Long Time D1 Coach thinking of Hanging it UP because-WOKE is too much

Coaches should check out some NAU videos like the Moto City long run, because Mike Smith shows how it is done. He checks in with his athletes and encourages them to tell him or their running logs honestly how they are feeling and to say that it is just fine to say that they are tired or having a bad day. He says that the mistake is to think that mental health means sending them to a sports psychologist when they're having a major problem. Instead of yelling at his athletes, he jokes around with them and they reciprocate the tone. To one guy who is dragging, says he hardly slept the last night, and needs to get on one of the bikes Smith is toting around, Smith says, "that's your conscience talking," and the athlete responds, I thought it was the caffeine. You take care of those things all along and help the athletes develop means of coping with their struggles and you get, what?, six championships in the last seven years. Is he therefore soft on his athletes or is he getting the most out of his athletes?

Let me replace you with my magic! Time for the mighty JS to jump in!))

It’s a bit disingenuous to compare the kids NAU is working with to the kids the average coach is working with… kids go to NAU and the like because they want to be pushed and be the best; kids go to most mid majors and big name schools that suck at running and run because running is fun and it’s cool to get free gear and feel important. Obviously many kids at those schools want to be pushed and want to be the best but many do not and it can be tough to tell who is who with out offending someone.

My plan for the last phase of my working career was always to transition to academia and become a coach as well as a teacher. No chance in Hell I'm getting involved with either scenario at this point. With two kids in college, I've seen/heard some stories that just make my skin crawl. The loss of candor, open debate and respect for authority is stunning to me. Will find a different place for my time and energy.

Mowing Lawns? Isn't this the Zack Greinke plan? I think he lasted only a couple of weeks before returning to professional baseball. Stick with the coaching if you still believe in the runners trying to succeed.

Here to somewhat defend the OP. It's not all bad but there is plenty of it.

To the old guy who said he should be grateful for having a living wage coaching....ok. Go tell that to the head football coach too. It's no different. It really isn't. And then how do I feed and clothe my children? If the job was showing up at the track for 2 hrs and going home, I'm all for it.

I will differ from the OP and say that I'm more exhausted and frustrated by the administration than the athletes. Although some of this is coming from the athletes, via administration, it's most originating from above. The amount of stupid trainings, paperwork, etc., has turned this job into a clerical position and not a coaching position.

My athletes have, for the most part, been fairly respectful and fun to work with. And yet, as a D1 head coach, I'm highly considering leaving the profession. For the most part it's because D1 athletics has boiled down to admin scrambling around trying to appease the athletes and do everything under the banner of "student-athlete experience." Then they turn around and completely take a dump on the coaches who put their blood, sweat, and tears into the program. How is working 10+hrs/day, traveling every weekend both fall AND spring, getting texts and emails at midnight and being expected to answer emails and calls during the few vacations we get even remotely worth it? What about my spouse and children?? Athletes don't seem to appreciate it. Admin doesn't. It's not a healthy lifestyle.

The weather example is odd, I tell my athletes to hit the treadmill or run loops indoors (large basketball gym and indoor soccer facility for it). If one person is genuinely being toxic, you can have a discipline meeting with whatever you call your HR rep about the person and cut them for poor performance and attitude.

Also it’s 17-25 year olds. Hormones flowing strong, of course they are going to be easy to influence, combative and following the social trends strongly. Recruit smarter if you don’t like it. Literally find intelligent people for your team to help influence them to be better focused.

Dude this is the kind of coach I wanna have a beer with. I'd want my kids to run for you. No, wait, I want to run for you...what are your rates? Not during the holidays or summer of course...

also a coach wrote:

Don’t have a sexist/racist/homophobic/transphobic/ableist program and you have nothing to worry about. Being a good person takes care of 99.9% of that. If it’s not happening during practice and people show up to work, who cares? Can’t handle that? I have a lawn you can mow.

I don't see how a program can be like that. As a coach myself, my only goal is to help each athlete achieve their athletic goals and sometimes their academic and personal goals too. I could care less how you look, what you belive in or etc. Just work hard and be nice and youll be fine in my program

This is so sad. Athletics is being ruined by mediocre athletes who can only find validation in "exposing" how "abusive" programs are because theyre allergic to hard work.

Look at the situation at Oregon with the scans they were doing. That's some high tech stuff that you GET from going to one of the top programs in the US, yet it was turned into a bad thing because it might have made someone feel slightly uncomfortable.

I would love to have been able to run for a school that had virtually unlimited resources to test and monitor athletes so we could really try to achieve the best we could, instead my team struggled to have enough money for basic travel.

I think I know you... from St. Louis, coached in the ACC, WAC, and SEC?

vent sessions complete.[/quote]

Did we figure out who this Woke Loser is? Because that’s what he is. He is Woke and he is a Loser

WOKE because he CRIES when things don’t go his away, turns to the internet to get the MOB on his side

LOSER, becashe hes obviously not a good coach and wants to blame EVERYONE else[/quote]

This is unreal how UnWoke can you be aka sleepy… nowhere did the op say they identified as a he… why would you assume that op is a he? That is just sexist, arrogant and rude. Next time ask what they identify as. Funny side note; this is exactly the type of thing a coach can get in trouble for these days “guys over there, women over there, let’s start our warmup” all of a sudden you assumed a gender identity of your athletes and you are chastised on social media for being a mouth breathing monster who doesn’t care about athletes’ feelings.

coachingProbs wrote:

I feel the most bad for the kids who really want to be good who are often distracted by these kids who grow in number each year. In the recruiting process we do a lot to find the kids who are wanting an experience based on competition with teamwork and supportive atmosphere...yet we end up getting snakes who claim to be this way, but then when they get to campus decide "I don't like running actually...

To paraphrase an old saying "when non-authority questions you, return the favour".

Gather the whiners and adress the leading male (biology and social pressure being what it is no matter how confused teenagers might be first make sure at least one hot girl is present) by saying something like this: "You might be right, this school could use something like a social club for runners that don't really care about winning but still like to knock out a few klicks a couple of times a week to keep in shape. Have you ever considered something like that? Forming a new extracurricular group for the school would look great on your CV down the road! And if you want to attract non-runners I can recommend some great books about running to help you start a book circle or discussion club, I'll help any way I can in that regard!"

Skin in the game works both ways, if they want it easy, challenge them to organize that themselves and put their hours in over there.

sally, is that you?

Not sure how anyone makes slack running training into a political thing. Sounds like you need to be more selective in who you allow on your team.

I feel your pain. I ran DI for an old school coach before all this woke nonsense took off and our team then was full of mostly hard working people who valued team work and were not whining over woke bs. I went on to coach college 6 years at NAIA/DII/DIII schools and eventually left coaching because our head coach was an abusive narcacist...job illegally paid below minimum wage and was not worth putting up with his abuse at that pay rate (and I am not easily offended and not into woke nonsense...dude was truly abusive.) The woke snowflake kids lacking dedication to running and getting easily offended about everything is part of the reason I am hesitant to get back into college coaching. I oversaw distance runners and lifting at most schools I was at and ever year I would get at least one complaint from an anonymous female to the head coach that they were offended I was too honest in my race feedback. I knew how to soften feedback from bad races to girls that needed that, but some still complained they overheard my say that someone else on the team had a bad race when asked and were offended by me saying that even though it was obvious to everyone on the team his race was bad and I'd already talked to him and we all acknowledged it wasn't his best effort (and the athletes with the bad races in question when this has happened were not offended I said it wasn't their best race when someone asked me how it went)...nothing to hide there, nothing mean...just the honest truth. In another instance, this bratty girl went to the president of the college to complain that a team bbq that I hosted started late (because a mandatory athletic dept meeting went later than planned) and she was offended I played hip hop music with inappropriate lyrics (in hindsight I should have chosen something w/o bad lyrics just to play it safe and cover my ass). The rest of the team listens to hip hop all the time with bad lyrics out loud at practice and seems to like it, so I just picked a playlist and told them to change it if they didn't like it, but no one changed it. Another kid rolled his ankle on a run, so we had him cross training and rehabbing it etc so as not to hurt it more, but he went to a professor and lied saying we were forcing him to run injured (we weren't...he was actually running on days we told him NOT to run) who then went to the AD and athletic trainers and it caused a whole ordeal. All this non-sense where the most basic things offend kids and they try to get you fired for it just kinda ruined coaching for a me a bit. Schools also constantly tried to keep us from training in the winter...like we don't have an indoor track nor would we want to run lots of miles on that daily; won't let us use treadmills because then we'd take over the fitness center; won't let us use weight room outside our one hour twice a week or the gym bc other teams needs it; and then won't let us run outside if there's any snow or below like 20 degrees F because of liability issues. I used to train in -20 F in college without issue. (I would not force athletes to train outside below zero though.) Schools up north would basically not be able to train all winter if no indoor facilities available and outdoor training was banned for anything 20 and under...that's like all winter. I don't even use my winter running jacket unless it's below 20 out. I ended up having to "cancel" practice these days and then give a suggested workout they could choose to do on their own "inside" if they have time and then most kids would get the hint and go run on their own unoffically outside and the few babies that don't like cold would do it on a treadmill.

You know…there are plenty of DI jobs where they encourage you to take 2 hour lunches, four day weekends (when not competing) and 4 months of vacation…just sayin’…sure ya the men on the team often hold it against you but at least the women gush about your respect for their “mental health” along with their beta buddy on the men’s team.