I think it’s very well established that the coach should’ve handled things much better and scratching his own athlete attempting a triple and arguing on the starting line is ridiculous. It also seems evident that tripling wasn’t logical in this scenario and the coach was simply ‘wrong’ from beginning to end.
But the athlete, his friends, and other high school/college athletes, young assistant coaches, etc. are possibly reading this, so I think it’s important to give them a well rounded perspective for the sake of their future success. So many times in life, you will deal with people that are just flat out wrong- and sometimes they will be authority figures. It SUCKS! But, for your own benefit, you have to learn how to best deal with them.
In the following, I’m not saying the athlete was ‘wrong’ in any way. So don’t read from that lens and don't assume I’m speaking critically of the athlete. I like 'thesource's message above me, and it seems the athlete here is a good teammate. This is just general advice on dealing with difficult people/situations since this thread is so one-sided. And tbh, it's mostly just a long reminder to myself to act productively when I'm frustrated with other people- and isn't even about this specific situation:
Your coach can be ‘wrong’, ‘ignorant about distance events’, a jerk, etc. but you can still choose to be the best person, athlete, and teammate possible. If you don’t want to be in 3 events, first talk to your event coach. That event coach should have a respectful conversation with the head coach about entries and what’s best/logical for the team as well as individual State chances. If the head coach is your event coach, then you talk directly to the coach and explain what you’re feeling. (Don’t tell the coach what he/she should do, just explain how you’re feeling and how you believe you would perform best. Then ask the coach what his/her thought process/reasoning is). This may be hard. You may be super nervous. It may be uncomfortable. You may stumble through your words. Your coach may respond like a jerk. But being in these uncomfortable situations is a learning experience. It takes practice and a lot of maturity to respectfully express your feelings and in a sense ‘stand up for yourself’ in a way that can lead to positive results. In some scenarios, your coach may even share a perspective you didn’t see beforehand, and you may actually find yourself more comfortable with the decision and thus more confident about your upcoming meet. Or he/she may end up seeing your perspective and changing his/her tune.
After communication beforehand, the end result is what it is. If you’re entered to triple, and there is an honest effort rule, you don’t really have a choice. That might not be “fair” or “right” in your opinion, but it's the current reality. So you have to put yourself in the best mindset to compete. Do enough to win or advance. Have plenty of strategies to combat the heat and recover in-between races: ice, electrolytes, much shorter warm ups/cool downs, easily digestible food, staying in the shade, etc. But most importantly, be confident in yourself, that you can do it, and embrace the challenge. In that specific moment, there isn’t really another better option. Life will be full of unfair moments or times when you don’t feel you have the strength to do something. Sometimes you just have to find a way to get it done anyways. Some people may feel ‘in the right’ to jog a race and/or Not listen to your coach/authority figure. But even if you are ‘right’ and everyone agrees with you, you have to consider if that will truly make your situation better for YOU. (In this specific case, I’m not convinced that’s what happened. It seems like the athlete was having a rough day, truly attempted to qualify in the 800m, unfortunately fell out of contention, and shut it down the last few hundred meters so the overall time looked ‘slower’ than his actual effort.)
During the meet, if you feel bad during/after your first event (the 3200m), it sucks, but there’s not much you can do, because the rules say you can’t scratch the 800m AND run the 1600m. So you talk to your event coach and/or head coach and say “this is how i’m feeling… explain x,y,z”. Then ask, “what can I do so I can still perform my best in all the events moving forward.” If your coach is a jerk, you can’t change that, but approaching it by saying, “Hey coach, this is what I’m feeling, but I WANT your Coaching advice to perform as well as possible” gives you the best chance at getting a somewhat helpful response from your coach. When you communicate it in a way that says “I don’t think I can run or I don’t want to run” you're likely not going to get a good response. Again, I fully agree the coach is the adult and should be better, but you still have the power to make situations better even when it’s not your responsibility. After that, you run and do that the best you can.
This is how you usually have to approach dealing with over-controlling, illogical people that unfortunately have some authority over you. You don’t have to show them respect, but it will likely be beneficial for you to be respectful of them anyways. So demonstrate respect for their position, show you’re willing to listen to them (such as asking your coach/boss for advice or instructions), while also stating your feelings/thoughts without telling your boss/coach what to do.
As a high school athlete, you don’t have the responsibility to do all this. It’s not ‘fair’ or ‘right’ when your coach doesn't act as they should, but you can choose to still be the most mature, best athlete and teammate you can anyways. Ultimately, that’s also going to give you the best chance at obtaining a positive end result for yourself. Of course, we can all admit we don’t like to do this. If we are ‘right’, especially when everyone knows it, then we want to just say “screw it, I’m doing what I want because I’m right and you’re an idiot”. But that usually just doesn’t benefit us. So I'm just trying to provide a practical perspective even though I know it's not emotionally appealing.
*And to whoever said the Women's coach should've said "I'm going to scratch your 200m and 4x4 girls"... No, she shouldn't have said that. Don't ruin (or even threaten) even more athlete's seasons due to a coach's immaturity.
