High School Coaches: Humor Me With Your "Crazy Parent" Stories

joho wrote:

I was always one of the parents running around the course rooting for all the runners on our team. My wife was the 'team Mom'

That figures, you cheer and she serves.

Have quite a few stories, most I'd prefer to keep private. Recently had a crazy mom get in my face in front of the other parents and kids at a meet because her son did not get his 50th place medal (top 50 got medals) right away in the finish chute. We had other kids racing still so when he told me he didn't get his medal, I told him "if you rightfully earned it, take your bib and go let them know they missed you." She came unglued saying it's my number one priority to "protect the kids" and that I was not doing my job because I didn't immediately go get his medal for him. This "kid" is 18 mind you. Completely helpless, apparently.

Not the first time she's told me how I'm supposed to be coaching. At the beginning of the season she said it was a big mistake on my part to let our fastest returning runner compete on the varsity level because he didn't practice with us over summer. He was working full-time and getting his runs in before and after work, which I knew about the whole time. The other guys got a lot closer to him than they were previously, but he's still our number 1 guy. Running him (9:30 3200) on JV would be absurd.

Really Old Guy wrote:

otter wrote:

She didn't show up for the state meet which was required of the athletes named as alternates just in case someone was sick or couldn't make it for some other unforeseen reason. I moved her off the list completely for the next meet.

What meet is after the State meet?

For us New Englands and Nike Regionals

Well played! You anticipated every trick they'd try. And your whole approach was spot-on from the start, anyway.

It reminds me of a situation I had in California HS XC when the longtime seventh varsity boy was having bad races nearing the end of the year and the top JV kid was beating his times. Luckily, we had two races on the same course (CIF prelims and finals at Mt. SAC) coming up, so I could run each kid in one of them. I told them beforehand that whoever ran faster would go to State if the team made it. They made it, the ex-JV kid ran, and the older varsity kid was an alternate. Luckily, no parents were involved.

The silver lining was that the older kid was an 800 specialist and won the league in track that spring.

Really Old Guy wrote:

otter wrote:

She didn't show up for the state meet which was required of the athletes named as alternates just in case someone was sick or couldn't make it for some other unforeseen reason. I moved her off the list completely for the next meet.

What meet is after the State meet?

Could be New Englands, or FL regionals or something.

some possibilities. wrote:

Really Old Guy wrote:

What meet is after the State meet?

Could be New Englands, or FL regionals or something.

Meant to say Nike not FL

These are all pretty boring.

Someone, please do better. I know you're out there. Lost your job, reputation, and fiance, because of some p.o.' d parent.

It was back in 2007, first year I was the coach.

I was a pretty hot dude, and the girls on the team all loved me.

One girls mom asked me to marry her out of the blue. The girl cried when I said no.

I was fired from my job for harassment of the woman the next day because she was upset I said no.

I was arrested the following week.

My fiance left me bc she didn't need "all the drama"

This...there are far more coaches that do damage than make a net positive impact.

Coach G wrote:

How about a crazy coach thread!!!

No Hair Left To Pull Out wrote:

If you've coached high school sports for at least a season or two you surely have been subjected to at least one crazy parent that takes more of your time and energy than all the other parents combined. I had one crazy mom (worst I've ever experienced) graduate last year and a new crazy mom popped up to fill that spot this season. So far it has only been parents of boys that are either the fastest, second fastest or third fastest on the team. No exceptions with that despite coaching the girls and boys with a team of about 100 kids total.

I'd be interested to hear your more outrageous episodes.

Yeah i made one.

jack daniels says that direction is the only aspect of running that can be positive or negative. its very true.

has anyone done this? wrote:

It was back in 2007, first year I was the coach.

I was a pretty hot dude, and the girls on the team all loved me.

One girls mom asked me to marry her out of the blue. The girl cried when I said no.

I was fired from my job for harassment of the woman the next day because she was upset I said no.

I was arrested the following week.

My fiance left me bc she didn't need "all the drama"

20/20

has anyone done this? wrote:

It was back in 2007, first year I was the coach.

I was a pretty hot dude, and the girls on the team all loved me.

One girls mom asked me to marry her out of the blue. The girl cried when I said no.

I was fired from my job for harassment of the woman the next day because she was upset I said no.

I was arrested the following week.

My fiance left me bc she didn't need "all the drama"

Thank you. Hope you got to keep the dog.

sfgdfg wrote:

Expert Keybord Coach wrote:

Yea. You should have said top 7 guys make the team and announce it to the whole team. You want someone who can perform when the stakes are high.

absolutely not. You want consistency, not someone who's on or off all the time.

This is XC not a relay. You don't need everyone to perform well. You need 5 guys. 99% of the time, if your 7th man is a scorer, you are dead. In the cases where that isn't true, it is pretty much always your 7th man running out of his mind. You didn't let that happen.

FarOutMan wrote:

has anyone done this? wrote:

It was back in 2007, first year I was the coach.

I was a pretty hot dude, and the girls on the team all loved me.

One girls mom asked me to marry her out of the blue. The girl cried when I said no.

I was fired from my job for harassment of the woman the next day because she was upset I said no.

I was arrested the following week.

My fiance left me bc she didn't need "all the drama"

Thank you. Hope you got to keep the dog.

lol if you're referring to my fiance then nope.

Steeeeve wrote:

Sound like the skinny distance runners having to wear tights in the cold was the problem.

Yup. Stupid rule. I would never tell my runners what they have to wear (other than uniform at meets).

aggsdgdgd wrote:

Steeeeve wrote:

Sound like the skinny distance runners having to wear tights in the cold was the problem.

Yup. Stupid rule. I would never tell my runners what they have to wear (other than uniform at meets).

So it's raining and 45 degrees and a kid has no sweats on. You would ask him to put them on?

How is the kid going to learn to dress himself if I am always telling him what to wear?

She freezes once, doesn't make that mistake again.

Donger wrote:

aggsdgdgd wrote:

Yup. Stupid rule. I would never tell my runners what they have to wear (other than uniform at meets).

So it's raining and 45 degrees and a kid has no sweats on. You would ask him to put them on?

Sweats would be just about the worst possible thing to wear in the rain. In fact, sweats are about the worst clothing item to run in, period.

I might wear running pants under the conditions described depending on the workout, but that's really a matter of personal preference. I wouldn't force a bunch of people who have been dressing themselves for 10-15 years to follow my lead on that matter.

If the temp is in the single digits and a kid shows up for a 90 minute run in 2" racing shorts and a singlet, I guess I might have him stay at the school's fitness center and do his run on a treadmill. But that's a matter of safety. You're talking about making a rule to prevent kids from doing something because I think it might be mildly uncomfortable for them.

I see that as antithetical to my role in helping my athletes become functional adults. It would also be a pretty slippery slope to micromanaging the every move of 40+ kids. Hell, half of my kids wear cotton shirts when they run in hot, humid weather. Should I make a rule about that, too? That's way more uncomfortable than running in shorts on a mild fall day.

I have a few from over the years:

1. Got an email a month after track season forwarded to me by my AD. One of the moms had complained to him that I only let her daughter run in two meets that year and I never gave her any recognition or encouragement. She ran every meet except for the conference and regionals (girl was a 6:45 miler and last place at those meets was usually 6:10-6:15). I also put together a 4 x 8 relay for an end of the year freshman meet (got a 400 runner to move up) so she could run in that meet even though it was an extra event for the other athletes in the relay. Mom even thanked me at the time for doing it. AD backed me up when I told him I explained this to him. Turns out the same mom had called the principal on four of her daughter's teachers for various reasons.

2. For our first track meet of the season, I had a distance runner who only wanted to run the mile each meet. I thought it would be better for her to experience some other events that would help her become a better all around distance runner. For the first meet, I put her in the 800 and 4 x 4 and said would run the mile the next meet. At the meet the next day, her dad makes a comment in front of a bunch of other parents while I am close by asking why I don't put the kids in their best events (I had never met the guy, but I guessed whose dad he was). Turns out the XC coach (who had applied for my track job) was encouraging dissent. Dad didn't know what to say later in the season when my coaching strategy paid off and his daughter had taken 20 second off her best mile time and medaled at regionals.

3. Mom of one of my freshman boy distance runners called the AD's office phone at night and left anonymous messages questioning why her son wasn't allowed to run the maximum four events each meet since she had paid his participation fee. I tried to explain that it wasn't in her son's best interest (especially since he had come into the season injured from basketball) to run that many events. She kept complaining to the AD and the other parents. The next year, there was a new coach who ran him in 3-4 races each meet. He was never better than his freshman year.

4. Weirdest one had to be a girl on my XC/Track teams whose parents (who appeared to have lots of money) would show up in the middle of practice a couple of times a season and say they had to leave immediately for "vacation". They would be gone for a couple of days (during the week) and then come back. The daughter never told the other girls where they went. At a dinner the night before a meet out of town, I was sitting next to the dad and tried to make conversation by asking him what he did for a living. He completely dodged the question and seemed insulted that I asked (I quickly changed the subject). A couple of other parents later wondered why he had been so evasive.

There are more, but those are the ones that came to mind when I ready the thread. Glad to see I'm not the only who dealt with wacky parents over the years.