UPDATE: English apologizes: EMU's Ron English offends single mothers

Eastern Michigan coach Ron English, who has yet to win a game as head coach, says they would rather have players from two-parent homes. If they were raised by just their mother, the coaches have to teach that kid how to be a man.

Not only is this a stupid comment, but it offends a good part of one of your bigger recruiting bases.

Get ready for 0-24, Beagle fans.


http://www.freep.com/article/20100808/HSS1201/8080506/1356/SPORTS/English-sells-single-moms-short

 

Re: EMU's Ron English offends single mothers

At least Rene Portland won a few games before she declared herself ayatollah.

 

Re: EMU's Ron English offends single mothers

English is saying publicly what many coaches tell you privately based on the bulk of their experiences from recruiting and coaching.

Of course we all know of wonderful stories in which athletes flourish despite being raised by just one parent. Hell, I've written plenty of such stories in my day.

But English and other coaches have found kids generally are better prepared if they come from two-parent homes, with a strong father figure.

And English didn't say they had to teach a kid how to be a man. He said they had to teach an athlete how to be taught by a man.

Don't know the context of the quote but I read that to mean he has found that too many kids w/out a father in their lives experience difficulty associating with or accepting a male authority figure, at least initially.

Maybe kids w/out fathers do bond with their HS coaches and learn to respect them. Maybe not.

I do know the public school district in my city is dying to get male mentors, mostly black, into their schools to help the children, mostly boys, who don't have a father in their lives.

If anything, English's comments seem more insulting to the HS coaches than the moms.

 

Re: EMU's Ron English offends single mothers

Well... he's right.

I know a ton of college basketball coaches. They all, to a man, tell me the recruiting process is FAR easier when they are working on families with two parents living there. Often, the mother may not have gone to a four-year college so they may be suspicious of a coach's motives (maybe with good reason). Also, far too many moms NEVER see the negative aspects of their "baby's" personality. Their kid can NEVER do wrong. Exhibit A: My own mom...and it drives my wife nuts.

My "broad brush" comes from years in news as well. Can't tell you the number of times I'm covering crime stories where the mom will lie to police about where her son wanted for armed robbery really is. Police will knock on the door and Mom will say he's in Alaska but is really sitting in the kitchen, eating Lucky Charms.

The coaches say the players, er, "student-athletes", are usually much more open to coaching when having both parents in their home. More apt to finish school work. More apt to see things through.

Think of it this way: If you are recruiting four high school kids for two scholarship slots. If talent is close to equal, you will target the two kids who will give you the least amount of headaches. As their talent increases, the coach will put up with more. It's like men and women -- the hotter the girlfriend, the more crap you'll put up with. If she looks like Velma from Scooby Doo...she's on ice thinner than Wade Phillips.

I grew up with a single mother (dad was in another state) but not in poverty. Single mothers have an unbelievable burden placed upon their lives, especially as I imagine most of them didn't choose the circumstances they are in. (No woman with a child is likely to choose a life of relative poverty and low-to-mid income jobs while trying to raise kids).

What English said isn't incorrect. It's just that nobody wants to hear it.

 

Re: EMU's Ron English offends single mothers

Actually, they do choose the circumstances they are in. Not to sound like a culture warrior here, but in spite of being in poverty, they chose to have sex. Once pregnant, they chose to carry the fetus to term. Once the baby is born, they chose to keep the baby, rather than give it up for adoption. Fine, they made that choice. It's their right, to do so.

I would think that, all things being equal, it is easier for a child to be in a two-parent household, simply because it eases the workload of the parents. That's not saying that all two-parent households are ideal (abusive, violent, etc.), or that all two-parent households are better than a one-parent household. But if the parents are normal, well-adjusted people, two is better than one.

 

Re: EMU's Ron English offends single mothers

Well, we all choose the circumstances we're in - of course.

I'm in my mid-30s and in a wave of friends who have gotten divorced recently.

Dad just decides to start plugging a co-worker and, poof, Mom had two small kids and has to re-enter the job market or make due on her 35k a year job. This is not a poverty, "inner city" situation. It's real life. To keep the lights on, the moms then have to do whatever they can.

Lots of kids can go sideways once hit the teen years in a single-parent house. I nearly did.

 

Re: EMU's Ron English offends single mothers

Kids can't choose if one parent isn't around. Why penalize them for something that's beyond their control? Seems to me that if I'm a college coach, and the recruit A. Can be a successful athlete at that level. B. Can be a successful student at that level and C. Is a good kid, why pass them by when they could help the program and the university/college could help them earn a degree (and have a better life)?

A lot of good kids come from single-parent homes. I know two very well - my son and daughter. My wife died two years ago. They were good kids then and they're good kids now (though being a single dad dealing with a moody teenage girl can give one gray hair).

Mick was right about Ron English offending coaches in the Detroit Public Schools who work their butts off to be coaches, mentors and father figures. Single-parent homes in Detroit are, sadly, rampant.

For English to win, he has to recruit in Detroit. He's at a regional university, and there are a lot of good players just 40 miles down the road in Detroit.

When I was a student at EMU, there were a lot of athletes from Detroit in many sports, including football. When the then-Hurons won the only bowl game in school history when I was a senior in 1987 (I was there at the California Bowl as a student reporter), there were a bunch of guys from Detroit on that team, including a four-year starter at left offensive tackle, the starting outside linebacker, the second-team tailback (who also saw some time at fullback) and the second-teamer at right defensive end, who now is a head football coach in the Detroit Public Schools. The last I looked, a reserve DB on that team who grew up in Detroit also had been a head coach.

Hank Scorpio, a fellow Huron/Beagle, is right. Another 0-12 season is likely. If it happens, Ron English deserves it.

 

Re: EMU's Ron English offends single mothers

I'll echo what a few others have said, English is right.

But it's PR suicide to say it publicly.

Not every kid raised without a father will be a problem - and you should be able to tell which ones will be before you sign them - but when you're at a place like EMU you have a much smaller margin for error in recruiting so I can understand why English might want to make two-parent kids a priority.

 

Re: EMU's Ron English offends single mothers

Are we sure he doesn't want two-parent families in order to double attendance?

 

Re: EMU's Ron English offends single mothers

Just to add a little hilarity to the proceedings, during the last couple seasons of discontent in Ann Arbor, with hillbilly yee-haw DickRod piling up an impressive 8-16 record along with NCAA custard pies in the face, the scuttlebutt has been that certain forces inside the athletic department are not exactly enamored with the performance of the "outsider" coach, would love to replace him with a veteran assistant from the previous coaching staff, and are maneuvering behind the scenes to make this happen.

The candidate? Ron English.

(Usually these rumors discount Harbaugh [because of his comments tweaking UM's past academic practices] and Les Miles [because of his supposed affinity for cold brewskis and other aspects of the party life] as possible candidates.)

English's 0-12 record at EMU last season took a little steam out of that campaign; no doubt this PR fiasco will take a little more.

 

Re: EMU's Ron English offends single mothers

Right perception but ill timed quote for English.

 

Re: EMU's Ron English offends single mothers

Makes you long for the good old days of... Danny Boisture?