‘Play to Win,’
This Coach Says

I’m writing in response to a letter in the Sept. 15 edition of The Herald written by a mother watching a soccer game who writes that she is, "a person that feels that every person should have the right to play at a game."

I totally disagree with this philosophy as it pertains to high school interscholastic sports. As a former coach, who has coached both boys and girls in a wide variety of sports, both individual as well as team sports, including football, basketball, baseball, gymnastics, swimming, wrestling and track and field, your job as the coach is to try to encourage the athletes on your team to try to win each and every game.

My latest coaching job was coaching the Rochester High School girls basketball team. I encouraged all the girls on the team to want to get this team to the Barre Aud. To do this we had to win and you don’t do this by playing all the girls in every game, unless all the girls have the same athletic ability, which has never been the case in all my years of coaching the various sports.

In most sports today size, speed, strength, ability to shoot, pass, catch, block, feint, fake, etc. are what differentiate the students trying to play on a varsity team.

As the coach you should work equally hard with all the girls/boys trying to make the team you are coaching. But we are not all equal, either in our athletic ability or in our ability in the academic field.

Should players who have worked hard in practice have their chance to show their skill in a game? Certainly they should, but not if inserting him/her into the game would lead to the team’s standing a chance of losing that game.

If the score indicates that team A has a good lead on team B, then the coach of team A should substitute some of his bench-warmers into the game. If team B starts to catch up, then the bench-warmers come back to the bench.

Likewise, if team A is far behind team B and has virtually no chance of winning, then team A coach can put in his bench-warmers and give them some game experience.

Folks, we all play games to win, whether it is football, or bridge, or checkers. We don’t deliberately try to lose, unless of course we are playing bridge or checkers with some friends. But this is not what interscholastic sports is all about.

I’m writing as a former coach but also as a parent who enjoyed watching his children perform to the best of their ability in athletic contests. And now as a grandparent I enjoy watching my grandchildren show their athletic talents.

Play to win, but after you have won the game be a humble and gracious winner and have some nice and encouraging words to say to your opponents.

Bob Long

Hancock