The above title was a sign posted in our athletic office when I was coaching. Most relevant signs have a degree of humor attached. I am reasonably sure the secretary in the activities office grew tired of informing players and parents of their responsibilities before they could participate in an activity. Of course, parents often left
signing up to the last minute. Now to be fair. Often the participant left vital information concerning the need
to get a physical, filling out required paper work and paying a fee to the parent until the last minute.
The lines for who is responsible for what seems to have shifted. You can tell a lot about the dynamics of a family by how well responsibilities are defined. Good parenting, in my opinion, makes it clear to their children what the child's responsibilities are.
From a coaching perspective we believed having certain expectations concerning responsibilities was important. For example ....
A) We (the coaching staff) expected our lockerroom to be "picked up" after practice and games. If we (the coaches) found articles on the bench/chairs or on the floor after games and practice, we picked them up and they were not returned until the player noticed the items was missing. We then returned the item(s) but not without a price beng payed. (In some cases, we had a couple of extra sprints for the team.)
B) Away lockerrooms were left looking like it had not even been used.
C) If we rode a bus, it was picked up. No garbage left in seats or on the floor.
D) We rotated game captains. No permanent captain. "Be your own captain."
E) No blaming others after a loss. This included other players and the officials.
F) Don't make excuses.
We seem to live in a culture that is obsessed with determing who's fault failure is. Somehow we feel liberated by assigning responsibility for failure to someone else.
Every season, coaches at all levels of play, are fired or forced out because of external pressure. Usually it is related to some perception of team failure and the responsibility for that failure is assigned to the coach. After all you can't get rid of the whole team .... can you?
Coaching changes are inevitable. Reasons for dismissing a coach may well fall in the range
of not fufilling their coaching responsibilities. Unfortunately, some coaches are removed for
other reasons which may be just or unjust.
It is somewhat sad to say, but in my opinion, each coach should have a written job description so all parties are clear on their areas of responsibility.
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