The worst coach you have personal experience playing for.

[Hey Adrien!]

Luckily, I've had good coaches throughout my childhood, but then again, I never played in anything that was higher than rec leagues.

There are two coaches I've coached against in basketball that take the cake for me, for different reasons.

One day, I had to sub in to coach 5th/6th grade girls' basketball since the coach was sick. We were losing 32-0 at the end of the third quarter. Why? They had a 5'9 athlete who would spearhead a half-court trap and then just score on transition layups. The girl played every minute of the first three quarters. This was early in my coaching, so I was green and more timid, but by that point, I asked the coach what is she still doing in the game? and his response was she's a sixth grader, she's eligible or something like that. The worst thing was that he has a seven player bench. Anyways, I let my AD know, the school's AD sent me a personal apology and I learned that coach was not asked back after that season.

Another is a guy who hounds the refs all. the. time. For everything. Older guy, so I guess he's old school? I've developed a good relationship with the guy who refs most of our games and after one tirade, the ref walks to me and says what's this guy's deal? no offense, but you guys are freakin' coaching middle school! Got a good laugh from that one.

 

[Hans Sprungfeld]

I check this thread once an hour and pray

They've all got you on Ignore.

The JV coach, on the other hand, was the best coach I ever had. English guy. Showed up for first practice in a suit. Got changed in his Porsche.

Wait, what?

Morris Buttermaker

It would have been wrong not to include that name.

Could not disagree more. Coaching my kids basketball teams has been one of the great unexpected joys of fatherhood. I played baseball mostly growing up & only caught basketball bug senior yr of HS and at UConn - so never expected to be more than an assistant coach.

It is more time with your children. It is mostly about the life lessons not the actual games/coaching. You and your child get to see each other interact in different environments to varying new situations, you also get to know their friends better. Sure there are some pitfalls but mostly the other co-coaching parents try to do the hard coaching children (ie. I coach their kids, they coach mine) to avoid any weird parent/coach crossover dynamics. And one can even combine passions, I see UConn out-of-bounds plays that I like and teach them to players!

I've done it with both with my children at lower talent end and at higher, the latter is harder but also naturally more fun. I've got two years left coaching my youngest son in travel basketball and there isn't much I enjoy more. I was emotional returning the equipment when my first 3-year stint coaching my oldest son ended, cannot imagine how hard it will be when coaching my youngest comes to an end.

Anybody else reserving judgment until we hear from the kids?

 

[mauconnfan]

Could not disagree more. Coaching my kids basketball teams has been one of the great unexpected joys of fatherhood. I played baseball mostly growing up & only caught basketball bug senior yr of HS and at UConn - so never expected to be more than an assistant coach.

It is more time with your children. It is mostly about the life lessons not the actual games/coaching. You and your child get to see each other interact in different environments to varying new situations, you also get to know their friends better. Sure there are some pitfalls but mostly the other co-coaching parents try to do the hard coaching children (ie. I coach their kids, they coach mine) to avoid any weird parent/coach crossover dynamics. And one can even combine passions, I see UConn out-of-bounds plays that I like and teach them to players!

I've done it with both with my children at lower talent end and at higher, the latter is harder but also naturally more fun. I've got two years left coaching my youngest son in travel basketball and there isn't much I enjoy more. I was emotional returning the equipment when my first 3-year stint coaching my oldest son ended, cannot imagine how hard it will be when coaching my youngest comes to an end.

I see both sides of this discussion but have to agree with @husky429 thoughts of coaching your own kid. I appreciate the way you looked at it and wished I could’ve done the same. My son and his buddies wanted to be special so myself and their dads put together a travel team from end of LL to their soph years in HS.. All 3 of us were similar so we ended up assigning our sons to the other dads coaching. Problem is when they think they’re good, doing everything right, the last person they will listen to is their own dad when he’s in “teaching” mode. We played the best teams in western mass and they all wanted to be good players and impact their HS programs so while we expect the game of baseball to be fun, you need to learn the fundamentals and be consistent with them. Same with hoops for my son and his friends. You want to be the leading scorer but you’re watching from a distance rather than crashing the boards you will hear about it. Again this was older than 12 in the young leagues, it’s time to get better and learn.

Oh well it all worked out no matter. Lol

 

[Mr. French]

As a former player and coach with tons of scars from coaching, I’m interested to see how it plays out with my 4 and 3 year olds. I will always “coach” them from home but I wonder what I’ll do over the next 10 years if things get serious.

PS my high school coach can buzz off. Didn’t like him at all.

 

[Mr. French]

Sister A, Erie middle school catholic league. Told me to push to the ground anyone that could make a layup under the basket. I had the most Ts for the whole season in the league and fouled out of every game. We won 2 games all season.

Dem nuns are no nonsense in hoops!

 

[mauconnfan]

As a former player and coach with tons of scars from coaching, I’m interested to see how it plays out with my 4 and 3 year olds. I will always “coach” them from home but I wonder what I’ll do over the next 10 years if things get serious.

PS my high school coach can buzz off. Didn’t like him at all.

My HS coach was a well respected man in the CIAC for many many years. I played golf with him and my baseball coach years after being out of HS, good man. Highly overrated coach both practice and in game. My Jr Pro coach (ages 12,13) taught me more and I had a grasp on the fundamentals and nuances well before I walked into HS.. Too much to explain why so I will leave it there.

 

[husky429]

My second head coach in high school. That guys was a total nut. No water except for a wet towel we sucked on, full contact practices, playing our QB when he has concession, could not remember what to do on plays had to be told by second string QB what to do on every play. Worst guy I ever meet!

Never understood the no water thing--I had coaches do that too. It only makes sense to train limited hydration in sports when you don't have access to water.

 

[dennismenace]

Sister A, Erie middle school catholic league. Told me to push to the ground anyone that could make a layup under the basket. I had the most Ts for the whole season in the league and fouled out of every game. We won 2 games all season.

"Winning isn't everything; it's only thing" She was teaching you to channel your inner Rick Mahorn.

 

[FfldCntyFan]

Never played for him but I do remember visiting a bar in Boston decades ago. I ran into a coach who wouldn't stop bragging about when he played he could get hit by any pitch. Said he must have gotten hit by a hundred fastballs.

 

[storrsroars]

Never played for him but I do remember visiting a bar in Boston decades ago. I ran into a coach who wouldn't stop bragging about when he played he could get hit by any pitch. Said he must have gotten hit by a hundred fastballs.

Why is flipping Diane the bird?

 

[BlueMAB]

You say this now, as I did, but that will change once you see the jackals that end up coaching your kids.

This

 

[August_West]

but that will change once you see the jackals that end up coaching your kids

lol

 

[hagbard]

Babe Ruth baseball - coach was the middle-aged son of a very prominent family in a very small town. Overweight, alcoholic, but had a cup of coffee in single A baseball in his glory years. This was early '90s ('92-'93 i think).

Over two seasons he:

• threw a bat at our left fielder from around third base
• would occasionally hit dingers over our short right field fence (he was a lefty) to show us how crappy we were because we couldn't consistently do it
• Told us he hated mental errors, but could accept physical errors - great message but he didn't actually accept physical errors
• I took a week off to go to summer sleep over camp. He tried to talk me out of going so I wouldn't miss a game - when I refused, he came to the camp, picked me up, brought me to the game, and brought me back to camp (depending on your viewpoint, this bullet might actually be a good thing, but it struck me as psychotic even back then)
• At the end of one of our seasons, he sat us down to have a Very Important Talk where he proceeded to single out 5-6 players and tell them they were going to make very good HS players and basically that the rest of us had no future in baseball

I played one year of JV baseball before quitting to play on the golf team for the free golf.

 

[M.S.G.]

In my 40's I've probably kicked myself a substantial amount of times for not playing golf in high school for this exact reason.

 

[husky99]

"Winning isn't everything; it's only thing" She was teaching you to channel your inner Rick Mahorn.

Seriously.. she had the eye of the tiger... she would steal drags of the bus drivers smokes

 

[UConnTrumbull]

Had a bball coach in middle school catholic league. Basically had a starting 5 and everyone else. I was in the everyone else squad. One weekend we were double booked so the starters played in a tourney and got blown out. The reserves beat a divisional team by at least 10…

…we had lost to that divisional opponent a few weeks earlier with the starters playing the bulk of the minutes.

 

[August_West]

I had nothing but great coaches . The best was in Midget A team hockey. I got a gross misconduct in a game . we played Eddie shore old time hockey, all I did was what was accepted at the time, I was a goalie and this 6 foot 3 250 lb lummox ( midgets is 14 and 15 year olds , he was huge and sucked but bullied his way through everything) was told by their coach to screen me deep, and he kept backing me in the crease where I was pegged against the crossbar . So I did what Eddie Giacomin in used to do, every time he tried to back me down I slashed him in the back of the calves, where the shin guards didn’t cover, to move him out… the refs let this dance go for a period and a half. That's hockey. Whelp I got bold and really whacked him to bait him and he was pissed and turned around and cross checked me into crossbar ( I was maybe 5’7” 155 at the time) and got in my face. Luckily crossbar was there and held me up. And I cross checked back. To the chest. That was all I could reach. In a happenstance he was lifting his arms to block my cross check and lifted them so he lifted my cross check and went right under his helmet to the chin. He was split wide open. Never saw so much blood, or at least the ice made it seem that way. Medics on the ice.

I got a gross MIsconduct. 2nd of the season . Automatic season expulsion ( first was 30 days) .

My coach called a hearing with AHAUS and I was reinstated. Back in time for playoffs. I love that man.

Btw that goon played for suffield I still despise that town.

 

[Chuck]

My daughter's high school soccer coach is a piece of garbage (trying not to trigger the Boneyard filter). There are a lot of examples, but here's the latest that has me ready to lose it. They started preseason soccer (even though they've been practicing 3 days per week with the coach all of August plus captains' practices in July). He tells the girls that if they miss any practice they won't play. He only enforces that against his non-star players.

My daughter has had something going on medically and a doctor we saw Friday said we should have a procedure done. We could do it today because of a cancellation or wait a month +. We chose to do it today. She emailed the coach about the issue on Friday and got no response. Yesterday she asked if he got the email. He said he did and walked away. She wanted to explain that she was still going to come to practice, but wouldn't be able to participate because she will have been under anesthesia. He says, "you couldn't have this done sooner?" She explained that she couldn't and he responded, "well, there seem to be a bunch of you with convenient excuses. Maybe you should have a private practice on Saturday." Didn't wish her luck or offer any support.

I wanted to reach out to him and explain how he could have better handled the situation, but my daughter insists that I not communicate with him. She's probably right. I know I'd start off nice, but I know it would go south. She's considered quitting, but she still likes the game and only has 3 more months. Maybe she should quit at this point though.

 

[M.S.G.]

Wow, but completely unsurprising unfortunately.

 

[husky429]

My daughter's high school soccer coach is a piece of garbage (trying not to trigger the Boneyard filter). There are a lot of examples, but here's the latest that has me ready to lose it. They started preseason soccer (even though they've been practicing 3 days per week with the coach all of August plus captains' practices in July). He tells the girls that if they miss any practice they won't play. He only enforces that against his non-star players.

My daughter has had something going on medically and a doctor we saw Friday said we should have a procedure done. We could do it today because of a cancellation or wait a month +. We chose to do it today. She emailed the coach about the issue on Friday and got no response. Yesterday she asked if he got the email. He said he did and walked away. She wanted to explain that she was still going to come to practice, but wouldn't be able to participate because she will have been under anesthesia. He says, "you couldn't have this done sooner?" She explained that she couldn't and he responded, "well, there seem to be a bunch of you with convenient excuses. Maybe you should have a private practice on Saturday." Didn't wish her luck or offer any support.

I wanted to reach out to him and explain how he could have better handled the situation, but my daughter insists that I not communicate with him. She's probably right. I know I'd start off nice, but I know it would go south. She's considered quitting, but she still likes the game and only has 3 more months. Maybe she should quit at this point though.

If you have proof that the rule is only being enforced for bench players, I would talk to the principal. The rule is fine, but unequal application is silly. Go above the AD's head--they're useless. Just gym teachers that wanted more money.

I hate petty coaches like this.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

I had one other bad coach in Babe Ruth. The coach wasn’t so bad but his kid was kind of a jackass and picked on the younger kids like me. It always bugged me that the coach didn’t do anything about it.

Anyway, one day we are playing and the jackass kid says “the ump is hammered”. The coach starts to watch the umpire, and maybe two batters later, pulls the team off the field and says the umpire has to leave. The umpire was well known in town, and it was the 80’s so someone being drunk in the afternoon wasn’t exactly unprecedented. My mom often told me she and her friends didn’t make it through all our boring baseball games with coffee in her thermos, but she wasn’t umpiring the game.

Demanding the umpire leave was a big deal. The umpire got indignant, my coach wouldn’t back down, and now the other coach had to pull his team or he would look like a jerk.

The umpire finally left, a dad from the stands called the rest of the game, and I actually had a lot more respect for the coach and even his jackass kid.

 

[Chuck]

If you have proof that the rule is only being enforced for bench players, I would talk to the principal. The rule is fine, but unequal application is silly. Go above the AD's head--they're useless. Just gym teachers that wanted more money.

I hate petty coaches like this.

I probably should, but my daughter would be livid. The AD is actually part of the problem. Just a useless old guy that is also sexist against the girls teams. I have one more year in the school system. I may submit a letter after the season, or maybe even after the school year to keep my daughter from being dragged in. It's a small school in a small town.

A few girls quit every year because of the coach. He's never cared because they have a ton of girls in the program and he doesn't usually lose the top players. This year, he's lost a star (transferred to a private school) and another potential starter. But he doesn't think it's because of him.

 

[mauconnfan]

I had nothing but great coaches . The best was in Midget A team hockey. I got a gross misconduct in a game . we played Eddie shore old time hockey, all I did was what was accepted at the time, I was a goalie and this 6 foot 3 250 lb lummox ( midgets is 14 and 15 year olds , he was huge and sucked but bullied his way through everything) was told by their coach to screen me deep, and he kept backing me in the crease where I was pegged against the crossbar . So I did what Eddie Giacomin in used to do, every time he tried to back me down I slashed him in the back of the calves, where the shin guards didn’t cover, to move him out… the refs let this dance go for a period and a half. That's hockey. Whelp I got bold and really whacked him to bait him and he was pissed and turned around and cross checked me into crossbar ( I was maybe 5’7” 155 at the time) and got in my face. Luckily crossbar was there and held me up. And I cross checked back. To the chest. That was all I could reach. In a happenstance he was lifting his arms to block my cross check and lifted them so he lifted my cross check and went right under his helmet to the chin. He was split wide open. Never saw so much blood, or at least the ice made it seem that way. Medics on the ice.

I got a gross MIsconduct. 2nd of the season . Automatic season expulsion ( first was 30 days) .

My coach called a hearing with AHAUS and I was reinstated. Back in time for playoffs. I love that man.

Btw that goon played for suffield I still despise that town.

Nice segue into an offseason thread for "The Best Coaches in your personal experience" huh?

 

[dennismenace]

My daughter's high school soccer coach is a piece of garbage (trying not to trigger the Boneyard filter). There are a lot of examples, but here's the latest that has me ready to lose it. They started preseason soccer (even though they've been practicing 3 days per week with the coach all of August plus captains' practices in July). He tells the girls that if they miss any practice they won't play. He only enforces that against his non-star players.

My daughter has had something going on medically and a doctor we saw Friday said we should have a procedure done. We could do it today because of a cancellation or wait a month +. We chose to do it today. She emailed the coach about the issue on Friday and got no response. Yesterday she asked if he got the email. He said he did and walked away. She wanted to explain that she was still going to come to practice, but wouldn't be able to participate because she will have been under anesthesia. He says, "you couldn't have this done sooner?" She explained that she couldn't and he responded, "well, there seem to be a bunch of you with convenient excuses. Maybe you should have a private practice on Saturday." Didn't wish her luck or offer any support.

I wanted to reach out to him and explain how he could have better handled the situation, but my daughter insists that I not communicate with him. She's probably right. I know I'd start off nice, but I know it would go south. She's considered quitting, but she still likes the game and only has 3 more months. Maybe she should quit at this point though.

There are a lot of good reasons for you to "go south" (I would be tempted to) but that won't help at all and only get you dragged into it. If she can put up with him you'd only be hurting her. After the season (or possibly sooner) detailed commentary in writing is in order on this person who sounds very sick to me. It borders on cruelty. You have to use your judgement as to whether he poses a legitimate threat to your daughter's well being and go from there.

 

[Dogdeacon]

I probably should, but my daughter would be livid. The AD is actually part of the problem. Just a useless old guy that is also sexist against the girls teams. I have one more year in the school system. I may submit a letter after the season, or maybe even after the school year to keep my daughter from being dragged in. It's a small school in a small town.

A few girls quit every year because of the coach. He's never cared because they have a ton of girls in the program and he doesn't usually lose the top players. This year, he's lost a star (transferred to a private school) and another potential starter. But he doesn't think it's because of him.

Agree a letter after the season is your best case, works better for whomever is possibly empowered to help as they can say someone without an agenda (assume last season) is making a case.

I once helped get a tenant evicted this way. Lived downstairs with roommates and the upstairs neighbor was sometimes loud & seemed to be destroying the place. I moved out for a better place, but wrote a letter to Landlord anyway saying I moved out b/c of the upstairs tenant. LL investigated and place was a mess so they were evicted. Glad I wasn't there for the mess yet helped out my former roommates.