I am a high school coach, and one of my assistants wants to miss a meet, a home meet where we are the officials. I think it is wrong, but don't want to cause an uproar to my team. This isn't the first incident of stuff this year. I am thinking of cutting him loose at the end of the season.
If you want to do this young person a favor give him a choice, either stay for his job, or don't come back. This is what is really, really wrong with our sport. Can you imagine an assistant basketball coach telling the head coach that he will miss the game so he can go play rec ball. If we do not have respect for our sport then who will.
Good luck.
Discussing personnel issues on a message board is the mark of a true professional. Anonymously discussing staff with random strangers is an important tactic that is missing from too many managers' toolboxes. I commend you, sir.
either you are a coach, or you are an athlete. trying to be both means you are neither.
the above poster is correct. track is a step child. no cuts. kids missing meets for family spring break vacations. kids missing championship meets for prom.
all in, or not in at all. make your choice
is he a good coach otherwise? Does he get paid? Is he an elite runner or just a guy?
I used to miss a meet once or twice a year to race. However, I made more racing than I did coaching, so I thought it was fine.
When you begin coaching it outweighs your own running, he needs a priority check as the athletes races are greater than his(or should be). I would talk to him, if it continues do a 1 warning or yer done...then get rid of him.
sorry but this is our world wrote:
If you want to do this young person a favor give him a choice, either stay for his job, or don't come back. This is what is really, really wrong with our sport. Can you imagine an assistant basketball coach telling the head coach that he will miss the game so he can go play rec ball. If we do not have respect for our sport then who will.
Good luck.
This is among the worst advice I have ever seen on this forum.
bewildered wrote:
I am a high school coach, and one of my assistants wants to miss a meet, a home meet where we are the officials. I think it is wrong, but don't want to cause an uproar to my team. This isn't the first incident of stuff this year. I am thinking of cutting him loose at the end of the season.
Yeah I'm sure you can find someone from the chess club to replace him.
Did you hire him? Did he discuss continuing his own running/racing at that point? Did you tell him you would work with it and it was ok?
Yes to those means you should have put more thought into it. Yes to the first, but you didn't ask the rest means you should have put more thought into it.
Is he paid or is he a volunteer? I have been coaching 13 years in H.S and have never missed a meet or practice. That's the example I set for our team. If he is a volunteer that is probably O.K as he would be giving up his time to help the team. I make it easy for my volunteer coaches as they are a invaluable resource and have many other things going on in their life’s. But if a he is a paid assistant get rid of him.
If you can find someone better next year and you think that missing the meet is a product of bad or not caring attitude, then fine cut him loose after this year and you will be better for it.
However, most asst coaching positions pay squat and with many schools not hiring you may be stuck with something worse. Better be careful you are not letting the baby out with the bathwater.
I knew some guys on a cross-country team where the coach cancelled a meet so the girls team could get ready to go to prom, not be at prom, just get ready for prom ( or homecoming , whatever) how freaking sad is that?
As elitist as it sounds, it depends on how good he is. My high school girl's team had an Olympian as the assistant coach, and it was obviously fine if she missed a random relay meet to race in Brussels. If the guy misses a small thing like this to go to a meaningful race, I think that's fine. If it's part of a pattern of not caring about races, you need to talk to him and let him know that you're upset.
My Coach sends us to races with an Asst Coach sometimes so he can compete in local road races.
Guldens Gulch wrote:
As elitist as it sounds, it depends on how good he is. My high school girl's team had an Olympian as the assistant coach, and it was obviously fine if she missed a random relay meet to race in Brussels. If the guy misses a small thing like this to go to a meaningful race, I think that's fine. If it's part of a pattern of not caring about races, you need to talk to him and let him know that you're upset.
Yep. My local team has a similar situation. The coach isn't an Olympian, but she's not far from that level. Very occasionally, she leaves the team with the assistant coaches so she can compete. She's a great coach and all involved are more than fine with the situation.
So, yeah, it depends on how good the coach is. Is he missing the meet to try to get his trials qualifier, or is he missing the meet to run 18 minutes at some local fun run?
Going to assume the coach is not an Olympian going to race in Brussels.
I go with the "you committed to being here and we need you as an official". If you give him a choice and he chooses to run and miss the meet, cut him loose.
Tell the team the truth.
Let him run the damn race you idiot.
Do you want him to never race again?
You're an idiot.
That's tricky... In my 6 years of coaching & competing, I've never thought of missing a meet to compete on my own. If it was an optional weekend morning practice for the athletes and I had a meet, that was one thing.. but never a meet.
But the OP has yet to tell us if this guy is out making money in his races or if he's a volunteer or paid assistant
The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, or the one.
bewildered wrote:
I am a high school coach, and one of my assistants wants to miss a meet, a home meet where we are the officials. I think it is wrong, but don't want to cause an uproar to my team. This isn't the first incident of stuff this year. I am thinking of cutting him loose at the end of the season.
When you say this isn't the first incident "of stuff," it sounds as if there's a pattern of wrongdoing of various kinds--i.e. does he routinely blow off the team practices and meets or do other things that suggest indifference to the team's interests?
Do the team members respect him and does he work well with them when he's there? That can be huge--if there's good rapport, it's not so easy to find that... better the troubles you know than those you don't...
But if besides this issue, there are problems with team members not responding well to him, that's a symptom of problems deeper than his wanting to race on the day of the meet in question.
Also as others have mentioned, if he's an elite runner and this race is important--i.e. an Olympic Trials qualifier or even the chance to score money in a major race--it's worth cutting him some slack. The status of having someone with that kind of credential shouldn't be overlooked.
If you haven't already, maybe it's time to have a talk with him about his racing schedule vs. the team's meet schedule. Is there some room for compromise? Can the two of you work out some mutually agreeable arrangement that allows him to run some races as long as he can be there for most meets and practices?
Best not to make the decision to drop him lightly b/c how much guarantee do you have that a replacement would do better?