Comments on: Gaydos After Dark–Friday, December 14, 2007 http://ktar.net/blogs/gaydos/2007/12/15/gaydos-after-dark-friday-december-14-2007/ Just another WordPress weblog Sun, 07 Sep 2008 10:24:32 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.3.1-beta1 By: Pete http://ktar.net/blogs/gaydos/2007/12/15/gaydos-after-dark-friday-december-14-2007/#comment-55 Pete Tue, 18 Dec 2007 10:41:19 +0000 http://ktar.net/blogs/gaydos/2007/12/15/gaydos-after-dark-friday-december-14-2007/#comment-55 I tried to get on with Ankarlo as well as get on with your show regarding the football coach @ Sandra Day O'Connor HS. I have had 3 children go through that system, 1 girl, and 2 boys. Being a large man, 6'6" and about 300 lbs, I have ran the gambit of sports in Arizona all the way to full scholarship to play baseball @ ASU. Our name is somewhat known in the sports arenas of Arizona. A serious injury kept me out of the bigs, as well as paved the way for Barry Bonds. Both of my sons @ SDOHS are over 6'4" and are very athletic. I, not only have played sports in the valley my whole life, but I have also coached children, including my boys, and I would be considered on the "rough and tough" side of coaching. Sports are meant to be tough, and are meant to size up a child's character, as well as let them find their own character as well as inner strength. And, it comes upon the coach to help the child find that inner strength, sometimes when the child thinks you are a d**k. However, back to the coach @ SDOHS. I, being an Arizona athlete, placed the "proverbial" pressure upon my boys to go out for the football team. On separate occasions, from each boy who are in different classes, it had been reported to me that the coach was way beyond his realm, and extremely abusive. I tried to explain to the boys that "that is the way it is done"! Deal with it, get your ass out there and play ball. It took an extreme amount of maturity and humility for both of my boys to try and explain to me the amount of verbal abuse that they and all the kids were getting. The look on their faces was all I needed to see. I was infuriated! I wanted to squash this little punk. (Which by the way I could easily do since he is at best 5' 6" tall.) In past athletics, I had put my sons through some very tough times, sometimes wondering if I had gone overboard, gone too far. But I knew that in the end, this is the sort of stuff that makes a boy a man!!!!! I knew instantly by the look in their eyes that they wanted no part of this "little Hitler", even at the expense of disappointing their old man. The coach is a smart man, and he has been playing the "football is a tough sport" card and ABUSING IT. HE IS ABUSING HIS POSITION. I kind of think of it the same as a gynecologist. He has a certain job to do, but it is a "touchy" position, one that needs a certain amount of trust from the participants. You need to trust that he is doing the right thing. There are gynecologists that "abuse" their practice, and we all know what that is about. This is the same thing. He thinks he can throw around the "this is a tough sport" in order to abuse these kids. I AM NO SOCCER MOM!!!!! And have been accused many time of being too hard on my kids.........but they need to be toughened up in order to ready them for this cruel "eat or be eaten" world. What this coach is doing is not getting them ready for the world, he is merely being oppressive, degrading, and doing what ever he can to help him with his own inferiority complex. Sincerely, A tough dad I tried to get on with Ankarlo as well as get on with your show regarding the football coach @ Sandra Day O’Connor HS. I have had 3 children go through that system, 1 girl, and 2 boys. Being a large man, 6′6″ and about 300 lbs, I have ran the gambit of sports in Arizona all the way to full scholarship to play baseball @ ASU. Our name is somewhat known in the sports arenas of Arizona. A serious injury kept me out of the bigs, as well as paved the way for Barry Bonds. Both of my sons @ SDOHS are over 6′4″ and are very athletic. I, not only have played sports in the valley my whole life, but I have also coached children, including my boys, and I would be considered on the “rough and tough” side of coaching.
Sports are meant to be tough, and are meant to size up a child’s character, as well as let them find their own character as well as inner strength. And, it comes upon the coach to help the child find that inner strength, sometimes when the child thinks you are a d**k.

However, back to the coach @ SDOHS. I, being an Arizona athlete, placed the “proverbial” pressure upon my boys to go out for the football team. On separate occasions, from each boy who are in different classes, it had been reported to me that the coach was way beyond his realm, and extremely abusive. I tried to explain to the boys that “that is the way it is done”! Deal with it, get your ass out there and play ball.

It took an extreme amount of maturity and humility for both of my boys to try and explain to me the amount of verbal abuse that they and all the kids were getting. The look on their faces was all I needed to see. I was infuriated! I wanted to squash this little punk. (Which by the way I could easily do since he is at best 5′ 6″ tall.) In past athletics, I had put my sons through some very tough times, sometimes wondering if I had gone overboard, gone too far. But I knew that in the end, this is the sort of stuff that makes a boy a man!!!!!

I knew instantly by the look in their eyes that they wanted no part of this “little Hitler”, even at the expense of disappointing their old man.

The coach is a smart man, and he has been playing the “football is a tough sport” card and ABUSING IT. HE IS ABUSING HIS POSITION. I kind of think of it the same as a gynecologist. He has a certain job to do, but it is a “touchy” position, one that needs a certain amount of trust from the participants. You need to trust that he is doing the right thing. There are gynecologists that “abuse” their practice, and we all know what that is about. This is the same thing. He thinks he can throw around the “this is a tough sport” in order to abuse these kids.

I AM NO SOCCER MOM!!!!! And have been accused many time of being too hard on my kids………but they need to be toughened up in order to ready them for this cruel “eat or be eaten” world. What this coach is doing is not getting them ready for the world, he is merely being oppressive, degrading, and doing what ever he can to help him with his own inferiority complex.

Sincerely,

A tough dad

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