Yeah or neah: Should a cross country coach go up on the awards stand with their team?

Unless they are in a wheelchair, for a team photo, they should stand up!

rojo wrote:

Personally, I still have a photo from my HS xc days with the trophy at what was the equivalent of the state meet for us - we most definitely took it with out coach who was a beloved figure for us. That photo wouldn't mean nearly as much to me now 25+ years later if he wasn't in it as he was a big guy in our lives.

Here, here.

This is what they should do.

1. Go grab the trophy, if one of the kids says something, kick them off the team.

2. Say I coached you to this, it's really my trophy, the coaching was much, much more difficult than the running you did.

3. If the team members nod, they can hold the trophy, but only for a moment. Goes quickly back to the coach.

The coach scores as many points as the 6th man yet is a much more important part of shaping team success. It makes sense for them to be up there. At the same time, I think the athletes should still "ask" them or make it clear that they want the coach up there.

In this specific example though, the coach already had a reputation for being attention-seeking, so I can see why it came off weird.

Imagine being so bent out of shape because a coach was up on the stage with his team at NXN. Just like in the NCAA and every other sport and many other coaches at NXN.

The bottom line:

It was totally appropriate! It was actually a bad a*s reaction from the team and coach when they won. I was watching live and got goosebumps taking it in. Talk about built up drama from these two teams battling at it all season. This was exactly what NXN / Nike wants to see. It came down to 4 points. I have been to NXN a few times, but never made the podium and have seen MANY and MOST coaches on stage win and loose with their teams. I doubt anyone really knows the coach personally that is posting here. It's sad other coaches can't be more positive and be happy for a team or a coach when they have success. The coach was extremely gracious to Temecula and the other teams in his interview right after. I was stoked for Newbury Park and glad to watch it live.

I have no problem with the coach celebrating with the team.

It's supposed to be a free country.

I would argue that not only should coaches go up on the awards stand

There should be a second level of stand especially for the coaches

So in fact the coaches are even more elevated than teams

After all it takes a special knowledge to tell kids to run fast

I've heard many coaches tell their teams to head in the general direction of the finish line

Or don't get lost out there

Or hey where do you guys want to eat afterwards

Or what the hell is with all these trails I'm going back to the bus

But it takes something that needs to be acknowledged to recommend to your Runners to run faster than the other runners.

But Seriously..... what the hell... but everyone up on the awards stand trainers hanger-ons, stat keepers... it takes a team to make it happen cap'n

And a good coach is important to give advice about training and injuries and nutrition and holding kids back when they are doing too much and rallying a team together and being a good role model

In our state, when a team earns a trophy at the state meet, the team and coaches all go up on the award stand to receive the trophy and take a picture. The head coach is given team medals to give to the top 7 runners and is handed the team trophy. Normally the coach gives the trophy to whichever team members are standing in the middle while the coaches stand on the ends for the picture. The state meet is the only meet where the coaches go up on the award stand with the team.

To me, the national championship is similar to the state championship. The coach should be up on the stage with the team so they can all have pictures together. Of course if there are state rules that prohibit coaching in the offseason, then the coach should probably keep their distance. It is my experience that the kids will want the coach(es) to be with them. They want to share the experience with them because they know all the work that each has put in to it.

Eyeroll wrote:

Yes they should be able to go up. And no problem with the coach holding the trophy but big problem with them holding it first. Especially a coach who is perceived as being very publicity hungry (which I think is where this all started, really). I don’t think the NFL traditions/system should be used as something to strive for.

Yes! It's all about the optics. When it looks like there aren't boundaries between the coach and the athletes, that's were things start to look a little squirrely. Those boundaries, especially on a live webcast, are important and it's as much about body language as it is about anything else.

Unless, you have worked with adolescents, you might be asking, what's the big deal? But I would think any coach or teacher here would realize perception is a very big deal. I would always err on the side of being more reserved. Do your celebrating, but do it off-camera.

If a coach doesn't have a strong background in education--and has more of a background in, say, sales and male modeling--then this might not be apparent to them either.

I've coached more than a handful of teams to the podium, including winning 1 championship, in NCAA D3, and it seems to me like if you're a good enough coach to get the team to that level, it would be pretty difficult to simultaneously not be demanded by the athletes to be on the stage. And it seems like that is the case for most podium teams at that level.

And much like a previous poster, I ran on a team that made the podium at the state championships when I was in high school, and thankfully our coach was on the podium with us. At the time, I never would have given it a second thought one way or the other, but all these years later, I would be disappointed if our coach, who meant so much to us, wasn't in that picture.

People can find reasons to complaint about anything.

I.P. Freely wrote:

People can find reasons to complaint about anything.

Especially when someone is having success and they are not.

I only go up if there's a reason to - really only at our State meet, where they give the coach an award (silly as the best coach may not be the one whose team wins). Otherwise, I want as many kids and only the kids to be up there. Plus, somebody's gotta take the picture for the team Twitter account, or else it didn't happen...

At the SuperBowl isn't the coach the 2nd person who gets the trophy? I feel like they give it to the owner and then the coach.

Same things with the World Series right? Why should running be any different?

Why should running be different? Because Robert Kraft, who owns the New England Patriots, is a multi-billionaire who owns a billion-dollar team. That's why he gets the trophy first. Because it is a rich man's vanity project, and pro sports owners treat their players like property, buying and selling them at will. Watching that makes me cringe. I'm so embarrassed for some elderly white haired guy with perfect dentures who smells like Old Spice and has polished buckles on his loafers jumping the line to the trophy, in front of the athletes. That is one large, thin, expensive ego.

At awards ceremonies, only athletes should be allowed to receive the award. Afterwards, take some pictures with the coaches, managers, and owners. In the Olympics, coaches don't stand on the podium and get medal.

We have awards ceremonies at our league meet and our section meet. I never go up at our league meet when we win an award, but I do at our section meet. I never really wanted to go up because like others have said, I always wanted the attention to be on the athletes who ran. But the first time we won an award at the section meet, and I initially didn't go up, the person presenting the awards called me up to the podium. I felt like this put the attention more on me and less on the team than it would have been if I had just gone up in the first place. So now when we get the chance I just quietly go up. When I go up the award is usually presented directly to me, but I try to accept it before I walk up onto the podium. When we take the picture, I'm on the outside. The advantage that I have found, that I kind of like, is that when I accept the award, I get to choose who holds the award in the picture. I like to choose someone who either is a person who has been really important to the team, but is outside of the spotlight, or to a senior who has given a lot to the program in his or her four years. We don't win an award every year, but when I look back at the pictures of the years that we do, I really enjoy seeing the people who had the opportunity to hold the award and a couple of those athletes have commented on what it meant for them to do it.

ak4runnin wrote:

As a HS coach I never want to go up. I want all the attention to be on the kids. If the kids ask me to come up I do.

This is the only correct answer because this isn't a Yes or No question. Each team has a different dynamic, it changes year to year, school by school..