Parent evaluations are a mistake

On most issues in our community, I don't feel qualified to comment. However, after 40 years of being involved in athletics at various levels, including 12 years in Sisters, I am obliged to address the most recent dysfunction in the Sisters High School athletic community.

At issue is the decision to involve parents in evaluating coaches. It was brought to my attention last fall that the Sisters School District would solicit parent input to evaluate coaches and the programs for which they are responsible. ARE YOU KIDDING ME? Perhaps this concept looked great in a boardroom, but it is completely absurd.

There may not be a more biased person than a parent. Parent involvement in high school athletics has destroyed the joy of many athletes, and has caused many stellar coaches to leave the coaching ranks. I have seen every type of physical, mental and emotional abuse involving the role of parents; parent vs. parent, parent vs. coach, parent vs. referee, parent vs. opposing player, and YES, parent vs. their own child. Yet somehow, the powers that be have decided we myopic parents should have major involvement into a coach's future.

What criteria do we expect a parent to use to evaluate a coach? Do parents: 1) attend all the practices? 2) study hours of video with the coach, analyzing players and opponents? 3) attend meetings with the coaching staff strategizing new opportunities for team success? I suppose not.

In fact, during the season, do parents spend 3-4 hours per day of quality time with their athlete like a coach does? We are asking parents to evaluate coaches based on their game performance, comparison to our own athletic knowledge, rumblings from other parents, and feedback from our son/daughter.

These aspects of evaluation are highly emotional, extremely biased and unacceptable as an appropriate evaluation tool.

Coaching your kids is a privilege and honor. My friend Bob Macauley says coaching is one of the noblest and important professions today. He feels this way because of the enormous impact a coach has on an athlete. We coaches take this role very seriously and enjoy being treated as professionals. There is no question all coaches should be evaluated, annually and possibly monthly. There is no room for coaches who don't have the best interest of their program and players at heart. However, coaches need a performance basis from their supervisors as to expectations which detail how success is based.

I've been engaged in countless conversations with parents and coaches. Most parents know "playing time" is a taboo topic when addressing a coach, so meetings focus on "my child thinks you don't like him/her," "I don't like your game demeanor," "you have favorites," "you are mentally abusing my child," "the team/parents are afraid of addressing you because you hold grudges against the players," "my child loved this sport but doesn't want to play because of you," and "my child comes home from practice in tears because of you."

I am amused because the blame is always on the coach. Do parents consider their athlete has found other interests, or does not want to devote the commitment high school sports require, or is burned out from playing the sport since they were 4 years old, or are tired of listening to you continuously analyze them and/or their coach? Often, kids don't know how to express this to parents, especially if the parents have invested immeasurable time and money on their children's careers. So they resort to what parents will accept: "I don't like the

coach."

Founder of Proactive Coaching, Bruce Brown's basic mantra is let players play, officials officiate, coaches coach and parents just sit back and enjoy the event. He asks parents to release their child to the coach. After all, it is the child's experience, not the parent's.