I had a terrible XC coach in high school. Nice guy but he knew nothing about running and never made much of an effort. After going off for college and working in the city for a few years I moved back to my home town and ran into him at a bar. He said he was still coaching but his heart wasn't in it. Life had really beaten the hell out of this poor guy- nasty divorce, wife took the kids, underwater on his mortgage, and totally burnt out on teaching. XC was no where near the top of his priorities. I had gotten back into running a year or so earlier so I told him that I would be happy to volunteer coach the men's a few days a week. I'm not experienced but at least I had enthusiasm.
Twelve guys came out and a few of them even had some summer mileage which was honestly better than I expected. Four were pretty serious and just needed direction. The others were just there because their parents made them do a sport. That's ok though. I can work with that if they at least keep a good attitude and put in some effort at practice.
Throughout pre-season I worked out with the guys twice a week and had an optional long run on Saturdays that was generally well attended. A few parents got involved in a good way too- they brought donuts for the Saturday long runs and we discussed team and individual goals. After 6 weeks of pre-season training I was very happy and, even though I wasn't a coach, it was pretty clear that I was the one calling the shots. The top three runners were pretty clear and there were another five that were all in contention to be in the top seven. The other four were pretty useless and didn't care. One of these runners, we'll call him 'Bobbie', was really toxic. He was a senior who's parents made him run XC to get in shape for basketball. He was a very good basketball player, I'll grant him that. He would mouth off to me and the coach, conspire with the other runners do dog workouts, and was a bad influence on the other three runners.
Then the first meet came... and that's when the problems started.
I named our top seven runners on Wednesday and I got a call from Bobbie's parents that night. Apparently, Bobbie had been telling his parents that he was working super hard in practice (he wasn't), that he was the third fastest on the team (he certainly had the talent to be good but finished 9th in the time trial), that I was mistreating him (a bit of merit here, I was hard on the guys and especially hard on the ones that dogged the workouts), and had left him off the travel roster due because I had a personal vendetta against him (I didn't, only 7 kids travel due to the van size. I was actually pretty heartbroken that I had to leave the eight guy behind but both he and his parents understood). I explained all this to Bobbie's parents and they threw a shit storm. I don't deal with dramatic bull sh*t very well so I told them to call the AD if they have a problem and hung up.
Bobbie didn't show up for practice the next day and the AD asked to see me and the coach on Friday morning before the meet. The AD said that he had no problem with us leaving him off the team. Whew, that was a relief. Then he dropped the bomb- Bobbie had accused me of being a pedophile and the parents wanted to know why a single guy in his mid 20s would volunteer to work out with high school boys. WHAT?!?! I had a damn fiancé and the only thing that I had ever done that could be construed as inappropriate was run with the guys without a shirt on the Saturday runs. Since my volunteer coaching agreement was strictly informal I never did a background check (don't worry, I have a clean record) or received my CPR and some other certifications. The AD said the parents were going to file a police report (for what I don't know exactly) unless I was 'fired' and that would have put the school in some hot water. So the AD told me to I couldn't be involved with the team anymore.
I understood the AD's position and don't fault him but man... I was crushed. The team was really starting to gel and I was having a great time coaching them. The team took it pretty rough too and a few tried to contact me but I ignored their texts and calls because I was pretty paranoid about the whole pedophile accusation thing. I did follow the team in the newspapers and through the coach who I still provided training plans to and they had a pretty good season which made me feel a bit better.
My oldest daughter is starting to get involved in sports now and my wife wants me to be the soccer coach. Fvck that... I'm never getting involved in coaching again.