Fair warning: I’m quite biased about this week’s topic.

The very first basketball team I coached was a group of young ladies at the Winona YMCA. They worked hard and played hard, but didn’t win very much. Still, we had fun, and I sometimes wonder what those kids (who are in their 30s now) are up to now.

I had one issue that year. The father of one of the girls was the varsity coach at a local high school and would come out and talk to his daughter at halftime. I finally walked over to him one game and asked him if he’d like a parent doing that during his games. He understood the point, and we had a good relationship going forward.

Little did I know that what I saw that season would become as big a problem as it is today. Not parents wandering onto the court, of course, but getting too involved in their children’s activities. A larger problem overshadows that, however: the lack of support coaches receive in these situations.

About a dozen years ago, give or take, I had a parent causing copious amounts of distress from the stands. After trying to talk to this parent, I was threatened with a lawsuit and how the parent would ask the board to fire me. This was related to playing time. I informed my athletic director and superintendent and was quickly supported with a phone call to the parent and administrative presence at our next game. Problem solved.

Today the news is littered with stories of just the opposite happening. Coaches across the country are being questioned about not only playing time, but also game strategies. Just check out Brainerd, Lake Park-Audobon, and Appleton East High Schools. Because of this, coaches are leaving the profession. And that’s a huge problem.

I got my coaching certification in college, giving me the training necessary to coach at a varsity level. For many years, I thought that was my ultimate goal. No more. I enjoy working with kids and honing skills and being involved in competition. But everything else that now goes along with coaching at that level doesn’t interest me. Why would I want my methods constantly questioned, no matter the result of the games?

Just look to the north, to Bethlehem Academy in Faribault. Franz Boelter has built a legacy as a volleyball coach, winning numerous state titles. He is respected around the state, but was just informed that he will not return as coach. Specifics are scarce (the overused privacy laws being what they are), but he was told that he emotionally mistreated and had lack of concern for players, allegations he denies.

Yet, he was not given an opportunity to present his case. He wasn’t even told that there were concerns until he was fired. The volleyball season ended in November, but it took until February, without talking to the coach himself, to make this decision? This is where lack of administrative support comes in, and it’s becoming more prevalent. It seems that administrators in many schools where you read about these coaches don’t want problems with parents, so rather than begin the process with support of the coach, to show loyalty to the person they hired, they let the angry parent dictate what happens.

Maybe Boelter was in the wrong at some point. We’ll probably never know. But doesn’t a man who is in the coaching hall of fame in two sports deserve the basic decency of knowing about an allegation before being removed from his job? Shouldn’t he get a chance to defend himself before being fired? The school denies that this is about playing time, so what is it about? Players have come forward and said that Boelter is demanding and intense, but they said that’s what you need to be a winning program. If the players didn’t see anything wrong, what happened? Did the wrong kid get yelled at?

What will kids do if their boss yells at them someday? Try to get the boss fired? What will happen when they don’t get the raise (playing time) they want? These are life lessons that can be learned through sports. What can I do to achieve what I want? More importantly, what will I do when I realize those goals might not happen?

Coaches work hard. Coaches care about the kids. They try to develop players and give their teams a chance to win. Are there bad coaches? Sure, but I can’t think of any I know that aren’t trying to do the right things. Parents get a little more passionate when they have a dog in the race, as I do now, and want to see success even more. Still, I’ve never won a conference championship or coached a team to a state tournament, so it’s really not my place to question how things are run.

I plan to sit back and enjoy the ride. Coaches, just like players, perform better when they receive support from parents, players, and administration. If people keep leaving coaching at the rate they are now, who will coach our kids and grandkids? The parents who complained too much and drove them away or the administrators who didn’t support them?

Word of the Week: This week’s word is psychurgy, which means mental energy, as in, “The coach stepped down after realizing he spent too much psychurgy on parent issues.” Impress your friends and confuse your enemies!