Connecticut XC Coach Resigns After AD Says He Has To Take Back Kid Who Quit Team W/O Apology

Simsbury's athletic director Jeff Pinney was shocked by the resignation.

"His decision to resign was a surprise. It was his decision to make."

Pinney said Cohen never voiced his concerns about what had existed previously with the athlete.

"None of coach Cohen's concerns were brought to our attention before this season, We did our best to support him. We told him, 'Here's how we would like to support you and address any concerns you have,' but unfortunately, that was not able to happen."

If there was legitimate concern, why would the coach not state what it was?

Apparently he was just an extreme control freak, and that was not good for the kids.

The statement by the AD is very politically correct, but goes to show how ridiculous public schools are. The schools are scared of parents and act like cowards. You don’t kick a kid off the team that isn’t a bad seed. Lets see where this program is in 1-2 years.

I heard some dude with a Rollie Fingers moustache wanted to run in the girls races and coach said, "Not gonna do it! Wouldn't be prudent!".

All ADs are spineless dicks these days. Couldn't cut it as athletes when they were kids, same with sports writers.

I knew Cohen back at GMRC in the late 90s/early 2000s. Always liked him and really respected the community of current and former Simsbury runners he created.

This story is way short on details. What exactly was the athlete doing that resulted in the coach being so frustrated with the athlete's attitude that he would want to kick the kid off the team, then resign when he's not permitted to kick the kid off the team? You don't throw away a 30-year coaching career over something minor. This coach had to have had other frustrating athletes and situations over his 30 years that he successfully dealt with. And why didn't he bring this issue to his AD's attention before resigning? Does the athlete have something on the coach? I have no idea, but this doesn't pass the smell test. There's a lot not being told here and I cannot pick sides without knowing it.

Please link to original sources if you can. The initial Hartford Courant article has much more info.http://www.courant.com/sports/high-schools/hc-hs-mike-cohen-resigns-1006-20171005-story.html

Coach was 100% right. Kid joins track team, is a pain in teh butt, selfish and quits mid-sesason.

So you'd think once you quit, you were done unless you made amends/apologize for quitting.

But know the kid pays his fee and shows up and the coach says, "What's different?" The kid says "Nothing."

The coach correctly assesses, "We've done this before. I don't want you on the team." The AD says, "You have to let him be on the team."

Coach says, "No I don't. Good bye."

LetsRun.com wrote:

Please link to original sources if you can. The initial Hartford Courant article has much more info.

http://www.courant.com/sports/high-schools/hc-hs-mike-cohen-resigns-1006-20171005-story.html

Rojo, please look up what "original sources" means. I agree this article you linked is better, but it isn't an "original source." As a self-declared journalist, you should at least know something like that.

Admin wanted to disempower the coach and destroy his ability to manage the team, so he was right to quit and admin was absolutely wrong. By maintaining a firm message, they would likely have forced the athlete to learn a lesson and apologize or just had proper discipline with the other kids.

Coach sounds like A-hole wrote:

Simsbury's athletic director Jeff Pinney was shocked by the resignation.

"His decision to resign was a surprise. It was his decision to make."

Pinney said Cohen never voiced his concerns about what had existed previously with the athlete.

"None of coach Cohen's concerns were brought to our attention before this season, We did our best to support him. We told him, 'Here's how we would like to support you and address any concerns you have,' but unfortunately, that was not able to happen."

If there was legitimate concern, why would the coach not state what it was?

Apparently he was just an extreme control freak, and that was not good for the kids.

He acted like a mature adult, a model example. He's not going to call out a minor, a kid in high school, and there is no reason for a coach to kick this up to a higher level before he did. This is an perfect model of how to handle a situation like this. School administrators generally suck, although admittedly the system the work in sucks.

CapnPerv wrote:

All ADs are spineless dicks these days. Couldn't cut it as athletes when they were kids, same with sports writers.

They suck and the system sucks. It's the same everywhere throughout society. Nobody has anyone's back when it comes to doing right. Everyone caves to the angry parent, the upset a$$hole customer, the protesters, anything. It's too bad.

Sage coach stands his ground! LRC Note: Please link to original sources if you can. The initial Hartford Courant article has much more info. We also made the title more descriptive.

Coach was 100% right. Kid joins track team, is a pain in teh butt, selfish and quits mid-sesason.

So you'd think once you quit, you were done unless you made amends/apologize for quitting.

But know the kid pays his fee and shows up and the coach says, "What's different?" The kid says "Nothing."

The coach correctly assesses, "We've done this before. I don't want you on the team." The AD says, "You have to let him be on the team."

Coach says, "No I don't. Good bye."

Here is the link the OP linked to

Are $175 participation fees normal in high school? Is that just to be on the xc team, or does that cover any event for the year?

john utah wrote:

CapnPerv wrote:

All ADs are spineless dicks these days. Couldn't cut it as athletes when they were kids, same with sports writers.

They suck and the system sucks. It's the same everywhere throughout society. Nobody has anyone's back when it comes to doing right. Everyone caves to the angry parent, the upset a$$hole customer, the protesters, anything. It's too bad.

^^^^^THIS!!!^^^^

Yep thats pretty normal and one of the reasons why ad's push towards keeping all kids around. I would joke with my boss that we are the cheapest babysitters in town

I went to XC camp with some Simsbury runners. This was like 6-7 years ago but I'm pretty sure they said their coach was kind of crazy.

john utah wrote:

Coach sounds like A-hole wrote:

If there was legitimate concern, why would the coach not state what it was?

Apparently he was just an extreme control freak, and that was not good for the kids.

He acted like a mature adult, a model example. He's not going to call out a minor, a kid in high school, and there is no reason for a coach to kick this up to a higher level before he did. This is an perfect model of how to handle a situation like this. School administrators generally suck, although admittedly the system the work in sucks.

Exactly. Do we really need the coach to lay out his grievances in the press for the whole town to read about? The coach did the right thing by choosing not to drag the kid through the mud publicly just to show LR that he was right.

Figures this curmudgeonly board would take the side of the coach.

It's high school, for God's sake. You pay the activities fee, you survive the tryout, you play on the team. Since XC doesn't have tryouts usually, skip step 2. As long as you weren't like, I don't know, beating up your teammates at practice, a new year should mean a new chance to show you can do the work and contribute.

All the coach's silliness about "but he has to learn LIFE LESSONS (TM)!!" is bunk. The kid is... well, a kid. Especially at that age, kids mature a lot from year to year. The lazy smart-arse from last year could easily become a hard worker in a year's time. Indeed, if that's how the kid is now, then maybe he actually learned the LIFE LESSON (TM) himself without the help of some two-bit running coach.

And if he hasn't, he'll probably quit again. But the coach, the adult, has to be the one who is willing to give the kid the benefit of the doubt. All it sounds like is that the coach is afraid that the kid might (emphasis, might) be difficult, and doesn't want to have to deal with difficulty. Therefore, since he isn't willing to do the job he's paid to do, difficulties and all, I guess he did the right thing by resigning and handing it over to someone who is willing to do the work instead.

But anyway, I'll wait for the next post where some guy says his boss makes him do too much work, and all the same curmudgeons defending the coach will say "IF YOU DON'T LIKE THE JOB THEN QUIT!!!!!"

There is not enough information in either news story to let any of us know if this coach was warranted in trying to keep this kid off the team. Usually a team has a set of rules that the athlete agrees to in writing. If the rules are broken, the coach has an easy way to dismiss the athlete. Apparently this coach did not have such rules, and if he did, the kid didn't break one of them. If you want to keep a kid from being on the team because he quit during track season, then that should be one of the rules.

Also, go look at the coach's team. Both his girls team and boys team are horrid.

40+ runners on each team, and not a good runner in the lot. Not sure what this kid could do to make that team worse. Tells me that he didn't inspire them to run in the summer like they should have. Probably the real reason he quit.