Skip to main content

Bad Behavior

Is anyone else sickened by the way the Rutgers head basketball coach treated his players in practices??  If you haven't heard about it yet, a tape surfaced earlier this week showing the head coach throwing basketballs, using bad language and pushing the players around. He had evidently exhibited that type of behavior for a few years.  Top officials found out about it four months ago, but didn't discipline the coach very much at the time.  What I found disturbing is, what if this tape never surfaced? How long would this coach have been able to get away with this type of behavior? In my opinion, this coach was a bully!  On Wednesday, he was fired. Today, the athletic director resigned.  I was asking my husband if he ever had a coach that acted similar to the coach at Rutgers.  He was telling me when he played baseball, he had a coach that would use the "f" word at practices. My hubby was only about 11 or 12 at the time.  He said he never told his parents about it.   How in the world is using foul language around a bunch of preteen boys supposed to motivate them to play better???  My husband said that the coach didn't use bad language at the games.  I guess if he did, it probably wouldn't have sat too well with the parents.  In all my years of playing sports, I don't remember any coaches that ever came close to the type of bad behavior the Rutgers coach exhibited. I feel sorry for the basketball players that had to put up with that type of abuse from their coach.  My hubby was saying that most of the players were probably there on scholarship.  If they would have complained or quit the team, they ran the risk of not being able to attend college.  They probably felt they were in a no-win situation.  Coaches are there to help their players be good athletes and set a good example for their team.  Respect from players is not something that magically appears, it has to be earned. Did you ever quit a sports team when you were growing up because of a bad coach? Have your kids? 

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Those "Steps" to Independence Can Be Hard

We are heading towards 600 orders for Dominic's business. Since our long-term goal for Baked Goods By Dominic is having a "brick-and-mortar" and hire those with disabilities, it is essential and imperative that I continue to teach him all parts of the business. Since I prompted Dominic for so many years for speech, he has become "prompt dependent." What that essentially means is that he will look at me for a prompt, like, "what do you do next?" I do that one a lot. Dominic has been going to a private speech therapist for over ten years and she reminds me often that Dominic usually will know the answer, if I am patient and wait for him. That has been a very hard habit to break! Dominic has an incredible memory, so I put it to the test this morning. I didn't write out the steps, I wanted to see how much he could do completely on his own. We have a customer picking up his order today, but the only thing that had been done is putting the cookies into t...

Why We Pursued Guardianship of our Son with Autism

Last Thursday morning, my husband, Dominic and I went to our county's Probate Court and had Dominic's Guardianship Hearing. My husband and I are Co-Guardians, and we were granted "Partial Guardianship," which means Dominic can make some of his own decisions (future educational and vocational placement options, what to wear and how he wants to spend his free time), but my husband and I will make his medical, health care, legal, contractual and major financial decisions. The subject of Guardianship in the disability "world" has been and continues to be a controversial and divisive topic.  I was a panelist for an Autism Conference this past summer and presented on what it's like to have a child with Autism. Towards the end of my presentation, I mentioned that Dominic had just turned 18 and that we were going through the Guardianship process. When the attendees could ask questions, the first person that went up to the microphone started telling me that I was...

Presume Competence

Since we have traveled outside of the United States since Dominic was very small, we have had to get him a Children's Passport every five years. Since his current one expires in February of 2024 and he is now 19, we had to apply for an Adult Passport. I don't know why my husband and I picked Dominic's first day of school and Michigan State University moving in their students, but the appointment was yesterady at 3 p.m. We had gathered all of the documents needed and then went into a special room in the East Lansing Post Office just for Passports. The three of us sat down and the clerk asked Dominic his age. He said, "19." Since we were also getting his picture taken for the Passport, he went into a separate room, where she took a picture of him and then let him look at it to make sure he liked it (it will be his picture for the next 10 years)!  He said he did, so he sat back down with us. The clerk filled out a bit more of the paperwork and then she let Dominic s...