Clint Eastwood is famous for “the good, the bad and the ugly”.
Well, we have that same description for coaches of high school sports in the Greater Toronto Area.
The good: Lots of it with many great coaching efforts. While Boards of Education take it for granted that coaches will suddenly appear every year to babysit students for after-school activities, these over-paid senior bureaucrats - and even some Principals - just don’t get it.
Coaches give their free time. Sometimes, they even take money from their pockets to help kids. They travel to tournaments. They’re responsible for behaviour, liability and more. That’s heavy duty stuff - for free.
It’s not always winning, as some students tell me, coaches are there because they have a passion to help, love sports and many pretend to be in the NFL, C FL, NBA, NHL or whatever.
Kudos to the majority. Even to the odd Principal, and they know who they are, who also coach or attend games. Students also know who is out to support them.
The bad: some coaches mean well but don’t understand rules, are not certified and very bad at dealing with disciplinary issues. They also play great athletes, who are students in trouble academically. What’s first? Ah hum, this is school sports and not sports, then schools.
The ugly: how can you select athletes of the year and MVPs for school sports teams when students are failing grades. Here’s another scenario, top athlete goes to the student who is buddies with the coaches. Hmm, maybe they go out for a few pops together too.
The summary: we need more coaches, many of them young teachers who benefitted from sports when they were in school, who now claim they’re too busy. Yea, right.
Many young people need sports to help them get through school. But there is a middle point - and that’s where teachers, willing to coach and get certified or learn about sports, get my vote. They’re the ones who deserve the bonus bucks - the thousands of dollars wasted in inflated bureaucratic expense claims, management get-togethers and out-of-town forums in five star resorts.
Good coaches.
Funding to support good programs and good coaches.
And, administrative backing for good coaches and good programs.
Now, we’re talking.
