The worst coach you have personal experience playing for.

[Travelman6]

What is the worst coach you have ever had to experience, either as a player or as a parent watching your kids play?

I was around Grade 4 or 5, just playing in your typical town grade school b-ball league for primary (grade school) children in Old Lyme. Nothing serious, right? This guy tried to teach us how to press and during games would yell at the top of his lungs until he was red in the face "Press! Press!" all game long, non-stop.

If we messed up he would start screaming, and I was scared of him, for sure. In hindsight, he had some anger issues. He would call players pansies and demean them if they had a turnover or missed a 50/50 loose ball.

I was one of the best players on the team and overall we were all naturally talented kids, one of the best teams in the league. I'd get 15 points or so, usually 6-10 rebounds, a few steals, maybe a block, 4 or 5 assists.

I was tall for my age but a little awkward and would sometimes miss a rebound or block so he would lay into me as if this was some HS championship or D1 UNI game. Looking back, it had living vicariously through his player's vibes going on, with this unhealthy obsession.

Second to last game we played the best team in the league, a team with two players who absolutely towered over our tallest guy by like 8-10 inches plus a super speedy guard, faster than anyone on our team.

They rolled through the league in a way that made Uconn's 2023 run look like child's play and we had gotten crushed earlier in the year, like every other team. They were undefeated, my team had one loss, to them.

But in our second matchup, 2nd to last game of the season, we had it within 4 with the ball with under a minute. They were absolutely shocked by the situation, I remember. I had one of my best games of the year but missed that shot that would have pulled it to within 2 (and we ended up losing by 4).

He benched me on the very last game of the year with a decent chunk of my family watching my game, largest crowd of the season. In a league where it was the RULE for everyone to have a certain amount of time each game, I think 20 minutes per game, I had ZERO in that game.

Guy was a complete lunatic who may very well have made Bob Knight blush with his profanity toward kids and seemed to have something against me for no reason. I don't think even Knight would yell at a bunch of Year 5 students the way he did!

Your stories?

 

[GlastonTim]

Played JV basketball sophomore year high school. Coach made us hang from the bleachers ( you had to jump up and grab on to the bleacher tops and hang on for dear life. At the time it seemed like forever. I remember singing “Fire and Rain” by James Taylor in my head. Those that dropped had to run more sprints. Just a power hungry sadistic coach. Total Jerk!

 

[borninansonia]

Myself.
If I worked with a coach in the years I was training for long-distance bicycle touring, I would have learned to ride more efficiently, with less stress on my neck. Now I can't bend my neck and ride an upright bike.

 

[Mr. Wonderful]

My father.

 

[StllH8L8ner]

My first year playing biddy hoops, my coach looked like Quint from Jaws. He’d have a Pall Mall hanging from of his mouth while throwing us no look passes during passing drills. We didn’t win a game that season….

 

[nelsonmuntz]

Both the best and worst coach I ever had was around 13 in little league baseball. This was in the mid 80's, and they must have been short coaches because this guy in his early 20's who was kind of friends with my brother was my coach. He was a total stoner, and disappeared for 3 weeks during the season to go on a safari in Africa. His friend (also a stoner) took over while he was away, and his friend didn't know anything about baseball. A bunch of 13 year old kids were running their own practices and the coaches weren't even showing up to all the practices, so we would just be doing our own thing in some random park in the dark. This whole situation was completely inappropriate, even by 1980's standards.

On the plus side, the stand-in coach let us do whatever we wanted, so we would make our own lineups and positions. The stand-in remained the Head Coach when his buddy returned. One of the best players on the team decided we were going to spend a lot of time on outfield in practice, and we became the best outfield in the league, which was good because one of my buddies was the #2 pitcher and he threw every pitch right down the middle of the plate. Since everyone tried to kill it when he was pitching, we would just play way back in the outfield and run in on the fly balls.

I had so much fun that season, and we ended up winning the league title.

 

[CCSUblue]

Junior year of high school the head soccer coach and his assistant Coach/brother spent an entire practice helping a senior install a new radio in his car while the rest of the team ran.

 

[Fishy]

I plan on starting a Boneyard basketball team and then drafting all of you onto it. I will be the coach.

I will become your answer to this question.

 

[Spaceman213J]

I quit my high school basketball team before we even got to our first game because the coaching was hurling profanities at players and more so for teaching guys how to injure players and get away with it.
As far as the profanity goes, I'm not thrilled but can accept "Go get the bleeping ball", but it is over the line for a coach to say, "Hey you bleeping bleep, why are doing that?" It's one thing to let out anger or frustration but it's another to degrade a person, especially one you've been put in charge of.

 

[UConniki]

Dom Perno at South Catholic high and it’s not even close.

 

[temery]

Please, don't post your coach's actual name.

 

[SoCalCanine]

I played only one year of football in high school, my freshman year. Our school was a horrible football school. The head coach of the freshman team would tell us " the only way you can win this game (every game!) is to injure #xx (whatever number was of the best player on opposing team) and get him out of the game". This was his strategy every game. We all knew it was wrong, but in those days coaches did and said anything they wanted and we kids were too intimidated to say or do anything against him. My line coach was actually a good guy but even he never said or did anything against the head coach. We won two games that year only cause we somehow got to play the only team worse than us twice that year. The second to last game of the year, I got moved up to JV and screwed up my knee. Never played again. This was the late 60s, a very different time. I started smoking pot and became a hippie!

 

[Chin Diesel]

Junior year of high school the head soccer coach and his assistant Coach/brother spent an entire practice helping a senior install a new radio in his car while the rest of the team ran.

Good coach. Had his priorities straight. Not a lot of coaching needed to "coach" a player to run. OTOH, car stereo installation is a technical process which needs supervision.

You'll be shocked when you realize how badly you can injure yourself not doing electrical work correctly.

 

[dennismenace]

My first year playing biddy hoops, my coach looked like Quint from Jaws. He’d have a Pall Mall hanging from of his mouth while throwing us no look passes during passing drills. We didn’t win a game that season….

You have a gift of creative writing. I had visualized the scene you painted complete with Quint's accent
and attitude and found it both hilarious and memorable (completely outrageous). I learned in an English class that the situation you painted is called "detached humor". Funny to the reader; not so funny to the victim(s). Like someone coming out of a restaurant and falling on their a?&$. Well done! I can see him now. That made my morning.

 

[uchuskies2009]

So

What is the worst coach you have ever had to experience, either as a player or as a parent watching your kids play?

I was around Grade 4 or 5, just playing in your typical town grade school b-ball league for primary (grade school) children in Old Lyme. Nothing serious, right? This guy tried to teach us how to press and during games would yell at the top of his lungs until he was red in the face "Press! Press!" all game long, non-stop. If we messed up he would start screaming, and I was scared of him, for sure. In hindsight, he had some anger issues. He would call players pansies and demean them if they had a turnover or missed a 50/50 loose ball. I was one of the best players on the team and overall we were all naturally talented kids, one of the best teams in the league. I'd get 15 points or so, usually 6-10 rebounds, a few steals, maybe a block, 4 or 5 assists. I was tall for my age but a little awkward and would sometimes miss a rebound or block so he would lay into me as if this was some HS championship or D1 UNI game. Looking back, it had living vicariously through his player's vibes going on, with this unhealthy obsession. Second to last game we played the best team in the league, a team with two players who absolutely towered over our tallest guy by like 8-10 inches plus a super speedy guard, faster than anyone on our team. They rolled through the league in a way that made Uconn's 2023 run look like child's play and we had gotten crushed earlier in the year, like every other team. They were undefeated, my team had one loss, to them. But in our second matchup, 2nd to last game of the season, we had it within 4 with the ball with under a minute. They were absolutely shocked by the situation, I remember. I had one of my best games of the year but missed that shot that would have pulled it to within 2 (and we ended up losing by 4). He benched me on the very last game of the year with a decent chunk of my family watching my game, largest crowd of the season. In a league where it was the RULE for everyone to have a certain amount of time each game, I think 20 minutes per game, I had ZERO in that game. Guy was a complete lunatic who may very well have made Bob Knight blush with his profanity toward kids and seemed to have something against me for no reason. I don't think even Knight would yell at a bunch of Year 5 students the way he did!

Your stories?

So was your coach a very young James Calhoun? Didn’t he get his start coaching in Old Lyme

 

[BGesus4]

Every coach I ever played for. I needed more minutes and shots.

 

[HuskyWarrior611]

College coach was by far the worst.

I was in shock how bad practices were at a D1 school (club team, but best club team in the country) compared to HS practices. We basically practiced the same as the D1 team and it made sense to me why they were so bad. But we exercised and trained like we were preparing for a marathon.

Club team was so good because we pretty much had D1 talent (one of the guys ended up being a starter for an AAC school a few years later).

 

[Travelman6]

So

So was your coach a very young James Calhoun? Didn’t he get his start coaching in Old Lyme

Sadly no. Not sure if I can name names, but Mr. G with three more letters after.

I actually feel OL could have, and still could leverage the fact that is where Calhoun got his coaching start more. I never really heard it growing up in the 90s and early 2000s. OL hired the coach that made Storrs the bball capital of the world.

 

[Devland]

Never had any problems with any of my coaches. Sure some of them yelled at me but that is expected.

 

[husky429]

The college basketball coach who recruited me. He was a mean SOB who was fired after a year.

I was the JV coach at my first teaching job and of course they hired this clown. He didn't even recognize me even though it was only 4-5 years since I played for him. I said nothing and it didn't come out until my 3rd season there.

He lasted 3 years coaching hs before being fired again and became the athletic director at a tiny catholic school making a pittance.

Felt pretty good to see him fail at everything he loved, tbh.

 

[RichZ]

I worked after school, so couldn't even try out for the HS team. One year, I settled for CYO league, because the team I joined practices ran from 7:30 to 9. Coach of the team was also the father of the least athletic kid on the team. He coached us to use clock. Our practices consisted of rigidly structured ball handling and position drills on specific skills that rarely included shooting. We never scrimmaged. I stuck it out for the season, but never played anything resembling organized ball again.

 

[uconnfan68]

My only coaching story… team played an away game, of course I didn’t play. Someone asked if I had showered afterward, and I said loudly, that I got more exercise on the bus. On the ride home 4 of us tried to get let off along the way so we could hitchhike home (mid 60s). The coach agreed, then asked why I didn’t want to get more exercise. I actually laughed out loud.

 

[nomar]

I was pretty lucky.

The worst I ever had was a baseball coach whose son played on my Little League team. He put his kid at second base even though he literally couldn't make the 10-foot throw. He was also kind of a yeller although he never really crossed the line with me or anyone else without his last name. He'd mostly yell at his son, after putting him in a position he was likely to fail in.

Amazingly, when we went up to Babe Ruth ball, the guy drafted me again. So again I had to play with his crappy son and deal with his yelling -- for 3 more years! At some point, the guy finally stuck his kid in RF when he had to play him.

 

[nomar]

My father.

"Worst coach: my father" is even shorter than "For sale: baby shoes, never worn"

 

[husky429]

"Worst coach: my father" is even shorter than "For sale: baby shoes, never worn"

Coaching your own kids is rarely a good idea. Somebody's parent has to do it in youth sports, but it sure as hell won't be me.