[Sportsandrec] clueless coaches

[Bill Kociaba]

Hi All,
Just read Jody's email and thought I would chime in with my high school PE experience.  In spite of the fact that I attended Nova which was an experimental school that everyone wanted their kids to attend because it was so advanced and in spite of the fact that it was the school they bussed all the blind kids in the county to they had no clue what to do with us PE wise. PE was a requirement for everyone in 9th grade no matter what. I went and had to deal with a coach that had no idea what to do with me while they were playing vairous "ball games".  I asked if I could go in the weight room and workout(I was just getting started and was in really bad shape) I was told that that required supervision and it wasn't fair for me to expect someone to take the time away from everyone else to watch me workout.  The coach finally decided I should run laps while the rest of the class played soccer or whatever.  The track was right there at the field and he could keep an eye on me. Pretty smart right?lets have the fat blind kid go run laps on the track all by himself...much safer than working out on a universal machine, right? So every day I would go to the coach and ask him if the track was clear of any hurdles etc(I can see you all jumping ahead of me already) and of course he would say yes.  I honestly believed he looked as I couldn't believe he would just let me go crash into something.  So I would run(more like a not even really fast walk I was so out of shape)on the inside lane so I could tell if I was not going straight when I hit the grass. One day I asked and he said the track was clear and I went tostart doing my laps.  Moving along as fast as I could out of nowhere I hit a hurdle at ful speed and went flying over it and sprawled face first on the track. Got up went into the locker room got dressed and cut class for the rest of the semister. I spoke to a counsler about it and was told the coach was in charge of the class and it was required.  So as I said I cut class for the resto of the semister and of course failed. The final semister was swimming and I went back and got an A and the coach(idiot that he was)told me he was glad to see I shaped up and started comming to class.  That was the early 70s and I was totally intimidated by him so I never really said much but in todays world I think he would have not been a coach much longer.  Needless to say, to this day I have a serious aversion to running.    
Bill Kociaba
CRUISEONE
Bill at Ycruise.com
954 227 7772 or Toll Free 877 227 7775
7600 Wiles Rd, Coral Springs, FL 33067