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By MARK FITZHENRY markf@leader.net
Thursday, February 03, 2000 Page: 1A
Picture a classroom. A student messes up on a trigonometry problem.
The teacher slams the desk and grabs the teen by the collar. We’ve been
over this a hundred times, Johnny! The hypotenuse of a right triangle is the
line directly opposite the right angle! How often do I have to tell you?
You’re bringing this whole class down! You’re an idiot! Get it right!
That wouldn’t be considered acceptable behavior for a teacher. But
coaches, especially in football, often receive leeway when it comes to
motivating players – and even more so 20 years ago.
Determining how far a coach can go isn’t easy. Hazleton Area has opened up
its football position after hearing complaints that coach John Yaccino called
players names and kicked them in the rear end.
Hazleton Area is investigating whether Yaccino violated the School
District’s corporal punishment policy, which is stricter than state guidelines
and prevents a teacher from inflicting any physical punishment. (State law
allows corporal punishment, but parents can put in writing that their child
cannot receive it.) Complaints from parents and students about coaches’
behavior, although not common, are more prevalent now than several decades
ago, administrators say. Several said how coaches deal with students today is
“a touchy situation.”
“Part of coaching is doing what is necessary within limits to make sure
kids reach their potential,” said Wilkes-Barre Superintendent Jeff Namey.
“Coaches cannot get away with purely a muscle mentality. Coaches don’t have
the free hand they used to.”
Namey knows firsthand. When he played football for Meyers in the early
1960s, he saw coaches knock players down and throw them against a wall.
John Joseph, former football coach at Coughlin and now the school’s
athletic director, said if a coach grabbed a player by his face mask and
twisted his neck now, “There’d be 50 lawsuits. Before you got home from the
game, there’d be a lawyer at your door.”
Although he’s exaggerating, administrators – especially those who coached
or played decades ago – say times have changed. They say parents are more
involved and children don’t work as hard, which leads to more complaints.
Yet coaches still use methods that wouldn’t fly in the classroom. And it’s
accepted, to a point.
“There’s a line to be drawn,” said Wyoming Area superintendent Joe
Casarella. But asked where it should be drawn, he said, “That’s hard to
say.”
“Vulgarity is out. Physical punishment is out,” said GAR Athletic
Director John Rowlands, a former football coach. “Where do you draw the line?
It depends on the individual.
“A kid that goes out for sports should expect criticism. If he can’t deal
with criticism, he shouldn’t be there. Maybe he’s trying to make the kid
better.”
Some superintendents said a coach doesn’t have to use strong language or
insults to get a point across.
“Degrading a kid does nothing to help the kid grow as a person,” said
Tony Perrone, superintendent of Greater Nanticoke Area. “I’m one who believes
in positive reinforcement, not negative reinforcement. A coach can be very
hard on a kid without degrading a kid.
“Calling a kid names, a dumb idiot, things like that. I think you can get
a response from a kid using positive reinforcement, talking to him, telling
him what he did wrong.”
But some athletes respond to the name-calling, some coaches say.
“Some kids will respond to that. Other kids take it personally,” said
Bill Hilburt, the Meyers athletic director and former wrestling coach. “Some
parents say (Meyers) coaches yell too much. I’ll talk to parents on the same
team, and they say, `My kid likes that.’ ” Football coach Ted Jackson has
parlayed his version of tough love into a 138-40-3 record at Dallas. He says
he tells parents during the first week of practice that he has an
“aggressive” style – one that includes name-calling and coarse language.
“It’s not meant to demean anybody,” Jackson said. “Our kids respond to
that. We’ve been successful with that. We’re fortunate to have great kids and
great parents. … Our kids are throwbacks at Dallas.”
Administrators say a coach goes too far physically when he or she can
injure a player. They can accept a football coach grabbing a player by the
face mask, but say it’s too much when a coach yanks on it and causes the neck
to twist.
In other cases, responsibility extends to what the coach allows athletes to
do. In November, Wyoming Area wrestling coach Paul Johnson was given the
choice to resign or be fired over a hazing incident during practice.
That’s one of “less than a handful” of complaints Casarella has handled
in 36 years at Berwick and Wyoming Area. Namey of Wilkes-Barre said he has
handled four complaints, all language-related and “nothing significant,” in
10 years.
It’s more of an issue now than before. Whether that’s good or bad,
Coughlin’s Joseph said, “I don’t know.”
“Athletes have changed, parents have changed, laws have changed,” he
said. “You really have to be careful in every decision you make.”
Call Fitzhenry at 829-7218.