Fire Me If You Must

Taking a page out of the SJW playbook: choose a cause, very publicly "take a stand" for what you believe in, blow it up on social media. All for self-aggrandizement disguised as "making the world a better place." In a way I admire the chutzpah. But I have to lament the state of the world.

For the record I agree that masks are dumb in this situation.

this coach is a legend.

start a patreon, I would happily donate

Hi Brad, I read your letter.

Good for you for standing up for what you believe in.

I personally would find it irritating and ridiculous to compete in a mask.

I hope you find professional success in the near future and do not let this bother you.

At the level of a head coach, I would have expected a more professional approach to this. Plenty of examples of how to work with differing opinions and still find a path forward.

That being said, perhaps working within the confines of an established environment is not your forte.

Given your stance, and handling of this, maybe the path you were meant for is to create your own club.

Your stance said you are not willing to change or listen to anyone who doesn’t agree with you. Any support of a parent is likely their support of their own position, not an endorsement of you.

placp wrote:

this coach is a legend.

start a patreon, I would happily donate

He can move to San Antonio and get a job coaching with the430miler. Unorthodox methods are highly encouraged down there. It sounds like an anything-goes kind of place.

Brad,

While I agree with your point, you could have done a much better job supporting your argument and presenting evidence to support yourself.

You come off as pretty self centered and not obeying the ruling of wearing masks because you personally do not believe it does anything worthwhile.

You also go on the offensive a lot. Instead of saying “show me the data of hospitalizations for 14-18 yo....etc...”

You should have provided this data yourself. Instead you made the argument amount your own beliefs and not the safety and well-being of the athlete.

Too late now I suppose, but there were better ways to do it.

My team said my team had to compete in masks and practice in them. I told them I didn’t think it was safe and see if we could talk about changing that. They changed it.

fattyatthegym wrote:

At the level of a head coach, I would have expected a more professional approach to this. Plenty of examples of how to work with differing opinions and still find a path forward.

That being said, perhaps working within the confines of an established environment is not your forte.

Given your stance, and handling of this, maybe the path you were meant for is to create your own club.

Your stance said you are not willing to change or listen to anyone who doesn’t agree with you. Any support of a parent is likely their support of their own position, not an endorsement of you.

For these and other posters critiquing the style or approach, I think you are missing the point. We all have deal breakers in our moral compass. For this coach, this specific situation was a deal breaker. That's not necessarily right or wrong. The culture at that school is just different than his personal style or morals. I don't find his letter terribly unprofessional or rude. However, I deal with a lot of "rough around the edges" blue collar and engineering people on a daily basis. His style didn't bother me. I think criticizing style misses the point that as a society we are allowing a trivial, obviously flawed approach to divide people who should be friends!

Mask wearing by young people, outside while competing in sports is utterly stupid... He's 100% correct. Why are people using it as a wedge issue to divide us against each other? If you can't defend the school's position you have to go after the personality or style of the coach? Is the substance of his argument valid? Yes.

another coach wrote:

My team said my team had to compete in masks and practice in them. I told them I didn’t think it was safe and see if we could talk about changing that. They changed it.

Yep. Initially athletic admins wanted us to practice with masks on. Our coaching staff got together and we all agreed we didn't like our kids running with them on. So we approached the athletic director with our concerns. We had a discussion. AD agreed with us. He took it to the health advisors and they okayed the kids to compete / and run with masks off, but masks back on as soon as there is no running / competing. Reasonable solution. I agree with coach's concern, but wonder if this could have all been avoided if dealt with differently.

Ol' Runner wrote:

Mask wearing by young people, outside while competing in sports is utterly stupid... He's 100% correct. Why are people using it as a wedge issue to divide us against each other? If you can't defend the school's position you have to go after the personality or style of the coach? Is the substance of his argument valid? Yes.

Dr Fauci: "We're finding out that it's the team sports where kids are getting together, obviously many without masks, that are driving it, rather than in the classroom spread," Fauci told ABC's George Stephanopoulos Tuesday on "Good Morning America." "When you go back and take a look and try and track where these clusters of cases are coming from in the school, it's just that." -

and another coach wrote:

another coach wrote:

My team said my team had to compete in masks and practice in them. I told them I didn’t think it was safe and see if we could talk about changing that. They changed it.

Yep. Initially athletic admins wanted us to practice with masks on. Our coaching staff got together and we all agreed we didn't like our kids running with them on. So we approached the athletic director with our concerns. We had a discussion. AD agreed with us. He took it to the health advisors and they okayed the kids to compete / and run with masks off, but masks back on as soon as there is no running / competing. Reasonable solution. I agree with coach's concern, but wonder if this could have all been avoided if dealt with differently.

Most adults don’t act like brats.

I’m guessing that there were plenty of reasons that no one wanted to work with him before this email happened. If he were respected or valuable to the organization then someone would have tried to work with him even after this email.

what outdoor sport is mentioned in that CNN post?

Other posters here have claimed they took an alternate approach that actually achieved a solution. The truth is that the OP was never seeking a solution. He was seeking attention.

Limbikani Zaurbek wrote:

Ol' Runner wrote:

Mask wearing by young people, outside while competing in sports is utterly stupid... He's 100% correct. Why are people using it as a wedge issue to divide us against each other? If you can't defend the school's position you have to go after the personality or style of the coach? Is the substance of his argument valid? Yes.

Dr Fauci: "We're finding out that it's the team sports where kids are getting together, obviously many without masks, that are driving it, rather than in the classroom spread," Fauci told ABC's George Stephanopoulos Tuesday on "Good Morning America." "When you go back and take a look and try and track where these clusters of cases are coming from in the school, it's just that." -

https://www.cnn.com/2021/04/06/health/youth-sports-covid-spread-wellness/index.html

Only indoor sports listed and the recommendation in the article is to go OUTSIDE. Catching and illness via air, outside while moving is very, very unlikely. Wrestling? Yes, I can see how that could happen!

I stand by my assessment of specifically outdoor T&F requiring masks being stupid and science agrees with me. I will say, the higher risk associated with the sport is when athletes travel in a van, gather inside a locker room or sit close together in a tent at the meet, talking and laughing. Inside and when sitting close to each other, yes, wear a mask. While running a race? No.

It amazes me how people try to stretch an article like the one above to try to support a point clearly not supported by the actual article! Again, who is trying to divide us against each other and why? Don't be a pawn in the false drama.

Exactly right.

I 100% agree with you and I admire your courage .

It’s not about how crass it is, well it kinda is, but when you start using wordage like “following like sheep” and all this “cowardice bs” you start losing credibility real fast.

You start sounding very paranoid and, if I’m not mistaken, this is the same wordage that I’ve heard on Fox News and with covid deniers on these boards.

I say this as a moderate. I’ve already stated that I support Brad’s ideas, but he went about it awfully.

His wordage makes things seem very political instead of focusing on the actual purpose of not competing in masks-for better performance.

Honest question, because I've seen your stance worded differently in different articles, had you been kept on as coach and some of your athletes and families WANTED to wear a mask when working out and competing, would you have allowed it?

I ask because I'm curious and because I've seen it stated that "Pembroke track and field coach fired for not allowing team to wear masks."

https://www.unionleader.com/news/health/coronavirus/pembroke-coach-fired-over-mask-order-for-track-team/article_4f5ba3a6-1066-5178-bed3-3f23a514f891.html

I'm partially curious on your stance and partially curious if the paper and writer misquoted you. There is a difference between not "forcing" student-athletes to wear masks and not "allowing" them to.

Thanks for responding.

Fear is the weapon of the morally superior protector. Without it they are nothing.