What Happens Behind the Scenes wrote:
These threads are getting so redundant with the amount of people that are bashing BAS and defending the "victims" as if they are all innocent and the coaches are ruthless.
The truth of the matter is that the parents out there have no idea what a D1 coaching staff and support staff have to endure during the tenure of an average elite athlete. I have been associated with an elite D1 track program for many years and can tell you from experience that more often than not, the "rock star" athletes that are entitled their whole lives come in with a chip on their shoulder and very rarely ever live up to expectations.
I can tell you from first hand experience that so many elite athletes show up to campus, locked into a full scholorship, and completely go down hill from there. They show up to campus out of shape; they gain excess weight and they don't take the advice from the coaching staff, training staff or nutritionist regarding how to better prepare themselves to perform at an optimal level. They get lazy in a short period of time and don't want to take the initiative to make themselves better. These athletes have unlimited resources and typically abuse the situation. Instead of going in for rehab, they only want to get a massage or they get mad and walk out if the demands are not met. They don't want to put the work in to be the best. They only want to be pampered. In practices their work ethic is horrible. Most of these girls come in out of shape and are collapsing all of the track in the first few weeks with dramatic injuries that are brought upon by themselves for not being in shape or taking care of themselves, and a majority of the complaints are typically phantom injuries that magically disappear after the workout is over. This happens every single day with athletes that are suppose to be race horses. If you are in the SEC or a power 5 conference program, you don't have time to deal with this nonsense. It drains everyone on the team, the staff, and the support staff.
The problem is that all of the parents out their thinks and assumes that their daughter is a gift to the track world when in reality they are doing nothing but sucking the life out of everyone that is trying to help them and their teammates. The parents typically only hear one side and that is what their child is telling them. I guarantee you if the parents had an open, honest round table discussion with fellow teammates, staff and support staff about how their athlete is truly "stacking up" then they would be in shock.
It's truly frustrating to hear all of these remarks about the "victims" lives being ruined by BAS. The truth is that more than likely, a lot of these kids cause more stress than they are worth...not necessarily talking specifically about these 6...just in general. Yes, they might have been successful in high school, but very few of them actually excel in the SEC. We have seen so many elite athletes that come in on full scholarship and maintain that scholarship for 4 years without ever running a step in a college track meet. They get complacent and lazy and figure out that they can get everything paid for, use all of the resources, and not have to put the hard work in. Instead of the these athletes and parents getting blasted for not fulfilling their obligations, the coaches get blamed for their team not performing. I'm serious, this happens every year at every major university and it is never talked about.
If you are going to hold the coaches accountable for performance and their "cut-throat" antics to change the culture of their team then let's step up to the plate and hold the parents and athletes accountable as well. Parent's, for example: If you daughter goes to an elite level school on full scholarship and you have SO much confidence in them then their should be a clause that if they gain weight, become lazy and don't fulfill their obligations then it is the families responsibility to repay that scholarship. Maybe if that happened then the athletes would actually take their "job" a little more serious and the parents would actually see what truly goes on behind the scenes on a daily basis. But until that happens, the coaches have the right to make changes anytime they see fit to create a culture and a team that it takes to win.
Damn, there are psychos out there defending this? Wow. Seriously, take some medication or something. You're not right.