The video of Rutgers University basketball coach Mike Rice abusing his student athletes verbally and physically shocked ESPN and YouTube viewers and resulted in his firing on April 3. Rice’s anger and disgust triggered memories of my own experience.
I was a reliable producer, always competing and regularly regarded as an MVP. I was scolded to “get up” after collapsing with a debilitating knee injury, then spent nearly half a year recovering. Had I accepted my coach’s view that writhing in pain was a sign of weakness, the injury could have been much worse.
My environment was purely focused on results, and I was made to feel my best would never be good enough. Today, I better understand the risks of long-term ramifications of abusive coaching. It’s not enough for the B.C. Liberals to promote a strong stance against bullying. It’s time for them to take a serious look at policy gaps with regard to regulations and enforcement specific to youth athletics.
Clearly, society has rules and regulations regarding physical and sexual abuse, but the protection for youth athletes from psychological and emotional abuse is difficult to find. Abusive coaches lack self-control and are prone to sudden outbursts of anger, a toxic mix for those who rule over child athletes. Children can easily submit to abusive regimes and keep quiet to win their coach’s approval. The stakes are high when one’s hopes and dreams hang in the balance.
Should a child suffer abuse in silence to avoid losing opportunity in the sport they love?
After investigating current policy in B.C., I discovered an alarming lack of oversight when it comes to coaching abuse. Is there a requirement that high school basketball coaches, for instance, be certified? There are no post-game evaluations by referees of coaching conduct as there are in other provinces.
Coaching codes of conduct exist in the province, but there are no requirements for coaches to sign on to them. There are conduct guidelines set out for teachers within the Teaching Regulation Branch, but what if your coach isn’t a teacher? Are background checks required? Are there rules for coaches when they are travelling with children? Seemingly not.
B.C. has a complicated and confusing process to file complaints against coaches. Representing myself as a concerned parent, I tried to find out how I would go about filing a complaint against my imaginary child’s high-school basketball coach. Ultimately transferred to B.C. School Sports, I was told the agency only deals with complaints if the incident occurred at one of their own sponsored games. If the incident occurred during a practice, I had to first report it to the school’s administration. The school would then report the complaint back to BCSS if it couldn’t be worked out internally. This gives school administrators a lot of power.
What if your child’s school, like Rutgers University or Penn State, chooses to do nothing? What if the school favours the coach over the victimized student?
Although B.C. has an anti-bullying mandate, there are clearly gaps to fill. If we want to protect kids in the hallways and the playgrounds, we should also want to protect them in gymnasiums and on the fields. Coaches need to have mandatory standards and families need an easily accessible avenue to pursue when breaches of conduct occur. This policy gap also extends beyond schools and into community-based sporting programs.
The B.C. government needs to establish a provincial regulatory board to protect children from the risks of abusive coaching. It is in a unique position since it can pass legislation that authorizes the new Teacher’s Regulation Branch to simply extend its jurisdiction to cover school coaches. B.C. teacher-focused legislation could provide a template for all youth athletics for coaching conduct standards outside of schools.
Coaching abuse can inflict serious harm on a reliant and impressionable youth. Many studies link bullying to a vast array of serious subsequent psychological issues: addiction, depression and suicide, among others. Child athletes are especially vulnerable, since they are looking only to the next level in their sport and are unable to understand the long-term ramifications of their experience.
Let us all appreciate the inordinate trust that a youth athlete might place in the hands of what could be a bullying adult coach.
The lack of a standardized code of conduct for all school coaches that is enforced by an independent government agency represents a policy gap that must be closed. B.C. has an opportunity to ensure the protection of our child athletes.
Sydney Stockus of Victoria is a junior at the University of Southern California and president of the Women’s Leadership Board at the Marshall School of Business.