by Noah Corman ’19

Coaches sometimes act unnecessarily cruel towards their athletes; that is no mystery. The real question is why athletes tolerate this treatment. If a math teacher were to, in front of the whole class, tell one of their students that they were by far the dumbest student, then that would certainly be unacceptable. A teacher cannot do that. However, it seems that an almost identical scenario would be perfectly reasonable within the realm of athletics: a high school coach insulting and demeaning an athlete is considered part of the game.

Through insults, humiliation, and the overly casual use of expletives, coaches supposedly motivate their athletes. However, there is no place for this kind of behavior from coaches or anyone. If swearing is deplorable in general, how could a different context make it much better? When something can be done using kinder words, one should attempt to do so. Anyone who says that they must use harsh, insulting language to get their point across should be met with skepticism. At the very least, coaches should try to be role models, and right now, I would go nowhere near anyone that tries to emulate their coaches’ behaviors. Abuse is abuse. Whether it is coach to athlete, teacher to student, student to student, or otherwise, verbal abuse is entirely inappropriate.