Accountability

     J's ball hockey team lost 10 to 4 today. His team was in first place and the other team was winless. A kid on the other team scored seven goals. It was a monster effort. He worked his butt off fighting for the ball all game long. J's team's effort was weak at best.
     After the game I followed J's team into the dressing room to pick him up. The coach immediately launched into whining about how hard it is to compete when the other team's best kid is able to play 90% of the game because they only had eight players. Is this really what we want our kid's coaches to be? Apologists and excuse makers when the kids themselves haven't given a good effort? Personally I think the coach owes it to the kids to be honest with them. As a parent I put my kid in sports so they can get exercise and learn about a variety of things: being part of a team, competition, accountability, decision making, the value of hard work and practice and many more. This type of coaching helps with none of that.