Please pay attention to the first two-paragraphs. You might wish to read them twice.
High school sports brings with it athletes' parents and in the main that's a wonderful thing. School extra-curricular programs need supportive parents who communicate to School Board Members the need for financial and facilities support. However, make no mistake, you and I have never met a mother who gave birth to 'failure' or a father whose procreative loin-powers were substandard. That said, many parents who think their child is not treated fairly by the coach might decide to embrace a mission from hell to vent anger or 'Get the Coach.'
There are two kinds of sports' programs: 1) Individual and 2) Team. The individual sports' competition, ie, wrestling, tennis, cross country, track and swimming are examples of the individual proving to be worthy to represent the team based on better times, scores or one-on-one victories over teammates., which removes the coach's subjective evaluations. The team sports, ie., baseball, football, basketball and volleyball beg the mentor (coach) to make subjective evaluations to determine who 'makes' the team and who 'plays' in the contests. I recall one player's father yelling at me from the stands, "Roustio, Put in your First Five!" This dad's 'first five' was his son and any other four players. KEEP THESE ABSOLUTE FACTORS IN MIND READING FORWARD.
In my thirty-nine years coaching, I have been dissed and demeaned by some Black parents and family members who would claim that I'm unfair and perhaps prejudice. However, more frequently, I've had some White parents play those 'cloak 'n dagger' attack games towards me using the 'race- favoritism-card' to stir the unrest and discord. The latter happened frequently during my seven-year Edwardsville coaching tenure. At first, it was disheartening and frustrating, however in a short period of time the attacks stirred my competitive juices. I was determine to protect our basketball program and my players. I took the gloves off and called out every bogus claim with the messenger and administration.
My first season at Edwardsville 1970-71, we finished 13-14. We were lead by a 6'2" freshman whose brother the year before moved from Edwardsville to Collinsville. I thought it was prudent to keep this young, shy freshman kid on the junior varsity team to remove undue fan scrutinization, which would certainly come at the varsity level. I had no choice but to elevate the youngster to the varsity starting lineup after he scored 20-points per the first three JV games. This day, June 2020, the youngster remains Edwardsville' individual all-time leading scorer withover 1,800 points.
It could have been jealousy, anger over his brother's move the year before or simply bigotry that caused late night anonymous telephone calls and a voice calling me a "Ni^*er Lover." It could have been a parent pissed off that their kid did not play ahead of others or did not play at all. Your guess is as good as mine. I would also have my athletic director stop by practice ocassionally in a rather bad mood saying that the principal had a telephone call from a school board member who had a telephone call from a parent stating "Roustio's Black players are not going to practice." The athletic director was told to check it out . On another occasion, my principal entered a practice and was livid. He wanted me to know that a school board member got a telephone call from a parent who said, "One of Roustio's top players (and he called him by name; another minority player) had drugs in his locker." The principal said he told the board member that if he wanted to accompany him to inspect 1,800 student lockers he would but he would not be checking out one basketball players locker. This type of cheap allegations went on for some time. I kept my assistants informed of these harassment tactics but never hinted such issues with players. This all happened in year one. Finally, I called the Administration out. My surpeiors would never disclose names of the people who called school board members; always maintaining "those were confidential communications." You know, you can take crap for so long and then call an end to it. Mid season that first year, I called my principal one morning and told him that I was resigning immediately. He was shocked and said, "I will have a substitute teacher for your morning classes and meet you and the Superintendent and School Board President at Central Office in one hour." I called my assistant and informed him to join the meeting. I actually had no intention of resigning but these anonymous ambush tactics were going to end. As the meeting began, I asked one question: I want the names of people calling school board members with these untrue accusations. The school board President said, "We can't give those names." Sliding my school keys across the table towards the Superintendent, I said, "Here's my keys, Collinsville comes in Friday night andvyoull need a new head coach. I'm going to the newspapers in the Metro-East and telling them I resigned because I've been accused constantly of showing favoritism to my Black players." The Superintendent knew what the fallout would be and turned to the Board President and said, "Time to name names!" I got the names, grabbed my keys, stood to leave and said, "See you fellas at the game Friday."
Ps...For the record...Seven Year Edwardsville tenure:
Basketball> Wins-108 Loses>83
7-Invitational Titles
Sweet 16 Finalist 1976, which broke a 20-year drought
Cross Country> 28-consecutive dual meet victories (school record)
2-State Final Appearances
1-SWC Title
A wealth of material from experiences to Pen a book (99-Answers for the Sport Parent), which was endorsed by IESAand the IHSA. Later developed into speaking presentations for school districts' athletic-family consisting of coaches-parents-student athletes.
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