Sporting memories: Getting fired from a coaching job by an admin that didn't know the sport

One of the things I did while I was in college that was meant to look good on my resume was I did some volunteer work for youth football/soccer in my free time. Many of the other players on the team did the same thing. It was encouraged but not at all required of us.

We would meet up with the teams a couple times a week and then on the weekends we would have games. None of this was terribly competitive and honestly, most of the players were pretty terrible. This is quite common in youth leagues in the States because everyone gets to play. There a testing day where the skills of the players are honestly evaluated and then teams are drawn up with the hopes that the best players wouldn't end up on the same team. This was terribly detrimental to the actual players but USA has had this "participation trophy" mentality for a long time. Basically if you want to have real skills put into your kids' heads you have to enter a private league and pay for it.

This public league though, was meant to benefit the poorer kids as much as possible while also not making them feel bad, which is lame but I guess feelings are more important than finding actual opportunities for the truly talented.

Another side-effect of this charity league was to identify really skilled kids and if their family couldn't afford it, we would try to find some sort of scholarship that would enable them to enter the more competitive leagues free of charge. Their ability to play in this league was tied to their grades too. If you start screwing up in school the premiere league, so to speak, gets taken away from you.

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The kids were pretty well-behaved but I don't think that many (if any) of them knew that some of the coaches, like me, were kind of playing at a rather elite level at that point and most of us were getting to go to college for free in exchange for playing a sport. MLS didn't exist in USA at the time so this position on our part was at that time, as high as you were going to get in the sport.

I think all the kids knew was that were were a lot bigger and faster than them, and that since we were the coach they had to listen to us.

This part of it was fun, what was not fun was the administration, and one man in particular, who seemed to get some level of joy out of treating all of us as if we were their subjects and that they could abuse us with impunity. Even though we were doing this for free, they would get on our cases about the smallest things like pushing the kids "too hard" or being just a few minutes late even though we had our own practice to attend twice a day, as well as college classes. Many of the coaches simply quit because there is no good reason why you should ever treat someone poorly who is donating their time.

One day, I was in a rush from class to practice and realized once I returned to my apartment that I had left my house key in the classroom. I could either be very late to practice or just go to practice in what I had on at the time. I wasn't afraid of the admin but this was also with one of my favorite teams that had a few pre-teen boys on it that showed some real promise. I didn't want to let them down.

By the way this is before the times of mobile phones so I couldn't just call someone to let me in my apartment or let someone know I was going to be late.

I rushed to the park with my boots on (it was fall and getting a bit chilly) and these shoes were definitely not for playing soccer in. They were trail hiking shoes and are not suitable for playing any ball sport really.

I was demonstrating crosses from the corner that day and the boots were getting totally in the way and kind of making me look like I don't know what the hell I am talking about so instead of apologizing and trying over and over again, I took the boots off and played barefoot.

There actually are a lot of theories about the benefits of practicing football barefoot because it helps people to learn that the way that you "shape" your foot when striking the ball makes a very big difference on how the ball moves. Teaching kids to not "toe kick" the ball is actually really easy without shoes on because it hurts to kick the ball this way. The arch being extended fully makes for a wonderful way to cross when you lean back and once I got the shoes off I was able to explain the cross, both standing a running much better to the students without my hiking boots off.

The practice actually went really well and two of those kids that showed promise that I was referencing before actually ended up using that move in the very next game we played but I wouldn't be their coach during that game, I would be and observer?

Why, because the admin saw me coaching without shoes on and absolutely blew his top at me after all of us were pulling all the gear in and putting it away in the storage shed.

This guy looks like he has never played a sport in his life. He looks like he excelled at sitting on his ass and eating chips for hours at a time. I think a run from one end of the pitch to the other would give him a heart attack... But for some reason, he was in charge of this entire show. It makes no sense. Well he laid into me very loudly in front of the parents and the kids, like he was looking to impress them by being mean to one of the coaches. I didn't respond to this very well and tried to explain to him the situation with being locked out of my house and also how all over the world people train without shoes on because they can't afford them, and it is better than wearing work boots as far as learning is concerned.

I don't think this guy was interested in logic, he wanted to prove that he was the boss and can do whatever he wants to the coaches and maybe felt impressed with himself and it was an ego trip to be abusive towards someone that is really good at a sport that he cannot even play.

Well I quit / got fired that day because not because of the absence of shoes but because I didn't cower towards the boss. I stood up to him and had he assaulted me I probably could have cleaned the floor with him. I think the fact that I didn't back down made him even more angry and since he is in charge, he can fire me for no reason.

At one point I said to him "you do realize that I am on an athletic scholarship at UNC and am doing this for free, right?" I don't think he was even aware of this but he had gone too far down the road to turn back and that was the last day I worked for that youth league.

I would later be asked back and some administrator apologized on his behalf. I said "does (name of fat boss man) still work there?" When the answer to that question was "yes" I simply said there is no chance I would ever work with him in any capacity. I wished them the best and just put it behind me.

I did to and watch the game of those kids who I said showed such promise though. I never talked to them about why I was no longer their coach but I did jump up like a crazy person when they scored the goal using the cross method I had taught them to to and it made me feel proud when they came over to thank me and give me a hug after the play worked. They said "you were right coach!" and yes, I was. I hope they continued to use that method of scoring instead of just driving down the middle like almost everyone else did in that pitiful league.

Other parents saw me there and remembered me and asked me why I wasn't coaching anymore. I said something quite political about scheduling conflicts between the league and the university. It wasn't true, but I didn't want to get fatty-mc-boss-pants into any more controversy and I just wanted to carry on with my life.

The fact that due had his job and kept it for years is alarming to me. Why would you put an obese person with a chip on their shoulder in charge of a youth sports program?