Coupeville Sports

  Coaches like CHS boys’ hoops guru Anthony Smith have agreed to sacrifice time and work their schedules around a season. When athletes (and parents) don’t want to do the same, why expect a free ride? (John Fisken photo)

High school sports can be tough.

Not everyone can play them. Not everyone should.

But, if you, as a player, and you, as a parent, make the decision to do so, realize you’re going to have to occasionally step out of your entitled world and face off with reality.

Not every kid makes varsity. Not every kid gets the same playing time.

Right there, sports just introduced you to the cold, hard reality of the real world.

Those with internal fortitude will press on and work harder, and, possibly, hopefully, be rewarded for the time, effort and sweat they put in.

Sports teach tough lessons, but they also show reward can come (sometimes, not always) when effort is put in.

But then you have parents such as Kimberly DeJesus, who just had a letter to the editor published in The Whidbey News-Times.

In the letter, which I have linked to below, she cries (a lot) about coaches having practices during holidays.

Her main point:

I, as a parent who had children in school, would not allow my children to practice on holiday break, especially if we were traveling out of town to visit relatives.

And then if the coach(es) wouldn’t let my kids play because they missed practice, oh my.

You would not want to take me there, as it would be my decision that we left town, not my kids’.

Let’s go through this, shall we?

1) In the state of Washington, athletes have to have a certain number of practices in to be eligible to play in games.

With barely two weeks from the first official day of practice to the first basketball game (and athletes needing 10 practices to be eligible), coaches have little choice but to have practices AROUND the holiday (none that I know of had day-of-Thanksgiving practices).

So, while you scream at the coach, you ignore the WIAA, which set the practice requirements.

2) When you signed your kid(s) up, you saw a schedule. You knew, in advance, when the practice and games were. It is your choice if you want to have them play or go on vacation.

You don’t always get to have it both ways.

The coaches, who have committed to the season and agreed to work THEIR schedules around the holidays, certainly don’t.

3) So, we’ll say your child is not at practice. Other players are.

Fine. Your choice to make, as a parent. No one disputes that.

Yet you want them to be rewarded the same as the players who sacrificed, who scrapped, who committed heart and soul to the program. Who actually showed up.

Or else you will throw a snit fit.

Thereby teaching your children that if you’re not given everything you want, regardless of whether you worked for it and deserve it, the only way to solve the problem is to scream and cry and pretend to be abused.

And we wonder why so many high school coaches burn out and walk away after just a few years.

The letter:

http://www.whidbeynewstimes.com/opinion/letters/284017111.html