"...what are these kids going to do when they leave home and have a boss or a professor they don't like? They can't destroy everyone they don't like.'' - Shari Rodriguez, volleyball coach, Castro Valley High School.
We've all read or heard about the scenario where a parent goes absolutely ballistic watching his or her child at a sports event. Berating--or literally beating--a coach or another parent in a clearly inappropriate and unsportsmanlike fashion. What happens when parents decide to go the high-class route with their anger? An upscale version of Parents Behaving Badly.
CW Nevius at the SF Chron ran a story this weekend about a group of parents in the Castro Valley area of California who have issues, shall we say, with Nancy Nibarger - head coach of girl's basketball at Castro Valley High. These parents have issue with her coaching style (read: their daughters are on the pine). But instead of getting all up in Nibarger's grill, they hired a lawyer and had the school administration investigate her. The odd thing is that the things these parents cite as 'problems' wouldn't even make me raise an eyebrow (read the article for the details).
I had some tough and exceptionally fantastic high-school coaches. I had that dual sense of respect and fear of them. So yeah, I would expect to get tossed from practice or a game if I wasn't working my ass off. Would my folks be pissed? Sure, in a normal "we're disappointed" sort of way. But it would be directed at me, not my coach, because I was the one who slacked off. Now, if my coaches had verbally assaulted me or something of that nature, this would have been a different ballgame whatsoever.
But the Castro Valley High coach, Nancy Nibarger. It sounds like her team digs her. It sounds like she's a pretty damn good coach. The school administration investigated her three times. All three times they came back with zero, zip, zilch. Absolutely nothing. Only after the third request came in from this group of parents gone wild, the administration apparently felt they had to do something - probably to get the moms and dads off their back. So get this. The basketball coach and her staff? They don't even get to choose their team this year...a sort of "community" panel will do the job. This is high school basketball!
I'm ranting, I know. There are, of course, lots of details missing from the story and questions left unanswered. I only know what I've read...and it appears to be a case of high-profile, money-stuffed parents who don't like seeing their daughters sit on the bench. I'm so dismayed at what these parents are doing and the example they are setting for their daughters. Shari Rodriguez, the volleyball coach for Castro Valley high best sums it up...
"What I want to know," says coach Rodriguez, "is what are these kids going to do when they leave home and have a boss or a professor they don't like? They can't destroy everyone they don't like.''
