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published: Friday, January 29, 2010
If you can do better, then do it!
It amazes me how many quality coaches and officials are in the stands at high-school sporting events.
None has ever lost a game or blown a call.
They have all the answers and are the first to call for a coach's job or accuse officals and umpires of playing favorites.
And yet, despite their self-proclaimed experience and knowledge, very few of these grandstand coaches and arbiters have walked a sideline or paced in a dugout with a game on the line.
I never realized a $5 general admission ticket bought so much intelligience.
Next time I go to a game, I'm plunking down 100 bucks for ducats.
With the kind of smarts that should buy me, I fix the world's problems.
This current craze of bashing high-school coaches and officials is disturbing to me -- and it should bother anyone with a connection to prep sports.
Don't get me wrong ... if a fan buys a ticket, he or she has the right to say what they want (within reason, of course). But when every play is questioned -- to the point that someone constantly questions a coach or official's intelligence -- things have gone too far.
This is one area of high-school sports that needs to be cleaned up.
I began realizing that a few years ago at a South Sumter football game. The Raiders were winning handily in the fourth quarter and coach Inman Sherman called for a play that was designed to keep the clock running.
One fan, who obviously felt the Raiders should be adding to what was already a four-touchdown lead, began voicing his displeasure.
"What kind of call is that?" the fan asked in a tone loud enough to be heard by everyone. "That's why it's time to find another coach!"
Thankfully, most of the South Sumter fanbase and school administration didn't agree and Sherman lead the Raiders to the state championship game the following season.
I just shook my head and walked farther down the sidelines.
And I hear the same thing in Leesburg, Mount Dora, Umatilla, South Lake ... in other words, at every school in every corner of Lake and Sumter counties.
Where were these geniuses when coaches began building their staffs? If these people are the next version of Paul "Bear" Bryant, Joe Paterno, or even John Wooden and Joe Torre, since this scenario also goes on during basketball and baseball games, why aren't they on the sidelines instead of buying tickets and sitting in the stands?
Of course, the reason is simple.
They aren't geniuses.
They're fans.
A little out of touch, perhaps, but fans, nonetheless.
Why do high-school coaches do what they do, opening themselves up for public scorn and ridicule? What drives them to work until until the wee hours of the morning on school nights, watching videotape and developing game plans?
It's certainly not for the money, considering that only a handful of high-school coaches in the country do nothing but coach.
Most are teachers by profession and receive only a small stipend for the headaches they get from coaching -- headaches that, more than likely, come from dealing with parents who live vicariously through their children.
"Why isn't little Johnny the starting quarterback and making all the plays?" parents asks coaches.
Instead of telling the truth and dealing a severe blow to the parents' ego, coaches find a diplomatic way of saying, "We're glad little Johnny is on the team and he works extremely hard at practice, but he's just not very good."
I don't know how they do it.
Coaches have a variety of reasons for taking the job. Some want to stay connected to the game they played high school, while others like helping young people become better student-athletes.
Perhaps the best answer I've ever heard came from East Ridge coach Bud O'Hara, who said he felt his job was to, "Help these boys become better husbands and daddies."
The men and women who coach our children should be commended for the job they do. If we're not out there proving we can do a better job, we shouldn't be trying to tear them down.
And the same goes for officials. To hear some parents, you'd think an officiating crew got together before a game and decided they were going to help a team win.
"Come on ref! Call it both ways," is the cry I hear at virtually every game I attend.
Unbelievable.
It's too bad these same parents don't hear what I hear. They might be surprised at how often officials help players instead of calling fouls, penalties or violations.
"Number 33, get out of the lane!"
"Watch that hand checking!"
Some even go to coaches on the sidelines and tell them to warn their players about something, before they blow their whistles.
All that goes unnoticed.
Let an official miss one call, however, and you'd think the world as we know it, was coming to an end.
Officials occasionally miss calls. It's that simple. Most officials admit they blow a call from time to time.
It happens.
They're human.
Contrary to what many people believe, officials don't try to "even things out," with make-up calls -- in other words, if they make a bad call against one team, they'll create a call against the other team.
But the grandstand genuises, who don't have the time or the moxie to put on the uniform and get out there, never miss a call. It's so easy to officiate a game from the top row of the bleachers.
Try doing it from the baseline, with 10 bodies banging off one another and a 12-foot wide lane that has to be monitored.
Or on a football field, with offensive lineman trying to block, defensive lineman and linebackers trying to pressure quarterbacks, receivers and defensive backs battling for receptions and interceptions, and running backs looking for holes to squeeze through.
It's not easy, except for those who sit in bleachers and complain about every call.
They never miss one.
Coaches and officials aren't paid what they're worth. If they were, school districts would go broke.
They also don't deserve the verbal abuse they get.
Like my parents used to tell me, "If you're not going to help, don't say anything."
That doesn't mean you shouldn't go to a game and cheer for the hometown team.
Go and cheer until your throat hurts.
But, if your reason for going to a game is simply to blast the coach or chastise the officials, and you're not going to get down on the field and show us how it's done, stay home.
Don't ruin a good time for everyone else.
Frank Jolley is a columnist for the Daily Commercial. Write to him at frankjolley@dailycommercial.com.
