I was talking to a good friend of mine the other day, asking him about his high school football days in the early 1980’s. He went to a smaller rural school and was the leading rusher on his team in both his junior and senior years, but what floored me was when he said that even though he loved playing the game, the only memories that were burned into his mind were bad ones because of his coach.
He said he played for a tough guy who seemed to have picked him as his personal whipping boy. No matter what he did it wasn’t good enough. In fact my friend said he was literally pulled by his face mask and slapped in the face on a number of occasions. Once, while playing linebacker, he cut through the line on a goal line stand and tackled the runner for a 5 yard loss, but when he got to the sidelines his coach screamed at him, and slapped him because he hadn’t followed his proper “read” on the play. Never mind that it saved the game.
My friend said the only reason he stuck it out was because he loved the game so much and he knew that he’d never be able to play again after high school. But he also said that he developed into a tough skinned, sarcastic young man with a chip on his shoulder as a defense mechanism.
Can you imagine having nothing but bad memories about playing a game in high school that should have been a joy and a building block for becoming a man? If you’re a coach, what kind of memories are you building in the minds of your players?
August 20, 2008 at 1:08 am |
Memories last for a lifetime, someone has said. Mmmmmmm—makes you wonder what the rest of your friend’s life has been like.