The Las Vegas strip… the destination for another mandatory team dinner called by the coaches.
She struts in late as the girls are all seated at one table and the parents seated at another table right across from them. She looks at the young girls on her team, then over at the parents and boldly announces to everyone, “Tonight I am going to be a parent and not your coach.” What the heck we thought…what is she talking about? The girls wanted to know what she meant by that – we were all waiting to see. She had a daughter on the team and along with her husband they were the coaching duo.
Well it didn’t take long before both the parents and the girls figured out exactly what she meant by “I am a parent tonight.” It was short for, “I am a parent tonight because I want to tie one on! I want the parents to suck up to me and buy my drinks.” Without her better half to keep track of her, the lioness was out prowling in full force. “Oh, I never do this but, I think I will have a shot of tequila” she sheepishly said. All of us were well aware of the fact that this was a frequent behavior of hers.
She went right to town with no food in her stomach and even posed for some of the parent’s cameras…stupid coach…and we all had the proof. Tryouts were fast approaching and the parent’s thought they could score points with her by funding and keeping her intoxication levels way above the legal limit. Such “suck ups” these parents were…stupid parents, like she was going to remember a thing the next day! Most parents are aware that unless you are the local Budweiser distributor and can fund all the team parties, a drink for the coach isn’t going to buy them a spot on the team.
Another round arrived at the table, then the third round, a fourth round…and everyone knows how tequila sneaks up on you. The girls stopped counting. She made a fool of herself and started causing massive drama and havoc amongst the players! She all but killed any sort of team bonding as she placed wedges of rivalry between players with her rude comments. We got the girls out of the restaurant as soon as we could and later that night found her on the floor outside her hotel room crying.
What can we as parents do to stop behavior like this from happening right before our young girls eyes. What is this teaching them? I guarantee you what happened in Vegas did not stay in Vegas; it went home with 18 young impressionable 14 year old girls. Do you deal with drunken coaches on your kid’s team? What are your experiences?