It was his last year in baseball before going off to college. All summer his parents couldn’t figure out why their son, a kid who lived for the game, was not very excited about his “traveling team” road trips. As long as his parents could remember, they were always one of the highlights of his summer! But now, for some reason, he was dreading them more than looking forward to them.
Of course, he never mentioned why this changed until one day, half way through the summer, he announced, “I’m not going on anymore road trips with his team.” Ya, his parents were in shock!
On these road trips, the coaches would go off to the local bar, give the players a 1:00am curfew, and carry on until all hours of the night and morning. What they seemed to forget is that these kids were only 17 years old. But these coaches who we left in charge and responsible for our kids never knew what the players were doing while they were busy partying it up.
The team was not winning a lot of games, or even caring about being there, and the team didn’t really feel like a team to their son. What was really going on with his team? Some of the boys would sneak out of the hotel at night, find a car to use and then go into the local gas station mini marts, steal some beer and the “get away” car would be waiting outside. They would go and get drunk while the coaching staff was out doing the same. Then everyone would wake up with a hangover and go to the game! Yay…fun! Fortunately, it didn’t include everyone on the team, but did include a good chunk of the boys. The rest of the boys would wander the streets looking for a place to get food, knowing they didn’t have to be back until 1:00am.
The icing on the cake was when some of the boys who were stealing the beer got caught by the store owner as he ran out after them. They didn’t know what happened to the boys that night after they were caught, but it was enough for their son to decide he did not want to be associated with a baseball team like that.
Shame on you coaches for turning a blind eye to your team’s behavior. They left you in charge of their sons and you didn’t stay sober enough to keep an eye on them. Anyone out there ever have an experience like this with your son or daughter or with coaches that didn’t take responsibility for your kids? What did you do when you found out? How did this impact the team overall? We would all love to hear your stories and comments…