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Parents have no right to verbally abuse their high school athlete's coach
Now I've seen it all.
Last night, I covered the Notre Dame-Cathedral Latin at Mayfield girls basketball game.
Following the game, a Mayfield parent verbally abused coach Tony Ware who is retiring at the end of this season.
The confrontation was in front of several people and it was appalling.
The parent was directly yelling at Ware telling him he was the worst coach around. She was angrily pointing her finger at him and was red in the face from yelling so loudly.
At first, I thought the parent was joking around.
Then I realized, what was really happening.
What is this world coming to?
Ware had enough seniority to retire at the beginning of this season, but he chose to stick around one more year to teach and coach at Mayfield.
He is too good of a coach and a person to be verbally assaulted as he was last night.
A few minutes after the parent finished yelling at him, I approached Ware and asked him to do an interview. He graciously accepted and answered all of my questions about the game despite what had just happened to him.
That is the kind of person he is.
He is a first-class coach and teacher who does not deserve the treatment he received last night.
No high school coach deserves to be berated at any time - especially not in front of their players, parents, opposing coaches and reporters.
It's sad that this lack of respect exists on the high school level. Coaches are not involved in coaching to get yelled at by parents. They are involved in coaching to help high school athletes be better people.
It's a shame some parents don't realize that.
- Theresa Neuhoff Audia
Last night, I covered the Notre Dame-Cathedral Latin at Mayfield girls basketball game.
Following the game, a Mayfield parent verbally abused coach Tony Ware who is retiring at the end of this season.
The confrontation was in front of several people and it was appalling.
The parent was directly yelling at Ware telling him he was the worst coach around. She was angrily pointing her finger at him and was red in the face from yelling so loudly.
At first, I thought the parent was joking around.
Then I realized, what was really happening.
What is this world coming to?
Ware had enough seniority to retire at the beginning of this season, but he chose to stick around one more year to teach and coach at Mayfield.
He is too good of a coach and a person to be verbally assaulted as he was last night.
A few minutes after the parent finished yelling at him, I approached Ware and asked him to do an interview. He graciously accepted and answered all of my questions about the game despite what had just happened to him.
That is the kind of person he is.
He is a first-class coach and teacher who does not deserve the treatment he received last night.
No high school coach deserves to be berated at any time - especially not in front of their players, parents, opposing coaches and reporters.
It's sad that this lack of respect exists on the high school level. Coaches are not involved in coaching to get yelled at by parents. They are involved in coaching to help high school athletes be better people.
It's a shame some parents don't realize that.
- Theresa Neuhoff Audia
posted by Anonymous at
6:36 PM
4 Comments:
Thanks for the looking out Theresa! With all of the training required for coaching nowadays, Parents should also be required to go through a training session on their conduct as well!
Theresa
Thank you for your honesty in reporting. Our culture of winning is slowly creeping into interscholastic sports and corrupting the purpose of interscholastic sports.
Thank you for bringing attention to such a big issue. Coaching, like any job, requires respect. While parents are passionate about the sport, they must remember, coaches are people too, and they are there because they CARE. They are not there to be belittled in front of others.
As a middle school volleyball coach, I too, have had this happen. When asked how I like coaching, my replay is, "the kids are fine, some expected drama, but the parents are awful. They are the number one reason coaches quit."
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