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Positive coaching must
be part of the game

THE ISSUE Allegations of physical and verbal abuse resulted in replacement of a Big Island high school's entire football coaching staff.

APPALLING behavior by coaches of high school sports in Hawaii has resulted in recent firings. Physical and verbal abuse of players should not be tolerated, and all coaches in the school system should be put on notice through workshops drilling into their heads the ramifications of such behavior.

During last year's football season, a coach who was popular with players at Honokaa High School quit because of disgust with his abusive colleagues. Another coach was fired soon afterward and two more were asked to resign. By the end of the season, the administration decided to replace the rest of the 10-member coaching staff.

Parents said the coaches had intimidated the players with insulting and sometimes profanity-laced names and, on occasion, manhandled them. When one player was ordered to run extra drills and collapsed in exhaustion, the head coach walked by him without saying a word. The assistant coach who would later resign finally came to the boy's aid.

The fired coaches told the Star-Bulletin's Rob Perez that their behavior was normal or that allegations were exaggerated. More on target was the assessment by parent Jason Johansen: "They were just -- I hate to say it -- idiots. They didn't teach the boys good values."

Coaches at other schools in the state have been fired for misbehavior in recent months. The Honokaa abuse might be a reflection of a national problem, created by pressure to succeed. Some parents who don't scream at their children might condone such abuse by coaches in the belief that it will increase the chance of the child winning a college athletic scholarship.

Instead, numerous studies have shown that win-at-all-cost coaching has harmful effects on young people. Research showing that a five-to-one ratio of compliment to criticism makes children thrive in the classroom also applies to the athletic arena, according to the Positive Coaching Alliance. The effect of a 2:1 and 1:1 positive-to-negative ratio is described as "despairing."

The Stanford-based alliance has conducted workshops in the islands in recent years, and the state Department of Education should ask the organization to increase the effort. All school coaches should be required to attend such seminars.

Parents should heed the advice of Mike Giuliano, the San Diego State women's soccer coach, in a recent column in the San Diego Union-Tribune: "Never, ever let your child play for a coach who has forgotten that at the end of the day, it is still just a game. Never, ever let your child be taught that verbal harassment has a useful purpose in society. If we just rescue one child at a time, perhaps one day the abusive coach will end up with no kids left to abuse."

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