A question to coaches regarding parents

If the girl is one of your seven best runners (and was varsity last weekend), then she should be on the regional team. Why would you not want your best runners out on the course? Sure, her attitude is poor, but are you telling me the Lakers are not going to start Kobe this year because he's a pain in the ass?

Let me guess, you didn't set up any guidelines for this kind of situation. A simple speadsheet tallying everyone's average place on the team throughout the season would show you who has been consistently in the top-seven and who deserves to go to regions.

You're basically telling her "I know you're one of the fastest girls on the team, but I don't like you, so you're not racing this weekend." I'd be pissed too!

try to focus on the other 7-10 girls that are working hard. The girl that didn't make the cut will always moan about something. The fact is if she trained as much as she complained, she would be running at Regionals.

Her parents are probably the type of people that complain about everything at their job from people being promoted over them to the type of coffee in the break room. The girl learned it at home.

Weekly tirade? First time it happens, call her to the side without making a big deal of it in front of the team. Explain that this behavior won't cut it on this team. Lay out consequences for when/if it does happen again. If she needs help understanding what's unacceptable behavior and why, help her with what her parents haven't. Notify parents and athletic director of this conversation. Follow through when/if it happens again. If your AD doesn't back you, you don't want to stay in this job, anyway. Don't get to the regional race with this being a pattern.

Doesn't help you for this year, but these problem children have a way of reappearing on your roster on a regular basis. Nature abhors a vacuum and all, you know?

Otherwise, the Kobe Bryant analogy probably applies. Just because someone is an idiot doesn't mean they should be excluded from running varsity when it counts. That's a pretty hard sell in our culture these days.

The reason this happens is because in many cases, it does in fact, work. Remember "the squeaky wheel gets the grease." I've seen coaches give into this because they are afraid of the parents. Its really pathetic and hurts team morale to see coaches do this. If she is not top 7, then stick to your position. The team and other parents will respect you for it. Good luck.

If you didn't set up any sort of team rules, then it could be difficult to argue if her times are top 7. We, as coaches, always hope that our top 7 are the 7 who work the hardest, but it usually isn't the case. If her are the other girls are close in times 15sec on the same course, then you argue that you feel the younger runner is improving and will be better with just bit more time. Anyways, good luck, these are the decisions that make a coaches life hell. At least we are not basketball coaches!

thanks for the replies - first, this runner is a senior, supposedly seniors are to lead by example, rules were in place in june and from previous track season. she pulled the same crap during track season last spring, however the timeclock doesn't lie.

the previous coach for 6 plus years was a 38 year old "buddy" to HS girls, not a coach, no discipline, no plan. only had 14 girls before.

new coach, wow, 29 girls, all running faster than ever, third in a very competitive conference meet, where they had been DFL or NTDFL for the last several years, and in the major meets have been no worse than 2nd all season. i agree with the earlier comment, she' learned this at home. secondly, with a loaded team, she can no longer get by on her previous work-ethic, so now she's using the entitlement card instead of accountability for her own lack of training and piss-poor attitude. sooner or later she will find out the talent you have will only get you so far. she just found out.

I am confused here....is this senior girl not on the regional team because she was not one of your top runners, or not on the regional team because you don't like her attitude? If she was one of the top runners and made the cut to be on that regional squad...then she has every right to be complaining. I am reading your post to say that you put slower girls, who worked harder, ahead of her. Which is it?

We have all had girls or boys that are major pains, but if they are producing the times and you are chosing based on times only, then she should be on the team. If that is not your criteria, than it should be spelled out in advance so athletes and parents alike can know the score. She is a senior as well....so it is the end of the road for her if she doesn't go on to postseason competition. I feel your pain, as far as a girl who is behaving poorly, but she is also a kid, who apparently wasn't brought up well....

If she has the better times, I vote for her to be on the team.....if that is how you chose the team.

She's had one race during the season where she started in the top seven, the first race, an invite where she finished bairly top ten for the team. She's not run varsity 5 in any invites this year, and barely hangs on to place 7. There are four others who run thirty seconds or more faster in the varsity reserve race, same day same course, not as deep of field. At this time of the year, I'm going with those in the top five who've been there all year, and two others who will challenge places 3,4,5 to race faster. It's not as if these two have not raced varsity at all this season and they've crushed our senior whiner thoroughout the season both in workouts and in races where senior girl has to run varsity reserve becasue she was not in the first 7 for the week based on the last duel meet and then still get's it handed to her.

The point of the thread focused on pissy athletes who do not follow the program, don't train, think they no more than the coach, then when the bus leaves without 'em, they run crying to mommy and daddy. shes thnks she's running in college and has stated she has a number of schools interested.

a bit of irony here, last time i talked with any collegiate coach, i do not recall any interested in a 23 minute 5k / 237 800 meter runner with a bad attitude.

she's a senior going out into the real world in 6 plus months. if this is the most difficult she'll ever have to deal with, god bless her for such an easy life.

Please spell it out in simple words... is she consistently part of your top 7?

Here you go.

Was her time ever in the fastest seven?

Was she consistently in the fastest seven?

If you ran all of your runners in a race by themselves, would she place in the top seven?

Was she complaining throughout the year?

Was she complaining only after being told that she would not run in the top seven for regionals?

Simple yes or no answers please, and then we will deal with attitude.

Thanks

To simply matters, if she would normally be running varsity in the next meet according to the criteria you have used all year, she should be running varsity. If she wouldn't be, then she shouldn't run varsity.

However, if you are changing the rules at the last moment because you don't like her, that's a breech of faith that sets a far worse precedent than letting her run. You set up the system. You should live up to it. You can correct it in the future as needed.

By the way, since you knew all about the attitude problem coming in and did not address it before or during the season, this one is on you.

We all screw up. That's usually how we learn things.

Once. At the begining of the season, first meet, based on last years time under the previous coach.

No

No

Every Opportunity

Yes w/ a profanity laced tirade in front of her teammates and several parents.

If she is not in the top seven, she doesn't run. If she cannot accept that, she is not a teammate, and if the school is not owned by her parents she sits.

Tell everyone involved that the matter is over. No one runs simply because they are seniors. You have to earn it.

best attitude + best times=the privilege to

represent your school in the regionals

What's with this idea that anyone has a "right" to run varsity? I tell my team that the seven spots belong to me, not to them, but if they're deserving I might lend them one.

This one is obvious--she has a crappy attitude AND she's not in the top seven. She didn't earn it twice. But a crappy attitude in the top seven doesn't have a right to run, although you need to establish that as the team culture. My team, bless their hearts, objected to our #4 running varsity upon return from injury because her attitude during her time off was so poor. They called it right, too.

You say you're a new coach, so take charge now and the problem will be solved for the long term. Your fight with mom and dad won't be fun, but will be worthwhile.

Spoken by another arrogant asshole coach - chances are none of your athletes will ever actually have a real coach/athlete relationship with you. I don't know what this OP coach has for/or against his athlete - or why he is insecure enough to even bring it to a message board to elicit opinions that should have little to do with his decision, is beyond me.

You are the one actually borrowing the team. It is likely that a team, whether good or not is irrelevant, existed before you and will exist after you - hopefully your tenure is short!

spectator wrote:

I don't know what this OP coach has for/or against his athlete

What? The OP has described in detail what he has against his athlete.

spectator needs to get some spectacles because your hindsight is atrocious and it's doubtful you have 20/20 vision

we should consider the source, so let's ask...where are you spectacting from? Are you a troublesome runner with a Coach that doesn't understand you or are you parent with an "entitled" child who butts heads with their coach or are you some incredibly gifted Coach who this would never happen to?

Since you are so enlightened, please enlighten us.

Are you running a racing team or a jogging club?

If really are a XC Team, then the top athletes by either real or projected performance (you can sometimes use a spreadsheet to show that a rapidly-improving younger runner will be faster than an older, more "established" performer) should be on the varsity team.

If you use objective criteria, you are generally immune to criticism. You start asking for trouble when you get into "politics," particularly if a particular clique doesn't like somebody.

If the complaining girl hasn't worked as hard as others and doesn't have the results, give her and her parents a list of local "running" clubs where she might find Gallowalkers more attudned to her work ethic.