It’s pressure time for teams and coaches

I always feel for coaches this time of year. As regional and state tournaments begin, the pressure mounts.

Coaching is stressful and time consuming, taking coaches away from their families for many hours each week as they work with young people to hone their skills. And the greater the stakes, with an emphasis on winning at tournament time, the greater the pressure.

This all comes on top of season long pressure from parents to give a particular son or daughter more minutes or a greater role on a team. Some coaches face myriad parent meetings during the year, and it must be frustrating.

Then there’s discipline. Student invariably “get caught” doing something or other, drinking or something else, during a given season, and for the poor coach, it seems like it often happens just before the tournament. Why kids think they can get away with a party or whatever during the season in this age of smartphones and easy video and photography is beyond me. Well, I suppose the teenage brain isn’t fully developed. I know mine isn’t, and I’m almost 64.

And then there’s another tried and true event that takes place right at tournament time: the breakup. Some girl or boy will break up with their significant other at the exact moment the team heads to the regional or state tournament, plunging the ditched boyfriend or girlfriend into a major funk.

“What’s wrong with Bob?”

“Mary dumped him.”

“Well, did she have to do it this week for crying out loud?!”

It’s enough to make a coach sit in a corner and knock his or her head against the wall.

This is why coaches near the end of the season get a kind of panicked look on their faces, their eyes darting back and forth as they mutter incomprehensible things under their breath, laughing nervously. Think Inspector Dreyfus from the Pink Panther movies.

It’s hard enough just getting players to actually execute the things the team worked on all week. I can remember one local coach yelling out onto the basketball court, “We don’t even have that play!”

But when it works, it’s glorious. The best coaches know how to build their team up, create unity, form a bond, ignore the flak and get their players to play for each other, whatever the community thinks. All kidding aside, most coaches care deeply about their players and spend a great deal of time even beyond practice to teach the game and do what’s right by their players.

Of course, the veterans seem to handle it all with aplomb, but you can tell the first-year head coaches who have to juggle administrative duties, media interviews, booster club event planning, parent feedback and more for the first time, on top of just coaching. If they seem a little distracted, it’s understandable.

And so as regional and state tournaments begin (with Regionals already held for wrestling), why not take a moment when you get a chance to thank your school’s coaches for all the time and effort they put in on behalf of your student athlete.

And if they seem a bit high strung, maybe cut ‘em some slack. Enjoy the tournaments, sports fans.