Stupid end of the year track awards

man yo kid sux how embarrassing

Thats life man

It's unfortunate that high school coaching is so much like the Special Olympics these days. Some coaches feel that every athlete "deserves" some recognition, so the dumbass awards you are talking about get produced.

I was at a girls cross country banquet and saw every member of the team get an award, since they only fielded seven members. If I recall, there was "Most Improved", "Captain", "Fastest Senior", "Fastest Newcomer", "Most Valuble", "Most Inpirational", and the last one that escapes my mind.

I agree. I think a couple of awards to the fastest runners are appropriate. Just don't ridicule the other kids.

Pamela Andersons Left Nipple wrote: ...the last one that escapes my mind.

Its not all lollypops and candy my friend. His performances and improvements should be enough of a reward.

Way to post it on an internet message board for everyone to see. That's really letting it go. You know he'll get 10X as much crap for it now.

get over it. your kid should honestly be laughing at it by now. if he cant handle a little embarassment, then maybe he should train harder so he wont crash like a school girl bitch in the last 100.

loser wrote:

get over it. your kid should honestly be laughing at it by now. if he cant handle a little embarassment, then maybe he should train harder so he wont crash like a school girl bitch in the last 100.

The race happened, and I'm sure he was embarrassed then. It's one thing to bring it up occassionally when discussing prior races, but to make a public mockery is really just mean-spirited.

It may be mean spirited but he shoudn't lose sleep over it. This is a sport, not your life. You lose sleep over getting fired or not being able to support your family.

GET OVER IT. if your kid is so beat up about losing a race then he needs to find another sport.

maybe its just me, but ive learned over the years to laugh at my failures after a certain amount of time. its ok to sulk for a day but you have to get over it eventually and look back on it and laugh. when you can do that, the award will become funny and not an embarassment. honestly, every team makes fun of people for messing up and if the kid cant get over it they will never succeed in the sport.

I agree that every team does it, but I don't think the coach should be part of it.

Being a little extreme here, but has everyone forgotten situations such as Columbine? I just don't think it wise for anyone, especially the coaches, to recklessly pick on someone's shortcomings. A coach doing so makes it seem "okay" for the other athletes to do it as well.

I'm not against joking and teasing, but in this day and age, you really have to KNOW the person your teasing. Obviously, this father is concerned that his kid is really bothered by it. The coach should let it go.

Pamela Andersons Left Nipple wrote:

Being a little extreme here, but has everyone forgotten situations such as Columbine? I just don't think it wise for anyone, especially the coaches, to recklessly pick on someone's shortcomings. A coach doing so makes it seem "okay" for the other athletes to do it as well.

I'm not against joking and teasing, but in this day and age, you really have to KNOW the person your teasing. Obviously, this father is concerned that his kid is really bothered by it. The coach should let it go.

If the kid's parents are worth a damn, you don't have to worry about a "Columbine".

At the end of season get together thank everyone for their efforts, highlight some of the best performances, celebrate the things that went well.

If the coach wants to throw in a little teasing, let him tease himself, not the athletes. I doubt that the coach did everything perfectly himself.

The main thing is to make everyone feel that they are glad that they belonged to the team and that their participation was appreciated.

No one should be embarassed, put down, or laughed at. That last get together may well be the last thing some athletes ever see their coach direct. Leave them with some good memories and feelings.

How old is your son and how long has he been driving his current car? Maybe he just needs a little more experience reading the gas gauge and not trying to make it home on fumes. I know gas prices are high, but keep her full for goodness sake!

While I agree that this particular award was mean-spirited, as a high school music teacher, I also give out end-of-the-year awards at our final concert. I can tell you I put a LOT of thought into this. The kids like being embarrassed, just not overly so. I've also made a habit of asking them beforehand if there's anything they do *not* want me to recognize.

They do look forward to them though -- to the extent that when I tried to break the tradition because the program had grown too big, they threw fits ("But we've been WAITING for this since FOURTH GRADE!!!"). You do have to be pretty careful though.

Probably a pointless post, but thanks for the reminder to be sensitive. I do worry.

Surprise! wrote:

Way to post it on an internet message board for everyone to see. That's really letting it go. You know he'll get 10X as much crap for it now.

Yes I thought of that. So I changed a few details to mask the identity.

perspective wrote:

At the end of season get together thank everyone for their efforts, highlight some of the best performances, celebrate the things that went well.

If the coach wants to throw in a little teasing, let him tease himself, not the athletes. I doubt that the coach did everything perfectly himself.

The main thing is to make everyone feel that they are glad that they belonged to the team and that their participation was appreciated.

No one should be embarassed, put down, or laughed at. That last get together may well be the last thing some athletes ever see their coach direct. Leave them with some good memories and feelings.

Thank you, great post. And to many of the other posters who said my son should get over it, I don't disagree but thats not the point of the thread.