Parents need to grow up
Toolbox
Published: November 22, 2009
Coaches are not babysitters, they are also not robots. They are not put in place to hold a whistle in one hand and a stop watch in the other, making sure each player gets equal time on the field. While a coach should always keep playing time in mind, he or she must work out a fair balance between playing time and the player's ability on the field.
The singling out of Montpelier High School soccer coach Eric Bagley for putting a large number of freshman girls on the varsity team has been harsh and uncalled for. He has run one of the most successful sports programs at MHS in the last decade. Coach Bagley picks the best players for his team; whether seniors or freshman. As much as sports train us for life, sports teach us how to win, on and off the field.
If the decision as to who picks the teams is taken out of the hands of the coach, I don't know what Montpelier sports will become. Who do the parents want to pick the teams? The principal? The School Board? The parents themselves? Do they think the school administration has nothing better to do with their time?
Every season coaches preach non-discrimination based on a player's age. Hazing is taken deathly seriously, as it should be. Then why is it a given right that all upper classmen automatically make the varsity team? Is that not, in a way, reverse-hazing?
While sports teach us how to win, they also teach us how to be graceful in defeat. To the parents whose daughters didn't make varsity, I am sorry, but changing the policies to accommodate these few parents' complaints would undermine the entire athletics program. We cannot have parents running youth sports from the sidelines.
Kevin Hartmann
MHS Class of 2008
Chicago, Illinois
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