Off-field interferences sacking quality coaches
Don Seeley , dseeley@no-spam 07/06/2003
Reading page after page of offensive and defensive schemes in a
football team's playbook can very often be confusing. Fully
understanding the creativity of all those X's and O's on the locker
room blackboard can be mind-boggling.
Trying to digest the parade of changes of the men who concoct all
those strategies -- high school head football coaches -- is even more
puzzling.
And if you don't think there is a troubling trend of coaches coming
and going, well, you may have been blindsided one too many times
during the ol' neighborhood pick-up games. Think about it ...
When Ron Zeiber took over Boyertown's football program last year, he
became the Bears' third new coach in six seasons. When Dave Bodolus
and Marty Vollmuth step in to take over the Daniel Boone and Hill
School programs this fall, they'll become their respective school's
third new coach in five seasons. Earlier this spring, Bill Furlong was
named Phoenixville's new coach, the Phantoms' fifth new coach in six
seasons. Just over a week ago, Ed McCann became St. Pius' third new
coach in three seasons.
Very troubling.
Perhaps even more troubling when realizing there could be anywhere
from three to five more changes soon after the 2003 season concludes
Thanksgiving Day. It isn't a problem with geographic boundaries,
either.
Bodolus is just one of four new coaches in the Intra-County League in
neighboring Berks County. The Ches-Mont League, which expands from
four to five schools this fall with Downingtown's split, has three new
coaches. There are at least six more changes in District 1, including
four in the Suburban One Conference -- Norristown, Quakertown,
Souderton and Wissahickon; and two in the Central League --
Marple-Newtown and Penncrest.
If that isn't enough, consider all the local and/or regional changes
as just part of a significant (if not startling) statewide football
facelift. According to sources, there will be at least 76 new coaches
in Pennsylvania when the season kicks off next month.
And while there may be a wave of changes among the coaching ranks in
other sports, very few if any coaches impact a high school's overall
athletic program -- even the mood of an entire student body, in some
instances -- like the head football coach does.
That's why it is so important to have consistency, longevity if you
prefer, as part of the high school football program.
But it's becoming increasingly more difficult to get ... the
consistency that is.
And anyone in their right mind, anyone who truly understands the
principles of scholastic sports -- football included -- will give you
enough reasons to fill a book as thick as those playbooks.
First and foremost, whether you're tired of hearing it or not, is
interference. That's interference by parents, which in way too many
cases snowballs into administrative and school board interference.
Jimmy, Johnny and Joey may not be good enough to start, may not be
good enough to get into the lineup as a backup. Yes, they may have
been on all those all-star teams growing up and playing in youth
programs. Jimmy, Johnny and Joey may not be smart enough or
disciplined enough to get on the honor roll. Yes, they may have gotten
all A's and B's in elementary school.
But that was then, not now.
Their parents often forget that and, at the first hint of
disappointment -- their own, mind you -- the hunt for a scapegoat
begins. And that hunt -- or headhunting -- always seems to begin and
end with the head coach, too.
Instead of an old-fashioned sit-down with their son (or daughter) or a
casual chit-chat at the dinner table to discuss issues like work ethic
and commitment, parents question and ridicule authority ... and their
son (or daughter) goes to bed at night with less respect for their
coach or coaches.
That respect wanes even more when the parents' criticism echoes out of
their homes and onto the playing fields during practices and games.
What message is heard, or what lesson is learned, when young athletes
hear their parents or friends -- people they're taught to look up to
and respect -- berating the coaches they're entrusted to learn about
and enjoy the game they play?
Conflicting opinions is one thing ... what's right and wrong is
another. And when parents turn their back on what's right and wrong,
when they take their criticisms and tirades over the coaches' heads,
the problems magnify.
Magnify because of too many indecisive administrators and school board
members, who try to tip-toe around the real issues to avoid additional
confrontations; too many inept administrators and school board
members, who buckle under the fear of a lawsuit instead of standing
tall in support of the coach they hired to begin with; because of too
many high-and-mighty administrators and school board members, who can
say all the right things during their election campaigns and cross
every "T" and dot every "I" on contracts and policy forms but rarely
ever sit in on an athletic event or have the slightest clue as to the
intangibles sports provide that cannot be found in any textbook.
The men who coach football, unquestionably the most visible and most
popular of high school sports, are committed to teaching the game to
their athletes and to getting the best out of their athletes.
The majority of their days begin soon after sunrise teaching in a
classroom and end right around if not after sunset teaching and
coaching on a practice field. They have, in most instances, the
largest teams of any sport in their schools. And they invest, without
question, more time than any coach because the sport almost demands a
year-round commitment.
They don't change overnight or from year to year, either. High school
football coaches, unlike college and professional football coaches
with their recruiting and drafts, are dealt a hand they have to play
with every season. Some years they have a full house, some years they
have a pair of duces, some years they have a seven-high.
Very successful coaches from the past, like Owen J. Roberts' Henry
Bernat and St. Pius' Jim Mich, approached the game in the 60s just as
they did in the 80s and 90s. Spring-Ford's Marty Moore was the same
coach when he won four titles in the 90s as he was when winning just
one game in his last two seasons. Perkiomen Valley's Scott Fuhrman
hasn't changed in 17 seasons. Rick Pennypacker hasn't change in his
twentysome down south and at Pottsgrove. Even Lansdale Catholic's Jim
Algeo works at and builds on so many of the same things now as he did
thirtysome years ago.
Of course they may run the ball more this year, pass the ball more
another year. They may win a title, split the win and loss totals,
possibly get into the win column just once or twice.
They're coaches, not magicians.
Nonetheless, they shouldn't be unreachable to anyone. Yes, concerned
parents -- perhaps even a fan -- have a right to talk to them.
Constructive conversation is one thing ... feuding, chipping away at
the respect between coach and athlete, challenging their knowledge and
authority, well, that's another. It shouldn't take a magna cum laude
to comprehend what's right and wrong, either.
But we, as a society, can't seem to define what's right and wrong
anymore because of that growing gray area in between.
What is ethical, what is moral -- what is right and wrong -- was lost
somewhere in the transition of this generation to that generation. No
one is quite sure when it happened. But the foundation of sports,
which always seemed to be one of the last remaining bastions of such a
simple issue, is crumbling because of it.
If it continues to decay even more, football coaches, not only
qualified but competent football coaches, will continue to move on
elsewhere or leave the game entirely. Then we'll be left with what a
few schools already discovered this past year -- the list of those
qualified and competent football coaches is becoming shorter and
shorter and shorter.
Good veteran coaches are leaving the game long before they should.
Young coaches, investing time and energy learning what it takes to
become a good coach, are leaving the game as well.
Now is the time to bring back, and bring back unchallenged, the most
important playbook there is -- the one that outlines what is right and
wrong, the one that details the value of commitment and respect. And
it's time that playbook becomes a must read.
If we don't, if the current disturbing trend continues to happen,
we'll eventually shortchange the most important part of any high
school football program -- the student-athlete.
And there never has been, nor will there ever be, an excuse for that.
***
Don Seeley is the sports editor of The Mercury. He can be reached at
dseeley@no-spam
ŠThe Mercury 2003