Comment

Comment by joe cairo on February 28, 2011 at 12:31pm

two quick points and then I'm done.  One, It's better to be the Hammer than the Nail.  This is a coaching philosophy of mine, which if you've read my posts, isn't a well-kept secret.

 

Two, (I get to brag here) my oldest boy graduates from the U.S. Navy SEAL training program this Friday.  Those guys are the toughest hombre's on the planet.  Period.  Instructors were beating on my kid on a daily basis to see what he was made of, physically and mentally.  Hey, I could have taken it personally and tried to get them to lay off of him, but what could what that have really done?  Getting him ready to do dangerous work, where other people have to depend on him being totally prepared is exactly what they are supposed to do, what I WANT them to do.

 

Sure, it's different from coaching a basketball team...but not by much.  It's still dangerous and it still requires putting team before self.  The biggest difference is that there was some kid with a cell phone camera, sitting in the stands, recording the process.

Comment by joe cairo on February 28, 2011 at 12:16pm

I'm mostly with Jason Wild on this one.  Coach was using a variation of Tom Izzo's "War Drill". This is a tough, brutal, there-are-no-fouls drill that when I use it, has THREE guys banging hard for the ball.  Big man in the dark was getting his lunch money taken by the other guy and coach arm-barred him and the kid flopped.

 

Coach then NUDGES him with his foot. He did NOT kick him.  Look more closely at the where coaches foot stops before it touches the player on the floor.  Check your fake outrage at the door.

 

Y'all wonder why your teams play soft?  Well, there it is.  Crybaby went home and spilled his teary-eyed guts to his mommy and daddy and they had to hover over the situation with misplaced indignation.

 

This is a college player not some pre-teen in middle school. His willingness to cry to his folks was also evident in his soft play. ooooh, too much contact down low.  How freakin' Euro. Time to toughen up, Sally, there's grown men on the court.

Comment by Jason Wild on February 28, 2011 at 11:09am

We all as coaches get very emotionally tied to our players; when we try to bring out the best abilities in a player who doesn't seem to want to bring it out, it becomes frustrating. This is a rebounding drill for big men; it requires phisicallity and a bit of a bully attitude. The coach went after the ball in an aggresive manner that resulted in two bodies banging into each other and the player falling down. To that point nothing is wrong...until the coach kicks him when he's down and then constantly badgers him after the play. The coach should be disciplined but not fired. If he has a history of this its a different story. I don't agree with coaches methods but I understand this may be his way of get this paticular player ready for an up coming physical game. I would hope the coach would take this incident and learn from it and become an even better coach.

Comment by Brian Godziszewski on February 28, 2011 at 9:28am

Wow, I am all for intensity but at the expense of your own players health?  Good point made by Paul, what if the player retaliates, then what? Unfortunate for the player first and foremost and also unfortunate for the coach as he should be let go. That being said, hard to feel bad for the coach as he did it to himself, if he would have apologized immediatley nothing most likely would have come of it.  I understand that they are not 9 year olds but that is clearly over the line, the coach becomes a detriment to the team when he begins injuring his own players, from the sounds of it he doesn't seem to have any remorse which is the scary part.

Comment by Paul Doevendans on February 28, 2011 at 7:35am

I do tend to agree with Al after thinking about this one. He didn't apologise immediately so he should be sacked. What would of happened if the player gave as good as he got? There lies the problem. If the player had of retaliated he would have been hung out to dry.

Comment by JIM BURKHART on February 27, 2011 at 12:43pm

He is coaching at the wrong school. He meant to apply at Psycho Family.

Comment by Al Cuevas on February 26, 2011 at 6:57pm

I think the coach was probably too fired up & didn't really mean to bang into his player that hard. He should have apologized immediately but I'm guessing he didn't want to show weakness, which is a mistake. The players can accept when their coach makes a mistake and accepts it. Holy Family is a school so ultimately the coach is also trying to teach those boys to be men. I believe that if the coach would have apologized when it happened it would have been over quickly & he would have been an exemplary role model.

Comment by Joe Meade on February 26, 2011 at 9:38am

There's a fine line between finding ways to toughen up your team and bullying players. In my opinion, the coach crossed the line and should have been arrested for his actions and fired immediately by the university. He's a coward for behaving in that manner towards a young man who should be commended for not punching him in the face or retaliating in a similar fashion. There's no place for that type of hostility in any gym at any level and he is a poor role model for his team and a bad representative of the university, who btw handled this situation poorly as well.