Yeah, that goes back to my "If anything, lack of talent trumps rules." I realized that cuz a local basketball coach was recently musing about how he had to let his players get away with murder the last few years cuz he wouldn't have 5 to put on the floor if he was hardnosed. The water polo coach replied that he had to do the same cuz he wouldn't have a shot at the league title if he had to sit anyone.
The sense of entitlement in kids these days is incredible - incredibily sad.
Running Cross Country or Track is not a right, its a priviledge. If the coach or school establishes rules and they are made known before the season, and you still sign up for the team then guess what? You have to abide by the rules if you want to run for the team. It's that simple. Go watch Coach Carter or the Thin Green Line.
It doesn't matter if you are a state champion or the slowest runner.
Check out this letter from Bill Gates about more stuff you high school kids should know before you get thrown out into the big cruel world:
11 Rules They'll Never Teach You In High School But Should.
Rule 1: Life is not fair - get used to it!
Rule 2: The world doesn't care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself.
Rule 3: You will NOT make $60,000 a year right out of high school. You won't be a vice-president with a car phone until you earn both.
Rule 4: If you think your teacher/coach is tough, wait till you get a boss.
Rule 5: Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your Grandparents had a different word for burger flipping: they called it opportunity.
Rule 6: If you mess up, it's not your parents' fault, so don't whine about your mistakes, learn from them.
Rule 7: Before you were born, your parents weren't as boring as they are now. They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes and listening to you talk about how cool you thought you were. So before you save the rain forest from the parasites of your parent's generation, try delousing the closet in your own room.
Rule 8: Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life HAS NOT. In some schools, they have abolished failing grades (or throwing people off teams) and they'll give you as MANY TIMES as you want to get the right answer. This doesn't bear the slightest resemblance to ANYTHING in real life.
Rule 9: Life is not divided into semesters. You don't get summers off and very few employers are interested in helping you FIND YOURSELF. Do that on your own time.
Rule 10: Television is NOT real life. In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs.
Rule 11: Be nice to nerds. Chances are you'll end up working for one.
Someone else wrote that. The last 3 rules are along the lines of smoking makes you look moronic, you are not immortal, enjoy being high school age while you can.
berol wrote:
Someone else wrote that.
Ummmmm - yes I know, Bill Gates did, sorry if I didn't make that clear the first time.
I'm the one who wasn't clear. I meant that Bill Gates didn't write it.
Dead grandmother? EXCUSED. Shin splints? EXCUSED. College visit? EXCUSED. Notice all of these work with OPEN COMMUNICATION with athlete & coach.
Skipping practice with no excuse? SUSPENSION. Not doing the prescribed workout (such as hiding in the woods instead of an aerobic run)? SUSPENSION. Notice we're talking about suspension & not getting kicked-off the team. (But, there will be or would be an eventual expulsion from the team.)
One of the things that drives me nuts is parents who dictate when their kids will practice. I actually had a kid not come to practice a few weeks ago because his mom wouldn't let him run in the rain! I had a kid whose parents didn't want him to practice on Saturdays with the team! (He ended-up quitting.) There was a girl--not one of my athletes--whose parents told the coach she could not run AT STATE!
Realize that we're talking about the 1% of bad runners. Most of the kids want to be there, want to get better, want to compete.
And, if you create a good environment, they will do anything for their coach, their school, & their team.
Mean Coach wrote:
You have to look at the WHY athletes missed practice. When people skip practice, we're talking about BLANTANT disregard for the rules & standards that everyone is held to.
Coinoperated "tried to come to practice on most occasions." WHAT!?!
I would love to tell my boss, "Hey, sorry I didn't come to work on Monday. But, I come to work on most occasions." Yeah, it doesn't work that way.
And, to think TALENT TRUMPS RULES is simply stupid!
Did you know that Mike Tyson's coach, Cus Dimatto (spelling?) disregarded his terrible behavior because of his talent?
Why did nothing happen to Latrell Spreewell (spelling?) after he CHOKED his coach? Oh, talent!
Why did nothing happen to Allen Iverson when he chose NOT to push him at practice? Oh, talent!
We need to stop creating athletes who get "perks" & "free passes" because of talent. There's a reason Reggie Bush is having his Heisman Trophy revoked.
Good thing this is a high school extracurricular and not a career. I hardly see missing a practice as tantamount to a professional athlete on salary not showing dedication or physically attacking the coach.
Well said, it seems that when you have a program where you dont have the right personnel in place you have problems. its unfortunate they abuse the kids. After all its HS. I think these guys at Allentown failed in their communication class.
Seems the school spirit is PUNISHMENT. Still dont think the punishment fits the crime- especially when a coach is notified in advanced.
Just for the record the so called "policy" has not been seen nor signed by the members of the team who have been expelled nor by other team families who were spoken to. when did it become acceptable for a school coach to tell a family when they can and cannot go on vacation? Those of us in the private sector do not have the freedom to take any week off in the summer as we do work all year round. FYI the policy mentioned is not known or used by any other team in the school, and the runners who did go away with their families ran more on vacation than if they were attending these missed practices, which btw the coach really does not take attendance at so the expelled students should have just gone away and may have gone unnoticed. There were many double standards evolving in this situation. And yes I agree with one other poster Coaches get a bit "full" of themselves and do not trully focus on what is important,...the kids. These kids "kicked" off the team are all Seniors, so the cruel power hungry coach has ruined their last year in High School.
exactly! This policy was not communicated at all!
So why are they there? Seems there is more to this. If a coach and AD are supporting a policy that has not been communicated to the parents and athletes there is a serious problem. Right. Its a crime that the kids are the victims.
There have been past issues in this school and the AD is a big part of the problems. He gets away so much stuff and it is so sad because the kids and the school's reputation suffer. I heard that 4-5 families transferred out of this school just in the last few weeks, because of antics like this.
There have been past issues in this school and the AD is a big part of the problems. He gets away so much stuff and it is so sad because the kids and the school's reputation suffer. I heard that 4-5 families transferred out of this school just in the last few weeks, because of antics like this.
Are we talking about practice?
Practice?
Yeah Mean Coach has a bit of a god complex. You extrapolate missing one xc practice into a kid becoming an ax murderer because he never learned about "rules."
Try to remember why you are there. To help these kids become better people and better runners along the way, maybe they'll even develop a lifelong love of the sport. How can you help a kid more, by kicking him off the team or continuing to work with them?
And yeah, I understand if a kid is hiding in the woods, or blatantly skips practice for no reason- I agree you miss a meet or after a couple of incidents- gone. But blanket rules are the lazy way out.
just fire their as#. They did it with these runners and if the school is suffering all the more resaon to do so. End of problem.
NEXT...
Why are we talking about some pissant high school coach and his policy on letsrun.com? Some interesting philosophical discussion but rather pointless, really.
I am personally more along the lines of "if notified in advance death, illness, colleges visits are all acceptable excuses." However, the problem here seems to be one of communication. Whoever is bringing their shit here instead of talking to the coach, athletic director, principal, etc. is just as bad as the coach.
Old But Still Faster Than U wrote:
Try skipping football practice one day and you'll not play in the game that week. Do itr again and you'll be off the team. This is true in almosyt any high school in the nation.
So why would we hold cross country runners to a lower standard?
The football policy you mention is exactly the same as the one I use with my cross country and track teams. As you say, why should they be held to a lesser standard?
say what polar bear wrote:
It makes a lot more sense to punish someone in that is in high school sports for poor academics than when they are trying to succeed or go farther in academics.
huh?