What counts as a good excuse to miss the league championship?

High school athletes are full of bs excuses (this coming from a guy that loves coaching high school athletes).

And it is almost always 100% the parents' fault. There are some kids who have never missed a practice in all their years of running for me, because their parents created that expectation for them. Other kids miss all the time because of doctors' appointments, tutoring sessions, family trips to disneyland (*during* school) that they "just couldn't get out of."

Bullshit. It's very frustrating but I try not to let it bother me.

The high school coach's creed: "I will put as much effort into coaching an athlete as that athlete puts into being coached"

Frustrated Coach wrote:

In my opinion, not much qualifies: illness, injury and emergencies about cover it. I ask because one of my students just told me, with less than a week before the big dance, that he can't run in the league championship meet (the final competition for most kids) because he has to attend his cousin's bar mitzvah.

Her parents were even more adamant, so there's nothing I can do, but I was hoping for some feedback here. Am I being culturally insensitive in thinking that this is a bs excuse?

So you think Eric Lidell had a bs excuse to miss an Olympic race?

Go to the football and basketball coaches and ask them if this would be an acceptable excuse for missing a post season game. Ask what the punishment would be for doing this - could very well be dismissal from the team. If it is, ask the athlete for her uniform tomorrow. Track and Field will be treated as second class sports as long as coaches allow it to be.

Frustrated Coach wrote:

In my opinion, not much qualifies: illness, injury and emergencies about cover it. I ask because one of my students just told me, with less than a week before the big dance, that he can't run in the league championship meet (the final competition for most kids) because he has to attend his cousin's bar mitzvah.

Her parents were even more adamant, so there's nothing I can do, but I was hoping for some feedback here. Am I being culturally insensitive in thinking that this is a bs excuse?

Coach N wrote:

The high school coach's creed: "I will put as much effort into coaching an athlete as that athlete puts into being coached"

Words to live by. Thanks for sharing your experiences. It's actually comforting to know that it's usually parents who are to blame; it's frustrating, but I don't take that personally.

Paris Olympics wrote:

Frustrated Coach wrote:

In my opinion, not much qualifies: illness, injury and emergencies about cover it. I ask because one of my students just told me, with less than a week before the big dance, that he can't run in the league championship meet (the final competition for most kids) because he has to attend his cousin's bar mitzvah.

Her parents were even more adamant, so there's nothing I can do, but I was hoping for some feedback here. Am I being culturally insensitive in thinking that this is a bs excuse?

So you think Eric Lidell had a bs excuse to miss an Olympic race?

a thousand times yes

This is the downside to having a no cut sport. I'd like to create a structure within HS XC where I'd have 14-20 boys and 14-20 girls on the XC team and designate the rest as a Running Club team.

This would create an incentive to make the cut but would allow everyone to participate. I hate having kids come out and just jog for four years.

Childbirth

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White chocolate mouse pie

Rerun of The Waltons

Ugly pimple

Woke up in Mongolia

WW III

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Death

Don't have this problem wrote:

Go to the football and basketball coaches and ask them if this would be an acceptable excuse for missing a post season game. Ask what the punishment would be for doing this - could very well be dismissal from the team. If it is, ask the athlete for her uniform tomorrow. Track and Field will be treated as second class sports as long as coaches allow it to be.

I would love to be able to do that. Unfortunately all the coaches at our (small, private) school are pretty much required to kowtow to parents, no matter how ridiculous their demands would seem in most other programs.

I agree with your conviction, though. Maybe at the beginning of next season I'll use examples like this to hopefully deter unacceptable behavior.

Unfortunately you have missed the boat a bit here. This happens from time to time when a high school coach runs his 15-18yr old kids like a College or University. The problem with this is that only a tiny percentage of kids really truly care as deeply about their athletic performance as the coach does....The vast majority of kids are there to be involved in a social club so to speak, as they show up day in and day out it is inevitable that some of them will show promise, but that isn't suppose to take the appearance of desire or passion.

My advice to the OP: stop living vicariously through every athlete, expect some to not be invested as much as you clearly are, and focus on the ones that truly do care because, lets face it, those are the only ones who will go on to the next level anyway. Way more important to be a mentor to them, someone they look up to for life lessons as they pertain to running. Help them achieve in the classroom and keep them pointed straight ahead.

Doubt this kid was going to be the difference in a team state title or factor in the scoring enough to affect the other members of the team. I could be wrong here, but even still, his "excuse" is plenty valid in my opinion.

Frustrated Coach wrote:

In my opinion, not much qualifies: illness, injury and emergencies about cover it. I ask because one of my students just told me, with less than a week before the big dance, that he can't run in the league championship meet (the final competition for most kids) because he has to attend his cousin's bar mitzvah.

Her parents were even more adamant, so there's nothing I can do, but I was hoping for some feedback here. Am I being culturally insensitive in thinking that this is a bs excuse?

Believe it or not, everyone does not have the same expectations from their participation in sports as you do.

What's the problem, does someone dare have a life outside of your solipsistic little bubble? Why don't you just thank her for being on the team and move on, like most grownups would do?

malmo wrote:

Believe it or not, everyone does not have the same expectations from their participation in sports as you do.

What's the problem, does someone dare have a life outside of your solipsistic little bubble? Why don't you just thank her for being on the team and move on, like most grownups would do?

You went way off the rails here. I completely support students' involvement in other interests and extracurriculars, and am actually very cognizant of the fact that these kids are only 15, and that only a small minority shares my enthusiasm for track. I almost never decline requests to miss practices and regular-season meets, even when the excuse falls far outside the category of "illness, injury and emergency" that I mentioned in the original post.

You seem to equate a coach expecting her athlete to attend the last and most important meet with immaturity on my part, and a request that commitments to the team be honored with solipsistic rigidity.

I would urge you to be more sensitive to the religious and cultural issue here. For many Jews, a bar mitzvah in the family is a major event and not attending it is disrespectful.

Consider the angle that the athlete is not coming up with an excuse to miss the meet, but may feel torn between two obligations, one to family and faith, the other to the team.

I agree with the op. This is a cousin, not even an immediate family member and 1 week notice?

I'd enter him in the shot put and 100m for the next 5 meets. Assuming he is a distance runner. Or the shot and 3200 if he's a sprinter.

Is the Bar Mitzvah local? What time does it start?

There is a difference between a good excuse and one that I would got to he mats for. I personally don't think a bar mitvah is a good excuse, but it is not one I will call the student to account for. It also depends on the student...is this just another in a string of excuses or is it a legitimate aberration in this runner's MO. I put Eric Lidell in the same category. With a PhD in Theology and as an ordained pastor, I think I stand on firm ground claiming that there is nothing in Scriptures that would prohibit Lidell from competing on Sunday. However, if his conscience led him to that conclusion, I will stand behind him.

Excuses R Us wrote:

Childbirth

Broken leg

White chocolate mouse pie

Rerun of The Waltons

Ugly pimple

Woke up in Mongolia

WW III

Met a girl

Death

you forgot 'flooded basement'

Coach N wrote:

Bullshit. It's very frustrating but I try not to let it bother me.

Clearly, you *try* without much success.

I'm Jewish and this is bogus. Cousin?

You can't coach desire.

If the kid is a remotely decent runner, I highly doubt he wants to miss the meet. It is his idiot family that is making him. Not much you can do about that.