VANDERBILT former athlete exposes mentally harmful coaching in new article

I agree. Many here keep saying, "the job of a coach is .......". Whatever you think it is or should be may not be what is outlined in the performance standards and contract of your coach. Kids need to find a coach who does what they want or they won't be happy and mommy and daddy will complain that the coach is not doing their job even though they may be excelling at their job. Every coach is a bit different and their boss's expectations are different. They work for their boss and the university, not for the athletes. They typically look at the athletes as resources that help the coach accomplish their own goals or the school's goals.

Expect more stories like this over the next 20 years. With a shrinking pool of 17 to 24 year olds, many colleges will alter their curriculum and athletics in a desperate attempt to draw and keep a dwindling number of available students. Change the training schedule of the track team ? No problem. That will be small potatoes compared to dumbing down the Chemistry class. Any coach unwilling to cater to student/athlete demands will be labeled inflexible and a relic of a bygone era.

ellenDnot wrote:

As a female athlete through a competitive program in high school to a division 1 power house I have to say she sounds whiny, entitled (her meal plan wasn't large enough), and childish. All I kept thinking while scimming... was she must be an only child. She has no sense of others and probably would be miserable no matter what. You can't please everyone and she's the type of athlete you don't want on your team as a coach or teammate. Was my college experience great? NO, were my coaches and teammates great? NO, but nobody is perfect and sure we can all spin this around on ourselves. The things she's complaining about are trivial. Move on!

I'd recommend you read the entirety of the article before making these comments, rather than just "scimming"...

work work wrote:

They work for their boss and the university, not for the athletes. They typically look at the athletes as resources that help the coach accomplish their own goals or the school's goals.

This is a completely backwards way of thinking. The athletes should always be the first priority. Without them, there are no sports to begin with. The athletes run the races and win the medals, not the coach.

work work wrote:

... They typically look at the athletes as resources that help the coach accomplish their own goals or the school's goals.

This is exactly the problem. Athletes are not "resources", they are human beings. Coaches do have a responsibility to do all they can to ensure the well being of each of their athletes, not just the fastest ones. Not too long ago coaches used to give cortisone shots to their athletes so that they could compete through injuries rather than take the rest they need, in the process destroying their post-collegiate long term health. It's not surprising coaches continue to pressure their athletes to compete through injuries and mental health problems. Perhaps some coaches take pride that for every national champion they make, their poor coaching ruins the lives of 5 of their other less important "resources".

blackhorse wrote:

work work wrote:

They work for their boss and the university, not for the athletes. They typically look at the athletes as resources that help the coach accomplish their own goals or the school's goals.

This is a completely backwards way of thinking. The athletes should always be the first priority. Without them, there are no sports to begin with. The athletes run the races and win the medals, not the coach.

The typical long time High School football coach is an esteemed and respected member of the community. He attained that status through the broken bones and crushed limbs of teenage boys.

This will continue for as long as our society has a warped attitude about sports at all levels.

For those who are not familiar with Maddy Holleran, the athlete she referenced in the article, I highly recommend you research and read her story to truly understand what it was this poor girl was going through. No coach should ever put their own position before the health and well being of their athletes, period.

The athlete was 9th at the SEC steeple. 1 spot away from scoring. The posters here are acting like she couldn’t compete. She almost scored! She belonged in the sport, in the SEC and the reason her coach pushed her to run was because she thought that the athlete could score in the steeple.

DanM wrote:

Expect more stories like this over the next 20 years. With a shrinking pool of 17 to 24 year olds, many colleges will alter their curriculum and athletics in a desperate attempt to draw and keep a dwindling number of available students. Change the training schedule of the track team ? No problem. That will be small potatoes compared to dumbing down the Chemistry class. Any coach unwilling to cater to student/athlete demands will be labeled inflexible and a relic of a bygone era.

This. I have coached at several DI’s, including P5’s. The message at the beginning of my career from administration was “go compete.” Now my admins have made it clear my job description is “just don’t piss anyone off. Especially the women.” Yes, at a Power 5.

I know this kid’s former coach. She’s a very kind, caring, sensitive woman, a good coach and I guarantee everyone there is more to this story and we’re only getting half of it. And before you pile on Vanderbilt’s record, keep in mind this isn’t the head coach (Not even the head distance coach) this kid was interacting with.

Do you have a real job? If you have 5 reports that are due next week and your boss tells you to prioritize report a over report b, do you tell him that you are going to focus on report b? If you standards tell you that sales are more important customer feedback, do you focus on making customers happy or on making sales? You guys just don't get it. You have your idea what it means to be a coach but that may not be what Vanderbilt's idea is and the coach may be coaching in the manner that her employer dictates. If you don't like that school or coach, go somewhere else. Don't complain about it.

blackhorse wrote:

work work wrote:

They work for their boss and the university, not for the athletes. They typically look at the athletes as resources that help the coach accomplish their own goals or the school's goals.

This is a completely backwards way of thinking. The athletes should always be the first priority. Without them, there are no sports to begin with. The athletes run the races and win the medals, not the coach.

Blame the win at all cost mentality that the outside world demands.

I'm trying to understand what this girl thinks the coaches were supposed to do that they didn't do?

They do have a TEAM to coach, and they are not your personal friend, or psychologist, psychiatrist, certainly not your personal physician.

I feel sorry for anyone coaching today's college kids, especially anyone coaching women.

Most of the sympathisizers here are 30 year old men. But most probably ran at a liberal arts school.

“...my therapist diagnosed me with depression (I am continuing to learn what type of depression) and I went on low dosage medication for it. Once I went on the medication, I felt like I was finally in control. The edge that I had always felt, that had made my heart race and my mind cloud, was starting to lift. I was really happy I went on medication when I did because it saved me.“

Glad she got on medicine. It seemed obvious to me I reading this that she needed it. Amazing that none of the professionals (coaches, counselors, etc) seemed to understand this.

snowman212 wrote:

I bet she was on 0 scholarship. She's paying your salary coach.

You accepted the woman onto your team so you coach her, not make her want to kill herself.

Uhhhh, no, that's incorrect and a horrible attitude to have. To put the mental health of athletes, solely in the hands of the coach is irresponsible. In college I always knew as an athlete that my grades, my mental and physical health were MY responsibility. To get me running fast was on my coach. Even though my coach always offered guidance outside of running, I understood that problems within my personal and academic were MY problems, not his. He was my coach, not my dad/therapist - I think those boundaries need to be clear in order for athletes to have a healthy relationship with their coach.

I can sympathize with the fact that this athlete is going through a lot mentally, but for her to blame those problems on her coach, on the whole athletic department (????), comes off as extremely whiny, immature self-victimization and should not be praised.

She should sue every professor that she had because they should have helped her with her problems.

ellenDnot - I think your position is valid in that competing for a Power 5 program is moving towards the burdens of being a professional. I had the same experience you did, at a school higher ranked than Vanderbilt. Unlike the young athlete from Vanderbilt, I neglected my studies which is a big regret to this day (I went on to a top ten law school and was at the top of the class without athletics to worry about, but never would have become a lawyer had I done meaningful work in college).

But really what it comes down to is expectations. Either you go into it with the right expectations or you will head for trouble. This means for most more mileage (by far) than you are used to, really using discipline to both pace yourself on hard days and especially on easy days, and facing up the reality that Division 1 athletics on scholarship means athletics, academics, and very little social life.

I really didn't like the idea of athletic scholarships but from a poverty stricken single mother home I did not see a choice. And most 18 year olds, me included, have no good sense of themselves when choosing schools on scholarship. Parents and egos drive too many decisions (I turned down Big 10 scholarships - a far better culture for me - without any thought). But no complaints - this was designed to be a rough ride. Think of a 9 minute high school two miler (I was, but not best event), and how it is that in 8 months after graduation this kind of athlete ought to be making the transition of running 14 minutes or slightly under for 5k. Many, many don't. But that is what it takes.

Sympathy for the young woman and her depression. She likely wasn't as talented as she and the school thought - no sin - it happens. She frankly should move on and look at her tenure merely as a wonderful place for education which will pay dividends in the future. I am 35 years on from college, obtain considerable compensation, and I don't know any of my peer executives who were Division 1 athletes, and they surely don't care or impressed that I was.

No one is arguing that the coach is solely responsible for the mental health of the athlete. But it is their responsibility to coach them in a way that doesn't actively harm their mental health, which this coach clearly failed to do

Vandy wrote:

I'm just going to put it out there that you're only hearing one side of the story. I'm very sorry for her struggles but I'm guessing that the coaching staff has a different take on things.

That’s a good point. I think the athlete in question was probably in need of professional assistance. Thank God she eventually got it, though belatedly, and with seemingly no help from her coaches. That’s wrong.

But I leave open the idea that the team was full of whiners, who were not suffering a mental health crisis as this author clearly was, but were just lazy and self-entitled. Maybe the coaches overlooked this one young lady in peril, because the they couldn’t tell her a part from other garden-variety shirkers. There is no way to know.

The injuries though...clearly she was trained too hard on a daily basis. Clearly that led to her constant injuries, which the coaches did not address, assuming the article is correct.