Written by Last week a video surfaced of a high school coach screaming and shoving one of his players on the sideline during the game. It was a horrible coaching moment that luckily did not get worse as the kid kept on trying to walk away. This coach made multiple terrible decisions: singling out the athlete, putting his hands on the player, shoving and pushing the player back, screaming, and continuing to chase after the athlete. There was no mistake of what the coach did, regardless of what the player may have said to him.
This coach was former NFL quarterback Trent Dilfer and he has been coaching at Lipscomb Academy in Tennessee for the past three years. While coaching high school aged boys may be challenging at times, what purpose did all of Dilfer’s antics serve? Is the athlete better because of the encounter? We all know the answer to the question, except maybe Coach Dilfer.
Coach Dilfer delivered a statement, through Lipscomb Academy, stating his side of the story:
He takes “full responsibility as the head coach and leader” – Even though what he did was absolutely not right, it seems that he is holding himself accountable.
“of our team for not deescalating an emotional situation” – No Coach Dilfer, you are already dismissing the issue that happened…the one where you laid hands and shoved a player.
“with one of our players” – Yes coach, please start shifting the blame onto someone else, especially the athlete you assaulted.
“Beau Dawson” – I am sure that this athlete just loved that you called him out by name Coach Dilfer. You not only fully shifted the blame onto him, but you also singled him out again and now will probably be cyber bullied by many people that he has never met.
“Beau is one of our finest student-athletes and embodies all the characteristics we are looking for in our Mustang players. Beau plays the game with the right kind of passion and is an inspiration to our other players” – This athlete may be the type of player you want on your team but this coach may be wrong for the program.
“During a moment of frustration in an attempt to get our team to play with more discipline, I unfairly singled Beau out” – Yes, you unfairly singled out the athlete and continue to do so by repeatedly mentioning him.
“Somehow Beau Dawson has been portrayed publicly as the culprit in this situation” – Yes coach, this athlete is being portrayed as the culprit because you keep on singling him out. And yes, the athlete threw his helmet on the ground, but it was after you were screaming at him and shoved him. Additionally, the athlete kept on trying to walk away from you out of frustration and maybe a little bit of fear.
“when in reality I should have been a better leader and shown greater wisdom and discernment in how I handled this incident” – Yes Coach Dilfer, and you and Lipscomb Academy are still handling it horribly.
“Overall, I could not be more proud of Beau and the rest of our team for how they handle the emotional nature of each game they compete in.” – Yes, we all should be proud of this athlete, for taking your abuse Coach Dilfer.
Coach Dilfer, and Lipscomb Academy, are obviously focused on maintaining the status quo and not properly addressing the situation. Coach Dilfer should have made a sincere apology, the school should have opened an investigation and suspended the coach through the end of the investigation and outcome, Lipscomb Academy should have notified the proper authorities to begin their own investigation, and then any punishment rendered if required.
But the team is winning, they have a former NFL quarterback at the helm, and he comes from a line of coaches. Instead of doing the right thing, Coach Dilfer and Lipscomb Academy are going to continue to focus on winning at all costs, regardless of the health or safety of the athletes. While you may think that my view of this is extremely harsh, it is because athlete health and safety should always be the top priority for any coach or organization, what Coach Dilfer did was wrong, and in the video you see someone (Maybe an assistant coach or athlete not dressed in a uniform) starting to hold the coach back.