The International Schools Review Forum

I was thinking about my days as an international school teacher, particularly my coaching duties/sports tournament experiences. I remember being APPALLED AND DISGUSTED by the cutthroat, win at all costs attitude exhibited by the vast majority of tournament coaches. Victory dances, foul language - WAB in Beijing was by far the WORST with their athletes using the foulest of words and not being reprimanded by their coaches - running up the score, not allowing all athletes to play at least a little in every game, etc.
While I realize that this behavior from coaches is due to their insecurities and feelings of inadequacy, I was always at a loss as to how to handle it in a respectful and mature manner in order to show my athletes how to behave like a sportsman. At one such tournament where my team was being badly beaten in soccer, I actually had to walk up to the opposing coach and tell him to keep his team from shouting insults toward my players. This man was standing doing NOTHING to discipline his players as they shouted obsenities and insults onto the field. Once I called him on his behavior he tried to pretend that he had not heard anything, though he had actually been laughing along with his team.
I have found myself as both the coach of tournament winning teams as well as last place teams and in every case I demanded integrity and good sportsmanship from my players. Anyone acting poorly was sent to the bench, his season over.
I would be interested to hear from other teachers about their experiences with these "Little boys who can't grow up", type sports coaches.

This is world-wide. Ass-hat coaches/parents exist everywhere, in all sports at all ages.

This is the first year I'm not coaching, and I have to say that coaches who allow unsportsmanlike behaviour from their players, or who exhibit it themselves, are definitely not restricted to the male gender! If coaching is something you view as a way of positively influencing kids and an opportunity for character as well as skill development, try and find out the philosophy of the Athletic Director of any school you're interested in. I've been fortunate to have ADs who view winning as second to character building. They valued healthy competition, but not cut-throat win-at-any-cost coaching. Find out if your division makes their tournament sportmanship award a valued thing (or is much smaller than the tournament first place trophy, for example) or is it viewed as a "consolation prize" for "losers"? Does the admin require athletes and parents to sign a contract outlining behaviour expectations and consequences for breaching them? Does it support a coach who implements these consequences even if it means harming a team's chances to win a tournament? By the way I've worked as both a volunteer and a paid coach.

I think "calling" coaches of other teams on their players bad behaviour is really important. Be polite, but don't back down. Kids will respect us for it, though it may not make your popular at the coaches' dinner!