We changed the title to make it more accuarte. Initially the title of the thread was, "HS Coach has his own athlete DQ'd". Please note the athlete ran the mile under protest and finished high enough to qualify to states if him being scratched is overturned.
Okay, am I missing something because that seems...extreme. There has to be more to this story than that.
I am fully against what that coach did but it's not a fireable offense. I just want the kid to be reinstated.
The coach forced a high school kid to run those three races in one afternoon in 90 degrees of heat and humidity. When the kid wisely refused to go all out in all three of those races, the coach then retaliated against him . There are many schools that would not want a coach like that anywhere near its athletes.
Glad the administration at this school realized this coach has issues.
I can’t count the number of high school distance runners have the joy pounded out of them by a coach whose ego takes over common sense and not over racing distance athletes in high school.
A lot of people showing that they don’t understand racing in the south.
Asking an athlete to triple in the open 8, 16, and 32 in Florida in late April in a single day meet is stupid because:
1) The athlete cannot physically perform their best in the conditions if they are expected to triple. It is IMPOSSIBLE to give “100%” in all 3 races.
2) The athlete’s health is at risk. By forcing anyone to triple in the weather conditions one faces in south Florida in 3 distance events in a SINGLE DAY MEET the coach is putting the athletes health at risk
This is why the coach was wrong from the beginning, wrong for scratching the athlete, and why he was subsequently fired.
Milesplit is saying the coach went out on the track to scratch the runner AFTER they had lined up. Making this look even more like abuse of power by the coach, & making this a truly international issue.
This kid is barely a 4:20 miler. That’s his best event. Hardly cracking 2:00 in the 800, at 17 or 18 years old?
Let’s be honest: he is going to do nothing noteworthy in running, period. Hopefully for him college track/xc will be about enjoyment, personal achievement, and…wait for it…TEAM WORK. A kid like this needs to learn to be a role-player.
There are more important things than getting the 1600 heat time you want at a district meet. And who decides what’s best for the TEAM? The coach, that’s who.
As a coach I am not impressed with this prima donna crap. For a likely scorer to run an 800 final at slower than mile pace, in a close meet, is utter garage.
Seems like kid who has never learned the lessons most of us do in middle school. Better late than never. For his sake I hope he doesn’t pull that trash in college.
Good thing no one needs to impress you. If you are a coach, you’re a joke and I would never want a child to run for you.
I have had the experience as a coach of watching a top athlete dog it in a race to save himself without talking to you about it beforehand, and can't tell you how infuriating it is to watch. Anyone who coaches an athlete for any length of time, and sometimes for 4 years, can definitely tell when a kid is slacking. You spend all season coaching kids and being there for them and putting your heart and soul into coaching them, and your teammates work hard alongside you, and your parents come to every event to support you, and you wear that school jersey...and you embarrass yourself and everyone that has supported you by running half-ass. People count on you and you let them down.
That being said...scratching them from a later event after dogging it gains nothing other than giving you the satisfaction of getting revenge on the kid. Coaching is not a pissing contest. Take the high road that you ask kids to, and let them run the later race, and they live with the knowledge that they slacked off...it's their conscience they have to live with. Be the bigger person that you are supposed to be setting examples as a coach. Maybe someday, the kid will look back and realize what they did wasn't the best and they will appreciate you and how you handled it.
In real sports you give 100% on every play, usually more than just three in a day. Someone up-thread mentioned the White Sox manager in the past week benching a guy that didn't run hard to first base. This is the same thing. Give your all every time.
Baseball, the "sport" that even fatties can play. Get out of here with comparing pro to high school level, adults to children, distance running to one of the most un-athletic games in existence.
I seem to land at a middle ground among opinions here:
Kids should listen to their coaches. If you want to truly be an "individual," run for a club or a private coach. Otherwise, you're on a team representing your school with team goals and should listen to the coach and not freelance what races you try or don't try in
The coach should be fired (or suspended for a long time - don't wanna say he's irredeemable) because the way he acted showed he's not ready to work with kids
This post was edited 1 minute after it was posted.
Is his appeal granted (is he allowed to run in the Regional 1600 meters)?
He did run in the race from which he was disqualified (under protest) and finished high enough to advance to the Regional.
I'll say yes, in light of the fact that 1) he earned it on the track and 2) the coach was fired, and 3) there is really no harm in adding him to the field (you would not eliminate anyone else, I would think), my bet is they let him run.
This post was edited 11 minutes after it was posted.
In real sports you give 100% on every play, usually more than just three in a day. Someone up-thread mentioned the White Sox manager in the past week benching a guy that didn't run hard to first base. This is the same thing. Give your all every time.
... Get out of here with comparing pro to high school level, adults to children, distance running to one of the most un-athletic games in existence.
Right. Besides, it would be more like the White Sox manager benching the guy for the remainder of the season!
This is absolutely the correct response. Not even so much for scratching the kid but more so for the way they handled it. Actually a combination of both. Don't air your issues on the starting line in front of everyone.
This is absolutely the correct response. Not even so much for scratching the kid but more so for the way they handled it. Actually a combination of both. Don't air your issues on the starting line in front of everyone.
I’m late to the thread but this is very similar to what happened to me in 10th grade, albeit it was in 1999.
We had our state meet and then there was a meet post states sort of like a meet of champs.
At the state meet, I ran 4 events. After that meet, I asked my coach if at the meet of champs, I could skip the 4x800 and run the 3200 first. I hadn’t been able to run the 3200 fresh all season. He said yes.
So fast forward to meet day, he tells me to run the 4x800 first. I said no. He then says if I don’t run the relay, he would scratch me out of the meet. I said fine scratch me. He then says if I don’t run the meet, I’m off the team. So I said “I guess I’m off the team”. At this point, we had a small crowd watching because my coach was irate.
I typically wasn’t stubborn. But I felt he lied to me. Needless to say, I didn’t run that meet.
Junior year I return to the school. The cross country coach was a different coach but said he didn’t want to burn bridges with the track coach since he was the was assistant track coach. So now I couldn’t run cross country.
I transferred. Won the 1600 & 3200 at the county meet outdoor. And never spoke to my old coach again.
We had a good relationship before the incident. He passed away in 2018 and I do sort of wish he could have hashed it out as adults but it is what it is.
I seem to land at a middle ground among opinions here:
Kids should listen to their coaches. If you want to truly be an "individual," run for a club or a private coach. Otherwise, you're on a team representing your school with team goals and should listen to the coach and not freelance what races you try or don't try in
The coach should be fired (or suspended for a long time - don't wanna say he's irredeemable) because the way he acted showed he's not ready to work with kids
I don't think wanting the coach to be fired is really "middle ground".
Obviously athletes should listen to the coach for the most part. But coaching shouldn't be a dictatorship where it's "my way or the highway", they should be able to have a conversation with their athletes and keep both the individual's best interests as well as the team's.
i took the ground of saying a coach scratching a kid is final, even if the coach is wrong. But coach doing it at the line is absolutely horrendous. Definitely fireable, or at least a good suspension if the guy has several years of exemplary service.
Also, I hate that a team scoring event is tied to kids advancing towards states. Where I am, we have our regional team championship type event, and then the next week is strictly for the individuals. Keeps greedy coaches from trying to stack points at the risk of hurting their athletes.
Also, I hate that a team scoring event is tied to kids advancing towards states.
Maybe I'm reading this wrong, but in Florida the team scoring and kids advancing have nothing to do with each other. Our team regularly "won" Districts and then advanced only a handful of kids to Regionals. You can have a deep team and advance nobody, or be a superstar on a crap team and advance individually.
I never tell my kids what they are going to do. I tell them what's on the line and what our goals should be. Then we talk about who's doing what. That's their opportunity to weigh in with their concerns. If we're at odds, we discuss. Sometimes I get what I want, sometimes not. But in the end, regardless of outcome, we've agreed on a plan. Afterwards we review to determine what we learned; was it too much or too little or perfect. We do pretty well with that system.
Any word on whether this kid has been reinstated or not? Would be a bummer if he wasn't at this point. If the school thought it right to fire the coach, then the governing body has to realize that the kid was a victim of something foul.
