Latest / The Gregg Bell Show / 5-5 H1: Dante Fowler Jr. is a Seahawk, Jon Manley Joins & Mental Health

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5-5 H1: Dante Fowler Jr. is a Seahawk, Jon Manley Joins & Mental Health · The Gregg Bell Show

0:00
Speaker 1: You're good. So that will day education paid off for
0:03
Speaker 1: you very well? Hey, you know it helps out here,
0:05
Speaker 1: and yeah it does. We got to popping show today.
0:08
Speaker 1: I told you at eleven am we're going to talk
0:10
Speaker 1: from Texas to beat writer Nick Harris, the Fort Worth
0:12
Speaker 1: Star Telegram Cowboys beat writer about what he saw from
0:15
Speaker 1: Dante Fowler in his age thirty one season last year.
0:18
Speaker 1: Follower turns thirty two in August, and he's now the
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Speaker 1: seahawks newest dead drusher as of this morning story at
0:24
Speaker 1: the News Tribune Newstribune dot com right now, one year
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Speaker 1: contract up to five million, with performance bonuses and sack
0:32
Speaker 1: numbers and games played. Tom Pelasero of NFL Network was
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Speaker 1: the first one to write, broadcast and report that this morning.
0:41
Speaker 1: I was up before seven am writing that story for
0:43
Speaker 1: the News Tribune. It's up there to Newstribune dot com
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Speaker 1: right now. And why they picked him, we'll talk a
0:47
Speaker 1: lot about that. Why they got him, of course, the
0:50
Speaker 1: easy answer is, boy, I'm off a twenty million a
0:53
Speaker 1: year to the Cincinnati Bengals and free agency and the
0:56
Speaker 1: Seahawks did not draft out of any of their eight
0:59
Speaker 1: draft picks and edge they tried, but none of the
1:01
Speaker 1: edge rushers they wanted came to them at their places
1:05
Speaker 1: in the draft board. So they said, okay, we'll go
1:09
Speaker 1: sign one in veteran free agency. Why now, Well, we
1:12
Speaker 1: talked about this earlier this week. As of Monday last week,
1:18
Speaker 1: you could sign veteran free agents without it counting against
1:21
Speaker 1: the compensatory draft pick formula for twenty twenty seven, a
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Speaker 1: stronger draft, of which the Seahawks have eleven picks, four
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Speaker 1: of them they're expecting to be comp picks when the
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Speaker 1: league formula shakes out in the league awards compicks for
1:31
Speaker 1: next year. Fowler would have counted with his service time
1:35
Speaker 1: and performance over the years had he signed before last Monday.
1:38
Speaker 1: But now since he has signed, that would have counted
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Speaker 1: against the Seahawks. They would have one fewer, probably down
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Speaker 1: to three compicks and ten picks overall. But the Seahawks
1:46
Speaker 1: wait till now and doesn't count as of last Friday
1:49
Speaker 1: or as Monday, and that's why they waited to do
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Speaker 1: it now. One year deal up to five million dollars
1:55
Speaker 1: to be an edge rusher. Chuck Pyle had me on
1:57
Speaker 1: about an hour and a half ago and he was
1:58
Speaker 1: asking me to do I think he's gonna be in
1:59
Speaker 1: every down game. I don't at age thirty two, and
2:03
Speaker 1: I think that's where they still are looking for. Potentially
2:06
Speaker 1: more edge rushers or the emergence of Jared Ivy, for instance,
2:09
Speaker 1: or Connor O'Toole, a linebacker who got some time on
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Speaker 1: the roster of special teams last year, to be more
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Speaker 1: early down run stopping edge setters. I would expect Dante
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Speaker 1: Feller at this point in his career to be a
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Speaker 1: past rush specialist and pass rush downs. More to come
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Speaker 1: on that at ten twenty five. After the break, we're
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Speaker 1: going to talk to my colleague John Manley. He's the
2:30
Speaker 1: Washington State sports writer of the year. He covers high
2:33
Speaker 1: school sports like no other for the News Tribune from
2:37
Speaker 1: gig Harbor, where last night he broke the story that
2:40
Speaker 1: a fired girls basketball coach at gig Harbor High School
2:45
Speaker 1: is unfired. Two weeks ago, gig Harbor High School fired
2:48
Speaker 1: it's girls basketball coach Michelle Hackett after her first season.
2:52
Speaker 1: She went nineteen and six, missed the state tournament by
2:55
Speaker 1: one point in a regional final loss in March. Last night,
3:00
Speaker 1: the gig Harbor School District reinstated her. It appears to
3:04
Speaker 1: be matter of fact, it is after talking to John.
3:07
Speaker 1: It is going to be after we talked to John.
3:09
Speaker 1: I think you'll explain this. Another case of entitled parents
3:13
Speaker 1: interfering and getting their way with coaches and youth sports.
3:18
Speaker 1: But now they aren't because of this. The school district
3:20
Speaker 1: came in and said no, no, no, we're not doing this.
3:24
Speaker 1: Many others didn't want to fire in the first place.
3:27
Speaker 1: Vocal minority perhaps looks like another case that we had
3:30
Speaker 1: this in pewall Up in the storied baseball program at
3:34
Speaker 1: pull Up High School, they lose. This was about a
3:36
Speaker 1: month ago. Remember we talked about this. Chris Pulip lost
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Speaker 1: five straight games, which is unheard of, and the parents
3:43
Speaker 1: said you're done. They played ten games under that coach's tenure.
3:47
Speaker 1: He came from PLU. He was a college assistant coach
3:50
Speaker 1: who came to coach Puollup High School and in ten
3:53
Speaker 1: games he was gone because parents ousted him. And now
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Speaker 1: another case here in gig Harbor. We're gonna talk to
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Speaker 1: John mainly about that four four or five one. Those
4:00
Speaker 1: of you that are either high school coaches or parents
4:04
Speaker 1: of high school athletes or middle school athletes, I'd like
4:08
Speaker 1: to hear your opinion about this. I use the word entitlement.
4:11
Speaker 1: I was in this realm. I was a farsity baseball
4:13
Speaker 1: coach here in Seattle, and part of the reason I
4:16
Speaker 1: am not is because of this very issue. Chris, I
4:20
Speaker 1: used to tell the I had to say it as
4:23
Speaker 1: much as I almost made out a lineup card. I
4:25
Speaker 1: had to say this parents, parent, coaches, coach. I tried
4:30
Speaker 1: to impart that as evenly and as politely as I could,
4:34
Speaker 1: and sometimes I even had to do it during games.
4:38
Speaker 1: I had parents heckling me and doubting me and questioning
4:42
Speaker 1: me out loud from behind the backstop during games. I
4:47
Speaker 1: couldn't believe it. I mean four nine, four or five one.
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Speaker 1: Your opinion of high school and youth sports and whether
4:57
Speaker 1: you see it as in, where does this entire idlement
5:00
Speaker 1: come from? From athletes? Student athletes, young players, and more directly,
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Speaker 1: their parents. Because the players aren't just waking up and
5:07
Speaker 1: growing up to be this way. They've seen this in
5:10
Speaker 1: their homes and on their fields and then the car
5:12
Speaker 1: rides back home after games. It's a problem. And when
5:16
Speaker 1: you talk to coaches, they are getting out because of this.
5:21
Speaker 1: High school and college coaches both are just getting it
5:24
Speaker 1: out they don't get paid anyway. I mean, if I
5:27
Speaker 1: broke down the hours I spent counting bus rides, counting
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Speaker 1: team meals, counting film study, chalk sessions with the varsity
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Speaker 1: baseball team, if I just took my pay as a
5:38
Speaker 1: high school varsity coach and instead that private school and
5:42
Speaker 1: divide it by the number of hours, I would have
5:45
Speaker 1: been sick. I mean, that's like John I'm sure is
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Speaker 1: going to talk about all of this when we talk
5:52
Speaker 1: to him coming up next. And it's an epidemic for
5:56
Speaker 1: those that are in high school and college because there
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Speaker 1: are coaches who really want to do well by these kids,
6:02
Speaker 1: and they are just driven out of the industry by
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Speaker 1: parents who have unbelievably an undue influence on their how
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Speaker 1: the school decides these jobs or club teams for that matter,
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Speaker 1: that they're.
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Speaker 2: Putting in their child. That they think, well, since I'm
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Speaker 2: paying this coach to do A B and.
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Speaker 1: C, but not at the public high school level. That's
6:21
Speaker 1: the point of this gig Harbor story.
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Speaker 2: But yes, well, I would say maybe more so for AAU,
6:26
Speaker 2: but even then.
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Speaker 1: Or they forget school or club, they forget where they're at.
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Speaker 2: I guess it's the sense that you realize, yeah, I've
6:34
Speaker 2: been putting all this effort into my child being this
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Speaker 2: and that, whether it's soccer, baseball, now that is tied
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Speaker 2: to performance. If they're not playing, if I don't like
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Speaker 2: the plays, you name it. It's all because of the
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Speaker 2: parents and where they as you as you talked about
6:52
Speaker 2: the entitlement and where that comes from. So it's it's sad.
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Speaker 2: You know, you don't want to be a parent living
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Speaker 2: through your child. You know you want your child to
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Speaker 2: make the decisions for themselves and if they want the assistance,
7:02
Speaker 2: they want to become better. I think there's a perfect
7:05
Speaker 2: age to do that, and that's probably around high school.
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Speaker 2: But if you're fourth fifth grade, I don't think you
7:10
Speaker 2: need to be worrying about that. And I don't know
7:13
Speaker 2: if you saw Michael Beasley's interview with Shannon Sharp, but
7:16
Speaker 2: he actually talked about that. I'll pull that clip up
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Speaker 2: for you because I think it's a perfect example of
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Speaker 2: aau and where we are today as a country in
7:24
Speaker 2: terms of trying to have the best fifth grader.
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Speaker 1: It's like, bro right, he is a fifth grader playing soccer.
7:31
Speaker 1: Let him have fun. And that's another thing is that parents.
7:36
Speaker 1: And I was guilty of this. When my twins were
7:39
Speaker 1: going through high school Trendy, they had goals to play
7:41
Speaker 1: college sports. Fortunately they both did, but parents believe that
7:46
Speaker 1: these sports are the pathway to college, an education, and
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Speaker 1: an athletic scholarship. The fact of the matter is, though,
7:54
Speaker 1: with the current state of college athletics in football, men's
7:58
Speaker 1: and women's basketball, the high school sports of the high
8:02
Speaker 1: scholarship spots are dried up. There's so few now only
8:06
Speaker 1: the elite come out of high school straight into college rosters.
8:09
Speaker 1: Because of nil in the transfer portal, coaches would rather
8:13
Speaker 1: recruit known quantities who have played college level athletics at
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Speaker 1: varsity level and bring in a twenty one to twenty
8:21
Speaker 1: two year old transfer then bring in an eighteen seventeen
8:25
Speaker 1: year old high school player. That's the fact, and so
8:27
Speaker 1: all those college scholarship opportunities for high school players, maybe
8:32
Speaker 1: it was five for a team, is down to one
8:35
Speaker 1: because they're tearingly four transfers for instance, and not to
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Speaker 1: mention if you're in the Olympic Sports. I went to
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Speaker 1: the Window Rear Cup this past week, and I told
8:44
Speaker 1: you I looked at the rosters for the University of
8:47
Speaker 1: Washington's men's and women's varsity eights the final races, all
8:53
Speaker 1: but two of the women counting the coxin were international.
8:57
Speaker 1: There was only the two varsity men's and women's varsity
9:01
Speaker 1: eight boats the number one boats. If you count the coxins,
9:05
Speaker 1: that's eighteen rowers and coxins. Only one was from the
9:09
Speaker 1: state of Washington, a woman rower from Olympia. Only four
9:13
Speaker 1: were from America. That's his crew soccer. When my son
9:21
Speaker 1: wanted to go be a Division one soccer player, I
9:25
Speaker 1: told him, do me a favoring go to the top
9:27
Speaker 1: twenty current top twenty five of the soccer national soccer
9:31
Speaker 1: ratings and look at the rosters of the top twenty five.
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Speaker 1: And you know what he found. At the time. They
9:37
Speaker 1: don't have scholarships limits anymore. But at the time, this
9:39
Speaker 1: was five years ago, six years ago, seven years ago,
9:42
Speaker 1: when he was a high school junior. At the time,
9:45
Speaker 1: men's soccer had nine scholarship spots. That was an NCAA
9:48
Speaker 1: man day couldn't go any more than nine. But the
9:50
Speaker 1: roster was thirty on those top twenty five schools, every
9:57
Speaker 1: roster had eight, nine to twelve international players. And if
10:02
Speaker 1: you're an international parent, have a student in Germany or
10:05
Speaker 1: Italy or Britain a soccer player. You're not going to
10:09
Speaker 1: send your kid, allow your kid to go to the
10:11
Speaker 1: United States to play soccer unless he's getting a scholarship
10:13
Speaker 1: right or else he'll just turn pro. College sports is
10:16
Speaker 1: not as big in Europe. He'll just turn pro, or
10:19
Speaker 1: she'll just turn pro unless they get a scholarship, usually
10:23
Speaker 1: a full ride from these soccer programs in the United States.
10:26
Speaker 1: The University of Akron with Steve Zakawani, a former Sounders player,
10:29
Speaker 1: won a national championship. The University Akron, that's forty five
10:32
Speaker 1: minutes from where I grew up football Hotbed. I didn't
10:36
Speaker 1: even know it when I was growing up. Ackron had
10:37
Speaker 1: a soccer team. Maybe they didn't. Steve Zachawani and a
10:40
Speaker 1: couple of his British friends got recruited by Akron and
10:43
Speaker 1: they won a national championship. Out of nowhere. The Zips
10:46
Speaker 1: and all of college soccer said, oh my god, why
10:49
Speaker 1: don't we do this, Why don't we go recruiting national players?
10:52
Speaker 1: So now you pay twenty thousand dollars ten thousand dollars,
10:56
Speaker 1: five thousand dollars a year for club soccer with the
10:58
Speaker 1: promise of it being your way to a college talker scholarship.
11:02
Speaker 1: But guess what, All those scholarships are going to the
11:04
Speaker 1: international players and the American kids don't get them all.
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Speaker 1: Why because the coach wants to win the national championship
11:12
Speaker 1: with players who've been kicking the ball since before they
11:14
Speaker 1: could walk. I'm I'm going in a tangent here about
11:18
Speaker 1: all the things that's wrong with you sports, But that's
11:21
Speaker 1: where some of this entitlement comes from, is that these
11:23
Speaker 1: parents believe these sports should be giving their kids the
11:26
Speaker 1: opportunity to play in college and have a college scholarship.
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Speaker 2: Real quick, here's the clip that I was talking about
11:31
Speaker 2: with Michael Beasley. He was on with Shannon Sharp I
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Speaker 2: think last week or two weeks ago talking about AAU basketball,
11:37
Speaker 2: and I thought it's.
11:38
Speaker 1: Really important that you guys hear this.
11:39
Speaker 2: So here's Michael Beasley on AAU basketball and what the
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Speaker 2: parents should not be doing.
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Speaker 3: Okay, news flash, people only sixty get drafted a year,
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Speaker 3: and twenty of those get cut.
11:53
Speaker 1: There's only been.
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Speaker 3: Forty eight hundred, roughly five thousand people that's ever made
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Speaker 3: it to the NBA. Eight chances are your son won't bro.
12:04
Speaker 3: They need to have fun first before they make money.
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Speaker 3: That's what's wrong with AU today. Everybody trying to make
12:10
Speaker 3: money and be the best fourth grader in the fresh
12:13
Speaker 3: third and bet is like dog played for the right
12:16
Speaker 3: reasons and the right things will come.
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Speaker 1: That's Michael Beasley, former Kansas State star an NBA player. Yes,
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Speaker 1: coming up, John Manley's going to talk more about this,
12:28
Speaker 1: the story of the gig Harbor High School basketball coach
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Speaker 1: that went nineteen and six into the regional final mister
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Speaker 1: State final byte one point and was fired two weeks
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Speaker 1: ago and was unfired last night. John Manley The News
12:40
Speaker 1: Tribune next a ninety three point three KJRFM A Calling
12:45
Speaker 1: your Mind for the News Tribune. He won the twenty
12:46
Speaker 1: twenty five Washington State Sports Writer of the Year award.
12:51
Speaker 1: I nominated him for it because he does a hell
12:53
Speaker 1: of a job covering high school sports from Tanaino all
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Speaker 1: the way up the Federal Way and east to Auburn
13:00
Speaker 1: and Enomclaw and all over it. And he's all over
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Speaker 1: this story at Gig Harbor High School that we were
13:07
Speaker 1: talking about last segment and four nine four or five
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Speaker 1: one on Tacoma Dodge text line. Really appreciate a lot
13:13
Speaker 1: of the feedback here this has touched a nerve, I
13:16
Speaker 1: guess or a touchstone for a lot of people's experience
13:20
Speaker 1: because they're the text line is blown up with experiences
13:24
Speaker 1: of parents and coaches talking about youth sports in this
13:30
Speaker 1: entitlement that is driving a lot of coaches out, quality coaches,
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Speaker 1: coaches who have a lot to offer about young men
13:42
Speaker 1: and women becoming young adults, but get out of it
13:46
Speaker 1: because of the parental influence and entitlement. And that's the
13:53
Speaker 1: word and there's no really other word to say it.
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Speaker 1: For the gig Harbor High School basketball story, as we
14:00
Speaker 1: were talking about last segment, two weeks ago, Michelle Hackett
14:05
Speaker 1: was fired after her only season at Gig Harbor when
14:08
Speaker 1: they went nineteen and six, went to the regional final,
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Speaker 1: lost by one point to a college recruit The team
14:13
Speaker 1: led by a college recruited us by one point the
14:15
Speaker 1: White River that kept on from going to the Tacomadome
14:17
Speaker 1: for the state tournament. And yet two weeks ago, the
14:21
Speaker 1: athletic director informed parents that Michelle Hackett, after one season,
14:25
Speaker 1: was gone and they no longer were going to have
14:27
Speaker 1: her as the coach of the basketball team. And then
14:31
Speaker 1: last night, the school district got involved. Well, we take
14:34
Speaker 1: the interview about half hour ago with John Manley. Here's
14:36
Speaker 1: what he had to say about this whole thing back
14:38
Speaker 1: here on ninety three point three KJRFM, Happy Tuesday two.
14:41
Speaker 1: And now we go to gig Harbor, will off and
14:44
Speaker 1: go there on a lifephone call. But that's where my
14:46
Speaker 1: man John Manley, my colleague at the News Tribune, broke
14:50
Speaker 1: the story last night, actually broke a story two weeks
14:52
Speaker 1: ago that the girls' basketball coach, a highly successful girls
14:56
Speaker 1: basketball coach at Gig Harbor High School, was out after
14:59
Speaker 1: one season. Michelle. It went nineteen and six. They missed
15:02
Speaker 1: the state tournament by just one game, one point actually
15:05
Speaker 1: in one game from getting to the state tournament. And
15:08
Speaker 1: the two weeks ago the school, the district, the school
15:11
Speaker 1: fired her, said no more after just one season. And
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Speaker 1: then last night John Maley reported for the News Tribune
15:18
Speaker 1: that Michelle Hackett has been unfired. It is now the
15:21
Speaker 1: girls Gig Harbor basketball coach again. Hello John, thanks for joining.
15:25
Speaker 4: Us, Hey Greg, thanks for having me on.
15:29
Speaker 1: Yes, sir, you've done this high school gig for a
15:31
Speaker 1: day or two. First of all, where did this story start?
15:36
Speaker 1: One season that looks from the outside is nineteen and
15:38
Speaker 1: six is one point loss in a district tournament that
15:42
Speaker 1: could have gotten into the state. How did it come
15:44
Speaker 1: about that Michelle Hackett was fired two weeks ago? First,
15:47
Speaker 1: before we even get to unfired.
15:50
Speaker 4: Yeah, and I think kind of caught her off guard.
15:54
Speaker 4: She had sent out an email to parents saying she
15:58
Speaker 4: met with the school's athletic director and then the general
16:01
Speaker 4: consensus was after the athletic director talked to some players
16:04
Speaker 4: that she wasn't the best fit for the program and
16:07
Speaker 4: they were moving on.
16:08
Speaker 1: And said in an email.
16:10
Speaker 4: She was sad and you know, kind of felt she
16:13
Speaker 4: had poured everything into this And a little bit of
16:16
Speaker 4: the backstory, Greg the previous coach, was was placed on
16:21
Speaker 4: administrative leave and then fired after an investigation, and there
16:25
Speaker 4: were a lot of parents. I don't know if you
16:27
Speaker 4: want me to get into all the details of that,
16:28
Speaker 4: but there were a lot of parents that kind of
16:30
Speaker 4: felt that that whole thing had kind of been blown
16:32
Speaker 4: out of proportion, and he and.
16:34
Speaker 1: His staff were excuse me, Johan and his staff were
16:36
Speaker 1: allegedly caught drinking on a get basketball trip to Florida
16:40
Speaker 1: team trip.
16:40
Speaker 4: Right, Yeah, that's correct, And you know, whether you think
16:44
Speaker 4: that's okay or not. If you know something, you have
16:48
Speaker 4: a beer or two after hours when you know it's
16:51
Speaker 4: kind of the end of the day. I'm not going
16:52
Speaker 4: to get into whether I you know, think that's fine
16:55
Speaker 4: or not. But regardless the uh, that's that's kind of
16:58
Speaker 4: what happened. A lot of parents of source I talked
17:01
Speaker 4: to told me a lot of the parents were still
17:02
Speaker 4: in the in the camp of the old coach and
17:05
Speaker 4: were still kind of in his corner and felt like
17:08
Speaker 4: they never really gave the new coach a fair shake.
17:10
Speaker 4: So it sounds like there was some pressure from from
17:13
Speaker 4: parents and a few of the players and the athletic
17:16
Speaker 4: director decided to part ways with this coach. And that's
17:18
Speaker 4: kind of where we stood heading into heading into yesterday,
17:21
Speaker 4: heading into Monday.
17:22
Speaker 1: Michelle Hackett was promoted or came from outside the gig
17:25
Speaker 1: Harbor School district.
17:28
Speaker 4: Came from outside. So it was her first year and
17:31
Speaker 4: you know, by any by any reasonable standard, a successful year.
17:34
Speaker 4: In nineteen and six, like you said that, a game
17:37
Speaker 4: away from playing in the Tacoma Dome, they went to
17:39
Speaker 4: the three A State Tournament regional round. They lost to
17:43
Speaker 4: lost a White River and a one point loss that
17:47
Speaker 4: she was named the coach of the Year in that league.
17:49
Speaker 4: They had four players on the All league list, So
17:53
Speaker 4: by any real standard, any you know, reasonable standard, I
17:56
Speaker 4: think it was a successful season for her. So that's
18:00
Speaker 4: what made it kind of puzzling for her to be
18:01
Speaker 4: pushed out after, you know, they had a pretty good year.
18:04
Speaker 1: Then last night you get word how and what about
18:08
Speaker 1: Michelle hack could being unfired.
18:10
Speaker 4: Yeah, so I a parent sent me the email that
18:14
Speaker 4: the district sent out, and the district basically said, hey,
18:17
Speaker 4: we're reversing our decision and the proper protocol wasn't followed.
18:22
Speaker 4: This decision should not have happened. We apologized and they
18:27
Speaker 4: talked with Michelle and they're they're bringing her back. So
18:30
Speaker 4: the whole thing kind of a strange story and strange
18:33
Speaker 4: the way it all unfolded. But I think greg it
18:35
Speaker 4: just points to a kind of a larger trend of
18:39
Speaker 4: overbearing youth sports parents and parents getting involved in some
18:44
Speaker 4: of these personnel decisions that you know, booster clubs really
18:47
Speaker 4: have no business in the hiring and firing of coaches,
18:50
Speaker 4: and you're starting to see them kind of meddle a
18:52
Speaker 4: little more.
18:53
Speaker 1: Right, I wrote a story about a.
18:55
Speaker 4: Month ago or so, the first year to all of
18:59
Speaker 4: baseball code was basically pushed out by the parents.
19:03
Speaker 1: They sent him after five months. They lost five.
19:06
Speaker 4: Yeah, they got five games in a row, which for
19:09
Speaker 4: all up, if you know anything about their baseball program,
19:11
Speaker 4: that's not usual for them to lose like that, and
19:14
Speaker 4: the expectation is high, and the parents basically said don't
19:17
Speaker 4: we don't want you here, and the coach left and
19:20
Speaker 4: so this is, uh, it's not just this gig Harbor incident.
19:23
Speaker 4: You're seeing kind of a concerning trend of parents inserting
19:27
Speaker 4: themselves in these situations.
19:29
Speaker 1: Well, I'll be honest, it's why I got out of coach.
19:31
Speaker 1: It's why I no longer in the head coach at
19:32
Speaker 1: university Prep Baseball Euroupe in Seattle varsity coach John. In
19:36
Speaker 1: your time covering sports, what have you noticed about parents
19:41
Speaker 1: if it's entitlement or they feel they have a place
19:45
Speaker 1: in a stake at the table of decisions that school
19:48
Speaker 1: districts and schools make and principals make. Where is this
19:52
Speaker 1: entree coming entry coming from? And how long has this
19:56
Speaker 1: been going on? What do you do to change something
19:58
Speaker 1: that make coaches, coach and parents it's parent which what
20:01
Speaker 1: I used to try to kill my parents.
20:03
Speaker 4: Yeah, I don't know where it's coming right. I think
20:05
Speaker 4: if you're part of the booster club, and you know
20:09
Speaker 4: nowadays you're you can kind of pick and choose where
20:12
Speaker 4: you you want your kid to play off season ball
20:14
Speaker 4: and travel ball and AAU and I think there's a
20:18
Speaker 4: sense that uh parents, parents have I think they kind
20:21
Speaker 4: of have control over these situations and can kind of
20:24
Speaker 4: call some of the shots.
20:25
Speaker 1: And then you know.
20:26
Speaker 4: You're on a booster club and then that gives you
20:29
Speaker 4: a little bit of an an ego maybe and you
20:31
Speaker 4: think you can kind of make some of these decisions.
20:34
Speaker 4: But you know, to me, Greg, get boils down to
20:37
Speaker 4: the administration in particular these athletic directors. They need to
20:41
Speaker 4: have these coaches backs. I think that's if you get
20:45
Speaker 4: hired with the school district to coach, and these coaches
20:48
Speaker 4: are not getting rich. I mean, the stipends are tiny.
20:52
Speaker 4: If you're getting hired and wanting to coach, I think
20:55
Speaker 4: you want some support from your administration. And so I
20:58
Speaker 4: think that's that should be the role of as abletic
21:00
Speaker 4: directors to say hey, like to the coaches or to
21:05
Speaker 4: the parents, rather you need to kind of stay in
21:06
Speaker 4: your lane on this one, you know. And I think
21:10
Speaker 4: that's the biggest thing where we can kind of see
21:12
Speaker 4: a difference, is some of these athletic directors being able
21:15
Speaker 4: to just step up and kind of shut this stuff down.
21:17
Speaker 1: I understand in theory if it's a private school and
21:20
Speaker 1: schools and parents are paying ten twenty thirty forty thousand
21:23
Speaker 1: dollars a year to send your kid to a Bellman
21:25
Speaker 1: or some kind of school that, but for a public
21:29
Speaker 1: school now Gig Harbor, I don't know if you know,
21:32
Speaker 1: but is that there are a lot of public schools
21:34
Speaker 1: because of funding issues pay to play, even to play
21:36
Speaker 1: varsity athletics or even JV or freshmen? Is that an
21:39
Speaker 1: issue here at Gig Harbor? Did they pay to play?
21:42
Speaker 4: Or I don't think the Peninsula School District has pay
21:45
Speaker 4: to play? I know Puall does, and I know that
21:48
Speaker 4: Tacoma that Tacoma implemented it this year, But I think
21:53
Speaker 4: the Peninsula School District is still free if I'm remembering correctly.
21:57
Speaker 1: Okay, so this isn't a money investment, I buy a
21:59
Speaker 1: seat the table situation like maybe a private school. This
22:02
Speaker 1: is a cultural We have influence, We have entitlement issue.
22:06
Speaker 4: It sounds like, yeah, I mean, I think that's kind
22:10
Speaker 4: of what it boils down to. And and listen, you know,
22:13
Speaker 4: I think some of the complaints the parents had they
22:16
Speaker 4: felt that this coach was a little two hands off
22:19
Speaker 4: during games. It sounds like, you know, her assistant would
22:23
Speaker 4: kind of drop a lot of the plays in the huddle.
22:25
Speaker 4: She wasn't very vocal. So I get maybe there's some
22:28
Speaker 4: complaints that they have, But you know, you go nineteen
22:31
Speaker 4: and six, and I think her philosophy was, Hey, I
22:34
Speaker 4: kind of do my coaching during practice and during the
22:37
Speaker 4: games it's the player's chance to go. And you know,
22:42
Speaker 4: whether you think that's the right philosophy or not, to
22:45
Speaker 4: me is kind of irrelevant. You know, that's the style preference,
22:49
Speaker 4: and that's the way she wants to run the program,
22:52
Speaker 4: and that's her style. And so I don't know, I
22:56
Speaker 4: think that the parents getting involved here was kind of overstepping.
23:00
Speaker 1: It's happening all over our country and youth sports, and
23:04
Speaker 1: it was the John Wooden way, the coaching foster you
23:06
Speaker 1: just described for Michelle Hackett at gig Harbor High School. John,
23:09
Speaker 1: as you probably know, John Wooden, was the same way
23:11
Speaker 1: he said, I'm doing all my coaching in practice, And
23:13
Speaker 1: he just stood there with a program folded up, sitting
23:16
Speaker 1: at the bench, watching UCLA win eight national championship, the
23:20
Speaker 1: eighty eight games in a row. Yeah, well, John, I
23:25
Speaker 1: know the high school sports realm. I mean, we could
23:29
Speaker 1: spend a whole show on that. But if there was
23:32
Speaker 1: a way, a magic wand you had, you're a parent
23:34
Speaker 1: of young children are about to enter this realm, how
23:37
Speaker 1: would you what's the biggest thing that needs to be fixed?
23:39
Speaker 1: What what can we take out of lessons like the
23:42
Speaker 1: gig Harbor High school situation to Piola baseball situation, and
23:45
Speaker 1: how do you fix some of these issues?
23:47
Speaker 4: You think, Uh, yeah, I think it's just a mindset of,
23:52
Speaker 4: you know, letting the coaches coach.
23:54
Speaker 1: And I don't know, I don't I.
23:56
Speaker 4: Don't want to be I have a five year old
23:57
Speaker 4: and I don't want to be that part that's good
23:59
Speaker 4: going to playing about playing time.
24:01
Speaker 1: And I don't know.
24:01
Speaker 4: Maybe that changes when my kids in high school, right,
24:03
Speaker 4: but it's easy for me to say now, but.
24:06
Speaker 1: I don't know.
24:07
Speaker 4: I think there's just a mindset of you need to
24:09
Speaker 4: let the coaches coach, and the administration is there for
24:12
Speaker 4: a reason, and if the team is underperforming or doing
24:16
Speaker 4: really poorly and they want to make a change, that's
24:18
Speaker 4: their prerogative.
24:19
Speaker 1: And they can do that.
24:20
Speaker 4: But I just think some of the meddling, you know,
24:24
Speaker 4: just kind of has to stop. And you know, like
24:27
Speaker 4: I said before, these coaches, I think the stipends are
24:29
Speaker 4: anywhere from three to six thousand dollars usually grig and
24:34
Speaker 4: you know, I mean if you're in Texas high school
24:36
Speaker 4: football and you're getting paid one hundred and fifty K,
24:38
Speaker 4: I think you maybe you're more willing to deal.
24:41
Speaker 1: With some of this stuff.
24:42
Speaker 4: But you just see the turnover rate with high school
24:45
Speaker 4: football coaches and you can just tell they're just tired
24:48
Speaker 4: of dealing with this. And you know, I talked with
24:51
Speaker 4: one high school football coach and he said, John, for
24:53
Speaker 4: all the time that I put in, you know, you're
24:57
Speaker 4: calculating games during the season, practice, but also film study,
25:02
Speaker 4: season stuff, conditioning workouts, you know, team dinners. He said,
25:07
Speaker 4: I did the math on all the hours that I've
25:10
Speaker 4: put into this job, and I the math came out
25:12
Speaker 4: to like a dollar an hour. I mean, it's something
25:14
Speaker 4: that's like prison wages, Greg, you know what I mean.
25:17
Speaker 4: So for them to put this much time into it
25:21
Speaker 4: for really nothing and then still have to deal with
25:24
Speaker 4: parents who want to call the shots and think they
25:27
Speaker 4: know better. I think is really a turnoff for a
25:30
Speaker 4: lot of youth sports coaches and high school coaches in particular.
25:34
Speaker 1: That's why you are the Washington State Sports Rider of
25:36
Speaker 1: the Year from the News Tribune. Thank you very much,
25:38
Speaker 1: John for joining us. Appreciate you. We'll always catch up soon.
25:41
Speaker 4: Thanks thanks Greg, best of luck with the show.
25:45
Speaker 1: I appreciate that. Thank you, John, John Manley from the
25:48
Speaker 1: News Tribute. As I said, the State Sports Rider of
25:51
Speaker 1: the Year from the National Sports Media Association for twenty
25:54
Speaker 1: twenty five. That was enlightening that he without me asking him,
26:00
Speaker 1: he said, this is entitlement from parents, which was what
26:04
Speaker 1: I was getting to anyway, was the whole reason we're
26:06
Speaker 1: talking about this story. And he said, yeah, that's what
26:09
Speaker 1: it is. And the text line is blown up about
26:12
Speaker 1: this issue four nine four five one. The Tacoma Dodge
26:15
Speaker 1: Tech line is blown up about this issue, both from
26:20
Speaker 1: youth parents, youth parents of youth sports coaches, umpires and referees.
26:27
Speaker 1: We've all experienced this in one form or another, and
26:31
Speaker 1: well not all of us, but most of us. I
26:34
Speaker 1: don't know, Chris, if you remember being an athlete at
26:36
Speaker 1: oday high school fifteen years ago, whether this was an
26:39
Speaker 1: issue or not, Oh it was.
26:42
Speaker 2: I mean, we can get into it in the next segment,
26:44
Speaker 2: because I had people that Transford schools because of certain
26:48
Speaker 2: situations and then come back to oday and it's weird.
26:52
Speaker 2: You're like, bro, you just left us last year to
26:53
Speaker 2: do AB and C. So yeah, it definitely happened fifteen
26:56
Speaker 2: years ago.
26:57
Speaker 1: And now the WIAA has allowed one time transfers, no
27:01
Speaker 1: questions asked. Used to be had to have a family hardship,
27:04
Speaker 1: and we've had Mick Hoffman on our show talking about this,
27:08
Speaker 1: but they did a preventative rule change rather than face
27:11
Speaker 1: lawsuits threatened by parents. They said, Okay, we're going to
27:16
Speaker 1: let if you think greener pastures and playing time and
27:19
Speaker 1: college scholarships are going to happen across town or across
27:22
Speaker 1: district or across state, go but you get one. And
27:26
Speaker 1: that's so far as someone somewhere is going to challenge
27:29
Speaker 1: that pretty soon, and they'll say you should be able
27:31
Speaker 1: to do unlimited transfers like college currently has. And even
27:35
Speaker 1: college realizes that that's ridiculous, and now they're starting to
27:38
Speaker 1: roll back, and there's a proposal to limit that. Anyway,
27:43
Speaker 1: This is why coaches get out. I was trying to
27:46
Speaker 1: build young men. I wanted to build character. I wanted
27:49
Speaker 1: to teach the responsibility and accountability. When we went to
27:52
Speaker 1: Dugout's road game, I said, cleaner than you found it.
27:55
Speaker 1: And we had all road games because we didn't have
27:57
Speaker 1: a home field, so we would go to rented we
28:00
Speaker 1: borrow from high schools in the area, or Magnuson or
28:04
Speaker 1: Lower Woodland, and one little role was cleaner than you
28:07
Speaker 1: found it. We went to Dairy Queen on a trip
28:09
Speaker 1: to South Whidby High School and coming back in the
28:11
Speaker 1: ferry cleaner than you found it. Things like that, and
28:17
Speaker 1: parents are thinking that their players should be in college
28:20
Speaker 1: playing baseball, when in fact it's such a small percentage,
28:24
Speaker 1: even before nil and transfer, such a small percentage of
28:28
Speaker 1: youth sports. After I think about all the youth when
28:30
Speaker 1: you drive around on a Saturday morning in any time
28:33
Speaker 1: of the year here in Seattle and you see eight, ten,
28:36
Speaker 1: twelve fields of youth soccer going on at one complex.
28:40
Speaker 1: That's twenty two players counting the goalkeepers times twelve fields.
28:47
Speaker 1: What's the percentage of those players who are going to
28:49
Speaker 1: play college one percent? There are statistics all over the
28:52
Speaker 1: place about the percentage of youth and high school players
28:55
Speaker 1: who actually make it to play college sports, and then
28:58
Speaker 1: there's a smaller percentage you stay in college sports once
29:01
Speaker 1: they get there. And I'm fortunate as a parent both
29:05
Speaker 1: my twins have played college at varsity athletics and fulfilled
29:10
Speaker 1: their dreams and it worked for them. But not the
29:15
Speaker 1: least of which because of a money and time commitment
29:18
Speaker 1: that just should not happen in youth sports. Just should
29:22
Speaker 1: not happen. The amount of money and the amount of
29:24
Speaker 1: influence and the amount of involvement from parents just should
29:27
Speaker 1: not happen. But it's around money, it's around the There's
29:32
Speaker 1: a good point here on the text line from the
29:33
Speaker 1: two five three about the fact that middle schools and
29:38
Speaker 1: junior high programs have cut their sports and into that
29:42
Speaker 1: vacuum have come private clubs pay for play. It used
29:47
Speaker 1: to be that your eighth grader could play for the
29:49
Speaker 1: eighth grade soccer team, but now many school districts, because
29:52
Speaker 1: of budget cuts and lack of funding or lack of
29:55
Speaker 1: just have cut those programs. So then into that void
29:57
Speaker 1: has stepped the local or area club team and they'll
30:02
Speaker 1: charge a couple thousand dollars and you play for them instead.
30:07
Speaker 1: Oh man, we could go on and on till the
30:09
Speaker 1: break of dawn about this four nine four or five one.
30:11
Speaker 1: It's Koma Doadge text line. We will read back quite
30:14
Speaker 1: a few of these because they are very interesting. Your
30:16
Speaker 1: thoughts on this subject. Up next, I wanted to fit
30:19
Speaker 1: in another subject that I think is really important when
30:22
Speaker 1: I see it come up in sports, I think we
30:24
Speaker 1: should talk about it because it's not talked about enough
30:28
Speaker 1: at all. An NHL team captain for a two times
30:33
Speaker 1: Stanley Cup winner voluntarily missed his Stanley Cup team's Stanley
30:38
Speaker 1: Cup playoff run to take care of mental health. We're
30:41
Speaker 1: gonna talk about that next on ninety three point three KJRFM. Well,
30:48
Speaker 1: welcome back the Greg bellt Show with Christopher kid Rolls
30:50
Speaker 1: here on ninety three point three KJRFM. Up next, we're
30:54
Speaker 1: going to talk to Dante Fowler Junior. We're gonna talk
30:57
Speaker 1: about dante 'sup. Fowler Junior with the Cowboys beat writer
31:00
Speaker 1: for the Fort Worth Star Telegram on what he saw
31:03
Speaker 1: out of Fowler last year with Dallas Fowler agreeing this
31:06
Speaker 1: morning to sign with the Seattle Seahawks one year contract
31:09
Speaker 1: up to five million dollars to be their age thirty
31:11
Speaker 1: two season edge rusher to replace Boy Maffy leaving in
31:16
Speaker 1: free agency. This next story reminds me of what I
31:19
Speaker 1: learned the first months I became a sports writer after
31:22
Speaker 1: I left the Army as an off I left my
31:24
Speaker 1: army officer career, went to journalism school at graduate school
31:28
Speaker 1: at cal Berkeley, and in that school I learned in
31:31
Speaker 1: a hurry that sports writing is about people. And this
31:35
Speaker 1: next story reminded me of that. Victor Headman, he's been
31:39
Speaker 1: a seventeen year veteran in the NHL, the National Hockey League,
31:43
Speaker 1: one of their pillar players. He's earned ninety six million
31:47
Speaker 1: dollars in his career, So keep that as context when
31:50
Speaker 1: you hear this. The Tampa Bay Lightning captain revealed Tuesday
31:54
Speaker 1: that his absence in the final weeks of the season
31:58
Speaker 1: was caused by a need to address his mental health.
32:01
Speaker 1: This from the Associated Press Headman and a statement released
32:05
Speaker 1: by the Lightning today did not provide specifics about what
32:08
Speaker 1: he's been dealing with. He didn't play in Tampa Bay's
32:11
Speaker 1: final twenty two games this season, including seven playoff games
32:14
Speaker 1: in the first round loss to the Montreal Canadians. Headman
32:17
Speaker 1: thirty five had been around the team in recent weeks,
32:19
Speaker 1: even taking part in some skates, but the defenseman's last
32:22
Speaker 1: game was in mid March. Quote from Headman in a
32:25
Speaker 1: statement released by the Tampa Bay Lightning. Over the last
32:28
Speaker 1: couple months, I made the decision to step away and
32:31
Speaker 1: focus on my mental health. It is not an easy decision,
32:34
Speaker 1: but the right one. I've always believed in being a
32:37
Speaker 1: leader means doing what's best for the team. In this case,
32:40
Speaker 1: it also meant doing what was necessary to take care
32:42
Speaker 1: of myself so I can be the best player, teammate, husband,
32:46
Speaker 1: and father I expect to be. This is a man
32:51
Speaker 1: who made ninety six million dollars, married with children, who
32:57
Speaker 1: has stepped away from the Pinnaco, his sport, the Stanley
32:59
Speaker 1: Cup playoff because of mental health issues. Everyone's got something,
33:05
Speaker 1: no matter how much money you make, no matter how
33:08
Speaker 1: long you've been at something, no matter how successful. And
33:10
Speaker 1: you may seem from the outside everyone you me the
33:15
Speaker 1: person you're passing on the street as you're driving into
33:17
Speaker 1: where everyone's got something and Victor Hedman is doing a
33:23
Speaker 1: service to mental health advocacy and awareness. Sports is not
33:29
Speaker 1: immune to it. It's a societal problem. We all are
33:33
Speaker 1: touched by it. We all have been touched by it
33:35
Speaker 1: and how we have personal experiences with this subject. But
33:40
Speaker 1: the fact in sports is that we think because they're
33:42
Speaker 1: being cheered and they're making money and they're succeeding and
33:45
Speaker 1: raising Stanley Cups and trophies, that this doesn't happen to them.
33:50
Speaker 1: Well it does, and Victor Hedman stepped away to address
33:54
Speaker 1: his issues. I just wanted to highlight that as sports
33:57
Speaker 1: is about people, and people got stuff, no matter how
34:01
Speaker 1: much money, how successful, people got stuff, and it's a
34:05
Speaker 1: good reminder sometimes it's much more than about the games
34:07
Speaker 1: we talk about, although those are fun, they're people too.
34:11
Speaker 1: Four nine four five one on the Tacoma Dodge text
34:13
Speaker 1: on we'll read back your text at eleven thirty. A
34:15
Speaker 1: lot of them coming in about youth sports and the
34:18
Speaker 1: entitlement of parents and why it's driving coaches out. Up next,
34:23
Speaker 1: we're gonna go to Dallas Fort Worth. We're going to
34:27
Speaker 1: talk to the beat writer for Fort Worth Star Telegram
34:29
Speaker 1: of the Dallas Cowboys about Dante Fowler He is the
34:33
Speaker 1: new Seahawks EDG Dresser. As of this morning, my stories
34:36
Speaker 1: up at Theewstribune dot com. We'll talk next. Nick Harris
34:39
Speaker 1: from the Fort Worth Star Telegram on ninety three point
34:41
Speaker 1: three KJRFM