Remaining on Call After the Final Whistle : Coaches See Their Roles Expanding to Much More Than Teaching Technique

Once, when Tim Travers was coaching at Santa Monica High School in the 1970s, he overheard another coach say he was responsible for his players’ activities only between 3 and 5 p.m.

“That’s the most irresponsible thing I’ve ever heard,” Travers said recently. “I’ll never forget that.”

What disturbed Travers, who has been the basketball coach at El Toro since 1980, was the coach’s belief that the responsibility for his athletes was limited solely to practice time and games.

“For a coach not to accept responsibility is like trying to walk through life with blinders on,” Travers said.

Travers and 187 other coaches responded to a poll conducted by The Times’ Orange County Edition asking them how they felt about their roles. Of the eight questions asked of them, two elicited revealing responses on the changing face of high school coaching. Most coaches said their responsibility for the conduct of their athletes carried beyond the playing field, and most said their roles had expanded to include many more duties than simply teaching techniques to athletes.

GROWING RESPONSIBILITY

“Kids come to coaches in deep confidence,” Travers said. “I was coaching at Big Bear High (in 1979-80) and a kid came up to me and said he thought he was a homosexual. It was troubling him. It shocked me. What are you going to do? Say, ‘It’s not practice time now,’ and ignore it?”

In response to the question, “Do you believe you have any responsibility for how your players act away from the playing field?”, 78% said they did.

“I care about (the athletes) as people,” said Paul Perez, Los Amigos wrestling coach. “I care what happens in their life. There’s more to life than the coaching itself. You can’t stop concentrating on them as people and start thinking about just winning.”

Most, even some who said they felt they have no responsibility for their athletes’ off-the-field actions, said they felt obligated to provide a positive role model for them.

Many coaches said they believe their actions greatly influence their athletes, more so than classroom teachers.

“First of all, you spend more time with them,” El Toro’s Travers said. “Second, the ratio of player to coach is much less than student to teacher. And third, you’re dealing with them in a highly emotional activity. There’s a greater bond there.”

Larry Anderson, Katella football coach, said, “Let’s face it, we spend the most time with them next to their parents.”

Jeff Roberts, Capistrano Valley wrestling coach, said, “It’s one of the most important reasons I’m in coaching. Initially, it was because of the wins and losses, but now I’m here to help these kids and provide a positive role model.”

Still, Roberts disagrees with Travers.

“I’ll grieve if something happens to them,” Roberts said. “As far as feeling responsible, no, I don’t. You sure feel bad if they screw up, though.”

Barbara Zamora, Mater Dei girls’ volleyball coach, said high school athletes often are under tougher scrutiny by teachers and their peers.

“It’s just not what you do on the field,” Zamora said. “It seems to be a little more magnified when an athlete gets in trouble. Everyone is watching them. It’s not just how you’re doing on the court, either.”

Mary Mulligan, girls’ basketball coach at San Clemente, has been coaching for only two years. She has quickly learned to take an active role in monitoring her players’ off-the-court activities.

“I don’t think that’s too much to ask of me,” said Mulligan, who is the daughter-in-law of Bill Mulligan, UC Irvine basketball coach. “I’m very aware who they (the San Clemente players) hang out with, where they go to lunch, how they’re doing in their classes.

“Some say, ‘Hey, that’s not your business.’ And I sit them down and say it’s very much my business. When I sit them down, they do understand. I had a case where one of my players was hanging around with the wrong people, and some of the other players and I talked with her about it.

“If I don’t tell the player I’m concerned, who will?”

EXPANDED ROLES

Dealing with the players’ off-the-field activities is just one of the concerns coaches say they have to face.

Asked whether their role as coach has changed significantly in the time they have been coaching, 69% said it had.

Among the activities that place increased demands on their time, they cited counseling of their athletes, the increased demands of fund-raising, participation with booster clubs, and making certain their athletes remain eligible.

Dennis Creighton, Marina girls’ volleyball coach, was so concerned with keeping his athletes eligible that he instituted a mandatory study hall for incoming freshmen three years ago.

Supervising the hour-long period between the end of school and the beginning of the Vikings’ practice takes extra time, but Creighton said that for his team to remain competitive, he needs to keep all his players eligible.

“(Before I started this), it got to be the end of the quarter, and you had kids who were ineligible or close to it and suddenly a team finds itself short-handed,” Creighton said. “And this is a way to avoid this. We’ve found it really benefits the kids.

“I have a lot of other things I’d rather do in that time, but I feel it’s important.”

Fund-raising and participation in booster-club activities also are new roles for coaches.

Often a team cannot raise enough money--for new uniforms, programs and an awards banquet, for example--without a booster club.

“You form a booster club as a support group,” Capistrano Valley’s Roberts said. “As a consequence, they come up with all these ideas that need doing.

“When I first started here, the school (Capistrano Unified School District) provided money to upgrade uniforms. Now we don’t get anything. You’re out pounding the pavement with the kids trying to raise funds. That’s a role I don’t think you should have to do.”

Don Stoll, aquatics coach at El Toro, said, “When I first started coaching in 1971, we didn’t do all that. Now, our baseball team has a Christmas tree lot. In some districts, they have bingo.

“It’s more work. My job as a coach has changed a little bit.”

San Clemente’s Mulligan said: “I’m out of my classroom at noon, but I’m at school until 5 p.m. We’re only in the gym for 45 minutes. The kids come in during my free period. I’ve got my sixth period where I work out with the girls and again in seventh period. After school, I run with a couple of other girls.”

At Katella, Anderson says his chief task, aside from coaching, is finding qualified assistant coaches. But fund-raising and counseling also take time.

“I enjoyed being an assistant coach as much as I ever have as a head coach,” Anderson said. “I thought I was a lot closer to the kids. It was nice not having all the other things to worry about.”

Marc Hill, Esperanza girls’ basketball coach, is one of the 30% who disagreed.

“I’m speaking from a 10-year point of view,” Hill said. “In my 10 years, we’ve had the same two fund-raisers. It’s always been a burden on us, but that’s always been there. The kids I coach haven’t really changed much.”

Elaine Hess, Katella badminton coach and a 26-year coaching veteran, agrees with Hill.

“I don’t find much change in kids,” she said. “There’s probably more paperwork, but I’m the kind of person that likes organization.”

The majority of coaches, however, are disturbed by the added responsibilities. They see their role shifting from instruction toward administrative and counseling roles.

“The days of a coach just teaching a kid how to play the game is a thing of the past,” Roberts said. “As an assistant coach, you have the capacity to do that. As a head coach, you’re more of an organizer.

“It’s disturbing. It’s tiresome raising money and dealing with the booster clubs. I’m not the only one who feels that way. A lot of coaches at our school have said they’re tired of doing it, and if it keeps up, they might not do it (coach) anymore.”