I coach in a D1 Power 5 Conference. A walkon sophomore on my team is a very mediocre cross runner. He scored at our conference meet but we are pretty much the worst team in our conference so that isn't saying much. The kid is nowhere close to being All-Conference in anything.
In fairness, he is a little better in track and I would expect him to run 14:15-14:25 for a 5k this spring. That's not bad but it is still nowhere close to scoring me points.
Now, usually I would think about giving this kid some $ to recognize his contributions (even if that is just books) but the problem is his father. The guy is a total a-hole and is always bitching about how I don't acknowledge his son enough. He gets on message boards and talks shit about me and uses details that make it easy enough to find out who is being talked about. I hate to take it out on the kid but if parent's can bitch their way into money, then my job is almost impossible.
The kid came here "just to run" and "just wanted a spot on the team." The dad knew that! Now, the damn dad wants more and more. If I gave the kid books, the dad would complain. You know the type.
What can I do to make the dad see reality aside from kicking him in damn balls?