, or if they are winning, they want more.

As for me, I have coached and hated it. The shear helplessness of it all bothered me. All week long, we would practice something, then get out on game day, and it would never work the way it was drawn up. After a while, I had to get out and grab the penalty flags again.

The point to all of this? Traditionally this is a bad time of year for coaches. This is when many of them are fired, resumes are written, and phone calls are made. We turn on SportsCenter and we see ‘this guy has been fired, and this guy is out’. I always feel sorry for them, as the lives of them and their families is turned upside down. So to all my coaching friends, I am with you guys..Hang in there, and always remember, not only does the sport need you, but the players need you.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 6th, 2010 at 11:01 pm and is filed under High School Sports, MY VIEW. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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