Prep coaching about more than wins and losses

Coaches in sports always have a lot of pressure on them. In the pros, a coach’s salary and expectations are made public. A pro coach has to answer to every question, win, loss and controversy pertaining to his/her team.

The same goes for coaches at the collegiate level. But the crux of that coach’s job? As late Oakland Raiders owner Al Davis once said, “Just win, baby.”

At the high school level, that line of thinking gets dangerous. It begs the question as to whether a high school coach should ever get fired for a won-lost record.

I’m in the mindset that should never happen, no matter how big of a school you’re at, or what the expectations are. A high school coach doesn’t get paid to “Just win, baby.”

I’ve wanted to get this off my chest since overhearing a fan at a basketball game I covered at the tail end of the winter season.

Someone in the crowd was talking about wanting to get rid of the coach because he wasn’t producing enough wins. It caught me off guard.

This person did not have a rooting interest in a team from the Morning Journal’s coverage area. But the point remains, and it applies to all sports.

A high school coach is a teacher, mentor and father/mother figure to these student-athletes.

I can already hear the opposing view — “Become a guidance counselor if wins don’t matter.”

That argument doesn’t fly.

When I covered high school athletics in Michigan a couple years ago, I talked to two basketball players who were from Port Harcourt and Lagos, Nigeria, and had recently moved to the U.S.

Their English skills were shaky and they had no family with them. They were by themselves, trying to make it on their own.

That’s when their basketball coach opened his door for them. Their basketball coach was no longer just that — he literally became their father, providing shelter, clothes on their backs, food on their plates and an opportunity to grow as men.

Spend just a few minutes talking with the coach, and you knew instantly the connection he had with them.

They were both taller than 6-foot-10, but were immature on the inside.

He provided stability in their life they otherwise wouldn’t have had.

Now ask yourself, if that coach went 5-21 during the season, would it justify firing him? Are wins at the prep level more important than being a leader of young men?

High school coaches don’t have the advantage of picking and choosing which players they want. They try to get the best out of the athletes in their school.

Now let’s flip this hypothetical: If a high school coach was dominating his field of competition, winning title after title, but was extremely difficult to work with and constantly had parents complaining about his immaturity and selfishness — would that still be acceptable?

The same way athletes are students first — coaches are teachers and mentors first.

During the 2016 track and field season, I wrote about Rocky River track and field coach Julie Achladis. I spoke to a few girls on the team, and, without me leading into the question, they immediately told me Achladis was a mother to them. Saying she was a “great coach” wasn’t the first thing that came out of their mouths — although, her coaching resume would suggest that.

I’m not saying that it’s acceptable to have seasons where your team stinks year in and year out. Of course, people want their teams to win. High school coaches, obviously, still want to win. There’s no fun in losing.

But I really hope people understand the responsibilities these coaches have, and most of the time, you won’t see the positives they’ve done through a won-lost record.

You’ll see it in the type of people the student-athletes ultimately become.