[PHSForever]

I've coached at the Junior High, Little League, and now at the 5th-6th level here at Pikeville. Most of you on here from Pikeville know who I am and I don't hide that. While I agree that the more kids you get involved and keep engaged the more will stick with it and that philosophy is what what we try to go by. But allow me to give you a coaches perspective. Let's say you have a kid who is talented but doesn't want reps in practices. He constantly goofs off in practice and is more concerned with talking to his friends than paying attention no matter what the coach does to deter this behavior, the child still is insistent on doing it his way. While I'm not saying that this kid is nessacarily a bad kid or the coaches don't like him. It is, however, very hard to put those kids in a game even in a blowout because you feel like you're rewarding that kind of behavior. These kids, even though they are still young need to learn that just showing up isn't enough. That's true in life as well as football. I don't know what PHSForevers situation is or even who they or who their child is. So I'm not aiming that at you or anyone else. Im not saying that the example I've given is always the case. There are some complete idiot coaches out there that only care about their own kids and you don't have to be a genius to identify them. I'm just trying to give you a coaches perspective.

I don't disagree, that is a valid point. But I see something like that happen, and I would be thinking of ways to engage the kids. Working on offense? Still need a D in front of them, rotate those kids in and out on D so they are involved. Little things like that. Too many times I see kids standing for 30-40 minutes of practice with no engagement from the coaches at all. That is valuable teaching time being wasted. But I'm just agreeing with the original post, I've got no complaints about my son. I worry about them not being able to keep their numbers up as a school, and I want all the kids to feel a part of the team. But absolutely, if they are jacking around in practice, that's a chance for the coach to get their attention with running or engagement in the drill too. If still doesn't work, then nothing you can do and I agree with not playing them because it can put them in danger of injury from not being prepared. It's a tough decision and a tough job. I've been a coach as well, so I know what it is like. You want them to succeed, but it is hard if they don't give effort. I think this is probably one of the most "talked around" topics. It needs to be addressed head on but many parents don't want to hear the truth that their kid is slacking, and SOMETIMES some coaches don't want to listen to good advice or suggestions.