Coaches see roles changing with times

Rice football coach David Bailiff calls it the “fish bowl.”

Any time a student-athlete from around the country gets into trouble, the news is posted on a bulletin board for his players to see.

“We want our guys to know they too live very public lives and that we expect them to live by the golden rule,” Bailiff said Sunday at a panel discussion to kick off the Texas High School Coaches Association convention in Houston. “Treat everybody as they want to be treated.”

Bailiff’s answer in front of a room of Texas high school football coaches was in response to a question about the growing number of domestic violence and sexual assault issues facing college athletics and what the state’s college football coaches are doing to reverse the trend.

The recent sexual assault scandal at Baylor has rocked the col-

lege sports landscape, but Baylor is far from the only school dealing with those issues.

In June, three Michigan State players were charged with sexual assault and dismissed from the program. Four Purdue football players were removed from the team and later expelled in March after two sexual assault investigations.

Bailiff ’s “fish bowl” analogy serves as a constant reminder to Owls players, who also attend seminars on domestic violence as part of their awareness education.

TCU coach Gary Patterson has dealt with assault issues involving players and offers a simple solution to the problem.

“If we want to stop it, then what we have to do is, we can’t choose winning over people’s lives,” Patterson said. “Very simple. When we stop doing that, then we will be great leaders.”

College coaches try to pick up on what has been started at home by parents and continued in hallways by high school football coaches.

Texas A&M coach Kevin Sumlin notes the many different backgrounds that players in a program have — a single-parent home, a two-parent household or even one with no parents. It makes the challenge of molding and coaching more difficult.

“What we’re looking for is the same thing at the end of the road that maybe you don’t have at the beginning,” Sumlin said. “And it’s one of the reasons I enjoy coaching.”

SMU coach Chad Morris has a zero-tolerance policy when it comes to sexual assault and domestic violence issues but realizes coaches have more responsibility to teach players how to conduct themselves off the field than before.

After a recent SMU football camp, Morris gathered players and their parents to speak on the pros and cons of social media — something all coaches have started doing.

“I promise you this, if they fire me at SMU because we didn’t win any ballgames, my head will be held high,” Morris said.

“It’s how we impact these young men every day. We do have to invest daily in these young men’s lives.

“We have such a huge impact, and we have such a huge responsibility to help change. All we can do is change one life. And if we change one, it’s going to change many more.”