Your Coach is a Dick

This is an excerpt from The Guide and we thought it'd be fitting for the fall sports.

You have to learn to work with people you hate or don’t respect, and sometimes that person might be your coach. You do become a stronger person by getting through this kind of situation. When do you know if you should stay or you should quit?

Annoying but Acceptable:

• Not giving you enough playing time
• Being mean, but he’s mean to everyone
• Making you practice so hard you feel miserable and occasionally throw up
• Yelling at you for not giving your best effort

Unacceptable

• Not being clear about his expectations and then blaming you when you don’t meet those expectations
• Practicing without breaks and water, putting you and the other guys at risk
• Singling out a player or group of players for who they are (like their race,religion, ethnicity)
• “Encouraging” players by humiliating them. Especially singling out a player or a group of players by questioning their manhood, calling them girls, faggots, etc.
• Looking the other way when one of his players is violent or abusive to another person
• Excusing bad behavior in his star player because “he’s such a good kid” but really because he wants him to play

"One of the coaches would call us faggots and picked on this one kid all the time. Nobody did anything because they didn’t want to be called a faggot either." —Jack, 16

When you have a coach like this, it usually feels like there’s absolutely nothing you can do about it but put up with it or quit. However, those aren’t your only options.