New blog--ok just new to me--about soccer. Former coach Amanda Vandervort is the author of Soccer Science a blog that "look[s] at the soccer world from the personal perspective of Amanda Vandervort, a former college coach and fan of professional soccer, with an emphasis on the technologies that are revolutionizing the way we see the beautiful game." Vandervort has a Twitter account (is that what they are called?). This whole Twitter thing and the number of WPS players and sports bloggers who are Twittering makes me wonder if "ken" shouldn't be getting familiar with this. But I'm not sure I really need another distraction from my dissertation. [h/t to Sean from sportsBabel for sending me the link]
Here's a local controversy--not local to me, but to someone. A youth soccer coach has resigned after sending an interesting email to the parents of 6- and 7-year old female soccer players in a club league in Massachusetts. There are a lot--a lot!--of comments on the article that reported the situation. Most of them accuse people of being too PC and from parents of girls saying "I would let this guy coach my girls!" I think I'll just let you all read it and make your own opinions. I do think the letter was in poor taste and did not reflect the level of play that would be occurring. In other words, even though most of it was satire--satire is meant to address serious situations. And this one did not call for it. Plus it was super long and thus likely contributed to the feeling that he was going overboard and of course to the idea that he has a little bit of a problem with ego. I don't think he is evil incarnate. I do not think he would have been the worst youth coach. I am sure there are far worse coaches in the very town in which he lives. And I think it was admirable of him to step down and not draw out the controversy so that the girls and the league can get on with their season.
2 comments:
I think the letter is in very bad taste. Comparing "young ladies" (whom he expects to kick ass) with abused dogs, and making an alleged joke about banned substances is not appropriate. The tone and length of the letter indicate that the writer is not someone one would want supervising children. In fact, it's creepy.
That was an awful letter. We also have to remember one thing: these children are in elementary school. The focus shouldn't be too competitive. It will ruin the children's outlook on what life is about! He should be more careful the next time he sends out something like that. Oh, and Green Death? :)
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