Episode 11-What's on your mind Coach Rick?

The host of the podcast, Gotcha Coach, talks about his experiences and frustrations as a coach in middle school basketball. He discusses how some school administrations don't support sports programs and how it affects the coaches and players. He shares his personal stories of dealing with administration issues, lack of resources, and unfair competition from other schools. He also mentions his thoughts on the transfer portal and players opting out of post-season bowl games in college football. Towards the end, he reflects on his complaints and acknowledges that it may come across as sour grapes. Hey, welcome back coaches to my podcast, Gotcha Coach, a podcast for coaches, about coaching, and hosted by a real coach. I'm your host, Coach Rick, and first and foremost, I want to say a huge Happy New Year to each of you that are listening. How do you like the new introduction music? I figured what the heck, a new year, let's get some new music. Anyway, I know that I alluded in my last podcast to a special first episode of 2024 with interviews with my family members. But as I told you in the last episode, they are scared of the microphone. So it has been delayed a bit. But this episode, episode 11, takes a cue from Facebook. You know, when you first log on to your page, and the first prompt is, what's on your mind, Rick? Well, that's what this episode is about. What's on Coach Rick's mind? It's kind of a potpourri of things or issues that have come up in my coaching career, or just some things that are out there in sports that make me say, what the? My first WTF is about how some school administrations don't get along with some sports in the school programs. Now before any of you go off the deep end and start thinking, this is just Coach Rick ranting and raving now that he's no longer coaching. Just stop right there. Part of my reputation over my time in middle school and high school coaching was that of a quote-unquote, and excuse the language, shit stirrer or troublemaker when it came to the issues that I called out regarding administrations. So this isn't a case of sour grapes. These things do indeed exist, and they aren't fair to the coaches and especially the players. Let's start with middle school basketball. When I coached in South Lake Tahoe, I was hired as a seventh grade boys coach a year before my son was in the school. The next year when he was in the school, I was back as the coach. I knew that one of the players that I would select to be on the team was the son of the new high school boys varsity coach, their varsity team. I always felt that the middle school program should be utilized as a feeder program into the high school team. So I asked the varsity coach, what could I do to make it easier for you to send you the best possible talent into the freshman and JV teams so that they could groom them when they got to the high school? He told me to teach the basics, that there wasn't enough time at the high school level to try and teach that, and to carry 15 players on the team. 15 players? Whew! Reluctantly, I did this, and it was one of the worst decisions I ever made. And it was one of the worst decisions I ever made. Trying to teach basic skills to 15 boys in practice without any assistant coaches was extremely difficult, and most times extremely futile. Not to mention the difficulty in getting all the boys into a game that consisted of four six-minute periods. Now before you say, why did you feel that you needed to play all 15 boys, Coach Rick? That answer is part of who I am as a coach. I've always told my athletes, no matter what sport that I'm coaching, that practice is like being in your classroom at school. This is where you are taught and learn the subject matter, and the game is like the quiz or test that you take to see in class if you've remembered anything from these practices. Yes, it would have been easier to strive to win by only playing the best seven or eight players, while the rest of the boys sat on the bench and learned nothing. But I was keeping my eyes on the big picture, or at least I thought. I always told my middle school boys, both in Tahoe and Lincoln, that my job was to prepare them for high school, and my goal was to sit in the high school bleachers and watch them being a vital part of the high school team as they got to their junior and senior year. Sounds like an honorable plan, right? Well, it turns out that middle school parents and administrators expect their sports teams to be more successful, and that the success to them is a winning team. So when it was time for the new school year to start, my son's eighth grade year, I was told that the school had, quote, unquote, decided to go in another direction, and that my services were no longer required. Wow. Now, fast forward to 2015 and Lincoln, California. I was hired as a seventh grade basketball coach at a local middle school. I was able to call my own shots as far as how many players I would carry on the team. I chose to keep 11 so that I had two full five-on-five teams to scrimmage and practice, plus an extra body, should someone not be at practice because they were sick or injured. I had a very good relationship with the athletic director that hired me, and when he asked me how I felt at the end of the season, I was very happy to tell him that I thought we achieved our goal. Learn, play hard, and have fun doing it. He asked me right then and there if I would like to come back next year, and I told him without a doubt, yes. Right after that, he went on to another school, and a new AD entered the picture. He, thankfully, was equally as good as the first, and there were no issues that year. The following year, the eighth grade coach stepped down to pursue his master's degree, and I asked if I could coach both seventh and eighth grade teams. Well, it was approved, and I could keep the continuity between the two teams from year to year, and all I could think of was how this was going to become a successful program for years to come. But the following year, the AD once again left for a higher position at another school, and the eighth grade coach, after his schooling was done, was named the AD. That year was tough. I began to ask questions like, if we're required to take a CPR course and learn how to use an AED, why isn't there an AED in the gym? If I had to send one of my players to the main office to find someone who knew where the nearest AED was in an after-school situation, by the time that person got back to the gym, it could be too late. Well, that didn't sit well. I also went through the first aid supplies that were kept in the storage room in the gym, and as a retired hospital supply chain manager, I was appalled at the amount of items that we either didn't have or were expired. Imagine not having any kind of ice to apply to any sprain that any athlete might incur during practice, let alone when we hosted a game. That, too, didn't go well. Then there was an issue with the other local middle school in town. The coaching staff there was cut throat, and they were the driving force behind the local AAU off-season team, and thus were only interested in winning, and winning at all costs. The head coach had a reputation for, quote, running up the score on the less talented schools in the area. Well, I gained the respect of those lesser teams because I would pull my starters as early as possible when we had big leads, and even told my second unit that they needed to make three passes before taking a shot, or every shot needed to be a layup if they couldn't do three passes. Well, this came to a head in a post-season playoff game when that school kept their star players in the game against us when they had a 25-point lead, and it was, by our league rules, a running clock. Our parents were booing the coach and yelling at him to pull the players, and he just stood there with a smug smile on his face. At the conclusion of the game, as is the routine, the two teams lined up facing each other and shook hands and said, good game, while the coaches lined up at the end. When it came time for me and the head coach to shake hands, I turned away. I just couldn't shake the man's hand. Well, he yelled at me, called me a bad example, and was going to report me. I yelled back at him that he should be ashamed at keeping his starters in the game as long as he did, and that it was he that was the bad example. After we separated, I had to address the team. I apologized for what they witnessed, and to my surprise, they all clapped and started chanting, coach Rick, coach Rick, coach Rick. However, that would apparently turn out to be the nail in the coffin, as it were. Even though administration said they, quote, had my back, and I hadn't done anything wrong, the following fall, I was told that I had to reapply for the position. Well, being the kind of person that I was, or am, I questioned it and was told that it was, quote, unquote, district policy for all off-campus coaches to apply year after year, even though I didn't have to do so in the past. Needless to say, after applying and going through what I felt was a non-winning interview, I was not hired back. In these two situations, all I could say was WTF. As an administrator, you have a dedicated coach who willingly comes back year after year, never missed a practice, tried to do what was right, and you dismiss him. I never had any parent complaints. I always went to the AD in an attempt to stay out in front of any potential parent-athlete coach conflicts before the AD was blindsided, and for the majority, had the support of the parents on the team. Sometimes, I guess that just doesn't matter. So where am I going with this? Well, it's simple. How in the world can... Wait a minute. You know what? This is kind of embarrassing. I mean, now that I've said these words out loud, I think some of you may be right. It does sound a lot like a case of sour grapes, and I want to apologize to all of you for dragging you into this. So what do you say we get into something that's different? Okay? Okay. What is up with the transfer portal and opting out of playing in post-season bowl games and college football? Now, the transfer portal doesn't just apply to college football, but for this purpose, that's what we're talking about. So for those of you who aren't aware or don't pay a great deal of attention to college football or any college sports, the transfer portal was launched by the NCAA as an application, database, and compliance tool in 2018 to, quote, manage and facilitate the process for student athletes to transfer between member institutions. In 2021, new regulations were adopted allowing D1 student athletes to, quote, change schools using the portal once without sitting out a year after the transfer, which had been the practice prior to this. According to a CBS article, when this change came down in April of 2021, more than 1,400 men, D1 basketball players, entered the portal. 1,400! Now, there are several reasons why a student athlete wants to utilize the portal, but should they do this on a whim? Hopefully, these student athletes are talking and listening to school counselors, their parents, their coaches, or anyone else in an authority figure that can discuss all the pros and cons before a decision is reached. I mean, is it a case that the student athlete doesn't like their classes? Do they not like the tough practices, their teammates, the coaches? So, what happens to the student athlete's scholarship? Well, the answer to the last question is, in my opinion, a biggie. Once a player enters the transfer portal, the program the athlete currently attends is no longer required to honor the player's scholarship. Even if a player enters a transfer portal and later withdraws their name, their current program is no longer obligated to honor their scholarship. Oops! Is mom and dad prepared to pick up the slack until you transfer? Will the new school give you a scholarship? Now, from a pure coaching perspective, I have to wonder about the character of a student athlete that I scouted, courted, and gave a scholarship to as an incoming freshman. And then, because that student athlete didn't do his homework to find out more about the program he was coming into and whether or not he would have a chance to play on a regular basis, and then decides to pack up and leave for greener pastures. That would irritate me to no end. Of course, there have been some very successful student athletes who chose to use the portal. Caleb Williams went from Oklahoma to USC and won the Heisman Trophy in 2022. Jayden Daniels went from Arizona State to LSU and won the Heisman Trophy this past season. And Michael Penix Jr. went from Indiana to the Washington Huskies and led his team to a 13-0 record in the regular season before losing to Michigan in the NCAA championship game. As the transfer portal closed, approximately 2,100 players entered the portal. And the University of Alabama, one of the most successful collegiate programs in NCAA history, has had 16 scholarship players enter the portal. But here is the dark side of the transfer transfer portal, and it rolls right into my other complaint, opting out of playing in bowl games. Bowl games used to be the highlight of a college football player's collegiate career. To be chosen for any bowl game meant money for the college, and the bigger the bowl game, the more money the school made. The cotton, sugar, rose, and orange bowl games were staples in my childhood and early adulthood on New Year's Day. The practice of, quote-unquote, opting out began in 2016 when Stanford running back, I hate to say this, Christian McCaffrey and LSU running back Leonard Fournette opted out of their team's bowl games to, quote-unquote, save themselves for the NFL draft. Well, both wound up being first round picks. Now, more and more players are skipping the once precious bowl games for one of two reasons. They're protecting themselves for the NFL draft and the potential big money that they can get, or because they've entered the transfer portal, and their coaches don't want to count on them who have mentally checked out, and they don't want to count on them in the game plan. This was brought to the forefront this past bowl season when number four Florida State and number six Georgia squared off in the Orange Bowl. Both teams had only one loss on the regular season, and both felt that they deserved to be in the NCAA playoffs. Now, nine players from FSU opted out to prepare for the NFL draft, while ten players opted out due to the transfer portal. Nineteen players! Think about it. On the other side, the Georgia Bulldog players, quote, opted in for the game and told their coach, Kirby Smart, that they, quote, wanted to finish what they started and to send off the seniors with a school record 50 wins over their four years. Final score of the game, Georgia 63, Florida State 3. The largest margin of victory in Orange Bowl and bowl game history. Here's what Coach Smart said after the game, quote, college football has got to decide what they want. People have to decide what they want, and what they really want to get out of it, because it's really unfortunate for those kids on the sideline that had to play that game that didn't have their full arsenal. It affected the game 100 percent. Now, with the transfer portal opening on December 4th, and only staying open for 30 days, players have to jump into that portal early, and Smart wants to see the portal opening moved until after the bowl season. Kirk Ferencz, head coach of the University of Iowa, borrowed a page from Smart and said, quote, college football is screwed up, unquote. He also voiced similar concerns that I raised earlier in this segment. He said, quote, there are just a lot of parties involved now, and it is not always healthy voices that the players hear, and some of the parties are not necessarily thinking about what is best for the young people. Just kind of flies in the face of what we are trying to do as coaches, end quote. Now, it's just my humble opinion, but I think the gist of it is backed up by these two coaches, and I'm sure there are more, but too many college coaches are putting the emphasis on the winning and not the student-athlete. Granted, college coaches are paid to win, because the more a team wins, the more people in the stand. The more people in the stands, the more money the school and the conference makes, as well as the money that they get for appearing on TV and in bowl games. Of course, the coaches have extra incentive for the team making it to a bowl game as well, especially the college football championship, where Jim Harbaugh, the coach from Michigan, made a bonus of $1 million after he won on Monday night, in addition to his base salary of $8.3 million. Pretty good haul. Now, I don't even pretend to have the answers as to how to fix these problems with college athletics, but this was what was on my mind. Thanks, Facebook. And while this doesn't have much, if anything, to do with coaching youth sports, it is something that needs to be discussed. Now, I hope that you're enjoying the podcast and learning some things about the career of coaching sports, no matter at what level. Now, don't forget, you can reach out to me with questions or comments at coachrickb53 at gmail.com. And please tell your friends and family that they can catch the podcast, Gotcha Coach, on Spotify, Amazon, Google, iHeartRadio, and others. Until then, take care, be safe, laugh a lot, and above all, tell someone that you love them. I'll talk to you soon.