When should coaches be fired?

There are plenty of great coaches in the sports industry: John Wooden, Sparky Anderson, Russ Rose, and many more. But for each great coach, there is a terrible coach, one that makes athletes want to quit mid-season, one who causes a losing streak for a program that was thriving and a previous coach happened to retire, and one who makes sponsors retreat from investing in a program.

While there is no way to prevent a team from adding on a coach who will hurt the program more than help, there is a lot of contemplation about how long a coach should be given before they are removed from their position if they are hurting the program. 

To start, programs should take into account the background of the coaches they are bringing on. This first step can prevent a lot of the problems, and while it is evident sports programs do take the time to look at the experience someone has before admitting them into the coaching position, there is an element that goes unnoticed quite frequently during the hiring process: connectivity with athletes.

There is always going to be an element of importance to the skill a coach has, but one of the most important factors to a coach is having someone in the position who is able to be respected by the players, which can be enforced by the aggressiveness of a coach, but the personability of a coach most times has a greater effect than respectability. An athlete is more likely to trust and connect with a coach who is kind off the court or field than someone who is hard on the athletes outside of practices and games. Athletes are more likely to put in more effort for a coach that is making them want to play the game. The athletes are also more willing to follow through and finish drills and conditioning if they trust the coach is making them push through those actions to get better and, in turn, win more rather than just to make them run laps to make them struggle. 

Aside from the first step of looking into the personability and connectivity of a coach prior to hiring them, if the coach has already been hired and is starting to show signs of harming athletes, especially physically, that should be an immediate situation to fire them. It is irresponsible for a program to not follow through with firing a coach if there have been sexual assault allegations against a coach, it is not likely a player would publicly lie about such an ordeal and potentially ruin their reputation. Additionally, assault, in general, should be a red flag, and if a player accuses a coach of being abusive, there should be an investigation and when the investigation takes place, an interim coach should be put in the place of the coach, who should be temporarily suspended. If it is determined the coach has been abusing athletes there should be action to fire the coach immediately. 

A difficult element of this aspect is determining if athletes are undergoing psychological abuse, otherwise known as emotional abuse. If an athlete is brave enough to come forward with this, the team should supply the athlete with a therapist if they are already not met with one. Additionally, the program should undergo asking the players about the situation as well as talk to the coach about the situation. Each situation is case-by-case, but if it is intentional and is something most of the players feel they are being affected by, then there should be a search for a new coach. Players do not deserve to go under mental strain, they are already going under enough physical strain from their training and gameplay. 

Aside from the harsher subjects, if a team is struggling to win games, it may be likely it is a result of the coaching style. But, there are situations when it is based on players’ skills, but it is the coach’s job to improve them. Ultimately it is up to the program to decide whether the coach should be removed, but if the coach goes a third of the season and the results are not beneficial to the program, there should be a search for a new coach, as well as a warning to the coach about their potential of being removed. If there is an improvement for a consecutive amount of time then the coach should be allowed to stay, but if there is no improvement, they should most likely be removed. 

Once again, the decision is ultimately up to the programs, but to boost the improvement of a team, a good coach who is not only able to lead skilled athletes but also connect with them is extremely necessary and valuable. A suggestion to seeing how a coach interacts with athletes is by having the coach have a trial run at coaching the team by leading them in a practice and in a scrimmage. This should be left till the top three coaches might be hired, from this, there could be player evaluations of each coach and ultimately a decision based on that. Because, when it comes down to it, the most important aspect is if the players respect and trust the coach. The players should play a role in deciding the program’s new leader.