I’m going to throw a bit of blind speculation out there for you to ponder.
Kori Clements quit her post as Amarillo High School’s girls volleyball coach this week, citing harassment and hassling from the parent of one of her athletes. Clements said the parent was angry because Clements wasn’t giving her daughter enough playing time for the vaunted Sandies’ volleyball program.
Her resignation — after just one season as coach — has ignited a serious firestorm in the Amarillo school district athletic community . . . or so I have been led to believe.
The Amarillo school board of trustees is meeting Tuesday evening. You can bet your big ol’ four-wheel-drive pickup that Clements’ sudden and shocking resignation will be on the minds of what I suspect will be a large crowd of spectators crammed into the school board meeting room.
Is it possible that Clements could get some form of public apology from the school board, perhaps even from the offending parent? Maybe from the administration, which she accused of failing to give her proper backing?
If all that comes to pass, might the young coach reconsider her resignation?
Just thinking out loud, man.
Some strange things happening at AISD. The Superintendent quietly retired after less than 3 years. Other resignations….. and a talented coach steps down.
Coaches are between a rock and a hard place. They are pressed to put their best players on the line in order to win. It’s not the game. it’s not the sportsmanship, it’s not teaching ALL your athletes, superior or just so-so the importance of sportsmanship. It’s the WIN and if little Debbie doesn’t get to play as often as an (influential) parent thinks she should, it’s Bye-Bye Coach. It’s not the kids that need to learn sportsmanship, it’s the parents and the Administration. I once saw a coach take a job at a small school, that had never won a championship. In three years he built a team, took them to State and they won for the first time in that schools history, the State Championship. 90 percent of his team graduated that year and the next year, he had to start building a new team. They didn’t win that year and it was bye-bye coach.