The firings of Texas Tech's Mike Leach and South Florida's Jim Leavitt and the forced resignation of Kansas' Mark Mangino occurred after players and/or their parents accused them of verbal and physical abuse on the on the practice field, playing field or in the locker room.
Obviously I don't think kiddies should get smacked around by coaches, but enough of the 'protecting a child's self-esteem' bullshit. Especially collegiate athletes, because they're, you know, considered adults at that point in their lives.
3 comments:
Being a TT fan, I have followed this story pretty close - there is much more to the story than meets the eye. Leach and TT have been at odds for a while. The student whom he "treaed poorly" may have been whiney and babyish, but I think he was just the excuse to fire Leach.
I hear both sides of horror stories, bec. people I work with have those small kids in every sport possible and then the husbands coach other teams.
So it's the parents (and some of the grandparents) who really go off the deep end over the little precious darlings. But then they have to get a grip when the coach is a brother-in law or son-in-law or nephew.
(Yes, we're pretty sexist here.)
BB- I've read similar accounts on some sports blogs. Just like any other job, if they want to fire you they'll eventually get ya.
K- Judging from what my friends say about their kids it seems they all think they gave birth to a Michael Jordon/Einstein/Brad Pitt mix.
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