04/18/24
August 01, 2002
Right or wrong, the law's the law.: An Anne Arundel County, Maryland, high school is replacing its non-teacher "emergency" lacrosse coach, who over five seasons has a 74-20 record and three trips to the championship game, because state law gives precedence to teachers. He's being replaced by a teacher who's also a lacrosse coach. (Last year, 46% of Anne Arundel County's j.v. and varsity coaches were emergency coaches.) Should the priority be to follow the law, or win games?
posted by kirkaracha to general at 08:55 AM - 6 comments
This is actually a pretty stupid law. What often happens is a school finds a good coach with some degree who isn't a good teacher. They want him or her to coach, so they hire the person, and throw them into teaching a few health or P.E. courses. I remember my old Algebra teacher was the coach of the JV football team. He was a great math teacher, in my opinion. Once he was promoted to head coach of the varsity team, though (I was no longer around), I have no idea how his classes fared. Schools should be allowed to hire coaches who are not faculty rather then let this law drag down academic standards.
posted by insomnyuk at 09:44 AM on August 01, 2002
After reading the story, my sympathy's with the teacher/coach who was rejected several times for the position in violation of the state's "emergency coach" law. If the people of Maryland want to change the law so non-teachers can coach their kids, fine. But in the meantime, following the law should always be more important than winning games. Otherwise, you're giving schools free license to break rules like residency requirements and "no pass, no play."
posted by rcade at 10:58 AM on August 01, 2002
I agree with rcade. If there is a law on this, then it should be followed, before worrying about wins and losses enters the equation.
posted by bcb2k2 at 11:41 AM on August 01, 2002
I'm not advocating anyone break this particular law (there are plenty of other good dumb laws worth breaking), I'm just saying it has certain unintended consequences which of course were not considered when it was written. I'm willing to bet the farm that the local teachers union was behind it.
posted by insomnyuk at 03:56 PM on August 01, 2002
I don't see how this could be an unintended consequence at all -- the "emergency coach" should only be hired when no qualified teacher/coaches are available. This case will probably lead to a bunch of other coaching changes, because it sounded like Maryland schools were abusing the "emergency" designation to find qualified coaches who would take the extremely low pay.
posted by rcade at 05:58 PM on August 01, 2002
In high school? Frankly, the question should be 'why does winning or losing matter at all?' The whole notion of 'big time high school athletics' is a pretty repulsive one to me.