Coaches who gave player "Crybaby Award" likely to face sanctions

PLEASANTVILLE, N.J. -- The coaches of a middle school basketball team who humiliated one of their players by giving him a "crybaby award" will likely face disciplinary action from district officials.

The 13-year-old boy's coach called him just before last month's team banquet and told him to make sure that he attended the event because he was getting a special trophy, the boy's father said. However, the teen was not given any details about the award.

At the event, the boy watched as all of his Pleasantville Middle School teammates received trophies or certificates. He was then called up to receive his award, and a coach told the crowd that the boy was being honored because "he begged to get in the game, and all he did was whine."

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More here:
http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/ny-bc-nj--crybabyaward0504may04,0,4015151.story?coll=ny-ap-regional-wire


Disgusting - absolutely disgusting. I feel terrible for that poor boy.

They conspired to team up on this 13-year old kid?

I hate to see what the coaches do when the team loses.

Sanctions should equal termination.

That doesn't give anyone in the teaching profession the right to defame students. The actions taken are just!

And props go to the student who stayed strong during this.

The article does not call them members of the "teaching profession" as you do. These were probably community members who coached the team, not teachers. Let's not confuse the two, thank you very much.

as the article claims it is, chances are excellent that it's a teacher coaching it. That is the norm you know. Likely the phys-ed teacher but a teacher nonetheless.

I love teachers but ya know what? Sometimes they screw up. Just like everyone else. If you want the profession to remain as noble as you seem to feel it is you need to recognize the nitwits for what they are and get rid of them.

" Guillen, 24, a special education teacher at the school who was in his first year as basketball coach, has told school officials the award was his idea and that two other coaches didn't know about it in advance. "

you're wlecome very much.

That he is/was a special ed teacher only makes this more appalling.

We were playing ball with the boys, and there was another group of kids and a father present from another block. The father hit a high fly, which his son dropped. The father yelled to him "are you going to put down your purse and play?". It takes some real class to embarrass your own son in front of friends. If he had said it to me or my kids I would have laid him out...

JM

That crap went on 35 years ago, which is why I had no interest in Little League.

I figured I gave my dad plenty to yell at me about without having to add to it with shit like dropping baseballs.

Fuck you. :D

...I have had an interesting set of experiences in little league this year. My oldest son is in his first year on a team of 7-9 year olds, and is about to turn 8. He never played before.

1) The coach talked to all the new parents and told us that
a) The 9 year olds play every inning since this is their last year in the league.
b) 7 and 8 year olds sit out one inning from the field, but everyone bats.
c) The goal of the team is to have fun learning baseball.

Every parent who was told this responded to the coach that he's the coach, he is the one volunteering his time, and his decision was respected.

2) One of the parents got a little pissy about the base coaching, not running the kids enough. He said the kids can't catch well and they can't throw well, so why hold the players on base? He is now helping coach and is working with the infield. I thought his comment was unsportsmanlike until I realized it wasn't to run up the score, but to keep the kids from holding on to the ball.

Later, I heard him reassuring my son after my son thought he made a bad play. He missed a grounder in the outfield and was upset. This parent told him that was OK, and he did the right thing hitting the cutoff man which resulted in an out at home plate. Rather than berating him he found a positive.

Same thing when my son is at bat. He has yet to get a hit since he has been beaned twice and is nervous. He has a few strikouts but has several walks. He is upset, but the coaches keep reminding him a walk is as good as a hit. You can't score from the bench.

3) I saw one of the older kids mocking one of the younger kids. Before I could say anything, one of the coaches very respectully told the kids such behaviour was unacceptable.

There are some good coaches out there...

JM

from my alma mater ( a guy named Cannon, back in the early sixties) cried after getting tackled in a college game. The head coach promptly christened him "Crybaby Cannon" and swore that he would never again recruit a player from good ol' LHS.

I mean, if the kid was the one who complained about it, then he did kinda earn this award, didn't he?

:evilgrin:

In order to work in this capacity in Missouri, you either have to be a teacher, or have 60 credit hours and be an employee of the district, i.e. background check, etc. I assume other states have similar rules.

I've worked with teenagers for the past 9 years in a competitive situation and while I'm tough with my kids, I cannot comprehend doing something like this.

Those coaches should be more than just sanctioned they should lose their jobs!

I want to add another point -
Nowhere in this article did it imply that the kid had his parents beg or plead or threaten or cajole the coaches into playing their kid. It appears as if this kid took it upon himself to talk to the coaches about getting in the game, and that's to be commended.
Instead, these assholes punished the kid AND the parents for not acting like the typical Humvee-driving suburban "super-parents" who demand preferential treatment for their kids or else.

Fuck sports. It indoctrinates males with mock wars and battles. Very destructive of independence and inclusivism. Builds reflexive response to authority and submission to group think.

Also a big pointless distraction from life and death issues such as real battles and wars that no one understands and carries out blindly because the president/coach told them to.

I used to play football/basketball/track in middle school, and I hated every moment of it. Asshole coaches like these gems were too blame too. There's just this mentality, where if you're not a God on the field, you're worthless.

For example, my 8th grade year, I was about 5'5" ... very short for my class. My high school coach said I should enjoy playing middle school cause "I'd be picking wood out of my ass when I got to high school." Well, I'm now 6'5" as a junior, after I took his advice and didn't play, and now he's begged me to come out ever since I grew.

They're coaching middle school sports! :bounce:

It's the lowest of the low. Not good enough for high school coaching. Yet, not good enough for 8th grade science.

immature, behavior for supposed "grown-ups"

they lost a game that might have gotten them in the playoffs, and the head coach kept them on the field to cuss them out and tell them what p***ies they were, while the other team walks by them laughing and celebrating.

and if that wasn't enough one of the other coach's starts in on them as they are walking back to the bus. I told him that if he wanted someone to cuss at, try me. he didn't say a word just started mumbling to himself. some people just don't understand what it takes to be a leader.

especially a 13-year-old . . . damn, that age is hard enough on a kid's self-esteem without adults piling on shit like this . . . and people wonder why some kids these days are so screwed up . . . that "coach" should be fired . . . and forced to publicly apologize to the kid . . .

What a couple of schmucks.

What kind of attitude allows this kind of thing? It's part of the win-at-any-cost, screw the little guy attitude that our country sometimes seems to embody.

That said, both my boys have played a lot of sports - in school, Little League, Pop Warner football, and local recreational leagues - and I have never seen anything like this happen. Most coaches and volunteer parents are kind, dedicated volunteers who truly want to help kids. And sports are good for a lot of kids. There are a lot of benefits from playing team sports, if it is done right.

In my opinion, the attitude exemplified by these so-called coaches in "Pleasantville" is the same type of attitude that makes it ok to invade a non-hostile country, just because we can. Bully attitude.

Americans need to take a good, hard look at what our culture and our policies are saying and doing. Is this really what we want America to represent?

<snip>

"It's an awful thing to have done to a teenager, just totally uncalled for," said Michael Popkin, a family therapist and author based in Atlanta. "One of the harshest things you can do to a kid is to publicly humiliate them. It's bad enough putting him down one on one, away from the team. To set him up like that and then cut his knees out in public is a huge blow."

<snip>

Philo said the coach later called his son and told him he should not be upset about the award, noting that he had received similar treatment when he was young.

But Philo said the award had caused his son to lose some of his passion for sports.

"He doesn't even want to play outside (now)," Philo told the newspaper, adding that while his son may be short, he never backs down from a challenge. "I just keep telling him to stay on track. I keep him active. I just keep telling him, 'You're a good kid. Don't back down."'

Whether the boy suffers permanent harm from the humiliation depends on how strong he is emotionally and how much his friends, family and teammates support him, Popkin said

http://kdka.com/water/watercooler_story_125155237.html

I've had this type of crap happen to me as an adult. In the martial arts. Probably one reason after 25+ years I've taken a sabbactical and don't miss it that much. Give some adults power and they think they're some little tin-gods.

The kid probably loves sports but may not be that great at it.
And these jerks probably ruined it for him. I wonder if he got to play much. You know I can understand at high school and college levels that some are destined to be bench jockeys, but is it so darned important to win in middle school that you keep a kid on the bench or get angry if he pesters you to get in the game?

It's no wonder after so many parents push kids in to sports from the time they're about 3 that I see so many teens who are in to the individual activities and not team.

Public humiliation of a child is wrong no matter how much you may think that child may need it. Coaches are supposed to build character and sportsmanship and it would behoove them to do this by example. If they feel the need to engage in petty public displays of oneupsmanship against an unwitting adolescent boy then they are obviously in the wrong line of work.

ADMINISTRATION

Jean Barksdale..Principal barksdale.jean@pleasantville.k12.nj.us
Peggy Corcoran corcoran.margaret@pleasantville.k12.nj.us
Maurice Lesser lesser.maurice@pleasantville.k12.nj.us

PHYSICAL EDUCATION & HEALTH

James Bucko bucko.james@pleasantville.k12.nj.us
Harry Green green.harry@pleasantville.k12.nj.us
Christopher Nardy nardy.christopher@pleasantville.k12.nj.us
Angeline Pebler pebler.angeline@pleasantville.k12.nj.us
Patricia Savage savage.patricia@pleasantville.k12.nj.us
Valerie Winfield winfield.valerie@pleasantville.k12.nj.us

Dr. Edwin Coyle, Superintendent coyle.edwin@pleasantville.k12.nj.us

Woody Allen

Where I'm from, being known as the guy always badgering the coach to be sent in isn't necessarily a bad thing. Here, at least, it's seen as being a "go-to" kinda guy, who wants to play, and is persistent about it. Of course, this is coming from a person who was voted "most likely to return to a class reunion and wreak his vengeance on classmates with a chainsaw" as a senior. I thought it was funny as hell when I was nominated, I voted for myself, and I was thrilled when I won.

The boy in question was a starter for the team, which made it to the championships. That indicates that the coaches recognized he had talent, and he got to play a lot. If the kid was a habitual benchwarmer, I might feel differently, but given the situation as portrayed in the article, I think this has been blown WAY out of proportion.

It is not being overblown. The coach is a neanderthal.

I'm not a natural athlete, and as a kid going through puberty, that made my coordination rather pathetic. So, in sixth grade gym class, my teacher often made fun of me in front of the class. It really messed me up, and I still suffer from a low self-esteem ten years later.

I really feel for this kid.