Hoops Coaches Have A Difficult Job

It's tough to be a basketball coach anywhere. But in Indiana? Wow.

And a small town in Indiana?

Forget about it.

It's kind of like being the editor of a small daily newspaper. No matter what you do, a certain percentage of the people are going to be mad about it.

I think that's what happened when Triton varsity basketball coach Mike McBride lost his job earlier this week.

And I think that's too bad.

Before I go any further, let me say for the record I have never met McBride. Of course, my sports guys have and there is plenty of anecdotal evidence with regard to his character and demeanor.

And we've got some letters to the editor that portray him as a nice guy.

Regardless, there are some things about his situation that seem a little strange.

First of all, it seems to me if you're going to fire somebody - which, essentially is what the school board did - you should talk to them about it.

According to a statement released by McBride, he received a letter Wednesday from the Triton superintendent saying he was suspended by the school board for verbally abusing his players.

But before that, at no time during the season, did the school board meet with McBride to discuss their concerns.

That seems a little weird to me. It would be like me telling my sports editor to inform a reporter the reporter no longer had a job.

Seems somebody would have sat down with McBride and talked about the alleged "abuse," which, by the way, McBride denies.

"I have never been verbally abusive to players," his statement says.

I suppose that is up for interpretation, but come on, the guy is a coach. Nobody accused him of being vulgar. Nobody said he was swearing at the kids.

(In that regard, I'm sure McBride was a lot more civil than, say, Bobby Knight, who is regarded as one of the greatest basketball coaches ever.)

So, by their own admission, the detractors were concerned because the coach yelled at the kids or called them dummies or something like that.

My, my how things have changed. I had a phys-ed teacher in high school who punished us with leg lifts and berated us for not holding our legs off the floor long enough.

I had a phys-ed teacher who belittled the chubby kids to tears because they couldn't climb the rope all the way to the round wooden disk.

So, to me, anyway, it seems yelling at kids would almost be a requirement of a high school basketball coach. If I was hiring a coach, I probably would ask him to yell at me to see if he was any good at it. Coaches are supposed to be intense.

I mean, really.

The team plays poorly in the first half. The coach leads them into the locker room and says what?

"Now come on, you guys. I know you can do better. Remember all that stuff we worked on in practice. Now I want you to try really, really hard to do those things in the second half."

Then he whips out an acoustic guitar and engages the team in a Kumbaya sing-along.

Right?

Wrong.

More like, "If you candy-a**es don't get off your a**es and start playing some ball in the second half, you're all gonna ride the pine for the rest of the season! I'll bring the JV in here to finish this damn game!"

Of course, this would be punctuated by a swift kick to a nearby locker. Or the sound of a clipboard being snapped in half. Or the sight of a handful of pencils flying across the room.

Now that the coach has the kids' attention, he can give them some advice.

At least, that was my experience with coaches.

They wanted us to do our best. When we didn't - when were slacking off - we were yelled at.

No shocker there.

And from what I gather, the Triton team may not have been working quite as hard as the coach would have liked.

I understand there were some freshmen players in starting roles while upperclassmen rode the bench. There must be a reason for that. You don't bench upperclassmen without reason.

And the team was 3-14.

(Of course, everybody realizes if the team was 14-3 the coach could have dressed the kids in skirts and forced them to skip around the gym before each home game and nobody would have cared.)

Losing record. Freshmen starting. I can imagine this didn't sit well with parents of some of the players. Hmmm. Time to go to the school board.

But that's when the school board needs to be objective. Were the kids being abused? Or were the kids not performing up to expectation and whining because they got benched?

I'll throw a bone to the school board members here. My guess is they knew everybody in the room when they made their decision.

Bourbon is a small town. It's hard to be objective when you're staring at a room full of disgruntled friends, relatives and acquaintances.

Frankly, before this season McBride didn't fare too badly for the 1A Triton Trojans. He had a sectional championship, a holiday tournament championship and a couple winning seasons during his four-season tenure.

That's fairly impressive for a young 1A coach. So he must know a little about basketball.

And he must know how to motivate kids. My guess is that's exactly what he was trying to do - motivate his team.

And, in the fishbowl of smalltown Hoosier basketball, it's what cost him his job.

My guess is McBride will land on his feet. He will coach again someday, and he'll be just fine.

He's a coach. He knows the deal. You suffer a tough loss. You're frustrated. You get up for the next game.