<p>Hmmm. This story is perhaps a bit too bad to be entirely true. I’d like to know if there are more facts.</p>
<p>Added: And…check this update: <a href=“Polk back as Tesoro volleyball coach – Orange County Register”>Polk back as Tesoro volleyball coach – Orange County Register;
<p>Non-coach parents sticking their noses into youth sports is almost always trouble. Coaches aren’t perfect with decision making, but when parents try to over rule coaching decisions it is usually bad news for everyone…especially the kids.</p>
<p>The article said that the coach didn’t follow all the tryout rules, including the required time period after the tryouts for releasing the list. One wonders perhaps if parents suspected (or learned) that his roster was already filled out before the tryouts (i.e., with girls from his club team).</p>
<p>Our private school league instituted a new rule that school coaches could no longer coach teams which had their club players on the roster. So one coach resigned from our middle school team because he had 5 of his club players on the roster. The varsity coach had two players (IIRC) on his club team, so he helped them find spots on other club teams that were a good fit for them. From that point on, he never offered a spot on his club team to any girls from our high school. It all worked out.</p>
<p>This particular situation sounds ridiculous. If the girls who were cut didn’t play club ball, it’s likely that they didn’t have the skills the club players had, rather than that the coach was unfairly biased against non club players. Club volleyball, not school volleyball, is how players are developed to reach elite levels of play. </p>
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Even if this is true, you can’t hold fake tryouts. (I’m not saying this is necessarily what happened here, but it does happen sometimes.)</p>
<p>The local HS’s have had to implement rules in place in order that no parent gets on the staff. Had huge issues with rich parents getting involved and daddy balling when my kids where in HS. </p>
<p>We had a situation in our local high school where a girl was cut from cheer leading for her senior year after cheering for three years. She is a bright, personable child but made the mistake of being involved in too many things and often missed cheer leading practice. Her influential family complained to the school board and the girl was put back on the squad.</p>
<p>To the parent’s credit, the younger sister, who cheered in middle school, completely avoided high school cheer leading.</p>
<p>Parents shouldn’t interfere in this way, but the administration who succumbed to their pressure should be run out of town! Can’t imagine coaching a team I didn’t have some voice in selecting!</p>
<p>I always tried to ‘spin’ loss and failure into a life lesson. Perhaps I’m dating myself!!</p>
<p>I have great respect for good coaches who will keep at it day after day, year after year–serving as positive role models and reinforcing hard work and tenacity! </p>
<p>A neighbor recently told me a story about her son who is now 26 and a third year medical student. He took a national board test over the summer. For all practical purposes, the score he earned would determine his options for a specialty down the road. He told his mom that this test was pretty important: His whole future rested on the score he received. Well, he studied for weeks for that test. Even came home to study so he’d be away from temptation, etc. back at school. </p>
<p>She noticed that he was feeling pretty stressed and, the day before his exam, asked him how he was handling the pressure. He said he was relying on words of wisdom from his h.s. cross country coach: Coach XYZ used to say, “You’ve put in the hard work of training. You’ve run the miles and you’re prepared. Now…rely on that training and go out and run your best race!” I was touched by the fact that this coach had had such an impact on this young man and he was able to use that lesson to calm himself. The happy ending is that this young man did very well on his test and has a world of options going forward. </p>
<p>Sports has lots of carryover into the real world when kids have good coaches (along with sensible parents!) and positive experiences. True, if they are receptive to it, even when they ride the bench.</p>
<p>Phrase of the day: “daddy balling” </p>
<p>I drove my daughter down to her high school locker room when the Varsity volleyball list was posted. Her coach wisely held tryouts which focused on several skills necessary to perform for the team. Each girl was rated and scored on each skill and the top 10 or 12 scores made the team. The girls who didn’t make the team had their scores posted so they knew what areas they were lacking in.</p>
<p>One girl came up and saw her score and saw that she hadn’t made the team and walked past my daughter and glared at her. This girl had never played volleyball before. Another newcomer not only made the varsity, but was made a starter until it was obvious to everyone in the gym that she could not play volleyball. The coach finally lost her patience and yelled at the girl during a match, and that led to an embarrassing crying session on the bench. The girl’s father happens to be a big man in town of course and has a son who was athletic.</p>
<p>I liked this coach’s approach. On the first day of volleyball practices she had all of us sit in the bleachers and she handed out the schedule to parents and players along with her set of rules that everyone had to follow. She made it clear that she decided who started and how missing practices etc. would affect the players. That’s all a coach has to do - communicate how they want to run their team and what you should do and should not do. </p>
<p>Another situation that comes up every year is underclassmen making the varsity. We have 8th graders, 9th graders, and 10th graders leapfrogging over JV’s and going straight to varsity in some sports. That causes friction among parents, but what are you going to do?</p>
<p>Call me naive, but I assume that outside coaches would be honorable in their selections for the team. </p>
<p>Our local soccer coach has won awards and coached for a long time, but woe betide any kid who unfortunate enough to play the same position as one of his sons. They’ll never start a game. </p>
<p>I’m happy to say that S left that soccer program for the same CC team as MaineLonghorn’s S. (Although he wasn’t as good. 
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