You gotta love Pete Carroll setting up this nice and safe site for kids… it’s all supervised and monitored… very cool!
Step inside and take the ride!
Fight On forever!
Roger Freberg
pete carroll’s on-line football camp for kids
What should we expect from Coaches?
Years ago, I wrote a small piece for a Track & Field magazine that ended up being widely syndicated… and created much controversy among the holy clerics of American track & field. It questioned what they ‘believed’, for them , it was a form of religious heresy.
I have met some wonderful coaches who take a scientific approach to all they do & they genuinely care and develope the young student-athletes in their charge… but there are those coaches who have long since failed to think for themselves and trot out worn cliché’s and continue to quote books written by those even less enlightened than themselves.
Some coaches make up for their intellectual short comings with various ethical shortcuts and by throwing their athletes against the proverbial wall and looking for those ‘who stick!’ … and discarding the rest. Many are as ruthless as they are ignorant. There is no excuse for lapses in professionalism or the toleration of poor character in our athletes or coaches.
It may be hard for a coach to watch a young person ‘dribbling their career down the court’, but this should not be all about the coach’s career. The athlete deserves a prize for playing the game, specifically a real future…. and part of that is an education…. and to leave the university a better person than they entered.
Roger Freberg
Controlling Anonymity on the Internet
Psychologists and anyone who studies human nature knows that anonymity can bring out the worst in people. This is why ‘terrorists’ love masks. Yes, there are those wonderful anonymous good Samaritans in life and on the net… but they are rare. Many folks put on the hood of evil to let their own personal demons out on the world and it amazes me who these people are in reality. Unfortunately, many of these are just average folks… with issues.
I know one athletic board that is frequented by young athletes and their coaches that has since descended into meaninglessness due to anonymous bullying. Controlling bad behavior and eliminating anonymity keeps a board useful, informative and productive. Posters & coaches who have not earned their laurels on the field try to claim them on boards… unfortunately, bullying isn’t always limited to the bad coaches and less accomplished athletes. Athletics — I fear — has its share of psychopaths.
Cyber bullies and cyber gangs can dominate chat rooms and various posting boards if left uncontrolled. Their acrimonious methods and unethical and abusive tactics are much the same. However, regardless of their behavior they are all masked in anonymity. The better boards control for this by demanding verifiable emails and personal data from posters. There are some boards where nastiness occurs even when you KNOW who they are… but they’d no doubt be worse were they anonymous.
It takes effort to keep boards focused… but it benefits everyone.
Roger Freberg
Paul Turner of Harvard passes away
Track & Field Coach Paul Turner of Harvard University was one of those very rare breed of men that — if you are very fortunate — you may meet in life. A young coach could do far worse than follow in his thoughtful footsteps.
Paul was a coach who sincerely put the needs of the athlete over his personal ambitions. He worked — whether an athlete agreed with him or not — to help determine a future for themselves beyond their athletic efforts… sometimes that meant changing universities. The challenges of division 1 sports often leave athletes unprepared for their own future, and in my observation, Paul helped many folks think beyond the next season.
Our family will miss him… I only wish there were more like Paul.
Roger Freberg
PS. If you knew Paul, You can leave your thoughts here
Coaches as ‘Mentors’
Recently, Laura and I went back to a couple of high school track meets … it is always fun to see ambitious young athletes striving for perfection. What struck me very odd was some of the old feelings of foreboding. Then I saw some familiar track coaches and I realized why. They think the sport is all about them. As ‘Maranda’ said, “Don’t be silly, everyone wants to be us!”
Sports — contrary to folks like Florida’s Urban Myer –should be about athletes and at the high school level should be as much about their future beyond athletics as their future as an athlete.
Coaching should be as much about mentoring and personal development as about athletic performance. I have always respected coaches who can do both… they employ the power of positive coaching and work towards the personal development of the athletes in fields other than their sport. Just like the late great Coach of Grambling University, they are loved by their athletes for reasons beyond their sport.
I see Head Track & Field Coach Ron Allice of the Southern California Trojans in that rare breed of ‘mentoring’ coaches. He definitely has his ‘eye on the prize’, he wants to win, but he supports his athletes to be all they can be in life.
Roger Freberg