Wow! Anyone ever have a coach like that? My son had a swim coach who thought berating kids, parents, other coaches was an acceptable coaching method. The parents had tried to get rid of him before but were unsuccessful. I became the team president and inherited quite a mess. It took a while but he finally stepped down to avoid being terminated. (which made a few parents angry) I was wondering if anyone else has experience with guys like this Rutgers coach in any sport. What about legends like Bobby Knight who have used similar coaching tactics? How far is too far? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IVoOtpDuZwA
A guy that calls his players "******s" needs his rear kicked. Come up on me, kick at me and call me a ****** and I am going to whip your rear end, coach or not. We have gone too far in sports. That being said, I am an old school athlete, one that believes if a coach says run through a brick wall, I would do it. But it is about respect. If you have none for me and outwardly curse, berate, and sometimes physically attack me, then f you. I remember my redshirt freshman exit meeting with my college linebacker coach. I had torn my acl in my left knee before coming back and playing pretty well my redshirt freshman year, only to tear the acl in my right knee after five games. I was hurting mentally and physically. Through the games and practices I was lighting people up, tackling people for losses, and otherwise being an aggressive, although sometimes stupid redshirt freshman (most are dumb). That coach chewed me out, called me "soft", yelled at me, said, "have you ever been in a street fight!", and left me walking out of that meeting questioning wether I should play college football. I think he wanted me to quit because I had torn two acl's in two years, and another linebacker eventually overtook me who went on to play in the NFL. He wanted me to quit. He didn't talk to me like a man does a son, one who cares about the entire athlete, he treated me like meat. I was so close to kicking that coaches butt I couldn't think straight. Make a long story short, the coach ended up having a nervous breakdown a year later and left the coaching ranks...he was caught cheating on his wife and had been taking out the stress on all of the average players, which included me during my times of injury. Whats my point? There are some coaches that just need to be gone....good bye, see ya. They have no place in the coaching ranks.
Too funny. I don't think I ever had one throw a basketball at my head but the football coaches would sure pull us around by the facemask if a play was not run correctly or have us run suicides in basketball practice for missing free throws or lay-ups, until we thought we were going to pass out.
I had plenty of basketballs hurled at me during HS practice by at least 2 different coaches. One coach made a guy practice shirtless because he was fat and we had to share half the court with the girl's team and wanted to embarrass him. I'm not even going to mention having to run suicides till we vomit for the dumbest reasons imaginable.
Most athletes will go pro in something other than sports. Sports is a tool that helps equip athletes to make an impact in life.
We had a jr high basketball coach that was fond of throwing basketballs at us. I don't think he ever called any of us names, though. Rice was way over the line. I'd bet there is alot of this going on in gyms all over the place, its just not on youtube.
I was a lot more afraid of my dad than I was of some power obsessed coach (easy for me to identify). Now the ones who taught you a lesson bc there was one to learn...have no problem with doing any form of punishment for them.
and to think it's just a game. Something to entertain and amuse us. Not like he's going to end world hunger or bring peace to the middle east if he wins a game. My coaches always acted like they were pissed because they thought they should be coaching pro ball or something, mean while they sat on their arse and had their assistants do their jobs. Can him. Like him get a real job.
To be honest, while I do think it was probably excessive (some of it)..... I don't have much of a problem with old school coaches. IF (big if) at the end of the day their goal is to get the most out of the athlete as far as the game and life are concerned. My lacrosse coach was a raging lunatic. When all said and done he genuinely wanted to get the most out of us (me) and live up to potential. Compassionate and best friend behind the scenes. Talk to him to this day. This situation? Not real sure if the dude is angry at life and like throwing balls at kids? Used it as a personal power trip? Or maybe deep down really wanted to make them the best they could be.
Any coach that thinks he needs to act like that to be effective is an idiot. Many coaches have proven that you dont have to be a d-bag to get the most out of their athletes. The coaches I have seen first hand act like that were usually mediocre athletes themselves and have a chip on their shoulder. Same goes for whacked-out little league parents that sucked as athletes.
Only reason a coach needs to act like that is because he can't inspire his athletes through true leadership, so fear is the default fall back.
Besides... this isn't exactly Duke... It's Rutgers... has always been Rutgers... will always be Rutgers. They win some lose most... that's why they are Rutgers. Rutgers by Decades 1906-07 - 1907-08 4-14 (.222) 1913-14 - 1919-20 33-29 (.532) 1920-21 - 1929-30 86-46 (.654) 1930-31 - 1939-40 85-66 (.567) 1940-41 - 1949-50 95-89 (.516) 1950-51 - 1959-60 72-149 (.326) 1960-61 - 1969-70 132-107 (.552) 1970-71 - 1979-80 194-87 (.690) 1980-81 - 1989-90 149-152 (.493) 1990-91 - 1999-00 140-149 (.502) 2000-01 - 2009-10 136-167 (.449) 2010-11 - Present 29-35 (.453)
Try leadership that way in a combat unit and you'll get shot in the back. My son was a decent lacrosse player. He had wheels. He was being recruited by the Air Force Academy before it was really legal..... but they did talk to him when he was a sophomore. In his junior year we were into touring colleges. During spring break we had set up Harvard, MIT, West Point, Tufts, VA, Duke. County rules said no practices during spring break... so we made our plans and took an extra couple days off. His coach announced that he would hold lacrosse practices daily during the break. My son went to him after the meeting and said he wouldn't be around as we were touring college choices. His coach went ballistic, yelling screaming and calling him a quitter. If you don't show up for every practice your never going to play another minute. You shouldn't have drawn a uniform. You might as well turn it in. My son explained it was the only time we had to tour and county rules said no practice. The coach went ape again and declared my son a slug and selfish if he wasn't at practices. You shouldn't have drawn a uniform. Told my son to get out of his office and get his head on straight. My son walked down to the equipment room and turned in his uniform. He was a starter on the county championship team like 3 years running. The coach called that night. My son told him he'd played his last lacrosse game. He played team lacrosse at Duke but never thought of anything more than for fun. I think he made the right choice. Mr. Gates pays very well.
I am glad you supported your son's decision but that is definitely an example of a coach that needs to find something else to do.
I can assure everyone that is not the only gym or field things like this happens. It's a story now and happened to be exposed by ESPN. Really not new news. Will never be old news either.
