When a coach’s behavior crosses the line, it simply cannot be
dismissed without consequences or our society suffers
Gilroy High School officials did exactly the right thing, taking names and accounts of what happened when Mt. Pleasant soccer coach Nick Arellano incessantly berated Gilroy High coach Brain Hall during a Central Coast Section soccer playoff game last week.
Hurling strings of insults at Hall, Arellano’s displayed abominable sportsmanship, set a horrible example for young athletes on the field and provided crude testimony to a serious lapse in judgment.
He should, at least, be suspended from coaching.
That’s a tough sentence – not for Arellano, he deserves it – but for the student-athletes at Mt. Pleasant High. It’s not easy to find coaches willing to put in the extra time and effort to mentor high school athletes. The rewards are certainly not financial.
But that doesn’t mean the solution is simply to allow standards to sink to levels which foment poor sportsmanship. That’s a path, not to back of the net, but to a red-card disaster.
To young impressionable minds, Arellano’s verbal venom can link anger and angst with competitiveness. It need not, and should not, be so.
There are plenty of coaches who demonstrate respect for the game, the athletes, the opposing coaches, the fans and themselves who understand where the line that cannot be crossed is.
When Sports Editor Marc David reported that Arellano yelled things like it was good that Hall didn’t have children and that Hall knew nothing about soccer, despite being the only American to referee in the World Cup, the line had clearly been crossed. And that was only part of Arellano’s insult-filled tirade.
Hopefully Mt. Pleasant officials will take the proper action. Gilroy High’s Principal James Maxwell, who attended the game and intervened to stop the ongoing verbal abuse, should take it to CCS offices if it isn’t resolved at the school level.
There’s no room for coaches who don’t understand that first and foremost they are teachers and role models for those who will soon be adults, and coaches themselves.
