Published: Dec. 21, 2013
One West Bend West parent during Monday night’s open forum
for West Bend East and West parents of student- athletes said opponents of East
and West laugh at the two schools and automatically circle victories on their
schedule.
Unfortunately, there is some merit behind that. The good
news is it can be fixed. How? Patience, patience and patience. It is a problem
that can be fixed, but duct tape is not going to do it. Being supportive of and
committed to the process will be factors as well.
The million-dollar question here for the community of West
Bend is to decide this: What do you want your kids to get out of their athletic
experience in the school district? Do you want more wins? Or do you want
something else and likely sacrifice some wins?
If you take the latter, then you can’t get upset if a coach
can’t produce the victories and try to run that coach out of the job.
If the community can agree on an answer then that will
determine the future of the athletic programs in West Bend at all levels, high
school and youth.
While I was unable to sit in on both meetings as they were
happening in two rooms at the same time, there was a lot of contradiction the
West meeting. The parents talked about trying to separate the two schools and
getting away from the idea that East and West shouldn’t help each other when
looking at trying to improve the state of athletics in West Bend. Then some of
the same parents said the two schools should be out promoting each other’s
games and cheering on teams at games, such as East students should be cheering
on West in its games and vice versa.
It has to be one or the other. Doing both will not work and
it hasn’t worked.
Then the topic of the inconsistencies in coaching came up.
Parents believed coaches hold it against student-athletes
who compete in a sport other than their own, leaving one parent to say
student-athletes are forced to be multi-season athletes, not multi-sport.
Coaches, in a lot of cases, are forced to do this in order to try and keep up
with the competition. Productivity is one of six factors coaches are evaluated
on after each season, West Athletic Director Scott Stier said. So if a coach
isn’t winning games, they are let go or resign, sometimes because of the
pressures from themselves or those associated with their programs.
Being a multi-sport athlete is not a sin and it shouldn’t
be.
Yes, a student-athlete may not be completing the off-season
workouts set out by a coach, but if an athlete is involved in a sport during
the times of those workouts, there is training taking place, even though it may
not be sport specific.
There can’t be continuous pressure on a coach to win games
when there is little support. Don’t question the reasoning for a play call in a
football game or the substitution pattern or who makes what team in the
program, freshman, junior varsity and/or varsity. Accept it and figure out how
to best support the situation.
Creating that environment, a positive one where coaches
believe they have a strong support group in their corner, no matter the result,
will make coaches want to come to West Bend. Right now, a coaching job in West
Bend is not appealing to outsiders.
Coaches talk to each other. They spill the beans on what
programs and communities are great fits for them and their families and which
ones aren’t.
If a community can create that positive vibe for a coach and
a program, regardless of the wins and losses, the program will turn around and
eventually produce whatever results you want.
- Nicholas Dettmann
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