The Corner Flag: Coaches deserve more respect

For a sports-mad community like ours, I am relieved that I am not the only one who appreciates coaches for their sterling work in shaping our children to become formidable competitors, as well as respectful human beings.

I never thought I would admit it, but for the longest time, I believe, we have been doing a shoddy job in acknowledging the efforts of coaches and the time they take to help our children become better, especially in amateur sports.

This past weekend, a coach shared with me how he had to fight parents threatening to move his star runner to rural Limpopo to live with her granny because the said coach apparently used the athlete to make money.

Really? Make money? In amateur athletics? How?

Sometimes, I want to pinch myself to make sure some things I hear are not true.

But then I remind myself that they mostly happen because of misinformation.

Other times I struggle to grasp why these guys continue to show up at training, upskill themselves with coaching courses and stand on the side lines in whatever weather to mentor these athletes, despite constant interference from parents.

Also Read: The Corner Flag: More to sport than just winning

Other times, I feel like punching a parent when they scold a coach for substituting their child in a football match, although everybody can see the player is having a bad game.

It irritates me when I see parents shouting instructions on the side lines during junior football matches when there is a coach tasked with doing that job.

Imagine how helpless a coach must feel when this happens after spending an entire week plotting against the opposition, only for the players to be told a different message by their parents on match day.

Just because you pay for the service does not give you the right to be a bully. If, as a parent, you think you know the job better, why not coach the child yourself?

That is my beef.

Coaches at the amateur level do not get rich off sport. They get rich off the memories and what their athletes do. They get rich off the athletes enjoying the sport and succeeding in it.

That’s why they will always have my respect. Their talent for refining rough diamonds into gems deserves more recognition.

There is nothing more satisfying than hearing Richard O’Donoghue confidently say Bronwyn Nel would finish on the podium of the women’s 10km at Johnson Crane Marathon, and moments later, Nel shoots up the finishing straight to finish second.

That’s a mark of a true coach – someone who backs himself up and knows he has done his job. Once a race starts, it is left to the athlete to execute the plan and if it fails, they go back to the drawing board.

It is a relief that Benonians respect their coaches.

Also Read: The Corner Flag: When will council play ball?