Thinking about running for Emory? Think again

This whole thing just seems like it is a combination of both coaching behavior and also athlete behavior. I read the rules and while I don't think it necessary to have a list of 45 rules to be signed, I also think that these rules are basic and whether written down or not they should be followed. If the worse thing for any of these athletes is that they have to wear school colors at practice then they are living a pretty good life. All of which leads me to the next thing.

An argument could be made that organizations evolve and in the evolution of the program (new coaches) the entire organization needs to adapt, particularly to the leadership. This happens everywhere in the world and while quitting is one option i am not convinced the athletes learn anything by doing this. Finish what you started is a good thing. Choose not to comeback in future seasons but don't quit in the middle.

DIII athletics is different from DI and DII in that there is no athletic scholarship. There are some other small differences but the differences do not include working hard, being responsible, being a good teammate, being coachable, setting goals, setting priorities.... Those things should exist whether in a DIII, D2, or D1 program. Just because you are a DIII athlete you don't get to create your own rules for participation.

I can't tell if kids were treated unfairly by the coaches. It might be the case and each individual case should be reviewed. However, having high standards is not the same as being treated unfairly and I do not know if the kids understand this.

Finally, one of the roles of a coach is being able to communicate and relate with student athletes in a productive way. Forcing athletes to sign a list of 45 rules is not a productive way to get the athletes to buy into a program that believes in high standards in the important areas of athletics.

My coach tried to do this back in the day. We all signed the document then ignored the rules, he didn't do a thing.

Fact is, student's are legal adults and in their early 20s-I couldn't think of a demographic more disinterested being told what to wear, etc. Just as the coach DOES have the right to kick people off for ignoring rules, no athlete has to be on a team they don't want to be on. I don't think the kids quitting reflects their characters in any way, it's just what they decided to do. Personally, I would leave too. I'm not interested in working with an overbearing dad or a micromanager of a coach. If you don't trust enough to give some wiggle room then it's more beneficial for me to leave for an environment or activity I enjoy more,

trainers daily wrote:

with regards to these academic elite D3 schools - having the coaching staff go to bat for an athlete to get them admitted is akin to a scholarship and comes along with expectations that should be similar to a D1-D2 athlete

How so? You can't revoke admission like a scholarship. Obviously it's a sh*tty thing to do if your coach went up to bat for you but, no, the expectations are not the same.

self inf wrote:

My coach tried to do this back in the day. We all signed the document then ignored the rules, he didn't do a thing.

Fact is, student's are legal adults and in their early 20s-I couldn't think of a demographic more disinterested being told what to wear, etc. Just as the coach DOES have the right to kick people off for ignoring rules, no athlete has to be on a team they don't want to be on. I don't think the kids quitting reflects their characters in any way, it's just what they decided to do. Personally, I would leave too. I'm not interested in working with an overbearing dad or a micromanager of a coach. If you don't trust enough to give some wiggle room then it's more beneficial for me to leave for an environment or activity I enjoy more,

What's weird about it to me is that it really treats the athletes like children. They're at Emory, so they're in the top 5% academically, right? So they should be smart enough to know not to get black out drunk the day before a meet. But the way this is written makes it seem like this dude is showing up at apartments at 10pm at night to monitor if there's any beer around, and that's completely ridiculous.

Looks like a lazy move on the part of the coach. However, don't D3 coaches also serve as instructors in classes on campus? In situations like this the coach probably lacks the free time in to have weekly sit-down one-on-one conversations to ensure buy-in to higher level culture with each and every team member. You'd think there would be at least a few team leaders who would have buy-in and help model and reinforce rules and standards, but I wouldn't expect too much at a Southern private school in today's world.

Very interesting topic in that it seems whining is now an acceptable mode of dealing with life and posting them on a public forum adds to the flavor.

When I was a freshman in college we had 60 other freshmen on the team. By the time we all graduated 4 years later, there were 10 of us still on the team. The only scholarship athlete had quit by his sophomore year and many of the others went off and found other distractions from the stress of "academic life" on campus. There was no internet to post about lousy coaching or terrible rules and regulations and no complaints ever got written up in the school newspaper or local papers, as no one complained. Instead the team was top 3 in the IC-4A's two of my four years and had two All-Americans in those four years and eventually an Olympian, along with winning many conference and other championships. The squad always maintained their total participation numbers over the years. Walk-ons came and left, as that is the nature of the sport.

No need to get into how the culture of sports participation and expectations has changed over the years, but it has.

Falcon Heene wrote:

Looks like a lazy move on the part of the coach. However, don't D3 coaches also serve as instructors in classes on campus? In situations like this the coach probably lacks the free time in to have weekly sit-down one-on-one conversations to ensure buy-in to higher level culture with each and every team member. You'd think there would be at least a few team leaders who would have buy-in and help model and reinforce rules and standards, but I wouldn't expect too much at a Southern private school in today's world.

Not sure, if you're joking, but DIII coaches at schools like Emory are full time coaches.

self inf wrote:

trainers daily wrote:

with regards to these academic elite D3 schools - having the coaching staff go to bat for an athlete to get them admitted is akin to a scholarship and comes along with expectations that should be similar to a D1-D2 athlete

How so? You can't revoke admission like a scholarship. Obviously it's a sh*tty thing to do if your coach went up to bat for you but, no, the expectations are not the same.

you are correct - would just expect a level of maturity and awareness to recognize that a big reason you are at this elite school is because you gave the impressive that you were serious about t/f -- you essentially took a spot from someone else because you successfully put up a facade that you were serious about your extracurricular activity -- and when the experience was a bit more intense than the intramural environment you expected you quit and throw the program and coach under the bus on the way out

If you bring an authoritarian, D1 football coach mentality into a liberal arts environment, it's not gonna go well, even if you have committed runners. There's definitely a subset of D3 "athletes" who don't want anything to do with real training and should just stick to running for fun, but you can weed them out without resorting to bullshit micromanagement.

It is really sad and scary where we are going as a society. It really is. To see what these college kids are complains about makes me sick to my stomach. This is at a prestigious academic school so these young people will likely someday be in leadership positions throughout our country. I’m only hoping that some day the pendulum swings back into the direction of normalcy. It really is ok to be uncomfortable without whining. If you cannot tolerate those basic team rules then you really have issues and life is about to give you a beat down. Good luck in your misery!

Most of these are pretty common sense. Some of them I agree with in principle but I would tweak. A minority I think are stupid. My college team had expectations similar to this.

WTF is IC-4A's???

"14.All medical concerns/illnesses will first go through training room, including student health appointments."

GFY.

The social media rule is kind of weird too

The Gallant Pig Man wrote:

If you bring an authoritarian, D1 football coach mentality into a liberal arts environment, it's not gonna go well, even if you have committed runners. There's definitely a subset of D3 "athletes" who don't want anything to do with real training and should just stick to running for fun, but you can weed them out without resorting to bullshit micromanagement.

Not only that, they're going to finish no better 5th at UAAs and be behind the winner (WashU) by at least 100 points, and as they say, Freddy Linton ain't walking through that door.

If you're going to be an jerk, get results. Otherwise you're going to go from D1 to D3 to an assistant high school coach.

scary wrote:

It is really sad and scary where we are going as a society. It really is. To see what these college kids are complains about makes me sick to my stomach. This is at a prestigious academic school so these young people will likely someday be in leadership positions throughout our country. I’m only hoping that some day the pendulum swings back into the direction of normalcy. It really is ok to be uncomfortable without whining. If you cannot tolerate those basic team rules then you really have issues and life is about to give you a beat down. Good luck in your misery!

Reading this and other situations on this board, I have to wonder why anyone would even want to coach in college anymore?

knox harrington wrote:

"14.All medical concerns/illnesses will first go through training room, including student health appointments."

GFY.

I don't understand how people are considering this to be just a normal rule for a college team to have.

You're telling me that if an athlete gets raped or is a victim of domestic abuse, they are contractually obligated to tell a damn athletic trainer about it before the go to the emergency department? An athlete can't take meds for an STI or psychological condition without their team knowing?

The rules are reasonable. Suck it up buttercups.

umm...wut? wrote:

knox harrington wrote:

"14.All medical concerns/illnesses will first go through training room, including student health appointments."

GFY.

I don't understand how people are considering this to be just a normal rule for a college team to have.

You're telling me that if an athlete gets raped or is a victim of domestic abuse, they are contractually obligated to tell a damn athletic trainer about it before the go to the emergency department? An athlete can't take meds for an STI or psychological condition without their team knowing?

guidelines and rules like this can't cover every potential scenario - and that isn't a contract

so they aren't "contractually obligated" to report anything

but yes by your reasoning if an athlete is involved in a motor vehicle accident and suffers potentially life threatening injuries they better be damn sure they have the ambulance stop by the coach's office before proceeding to the trauma bay