To be completely honest, this situation and team has a very youth team feel to it with the father coaching the son's.
Anybody who's gone thru the youth basketball racket can probably relate to what I am saying.
To be completely honest, if I had to raise my son over again I'd have steered him away from sports. It's not the same as when we were young and it doesn't mean the same thing anymore. People who think the only way you can learn teamwork and how to deal with adversity is through sports are wrong. Youth sports are strictly a money-based machine that will either chew you up or spit you out. It's for parents with undersized metaphorical wieners. Kids don't play ball for fun and comradery anymore. It's all about who can look the best and pay for the most camps and get as many video clips on Hudl as possible.
I've enjoyed watching my son play sports growing up and I'm glad he's tried every sport offered in our area. But I'd be lying if I said the only reason I encouraged him to play sports when he was a little dude was for his own personal enjoyment. Every parent has at least a sliver of selfishness when putting their kid in sports, if only even .5%. Anyone who denies that is a liar. Parents get enjoyment out of seeing their sons and daughters beat other kids at whatever they're doing, and it stings when they fail. Ideally it shouldn't be about that, but it is. All sports parents seek that feeling of validation to at least some degree.
Like I said I enjoy watching my son compete, but my own need for success is getting less and less. Maybe it's me getting older, I don't know. Now more than ever I just want to see him happy, and when he's playing he's happy, and I think he's happy when he wins. But that winning has become less of a priority for me when it comes to him (individually). When it comes to coaching I'm aware enough of my own psyche to separate that out and I know that ultimately my goal as a coach is to win ballgames playing within the rules and with integrity, but with my kid (who I also coach), I don't have that drive to make him the best he can be. If he has that drive himself more power to him, but it's not my place to want it for him.
I can tell you this...As a guy who grew up playing football and baseball primarily with all the fan/coach/player aggro crap, and has also coached and officiated both at the HS level (college in baseball), I find myself much more enjoying cross country than either of those other two sports. My kid loves it, he's really good at it, and it's
all him. He loves to train, and dad (me) is too dumb and ignorant to try and tell him how or what to do to get better at running really fast for a long ways. I can literally do nothing but show up and cheer him on and it's great. He'll likely be a 3 time state qualifier when he's done (he made it this year as a soph) and I had zero part in it. And I love it.
