Ships Passing in the Night
September 8, 2010 by Frank Hooks · 2 Comments
This is my son’s junior year in high school and he has participated in athletics the entire time he has been at Rancho Buena Vista High School. I have watched him play football, swim for the swim team and now be on the water polo team for the first time. I can tell as an outsider looking in, the swim/water polo program and the football program are going completely opposite directions.
His freshman year, I encouraged him to play football for a couple of different reasons. Number one being that everyone is so hard core anymore you need to get in on the ground floor because if you try out your sophomore or junior year they won’t know or care who you are unless you’re a dominating athlete. Number two reason being this is the only time in your life you can play organized tackle football for free and it’s a lot of fun. He was small for his age and hadn’t had a growth spurt yet, but earned himself a starting wide receiver spot on the team. The team was lackluster in performance. The coaching is poor, the scheme is terrible and the kids collectively didn’t have any team speed. Move onto sophomore year and it’s more of the same. I think the jv team only won a single game all season. I knew there was something wrong with the football program when my son broke his leg at the beginning of the season and not a single coach or representative from the football program called or emailed to see how he was doing. I am happy to say that he is not playing football this year.
It looked like it was going to be more of the same with the water polo program this year and I was disappointed for Stewart. The varsity coach didn’t show up to practice occasionally this summer and missed a couple of the matches. It left me to think what the hell is wrong with athletics at RBV? Lo and behold, the varsity water polo coach was either fired or resigned and immediately replaced. What a breath of fresh air! The new coach came in with qualifications and set the tone immediatley. You can already see that the other coaches, all the players and the parents are buying into this new guy! Everyone is positive, the kids are practicing hard and the coach has some serious expectations of these teens. I like it. I’m pumped and looking forward to going to the matches and learning about a new sport.
We had a bbq in our backyard over the holiday weekend and someone mentioned that the RBV varsity football team lost 52-0 on Friday night. Inexcusable. I really feel for all those kids, several of whom I have known since they were little boys, who have spent four years of their life to be coached to such a poor level. These kids lift weights all winter, spend their entire summers at the football field and this is the end result. Don’t blame it on the kids. RBV is the most populous school in San Diego county and there are athletes to be had for this football team. My daughter dances for Maroon Magic and will be dancing at half-time at the home games but you’re not going to get any money out of me to watch bad football. I don’t watch it on Saturday or Sunday and I’m not going to watch bad football on Friday nights either. I will save my cash and show up at halftime for free to watch my daughter and head on back home.
I will tell you what I am going to do. I am spending twenty bucks or so in gas money to drive to La Jolla HS on Friday and Saturday to enjoy the great energy and positiveness and work ethic from these water polo players and coaches.
Someone at RBV was man enough to make the change in the water polo program, now they got to man up and make a change in the football program. If it’s “all about the children,” then by God get some new coaches in there for these young men.
Out.
I'm a 41 year old happily married father of three great kids. We live and love in Southern California. My blog is an outlet for me to pontificate on all things great about being a dad.
The difference for the Water Polo team is that they are now being led by a grown up. Not by someone who many of them viewed as a peer. I too have shown up to a few years of a missing coach or canceled practices with no warning.
I will go as far to say I can hardly hold the former coach totally responsible. I always say ,”a bad child is only as bad as a parent will let them be”. This coach has been this way for at least 6 years and no one that governs him has ever held him accountable. I have seen parents pretend that his behavior was acceptable so their child’s playing time wouldn’t be affected. RBVHS’ aquatics program is the bottom of the food chain and my guess is the powers that be figured, “Well, who else is going to do it?”
Having said that, I return to my initial statement that Coach Emaus is a grown up and from what I can tell, would more than likely hold himself accountable as a real grown up would. He leads, but is in charge.
Now. What about the next sport up the food chain. Who is holding them accountable?
The football program at RBVHS has always been incredibly sub-par! My sons played there for one year, and at that time much was influenced by coach’s unfairness, or what you donated to the program. What is happening now is pathetic!!! Most of the boys who play or have played for this sad excuse of a coaching team are sickened by how they are treated! I have often heard how these coaches just yell, tear them down, and what’s funny is that the players say they (the coaches) don’t know what they’re doing!!! They don’t get it! We have incredible athletes at our school, and yet other schools KNOW they can out-coach us every time! If you want to make a difference, you NEED to speak to the principal..Varda Levy. If more concerned parents did that, then maybe there could be a change! By the way , last Friday between the Frosh team , JV team and Varsity, they did not score even 1 lousy point!!! ! Go watch O”side Pirates if you want to see the best football program in the county!!!