Our Hazing in College Athletics series continues today with another roundtable, this time with some of our thoughts as Bloggers on what role coaches can play when it comes to this issue. We’ll let AVZ take the lead on this one as he is a former college head coach (and a damn successful one, too), but below are the thoughts from several of us, all of whom have extensive experience in college athletics in more than one way.
Our intent here isn’t to say, “This is what coaches should do” or “Problem X needs to be addressed in a this way.” Instead, we hope to simply share our thoughts and experiences on what role a coach can play in this very difficult issue. With hazing being so topical right now in D3 tennis, it seems like a good moment to look at this complex subject from a number of different angles, so I’ll let my fellow bloggers take it away from here as we dive into it from a coaching perspective.
-D3RegionalNEC
How can a head coach foster a team culture that doesn’t include, or actively discourages, hazing?
AVZ: I think the first step for a coach is to consider the ramifications of having a bad team culture. I used to talk about how my players would “die for one another” on the court. While that isn’t meant to be literal, it was just proof that in an individual sport, you are able to create a team atmosphere where teammates truly care for one another. You can do this in a number of ways, but you have to really hammer home the idea of respect. Respect the coach, respect the game, and respect your teammates are all keys to this. Finding a way to appreciate the grind and the peaks and valleys of a season really brings a team together. It might be difficult for a head coach to force friendships, but you can make sure that there is no hierarchy within the team. Setting a lineup has an innate form of “some players are more important than others” mentality, but when it comes to equal treatment and attention, the coach is able to show how each member is just important as the next. One thing in particular that I find helpful, but also very difficult to manage is having good light hearted fun every day, but also be cognizant of how that fun might be misconstrued by different personalities. I once had a Japanese one year exchange student on my team and in a bus ride to a match, the guys were asking him questions about his experience in America. “What surprises you the most about America?” came up, and his answer was, “At first I thought you all were really mean to one another, but I learned quickly that you were joking around and truly cared about each other.” That answer really struck me and I think it made the guys think deeper too. As a coach, you need to be observant and an active participant in listening and adjusting discussions as need be. There are definitely coaches in D3 that truly foster the family approach and it is quite clear that they are great leaders and role models.
D3RegionalNEC: If you haven’t already, make sure to read Part II of our series, where we looked at hazing from the student-athlete perspective. In particular I thought CHB had a great response about some of the ways his team built a strong culture (and his sentiments were backed up in the comments, too!). Planning, or at least helping to get the ball rolling, in off court team activities is a great way for coaches to help their team along in developing camaraderie and avoid there being a hierarchy where some have to “pay their dues” to fully be a part of the team. I also think coaches can play a role developing a culture that shuns hazing by how they treat their players, and it all starts with equal respect for all, regardless of spot in the lineup, class year, or any other factor. If there is a perception that a coach doesn’t view or treat all their players equally, this hierarchy is more likely to trickle down to within the team.
If a head coach is aware of hazing within their team, how should it be addressed, both internally and externally?
AVZ: It definitely depends on the severity of the hazing, but I think it’s the duty of the coach to not only report the incident to your athletic director, but include them in the conversations that follow. I think in most cases, it wouldn’t be a situation where further penalties are necessary, but you don’t want to get into a situation where you are trying to keep things quiet when more people need to be involved. Internally, addressing the whole team about the situation is important, but so is speaking with each student athlete individually. It needs to be clear in these conversations that there is a zero tolerance policy in regards to hazing and that it will be handled swiftly. Having an open discussion with all is important as it allows for everyone to hear the same message. Punishing minor hazing instances is a slippery slope as it will likely further the wedge between the offending players so creating an environment to show why it needs to stop and replacing the behavior with positive experiences is truly the most important thing.
AS: This is a rough question for me to answer and if any of the other bloggers have insight on this, I’d like to think their answers might be better. To me, I am in agreement with AVZ that transparency and honesty are always the best policy and that’s quite easy. It’s really such a rough subject because there are degrees of hazing, but to me a zero tolerance policy is the best way to go about it. Hazing has no place in today’s team dynamic. If as a coach, I’m seeing the freshmen pick up the water coolers or setting up the courts, I think that’s something that I allow as long as it’s not malicious or gone too far. ASW’s example of how she was just called “Freshman” stood out to me as something that’s gone too far. It’s important to gauge the personalities of your players – both the ones doing the hazing and the ones getting hazed. I’m not going to lie, the freshmen on my team mostly picked up the balls and crap like that. But, once in a while I’d make the sophs do it or the juniors, or I’d do it myself (as a senior) sometimes. There’s a difference in how it goes down and that’s important for a coach to know and deal with appropriately internally. Externally, quite easy. Tell your AD and determine a next plan of action. It could be as easy as “I am going to handle it with discussions with players” in minor cases, to “so and so is suspended indefinitely” in major cases.
An assistant coach is often much closer in age to the players on the team, what is the role of an assistant coach when it comes to the team’s extra-curricular activities?
D3RegionalNEC: The pros of having an young assistant coach (or even head coach) are that they are usually more relatable and able to offer lots of empathy because they were in the shoes of student-athletes not very long ago. The downside is that this role sometimes strays from being a coach and they can become too much like a friend on the team. In my opinion it’s essential that the assistant coach sets boundaries in their relationship with players, and they must be a coach first, and friend second. Setting these boundaries means NOT being involved in many team extracurriculars (especially on Friday and Saturday nights), but at the same time if things come to their attention (and they often do) that could be considered hazing, it’s their job to address is appropriately. A young assistant coach can, and should, can be tremendously helpful in preventing hazing and promoting strong team culture by setting a good example of how to treat everyone—in a friendly, approachable way where the priority is the team above one-on-one relationships.
NE: I couldn’t agree more with RegNE/C. I was lucky to have great assistant coaches who were both extremely helpful in different ways. One totally separated himself from the team, setting early boundaries and establishing himself as more of a coach and less of a friend. The second kept a foot on both sides of the line. The first assistant demanded the most out of you at every moment, while the second got more out of you because you trusted that what he was telling you was in your best interest. There were benefits to both types of coach, and I think the benefits vary depending on how each of those two types of assistant coach play off the head coach. With regards to hazing, obviously the second type of assistant coach is the one that has to be careful. I’m all for being friends with your players, I can’t even imagine how lonely the life of an assistant coach can get, BUT you absolutely have to draw the line, and if you don’t do it early in your tenure, some people could get the wrong idea. An assistant coach can absolutely participate in non-tennis activities. I remember playing basketball with an assistant coach, going bowling with the assistant coach, etc. In my mind, both are totally acceptable. However, as soon as alcohol enters the situation, it is no longer acceptable for an assistant coach to participate, unless all team members present are 21+, which is almost never the case. It’s a fine line, but one worth toeing in order to get the most out of your players, especially when you are a younger assistant coach and viewed as an intermediary between the players and the head coach.
Coaches can sometimes unintentionally encourage hazing with their actions. What are some of the ways this can happen?
AVZ: I think this probably happens more often than not in regards to new members of the team, typically freshmen. There always seems to be rules within every team like freshman have to clean up the courts after a match, put away all the equipment, or similar things where they have to do a little extra work simply because everyone else was once a new member and did it, so it’s now their turn to “pay their dues.” While those are small things, it can show the upperclassmen that freshmen are less important and show a level or power that shouldn’t be there. Typically in my years of coaching, those type of duties were determined by competition results either with the end of practice conditioning, team skills competition, or some other form of competition where the losers had to do the small amount of extra work after practice.
NE: “Freshmen, get the tennis balls.” “Freshmen, go get the water jug.” “Freshmen, collect the uniforms.” These are things heard at some point on every team across the country, until they aren’t. If a coach leaves these things up to the captains, they will likely get done, but they will be establishing a hierarchy which could lead towards an atmosphere with two different groups, those with power and those without it. That atmosphere is significantly more likely to lead to one of intimidation and possibly humiliation. This is something SO easily remedied, and all it takes is a conversation between a coach and his/her “team leaders” at the start of the season. If the “team leaders” start the year by getting the equipment, cleaning up, making sure everybody has the proper uniforms, it sets a precedent that everybody helps to keep the team performing at its best, which should be the common goal. While the players are the ones who need to establish this, a push from the coach is often necessary to get the ball rolling, and not doing so indirectly fosters an environment ripe with hazing potential.
In many cases, a coach may be unaware of extensive hazing within a team. This can present a particularly difficult situation once the hazing comes to light. Should a coach be held responsible if they were truly unaware of hazing instances?
AVZ: This is such a difficult question to answer and one that comes up in college athletics all the time, but more typically with head coaches knowledge of assistant coach recruiting violations. I think with tennis being a relatively small team atmosphere, it really is the coach’s responsibility to be tuned in to everything that is going on with their program. You would have to be really out of touch with things to not know something is going on. It is entirely feasible to not be aware of the extent of something, but to have no idea of things would be more reflective of the coach than not. Overall, I think the head coach does have some responsibility if hazing instances were to come out even without any knowledge of it.
AS: Yes, I believe that a coach should always be held responsible of any hazing instances. The severity of that punishment will differ, but there always should be consequences. The reason behind my thinking is that these coaches are more than just coaches on the court. They are people coaches as well – and they should be aware of their team dynamic and have some idea of what’s happening on their team. A coach who is attentive and in tune with his players is a coach that will have an idea of what’s going on. I’d even argue that a lot of the time, a coach being inattentive and letting the players run the show will play a part in how severe the hazing case is. Let’s be honest – college kids aren’t that good at keeping secrets. You can tell who on the team would be the recipient of hazing and who on the team would be the ones to dish it out. I think back to my team and it was pretty clear who would be the people in that case. Coaches should have a responsibility as mature adults to protect their players from poor situations. Being held responsible will get us there.
There you have it. We all have experience being embedded in college athletics, but by no means are our words the gospel. I’m interested to hear what you all (especially coaches) think about all this. Feel free to continue the discussion in the comments below, on twitter, or more privately via email or Twitter DM. The only thing we ask is that you do not comment anonymously with attacks on players, coaches, teams, or schools. That should go without saying, but we’ve unfortunately had several comments lately that do not follow these guidelines, and we’ll continue to trash them. To borrow a line from a wise old blogger, D3RegNEC OUT.