Reno, NV, High School Varsity Soccer just last week: A coach with potentially the best team in my sons’ team’s league is ahead 9-0 late in the second half against the weakest team in the division. The coach tells his team that he wants to get into double digits and puts his best keeper back in the game, along with his two best forwards. The keeper and one of the forwards get frustrated when they cannot pick up their 10th goal and throw some elbows during a tight play by their own goal.
The ref gives them each a red card, knocking them out of this game AND THE NEXT game, which is against my son's team (probably the second strongest team in the division). My sons’ team wins 2-0, significantly hurting the other team’s chances to move on in the post-season tournament.
Was trying to get that 10th goal (instead of a 9-goal win) worth the risk of injury or red cards and hurting their chances in subsequent games? I am still scratching my head over this one.
-- PCA Champion Dan Dugan, United Futbol Academy
Posted by David Jacobson at 09/26/2008 04:24:48 PM |
As a youth hockey coach who enjoys watching soccer on television but does not understand its finer points, I am led to believe that 9-0 is already an unusually high score. It sounds like the dominant team's coach here valued his own ego more than he valued the best interests of the players on both teams. The players come first.
This story raises the threshold question whether interscholastic and youth leagues should enact "mercy rules," or whether stronger teams should intentionally ease up in obviously unbalanced games. We can talk for hours about mercy rules, but I will pass on the question in this posting. I do think, though, that the Reno varsity soccer coach missed a valuable "teaching opportunity."
Rather than feed his own vanity by seeking the tenth goal, the coach should have left the decision up to his players. Run up the score, or don't run up the score? Either immediately or before too long, I bet the players would have come up with a better answer than the coach did. Young athletes want to win (and they should want to win), but I don't think that many athletes get much lasting satisfaction from rubbing fellow competitors' noses in the dirt. At any level, mutual respect among competitors is the fuel that helps make sports the great institution that it is. Empathy is also one of life's virtues, and I believe that youth sports is a good place to begin learning it.
In situations like this, coaches should guide their players' decisionmaking, but should allow the players much latitude to reach their own conclusions. Last season I had a rather strong squirt hockey team (9-10-year-olds), and we were ahead 7-0 after the second period in an early-season game. At the bench between periods, I asked the players whether they wanted to run up the score or whether they wanted to hold back.
Three or four wanted to run up the score, and the others didn't really know. I couldn't put in "subs" for the third period because our teams have no subs -- everybody plays regardless of the score. I couldn't bench the better players either because nobody gets benched on our teams. To help keep things under control, I moved our defensemen to forward positions and our forwards to defense, but we still ended up winning, 10-0. I suspect the kids knew what I was doing, and thus knew my thoughts about what to do when you are on the top end of a lopsided score.
In practice a few nights later, I asked the team again whether they wanted to run up scores against weaker teams, and every player said no. I think the three or four felt a bit embarrassed about wanting to pile it on. We had opportunities to run up scores in two more games later in the season, but we never did.
The kids said they didn't want to administer unnecessary punishment, and they kept the game under control late in both games. Did the players intentionally ease up? Yes, but they eased up because they made their own decision (and they did not embarrass the other team by making it obvious that they were easing up). I really think that by reasoning to their own conclusion, the players learned the important lessons better than they would have if I had laid down the law.
Perhaps our team also learned some empathy when, before either of these later two games, the league's strongest team beat us 12-0 one morning. Nothing like getting a taste of your own medicine to help the learning process!
I can think of lots of reasons why an adult coach should not try to run up a score against weaker youth and high school teams, but I'll write about only a few here.
1) Winning a blowout can be at least as harmful as losing one. Indeed, if it is true that athletes learn more about themselves and their game from losing than from winning, losing an occasional blowout may even be beneficial in the long run. Guided by a mature coach, a little humility can go a long way.
Winning big inevitably gives team members "big heads." It may take a few games to shake this overconfidence and "come back down to earth." Sometimes the rude awakening comes when the team loses the next game or two because players did not prepare properly and took the game too lightly.
2) Rather than run up a score in an already lopsided game, the dominant team's coach would be better off giving his less experienced players more playing time. Aside from sheer equity, a team becomes stronger in the long run when the less experienced players are ready to step in when needed in future games. Very few successful teams can rely on just a few "big guns" every game; in a long season, the reserves can help win a few close games when the big guns are sick, injured or simply having an off day.
3) In the Nevada high school soccer game, the dominant coach played with fire because a team's best players are also often the most aggressive. Not a total suprise that the key players got red cards when the coach induced them to lose focus.
Speaking of fire, the Nevada coach wanted to fly too high. Perhaps he would have been better off heeding the fate of Icarus, who flew too close to the sun with wax wings in Greek mythology and crashed into the sea.
Posted by: Doug Abrams ( Email: ) at 9/28/2008 2:44 PM
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I had a very successful basketball career growing up and can totally relate to this blog. I was playing a league game and had scored 25 points in the first half of the game. Clearly our team was going to win, but young and caught up in the moment, I was only focused on breaking the school's record of 44 points (in a single game). Oh, I also was ignoring the fact that a week earlier I had rolled my ankle.
My Coach, Coach Melville decided against putting me back in the game. I remember he looked at me and said, “You will understand, just watch and put some ice on your ankle.” As I sat there and watched the game I learned a great lesson on empathy and what was really important. My Coach did one thing; what was right for me when I couldn’t see it!
Later in the season I would again have the luck of scoring 22 points in a half. When I came out to warm up during the second half I shared a look with my Coach and no words were exchanged just a mutual understanding and I spent the second half cheering my other teammates on.
Posted by: Greg Baney ( Email: ) at 9/29/2008 12:23 PM
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Why am I supprised at the unsportsmanlike attitudes of some coaches? An older gentleman friend of mine (78 yrs young) who is an avid basketball fan, former player, former coach and father and grandfather to basketball players once gave me some advice, "Don't outcoach yourself."
This soccer coach not only outcoached himself but his team paid the price and could have paid the price of getting injured. The problem is these young players really do look to us as coaches and follow by example, good or bad. Some want to please coaches so badly that they will do anything they say to achieve this ultimate goal. Who was this guy coaching for anyway? Himself or the good of his team?
Posted by: Ann Dombrowski ( Email: ) at 9/29/2008 8:09 PM
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What is wrong with that coach? He definitely got what he deserved but what is sad is that his kids got it too and he led them straight there.
This coach missed three chances .
1) He could have given his players a lesson on being humble winners - He missed a great teaching moment with these kids that it's not that you win the game but HOW you win the game. It's not how great of an athlete are you but how great your athletic abilities can build your character. I bet Leon Lett had a coach like this.
2) Whenever you play a weaker team it is an opportune time to develop next year's players and leaders. Take your best players out and rest them for the next game (their next game was against a stronger team). Take your leaders out and replace them with the younger/less experienced player who has potential to lead the team and let them gain some confidence in that role. It is good for the kids who always play to learn to appreciate the kids who sit the bench and cheer them on by being the bench warmers every now and then. That coach fostered individuals rather than developed a team.
3) When you are way ahead, practice new offense and defense plays. Let players try a new position that they may have potential in. Encourage players to try that shot they aren't very good at.
Last year I coached a ten-year-old volleyball team, and when the teams are uneven the score can be pretty lopsided and the game can be pretty boring. We were beating a team terribly because one of our best servers was up and all we needed to do was get the ball over the net to make a point. Neither team was learning anything valuable from this punishment so I pulled her out and put in a weaker server. After the game the girls wanted to know why I did that so it was a great teaching time on HOW to win.
Posted by: Sheena Fleener ( Email: ) at 9/30/2008 7:11 AM
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When my soccer team is ahead by 5-0, I have my players score only by changing the point of attack and crossing the balls for a header goal only.
This is challenging and exciting for my players and is a difficult way to score but really focuses on my players to try new things on the field. They love it. They don't get much out of humiliating another team by running up the score. I teach respect for all teams, players, coaches, referees on and off the field for good character traits. I also feel that taking a player off the field is not a good idea because it sends the wrong message to the other team, such as they are not good enough.
By keeping your players on the field, the other team feels that they are respected and we believe in respect to all.
Posted by: JOHN D. ARCHIMEDE ( Email: | Visit ) at 9/30/2008 10:20 AM
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There is an expression I like to use a lot... "act like we have been here before". It is a good way to behave when you are winning. It demonstrates to the officials, the fans, and the other team, that this one sided affair was because you just happened to be the better team. There was no doubt that this team up by 9 in soccer! (unheard of with even remotely balanced teams) was relishing in the trouncing of their opponent, rather then celebrating their own quality play. In soccer, these games should be dominated by procession. Why would you put another goal on the board, rather then keeping the ball on the attack for four minutes, five minutes, etc... This demonstration of skill would be tactically more effective, provide better use of the game time for your players development (much harder to do then cramming another goal in the net against an inferior team), keep your players out of harms way (both by the official and by a frustrated defender) and truly demonstrate which team was the class of the match. The coach’s ego missed a great training opportunity, as well as an opportunity to have his players win with class. Some of the most satisfying wins I can remember are from beating teams that left the field just amazed by our skill. Having your peers respect your club is a great satisfaction. They knew we eased off the throttle and were blown away by the way we could dominate the game...What conversation would you rather have at match's end...coach to coach, "hey coach, you have a great team. It was a great getting a chance to play you guys", or the hand shake described after a 9 to 0 game with two red cards on the team that had nine goals! I bet that was pleasant and rewarding for all involved! A coach that has been there before would have managed the game to a more tempered end.
Posted by: Chris Carroll ( Email: ) at 10/13/2008 2:45 PM
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All of the above comments are great. There are many examples of sports stupidity but to understand it requires a broader view than how to do it right. We need to ask ourselves why this occurs? Our system of sports is built around the administrative functions of leagues/conferences and not for the competitive aspects of sports. Scanning the Saturday morning scoreboard of high school football games in Minnesota I see many scores with 60 point spreads. 60 points? What a waste of time for all involved. In Minnesota high school hockey there are many games decided by 15 or more goals. Another waste of time for both teams. For the convenience of schedules we put unequal teams against each other. To try to build more competitve leagues would require some work on the part of some folks who would rather not do it and risk the ire of the traditionalists and egocentric parents who "want to win". The result is that players move to winning programs further distancing them from their competition. Our culture values "winners" regardless of whether they beat the little sisters of the poor. We have a lot of work to do to "redfine winning" and to fix the root causes.
Posted by: Hal Tearse ( Email: ) at 10/15/2008 8:43 PM
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Hal, I agree completely.
An argument always boils down to definitions: “Winning,” at least in youth sports, needs to be understood and APPRECIATED as the progress of an individual and then team, related directly to a specific event... not the event's resulting score. Teaching how to attain personal and team goals through the performance of quantitative objectives will give confidence to the meekest player or group. However, the only way to share this philosophy and ensure its growth is through education. This always comes from "The Top"...the administration with goals, guidelines, objectives, accountability, and evaluation. The difficulty is that the reality is there is little pay to hire school and many travel coaches educated in this perspective and less money to train them. Many schools and youth organizations scrape by to find an adult to supervise practices that sometimes run themselves. I see this in private institutions as well as public. This is also obviously the scenario in recreational programs with parent volunteers, some of who want to learn but feel stuck, and some who think they know it all and are better off letting the kids just play pick-up...which is needed anyway. I have seen programs with good intentions that mandate a basic certification with the NAYSA, but do not enforce such views in games or in practices because of lack of staff, lack of knowledge of what really goes on, or because of emotional greed. The follow through is just as important as the original teaching. Any competent coach or parent can attest to that. If we don't follow through with rules, we lead by bad example and earn no respect from players or parents. We have a responsibility to teach all adults involved in youth sports to support each other to help the kids learn in a positive way, but it will be difficult given the broad range of cultures and life experiences in our communities. However, it is just this kind of idea exchange and connection that we are taking part in that will lead to more acceptance of this view. We just need to make sure we each follow through assertively and creatively to get the point across.
What's the solution? Getting involved in the boards of our organizations is a start to make sure our leaders in youth sports are challenged and supported to be able to follow through, because in the end, it really is about the kids. They will be the next coaches, so we need to do our best individually and cohesively to make sure they pass it on the right way.
Posted by: Vicky A. Ruiz-Rosario ( Email: | Visit ) at 11/5/2008 11:00 PM
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9-0 is not sportsmanship in soccer. Evidently, this had not been taught also or the 2 players would not have gotten red cards. I believe the coach was lacking in his judgement on this too. He should have taken out some players, put in his bench warmers. Giving a beating to another youth team like this only destroys their desire to play the game also...they when behind like this, really just give up in most cases..nothing sporting about it at all...I had a game like that once...had players deliberately making more paases, taking shot with off foot, etc...putting weaker players up top...did not want to score, just played a possession game of it..it is like an american football game of 70 to 0....no need even to take a chance on an injury....
Posted by: gene ( Email: ) at 3/5/2009 9:55 AM
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I love this article...I am a soccer coach to a group of 8 year old girls who started out the weakest in the league and won silver in the tournaments. We started a new season and the girls have really worked hard to get where they are and are dominating the leauge. Today we were winning 10-0 and I asked my forwards not to play so hard and put in an unexperienced goalie. One of my parents totally blew it-screaming and cussing and even getting red carded-come on they are 8 and the other team needed to make a goal to booost their confidence a little.
Posted by: Dawn Scott ( Email: ) at 3/14/2009 8:20 PM
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on running up the score in youth leagues: Since it's just a game, how come it hurts people feelings? You play the game to increase your skills, win or lose. I was once on a soccer team that lost a game 9-0 and it never occurred to me to obligate the winning team to hold back skills because I played the game to increase my skills, win or lose.
Posted by: Walker Hayes ( Email: ) at 1/15/2010 9:59 AM
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