Amazing work uncovering abusive coaches

[BurnsWhenIPee]

Not sure if this belongs here or in Sports/News, so please move if needed.

Saw a couple of just amazing stories put together about abusive coaches, swimming at Cal and women's basketball at Texas Southern at USC.

Great to see resources directed at stories like this (and the Penn State football player/serial rapist story on ESPN.com recently). These stories are so difficult to read, because of the content and the details about what these young people were put through, but they are real testaments to this craft. And what ****ing evil people, who have the power to ruin young athletes' lives, without any sense of treating them like human beings.

https://www.ocregister.com/2022/05/...r-bullied-and-verbally-abused-them-for-years/

‘We went through hell’: Former players accuse Cynthia Cooper-Dyke of demeaning, demoralizing and abusive behavior

 

[WriteThinking]

I haven't read the story from The Athletic yet, but yes, that article on McKeever/Cal swimming is terrific -- a little overly long, I think, but I'm sure The OC Register was just being thorough, given the nature of the story, and the fact that it might/probably will cost the coach her job.

Kudos to Scott M. Reid, who does work like this all the time. I've always thought I'd have loved to have worked with him.

 

[2muchcoffeeman]

Somebody should move this to Sports/News.

 

[GBNF]

Before even opening this thread, I just knew I'd find be Scott Reid. One of the most thorough, intelligent and careful reporters I've ever worked around. I so wish I'd worked with him.

 

[MileHigh]

Before even opening this thread, I just knew I'd find be Scott Reid. One of the most thorough, intelligent and careful reporters I've ever worked around. I so wish I'd worked with him.

Ditto.

 

[tapintoamerica]

Remarkable OCR story. Somehow, the coach still has a job.
Equally amazing is the success the team has had over the past 20 years in spite of the attrition.
The coach, AD and the Senior Executive Associate AD all must go. The last of them must go for having an absurdly pretentious title.

 

[goalmouth]

Except for all the winning, today Vince Lombardi would be run out of town for his abusive coaching ways.

"Look at that stance! You can't go right, you can't go left! The only thing that stance is good for is taking a crap!"

 

[MileHigh]

You don't even need to go back that far.

When I was in high school (mid-'80s), our football team (national champions in 1987) had the Steeler Slap.

You commit a penalty, you lift up your helmet and you get a slap from a teammate.

 

[Brooklyn Bridge]

Except for all the winning, today Vince Lombardi would be run out of town for his abusive coaching ways.

"Look at that stance! You can't go right, you can't go left! The only thing that stance is good for is taking a crap!"

Bear Bryant has entered the chat.

 

[Baron Scicluna]

Just finished reading the Cal swimming article. That just strikes me as a major lawsuit just waiting to happen.

 

[As The Crow Flies]

Just finished reading the Cal swimming article. That just strikes me as a major lawsuit just waiting to happen.

It's like reading about Bob Knight, but with pools.

 

[Baron Scicluna]

It's like reading about Bob Knight, but with pools.

McKeever apparently likes to throw things too.

 

[Smallpotatoes]

Coaching is all about getting people to do things they wouldn’t do if someone wasn’t making them do it.
Very few people are going to work hard enough to be successful at a high level without someone holding their feet to the fire. If a coach is always nice and positive and encouraging, he’s probably going to fail miserably. The way Bob Knight coached is not the way I’d like to be treated but it worked.
That said, I’d like to think a coach can be effective without acting like Ike Turner.

 

[tapintoamerica]

When you hear of abusive football and basketball coaches, it's easy to think the sport contributes to the lunacy. They're under such pressure to win and avoid losing a series of million-dollar paychecks, etc. But the more you hear about coaches who do this without a big payday of potential payday attached, you realize it's about the people and their remarkable internal insecurities. Their hatred of losing and their inability to prevent it from infecting their behavior is something that transcends fame and fortune.

 

[goalmouth]

It's a new day. People aren't taking that **** from anyone anymore.

 

[LanceyHoward]

Coaching is all about getting people to do things they wouldn’t do if someone wasn’t making them do it.
Very few people are going to work hard enough to be successful at a high level without someone holding their feet to the fire. If a coach is always nice and positive and encouraging, he’s probably going to fail miserably. The way Bob Knight coached is not the way I’d like to be treated but it worked.
That said, I’d like to think a coach can be effective without acting like Ike Turner.

I see your point and guys like Knight have been successful. But Bill Walsh said the worst coach was the stupid sadist. For every Knight there are a lot of stupid sadists out there.

 

[jr/shotglass]

 

[Baron Scicluna]

I see your point and guys like Knight have been successful. But Bill Walsh said the worst coach was the stupid sadist. For every Knight there are a lot of sadists out there.

I have the book that SI writer Austin Murphy wrote about the season he spent with D-III football coach John Gagliardi, who ran an informal program for 50+ years.

One story Murphy told was of Walsh, when he coached at Stanford, saw an assistant coach screaming at the players. Walsh went over, and admonished the assistant, telling him to stop screaming and to start coaching.

 

[Justin_Rice]

Walsh went over, and admonished the assistant, telling him to stop screaming and to start coaching.

What a bunch of nonsense. I've seen enough youth football coaches to know the most effective way to get kids to block other kids is by yelling "BLOCK SOMEONE!" as loud as possible.

 

[poindexter]

Scott Reid has done a lot of great reporting on abuses in the aquatics world.