In a recent Sunday News sports article, “What’s next for Tornado?”, newly appointed School District of Lancaster (SDL) Athletic Director Jon Mitchell is quoted as saying: “It’s hard to argue with the numbers. We aren’t doing much winning, and I think part of it is systemic.
“Part of it is a defeatist attitude among the kids and even some adults. But the upside is tremendous here. I wouldn’t have taken the job if I didn’t think it could be turned around.”
Mitchell does not mention that much of the problem, in fact, indicates years of school district neglect which has resulted in coaches who lack both specialized training and a belief that they can turn the situation around.
A NewsLanc reporter spent an hour walking back and forth between track practice and a game between McCaskey’s varsity girls soccer team and Warwick on Thursday. (The girls have scored only a couple of goals so far this season.)
By the way each team was warming up, it was obvious that McCaskey would lose the game with Warwick by a lop-sided score. The Warwick squad was running snappy drills in two or three circles with each member running about, passing, and participating. Warwick’s goalie was being warmed up by a coach, doing the sideward dives and front dives and left and right leaps that are part of the way keepers are supposed to prepare. After the drills, Warwick scrimmaged across the field, further warming up.
Our gang was sitting around in a circle, chatting with the coach. Then they did some feeble twosomes, kicking and heading back and forth. Then they took turns kicking a ball at the keeper, usually one ball at a time.
The coaches just didn’t know better because they hadn’t been trained on coaching soccer!
It was great pleasure to watch track Coach Ernst almost single handedly keep thirty or forty girls and boys active and having fun over the course of the entire practice. Drill after drills had them hopping, skipping, loping, easy runs, harder runs, timed runs. By the end, each player felt exhausted and fulfilled. Coach Ernst gets the most of his students and pushes them to their limits. He encourages each and every student to do his or her best, and is worth his weight in gold both in and outside the class room. And he loves it.
The track team maintains a competitive record. But the soccer teams fail to score simply because their coaches don’t know how to prepare the players.
The problem isn’t with the kids. The problem is with the coaches. And Athletic Director Mitchell and Superintendant Pedro Rivera need to take action to either train the coaches in their assignments or, if the coaches simply want to go on grousing about the kids, replace them.
Mitchell probably wasn’t ready for such a big assignment. But now that he has the job, Rivera, Mitchell, the next football coach, and the existing coaches need to put the blame game behind them and begin focusing on how they, like Coach Ernst, can better coach the teams.
