This is just plain ridiculous. The middle school basektball coach calls this kid up and tells him to be certain to attend the awards banquet as he would be getting a special award. After all of his teammates recevied their standard awards, the coach calls this kid up and gives him the “Crybaby Award” for being a whiner. To top off the injury, they spelled the kid’s name wrong.

The kid was so humiliated he didn’t go to school the following Monday.

The school board voted to fire the twenty-four year-old coach but the Superintendent says no but did say the coach will no longer be allowed to coach sports and will have to hold another banquet to give the kid the same award as everyone else . . . see here . . . that’s just going to add even more insult to the kid as everyone knows the second banquet is just to force the coach to give the award.

Sure, I understand the coach is a young inexperienced teacher and should have an opportunity to learn from his mistake . . . but this kid’s going to be carrying some pretty heavy baggage for the rest of his life because of this thoughtless act. Sometimes consequences should be severe and this is probably one of them.

Coaches may push their charges to do well and perform better but this is just simple-minded vindictive bullying. If I were on the board, I would have voted to fire him as well. There’s no excuse for destroying a student’s ego that way. These are NOT professional athletes, they are middle school kids. They deserve better . . . and even if they were professionals or even soldiers . . . that sort of mentoring from a coach only destroys it doesn’t build better players. It’s petty and twisted.

I agree that he should never caoch again . . . I also believe he should seriously consider leaving the teaching profession . . . starting with a kick in the ass as he’s booted out the door. There is NO excuse for this.