Screaming High School Football Coach

[The Fixer]

I play football. Im used to it. Its part of the game. Sometimes you get a coach that is like that, some times you don't. Sometimes it helps, or it doesnt help.

[thespleenenator]

I think it all depends on whether you win or not. If the coach yells at you and you're a winning team, you feel motivated. If you guys are losing and your coach yells at you, you feel like you don't want to play anymore. Regardless, I think it's better to treat the players with respect.

[floydnimrod]

I've never understood, nor been pumped up by, someone just yelling things. I wouldn't get pumped up by that coach, or by Drew Brees or Ray Lewis screaming before a game in a huddle. I'd be more motivated by someone "level-headed" like a John Wooden or a Brad Stevens. But that's just me.

With that being said, this guy's nuts. Anyone who gets this worked up over kids playing sports (I don't care what you job is) is a lunatic.

[sc49erfan15]

We're missing half of the story. We don't know what the players did. I don't know if it will fully justify it, but it might be a mitigating factor.

[pmoehrin]

We're missing half of the story. We don't know what the players did. I don't know if it will fully justify it, but it might be a mitigating factor.

Yeah I'm not going to judge without having the full context of the situation. That's also not even close to the worst I've ever heard coming from a coach.

[UnclearInitial]

In my first year of little league, my coach yelled at us all the time for the first 4 games, and after I made a bad play in right field when we were down 7-1 in the second to last inning that lead to another run, he absolutely exploded and shouted and swore at me so much, I couldn't bear it. I quit when I was on deck, but a few of my friends convinced me to come back for the next game. The coach went nuts when he saw me, and started screaming at me again. I responded to him (not very well) , and he told me I wouldn't be invited to play again for his team, and the team finished 5-9. I asked my league to change teams, and next year, when we played my old team, which somehow still had that coach, I hit a walk-off, 2 run single, for my best game that year (3-for-3 with 5 RBIs and a walk) and it remains my favorite game I played in. The coach on the new team always told us to just do our best, and we won our league championship my last year of little league.

Yeah, being motivated is fine, but the best motivation you can give to a team is to say that you know you can be better than the other team.

[pmoehrin]

In my first year of little league, my coach yelled at us all the time

I think that's a bit much. High School is kind of the line I'd draw where that kind of stuff is acceptable depending on the circumstance. But if your yelling at a nine year old you need to have your head examined, I don't care what the circumstance is. The goal at that level should be to have fun first and win the game second.

[Billy B]

I've never understood, nor been pumped up by, someone just yelling things. I wouldn't get pumped up by that coach, or by Drew Brees or Ray Lewis screaming before a game in a huddle. I'd be more motivated by someone "level-headed" like a John Wooden or a Brad Stevens. But that's just me.

With that being said, this guy's nuts. Anyone who gets this worked up over kids playing sports (I don't care what you job is) is a lunatic.

I think it depends on the person that it's coming from. There were some guys on my football team who would yell (not as extravagantly as Lewis, just give a quick pregame speech while yelling) and the whole team would get pumped up. But my best friend who was the quarterback did that twice, I think, and nobody really took him seriously because the kind of person he was. Hearing the nicest kid in school drop 10 swears in the course of 3 sentences just kind of made everybody laugh.

As for coaches, most of my coaches were in the middle of the pack when it came to yelling. He wouldn't stay calm and happy the whole game, but if you messed up he wouldn't go completely off on you. I think it was a good place to be because people weren't afraid that if they messed up they'd have a grown man yelling in their face for ten minutes, but you knew that you had to be accountable for what you did.

[maz]

The only coach I've ever had was a 70+ year-old tennis coach who knew he was lucky to have enough guys to have a team, and most of them were beginners, so all those factors combined (as well as a fair amount of senility) made him pretty laid back. But I do know from when I used to take karate classes, and captains of various dek hockey teams I've played for, I do not respond well to tirades like that at all. If someone yells at me and tells me everything that's wrong, I don't take it well, because I always give it my all and I don't appreciate it if someone only sees all the flaws.

I prefer a leader I can relate to, who will give me positive reinforcement and tell me what I'm doing right and how to improve where I'm lacking, not to just point out all the flaws in my game in a loud and profanity-laden tirade. I can take that kind of coaching if need be, but it doesn't work very well in improving me.

[Jigga]

Language is NSFW:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yw7KijRfU-c

When the coach is famous, fans call it "intensity". When the coach isn't famous, it's called "verbal abuse". Funny how things work like that.

Lots of people thought, and still think, that he wasn't "intense" but instead was an insecure who had no right to be around students and who ought to have been disciplined for his juvenile behavior.

Me included.

That's one way to look at it. Here's another...

Lots of people thought, and still think, that he wasn't "intense" but instead was a bat- crazy lunatic who had no right to be around students and who ought to have been institutionalized for his borderline psychotic behavior.

Me included.

I'm with you both, but there are plenty of people that thought, and still think, that Bob Knight was the quintessential coach (myself NOT included).

You know what they say: He won championships! He went undefeated back when it meant something! He graduated his players! No scandals or NCAA violations! The media had it out for him because he put them in their place, and you know the media hate that! He didn't hit or choke players, he was the teacher, giving these young men a lesson in manners and respect for their elders! They knew what they were getting into when they came to play for Coach Knight! Besides, that sh** happened a long time ago! All of his former players loved him and he was father figure to them all! He was a basketball genius! Come on, who among us haven't lost our cool at work at some point or another? It wasn't his fault! Plus, his bosses/coworkers/secretaries/players/assistants were idiots! When you're smarter than everyone else, it's hard to be patient! He only chewed people out if they deserved it! You never played for him, so you can't judge him! But the great things he's done and the wonderful things he's accomplished far outweigh the bad. If you don't like him, you're just some wuss-ass crybaby who cares more about being PC than being a MAN!

I think that about covers it. Did I miss anything?

There may not be a single coach that has accomplished so much that I feel is less deserving of respect than this cretin. But he and his style has a legion of defenders that will excuse the outbursts, the lunacy and the mistreatment of players (and others) as long as the wins are there.

[infrared41]

We're missing half of the story. We don't know what the players did. I don't know if it will fully justify it, but it might be a mitigating factor.

Yeah I'm not going to judge without having the full context of the situation. That's also not even close to the worst I've ever heard coming from a coach.

Context or not, there's just something that's really -ed up about an adult getting that worked up over a high school football game. There's nothing normal about that. If it's an NFL or even a college coach behaving like that (which wouldn't make it any less stupid in my book, but that's beside the point) I wouldn't have bothered bringing it up.

[rams80]

We're missing half of the story. We don't know what the players did. I don't know if it will fully justify it, but it might be a mitigating factor.

Yeah I'm not going to judge without having the full context of the situation. That's also not even close to the worst I've ever heard coming from a coach.

Context or not, there's just something that's really -ed up about an adult getting that worked up over a high school football game. There's nothing normal about that. If it's an NFL or even a college coach behaving like that (which wouldn't make it any less stupid in my book, but that's beside the point) I wouldn't have bothered bringing it up.

You can get fired for excessive losing in high school football too. When your job is on the line I could see getting a little worked up.

[DCDuck]

We're missing half of the story. We don't know what the players did. I don't know if it will fully justify it, but it might be a mitigating factor.

Yeah I'm not going to judge without having the full context of the situation. That's also not even close to the worst I've ever heard coming from a coach.

Context or not, there's just something that's really -ed up about an adult getting that worked up over a high school football game. There's nothing normal about that. If it's an NFL or even a college coach behaving like that (which wouldn't make it any less stupid in my book, but that's beside the point) I wouldn't have bothered bringing it up.

You can get fired for excessive losing in high school football too. When your job is on the line I could see getting a little worked up.

"Excessive" is relative.

[CS85]

It really depends, some teams really feed off of that intensity, some don't. My high school football team didn't react at all to that kind of stuff in pregame. Our coach tried it for a few weeks and we played like crap, he talked to the team captains and just quietly addressed us before each game with a more businesslike demeanor, we went on to a few rounds deep in the playoffs.

Personally, I love that kind of stuff. I'm a fiery guy and intensity and volume makes me want to bleed for that coach, but like I said - it's more about the team and how they react.

I think this is definitely unique to football and maybe hockey.

[Jigga]

It really depends, some teams really feed off of that intensity, some don't. My high school football team didn't react at all to that kind of stuff in pregame. Our coach tried it for a few weeks and we played like crap, he talked to the team captains and just quietly addressed us before each game with a more businesslike demeanor, we went on to a few rounds deep in the playoffs.

Personally, I love that kind of stuff. I'm a fiery guy and intensity and volume makes me want to bleed for that coach, but like I said - it's more about the team and how they react.

I think this is definitely unique to football and maybe hockey.

I don't think it's that simple. We can easily find a plethora of examples like this in any sport, at any level. It's more of an issue of the personality of these bat-sh** crazy individuals than any perceived hyper-aggressive "culture" of the sport they coach.

Also, there is a huge divide between being a fiery leader and being a raving lunatic.

[pianoknight]

Was that Mike Gundy?

What a sack of crap. Here's what George Takei has to say about that.

[Sport]

You don't need to be a ranting maniac to be a successful football or hockey coach. And ranting maniacs aren't limited to football and hockey. Basketball coaches can be that way. My high school baseball coach was that way.

Teams tend to take on the attitude of their coach. My hockey coach had a quiet, business-like demeanor so we carried that with us onto the ice. Pregames were always quiet. There was never any yelling or "pumping each other up". We never "put all our hands in" before the game and I prefer that to the phony yelling into each other's faces and hitting each others shoulder pads that all the other teams would do. He used to call it "relaxed intensity". As a result we never played outside of ourselves. The games didn't feel like life or death so we were able to relax and have fun, which is the entire point of participating in sports. People forget that.

[nash61]

Not football, and not my coach, but both of the opposing basketball coaches (men's and women's) at my college's game were screamers. Even when they were winning.

Brutal.

[chuckymack]

I once had an assistant coach scream at me like that when I played high school football. I threw my helmet at him and the head coach made him apologize. That dude mean-mugged me the rest of the season, but didn't say another word.

[DDR]

Ol' boy sounds like Jim Cornette.