News You Can Use- Dealing With Parents
The Fresh Prince once sang “Parents just don’t understand.” But what if that parent is also a principal? I don’t know all of the facts, but I just came across a shocking news story.
A principal/parent in Texas is accused of having her daughter plant a cell phone to record the locker room because their coach was being “too stern.” That principal/parent is now facing up to 20 years in prison.
You can read more about this particular case here. There is no doubt that some coaches may cross the line and treat players poorly. Coaches should be held accountable for their words and actions. However, even if the coach was being “too stern” in this case, I wonder if the principal/parent expressed her concerns to the coach first? Would the principal want students secretly recording their conversations with her?
All of this brings us to a larger problem- helicopter or overprotective parents. It is important that kids learn to fight their own battles and not have parents doing everything for them. Now if there is anything illegal or immoral going on then the parent must use any means necessary to stop it, but otherwise let the kids learn to stand up for themselves.
“Prepare your child for the path, not the path for your child.” -Brad McCoy (NFL QB Colt McCoy’s dad)
Many school systems have a system for parental complaints that look something like this…
- Player talks to coach. If the problem is not resolved then…
- Parent & player talk to coach. If the problem is not resolved then…
- Parent talks to AD. If the problem is not resolved then…
- Parent talks to Principal. If the problem is not resolved then…
- Parent talks to Superintendent.
It is important to go over this before the season because I have had parents skip all the way to the Superintendent over issues that even they later realized could have easily been solved if they had just talked to the coach.
- When you are learning how to coach basketball, one essential skill is how to deal with angry parents because no matter what, you are going to have some.
- We discuss dealing with parents at the end of the 3rd episode of our coaching basketball podcast. You can click here to listen to it, or copy and paste the following address into your web browser http://www.coachingbasketballwisely.com/cbw-003-burrow/
I’d love to hear any of your tips or stories on dealing with parents- no matter where or what level you coach at! Please leave a comment or email me and let’s all share our knowledge and experience with each other.
Until next time, Coach ’em up!
Hal Wilson
After coaching and working with basketball teams at the college and high school level in a variety of roles for 18 years, I have returned to finish my Ph.D. in Kinesiology at The University Tennessee. This www.CoachingBasketballWisely.com website is a way to share the coaching tips, strategies, and techniques gathered in a career in coaching. See more info on me here. Please sign up for our free newsletter at the top right of the page.
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Our Coaching Basketball Wisely podcasts are way to help basketball coaches of all experience levels learn how to coach basketball, and how to coach basketball better, faster! Whether you are a youth basketball coach, a middle school basketball coach, a high school basketball coach, a college basketball coach, or a professional basketball coach we all need to keep learning! If there are particular basketball coaching tips or topics that you would like to see covered in future episodes please let us know!!
