WHAT'S GOING ON AT BC?
- Thread starter CatManFan
- Start date
The decision did not come from the AD.
They (lynch mob) were looking for a reason to get rid of Bo for all the wrong reasons. Basically it comes down to abuse of power by certain people of power who are way too close to the program - perhaps I should rephrase that as abuse of influence by certain people of power who probably shouldn't have a say in things that they are too close to from a personal standpoint.
I've heard the words "breach of trust" used but from what I've heard from the mouths of kids (prior to it happening) whom's parents would have had knowledge of this...well, THAT seems like that could constitute breach of trust, as well.
From my understanding, Bo could possibly stay on and help with the football program. They are going to lose assistant Adam Gantt in this deal, too, which is too bad. He's a good coach, he's passionate about the game and he really cares about the kids and has their best interest in mind all of the time.
This post was edited on 5/24 11:33 PM by JB@Rivals
They (lynch mob) were looking for a reason to get rid of Bo for all the wrong reasons. Basically it comes down to abuse of power by certain people of power who are way too close to the program - perhaps I should rephrase that as abuse of influence by certain people of power who probably shouldn't have a say in things that they are too close to from a personal standpoint.
I've heard the words "breach of trust" used but from what I've heard from the mouths of kids (prior to it happening) whom's parents would have had knowledge of this...well, THAT seems like that could constitute breach of trust, as well.
From my understanding, Bo could possibly stay on and help with the football program. They are going to lose assistant Adam Gantt in this deal, too, which is too bad. He's a good coach, he's passionate about the game and he really cares about the kids and has their best interest in mind all of the time.
This post was edited on 5/24 11:33 PM by JB@Rivals
Yeah...I hear ya. Apparently he didn't play the "right" kids...just the ones he thought were the best players!!! That's what happens when you have people on a school board like BC that want to tell you how to do your job that you were hired to do because they have a personal interest in who plays. Ya gettin all this 2SS. I'm sure you've seen it before...I have at Lexington first hand except it was at the school level who's leaders were feeding everyone up the ladder balony to CYA. I knew JB would have the inside track...I wasn't ignoring you 2Seam. Also, everyone at BC close to the Bball program knows the real deal...just ask the kids. Oops, they don't matter do they?
This is terrible. Bo appeared to do an outstanding job with what he had to work with.Not every coach is willing to go in and play the hyped up popular ones.Sometimes you have to sit those kids that are batting in the one hundreds and making unacceptable amounts of errors.No matter who they are.Good coaches make those tough decisions.
This is the same school that thought it a great idea to hire a football coach a few years back that had been out of football for over a decade! If they got rid of Bo- who is a passionate great coach- then they deserve the Karma that will befall them!
I've edited my post too many times. I am too pissed to post. When will those with power and influence become leaders instead of puppets.
FROM A BC BASEBALL VARSITY PARENT WITH A HEAVY HEART: We are so disappointed and angry at the "letting go" of Coach Bowers and his staff. Maybe we will write a little more about this subject after some time has passed but right now, words to express how we feel may not come from the right place. The old saying is, if you don't have anything nice to say, say nothing at all.
Well, maybe one little something to make us feel a little better, this is wrong, no matter how it is spun! You play with fire, you get burned. Why keep sticking your hand back in the fire, doesn’t it eventually hurt?
Well, maybe one little something to make us feel a little better, this is wrong, no matter how it is spun! You play with fire, you get burned. Why keep sticking your hand back in the fire, doesn’t it eventually hurt?
When OH WHEN will we get an administration with some balls? If these parents are such great coaches then COACH! Just because Lil Jimmy made all stars when DADDY coached him does not make him great! Too many times we allow a PARENTS underhanded motives run off a GOOD coach! This coach has a passion for the game and for the KIDS. He- like the majority- do this job for very lil pay and try to help kids become better people and players. These coaches take up the slack from SORRY parents and try to instill discipline and hope in these kids without LYING to them. This is the reason so many good coaches get out- stupid ssa parents!
Parents are the bane of every level of baseball below college. When I was coaching I became well known for never allowing a parent to engage me in conversation. Just a nod and a "How are you?" was about it. Even though most who know me think I'm a nice guy, my player's parents weren't allowed to find out.
Funny, one kid who played at our local high school and played for me sparingly, has recently been hired where I work. The other day he asked why we coaches were always huddled around talking to one another, even though we represented different schools and levels. I told him "While you players and your parents were talking about us, we were talking about you." The look he gave me was priceless.
This post was edited on 5/25 3:08 PM by Dogvendor
Funny, one kid who played at our local high school and played for me sparingly, has recently been hired where I work. The other day he asked why we coaches were always huddled around talking to one another, even though we represented different schools and levels. I told him "While you players and your parents were talking about us, we were talking about you." The look he gave me was priceless.
This post was edited on 5/25 3:08 PM by Dogvendor
DV...I have to agree with your overall assessment having been on both sides as a parent & coached for about 20 years up to the middle school level & now at the pony level where we really only have one "bane" parent out of 13 sets. I would, however, like to qualify my agreement. My field has been in sales for 30+ years & we have a segment of consumers we deem as "the 10% extremes". These are people, as my dad would say, "wouldn't be satisfied with a front row seat in heaven". They could & would find fault with anyone & anything & usually did. They are preachers, doctors, teachers, blue collar workers & yes...even some coaches. I would venture to say that the BC situation involved individuals of this ilk. On the coach & conversation aspect, there are several successful coaches I have had the pleasure of watching my son play for/against that were openly approachable. Ashley Burnett/Gilbert, Brent Walsh/Ben Lippen, Brian Hucks & Banks Faulkner/Lexington, Ray Derrick/Hammond, & even Andy Hallett/Flora, to mention a few, all are excellent coaches that are easily accessible in my experience with them as long as it wasn't about playing time which is absolutely the coaches prerogative. The converse approach is a personal choice & may have worked for you but I can see where it would keep all parents, good & bad, at a distance & therefore out of your hair. That's ok too but there are members of the 10% that are coaches too...just not in the BC case... they were in fact victims...as are the kids.
Parents dictating who the HBC will be based on playing time or lack there of? Seems unlikely to me. If that is the case here I believe the men on Lex-2 school board should be stripped of their manhood do to lack of balls. That goes for the women on there too!
CatManFan: You hit the nail on the head with the coaches that you mentioned on how they handle parents. I know most of the those coaches as well and they will discuss anything but about playing time. They will discuss playing time with the player but not the parent. Parents need to take some time and go to some practices and see why Johnny isn't starting. Parents spend too much time hanging out their dirty laundry over the dinner table in front of their kids instead of getting off their rear ends and going out and seeing for themselves what kind of ballplayer their kid really is. The coaches you mentioned play the nine best. If you can hit, they will play you somewhere, if you are a lefty, you will get a shot sometime on the mound. You have to turn your kids over to the coaches when they get to the high school program. The kids know if they are good enough to play or not, just ask them!
Foghorn the coaches that were mentioned dont allow parents at practice. Practice is for players and coaches not mommies and daddies besides the mommies and daddies that are the pain in the butts wouldnt see anything at practice anyway. Their kid would still be perfect and the coaches were just against them
I have coached for 26 years and coached HS and Legion for 12 of those years. If any coach allows the influence of a parent or the reputation of a player influence how he makes up his roster or his line up card then he is not a good coach.
You take, cut and play players for different reasons it's not always because they are the best player. The back end of you roster can be made up of players that are not as good as some you cut. Maybe you keep a lessor player but he works harder than the more talented kid. Maybe you keep a good kid you can trust instead of a better player you can't trust to make good decisions.
The one thing you should never do is keep a kid because of who his parents are. I always had a parents meeting after tryouts and I made it clear, you can call me and ask questions about anything except playing time and you better never bring up another players name. Every parent that broke that rule found their kid off the team before the next practice and there have been 3 so far that I recall. You have to be honest with the players and parents and at those meetings I would tell them that playing time will not be equal, the players I think I can win with will play. All players will not be treated the same. While they will have the same rules but not treated the same. Some players you have to kick in the butt others you have to pat on the back.
Travel ball is what has started all this parental influence in baseball. If a player is not good even to play for a team with his friends the dad just goes and starts a new team and calls him self a coach. In travel ball you don't learn to win or lose or how hard it is to learn the game. All you learn is there is another tournament next week and you will get to play again because you paid your money.
I do not know the coach at BC, but it doesn't seem that he did a very good job of keeping the bad influences out of the program. I once cut a kid catcher that was heading to SC play the next season, not because he wasn't talented but because he showed up at my tryout hung over and in none uniform thinking he had the team made. I got a phone call the next day from a SC assistant coach asking me why, I told him that he wasn't my kind of player and probably will not be yours either. He never even made it through the next fall at SC.
Bottom line you can not win if you let players and parents run the program.
You take, cut and play players for different reasons it's not always because they are the best player. The back end of you roster can be made up of players that are not as good as some you cut. Maybe you keep a lessor player but he works harder than the more talented kid. Maybe you keep a good kid you can trust instead of a better player you can't trust to make good decisions.
The one thing you should never do is keep a kid because of who his parents are. I always had a parents meeting after tryouts and I made it clear, you can call me and ask questions about anything except playing time and you better never bring up another players name. Every parent that broke that rule found their kid off the team before the next practice and there have been 3 so far that I recall. You have to be honest with the players and parents and at those meetings I would tell them that playing time will not be equal, the players I think I can win with will play. All players will not be treated the same. While they will have the same rules but not treated the same. Some players you have to kick in the butt others you have to pat on the back.
Travel ball is what has started all this parental influence in baseball. If a player is not good even to play for a team with his friends the dad just goes and starts a new team and calls him self a coach. In travel ball you don't learn to win or lose or how hard it is to learn the game. All you learn is there is another tournament next week and you will get to play again because you paid your money.
I do not know the coach at BC, but it doesn't seem that he did a very good job of keeping the bad influences out of the program. I once cut a kid catcher that was heading to SC play the next season, not because he wasn't talented but because he showed up at my tryout hung over and in none uniform thinking he had the team made. I got a phone call the next day from a SC assistant coach asking me why, I told him that he wasn't my kind of player and probably will not be yours either. He never even made it through the next fall at SC.
Bottom line you can not win if you let players and parents run the program.
Travel ball has made it much, much worse because whereas in the past the loud daddies were coaching their kids in red ball, now they are still coaching them and truly think they are better coaches than the high school coaches. They put together their travel teams and play by entirely different rules and when they win a tournament, they think that means they are the guru of baseball.
Oh we have a number of those daddies that have coached nothing higher that 14 year old baseball who think they are Joe Torre because they won a tournament here or won a tournament there. They do nothing but bad mouth the coaching staff during games. It makes it no fun for us as fans to be at the games.
JHawk: I don't know about all of the coaches mentioned and who is allowed and not allowed at practice, but I do no several of the coaches personally and they do not run off any parent from coming and watching practice. I have spent many an afternoon watching practice at Gilbert and was not alone on the hill or in the stands. Please don't speak of what you don't know of.
Parents grumbling and whining in the stands is not what we are discussing here guys. We are talking about those who exert influence over a Coaching Staff or Athletic Dept. Let's face it. The number 10 kid's parents are never happy no matter what, and never have been going back to the '27 Yankees.
And parents at practice? never, no way no how. Not fair to the kids is the #1 reason, not to mention the potential other problems.
And parents at practice? never, no way no how. Not fair to the kids is the #1 reason, not to mention the potential other problems.
didn't say anything about whining and complaining in the stands. good coach running good practices has nothing to hide.
true nothing to hide but dont want the distractions of idiot parents in the stands watching practice and carrying on their own conversations, talking on their cell phones, trying to coach their kid from the stands. From outside the fence or on the hill but not inside the fence in the stands. Its a distraction to the kids and to the coaches. Its also where good coaches do most of their coaching and most of their butt chewing. Parents arent needed for that!
OK, maybe I'm being hard to understand. My comment about whining parents refered to the posts concerning daddyball coaches. This thread started over a high school coach losing his job due to parents who have the ability to wield REAL influence over an A.D. or school Administrator, not over those who sit outside the fence and whine. They have been there forever and always will be. Likewise, there are those affluent individuals in our society with either/or political and monetary influence who will have things their way, period. All of the afore mentioned existed before travelball, period. You know, the "Good ol boys?"
The biggest reason for not allowing parents at practice is so that Daddy can't critique Junior's efforts and therefore "Coach him up" at home. Ergo My meaning behind not being fair to the kids.
Coaches, for the most part, are full grown men who couldn't care less what a parent thinks, (least I never did) and would laugh at the parent who thinks that they are lauding over his practices in an effort to make sure that he has "Nothing to hide."
The biggest reason for not allowing parents at practice is so that Daddy can't critique Junior's efforts and therefore "Coach him up" at home. Ergo My meaning behind not being fair to the kids.
Coaches, for the most part, are full grown men who couldn't care less what a parent thinks, (least I never did) and would laugh at the parent who thinks that they are lauding over his practices in an effort to make sure that he has "Nothing to hide."
Dogvendor, you know my policy. Players and coaches stay inside the fence. Parents and fans stay outside the fence. As you and jhawk both stated, it is for the benefit of the players. Having mom or dad there can create too much "coaching" at home. I have never claimed to be the greatest coach in history, but what I teach does not need to be undone at home. Players also do not need the added pressure of the conversations that parents start. It never fails that parent A will talk about a player (not related to them) and why is that kid playing or not playing. The next thing you know Parent B, C, D, etc. have mixed the message and somebody is either ticked or a player is hurt. Practice is the time for players and coaches to work. They cannot accomplish everything that is necessary if either side has to worry about what they say or how they do something. Parents and fans are welcome to sit on the hill or in the parking lot and watch to their hearts content. But under no circumstance do they come inside the fence. Players don't want them there and neither do coaches. Look at it this way, do kids go watch their parents and hover over them at work? Heck no. Then let the kids do their work.
Many coaches will tell you that parents can come to practice simply because it gives them a chance to see what is really going on. Most of the coaches that I know who allow parents at practice have very few problems.
Coaches that have continuous problems with parents are the ones who don't put their foot down soon enough.
Coaches that have continuous problems with parents are the ones who don't put their foot down soon enough.