Rants and Rivalry
Coaches' Comportment Is Enough to Make A Fan Want to Scream

Sunday, March 25, 2007

On March 16, Mike Wise's Sports column touched on University of Maryland men's basketball coach Gary Williams's stomping, swearing and sighing. That evening, I watched Virginia Tech's Seth Greenberg use profanity after a technical foul was called against him. On March 18, I read that Virginia's Dave Leitao "regularly can be seen unleashing expletive-laced tirades at his players."

As a high school principal and teacher, if I yelled and cursed at my staff, they would not work harder or do better work. If I yelled and cursed at my students in class under the guise of motivating them, I would be fired.

Why, then, are we watching a college basketball tournament in which coaches -- ostensible educators -- yell and curse at their students to make them play harder and do better?

Why will they not be fired for cursing in their "classrooms"?

I pose these questions as someone who follows sports intently. I love competition. I was fortunate to coach at the high school level (for five years) and the youth level (for several more). The school I work at, DeMatha Catholic High School, is known for its sports program and, while our staff is not perfect, this is an issue about which we are in constant dialogue.

Youth, high school and college coaches have an educational responsibility. All good teachers know that the behavior they model for students is the behavior they get in return. If you want committed scholars, commit yourself to scholarship. If you want to inculcate a sense of service, be a model of service. If you want reflective and thoughtful students, be a caring and thoughtful mentor. Abusing students does not make them perform better.

There are those who romanticize the figure who mistreats others under the notion of "making men" out of them. There are those who excuse chronic bad behavior because the coach wins many games. Others defend this kind of coaching by claiming that sports is warfare, and that in warfare the niceties of society are left behind. One would hope that the effects of our real war would give the lie to this argument.

Most of the worst coaching behavior I see is precisely at these "educational levels" of sports instruction and competition.

Many professional coaches do not berate or belittle their players. Joe Gibbs of the Redskins, Eddie Jordan of the Wizards and Tony Dungy of the Super Bowl champion Indianapolis Colts immediately come to mind. Numerous demanding teachers and coaches get top performances from their students and players without abusing them. Good teachers and coaches challenge their students and athletes. They demand excellence that exceeds their proteges' expectations -- thereby giving them a priceless gift: self-confidence.

I believe that pro coaches scream at and belittle their players less often because the players are adults who would not tolerate being abused. The reason coaches at amateur levels treat their players poorly, I think, is because they can get away with it.

Coaches have a power over players who accept this abuse in the hope that it will advance their careers -- and parents too often accept the mistreatment of their children under the misguided notion that their son or daughter will benefit. In the most extreme cases, parents believe that they themselves will profit financially in some way.

These coaches have a power over administrators, boosters and fans as long as they win games.

It's enough to make one yell and curse.

-- Daniel McMahon

Adelphi

The writer is the principal and a world literature teacher at DeMatha Catholic High School in Hyattsville. His e-mail address is dmcmahon@dematha.org.