Our Communities. Our Teams. Our Future.
We’re proud to make high school sports coverage free for everyone—because these moments matter. At Maine State Credit Union, we’re here for the people and places that make Maine strong. Let’s Go! Learn more at mainestatecu.org. 

We have a budding crisis in Maine high school sports, and it has nothing to do with declining participation or a rash of injuries or anything the Maine Principals’ Association may or may not have done.

It’s the parents. Over the last few weeks, parental meddling grew from a nuisance that occasionally boils over into a maelstrom of misguided entitlement and mayhem.

Congratulations, parents. You’re so far ahead in the race for Worst Thing About Sports that we’re ready to retire the belt.

In the last two weeks, four high school boys basketball coaches around the state resigned. Two of them, Chris Bryant at Bangor’s John Bapst and Larry Reed at Oceanside in Rockland, cited parental interference as the primary reason. At Van Buren, Adam Murchison said he stepped away for health reasons. At Brewer, Carl Parker resigned for what he described as personal reasons, although a comment he posted online alluded to something else.

“Times have changed and some people have trouble with my humor,” Parker wrote. “We agreed that I would step down.”

It’s not as if any of these men woke up on the first day of tryouts last month with some virus that made him forget everything he knows about basketball and working with student-athletes. Parker has coached at schools across eastern Maine for decades. Bryant was starting his third season at John Bapst.

And Reed, well, all he did was lead the Mariners to a pair of regional championships and 72 wins in just over five seasons. He seemed to have a pretty good handle on the game just a couple seasons ago when he led Oceanside to a run of lopsided regular-season wins against obviously overmatched competition.

Reed told the Midcoast Villager that he was disappointed in the team’s 1-3 start to the season with a younger squad, and maybe it’s time for a new voice. That almost makes sense, because his voice is obviously drowned out by the cacophony of parents bleating with unrealistic expectations and goals.

Bryant told the Bangor Daily News that parents complained about his intensity in practice after he kicked a basketball in frustration, and he was suspended from coaching one game. A few days later, amid more parental complaints, he was not allowed to coach another game. For Bryant, that was enough.

My kid should start! That kid shouldn’t start! You call that a zone defense! It’s a wonder anyone anywhere would ever coach at all.

There are times, obviously, when a midseason coaching change is justified, such as when a team becomes embroiled in hazing and the coach has no institutional control. Abusive behavior is grounds for a change. A coach who has a serious run in with the law should be dismissed.

Parents can’t see their complaining succeed in a vacuum. They have accomplices in administrators who should know better. Athletic directors, principals and superintendents who know what goes into coaching should be able to tell the difference between legitimate concerns and petty gripes, but often the easiest thing to do is listen to the mob. The mob rules.

Parents want the best for their children. There’s nothing wrong with that. Browbeating coaches or teachers (or even bosses of adult children) into quitting isn’t the right approach. Unfortunately, that’s the lesson. Don’t work harder. Don’t change your habits. Don’t be open to suggestions. Whine and pitch a fit until you get what you think you want, even if your opinion is misinformed or garden variety incorrect.

Jeff Hart, the athletic director at Camden Hills, posted a statement on the Camden Hills athletics Facebook page. A highly successful basketball coach before he became the AD, Hart knows a little about coaching. His teams were responsible for several of the Gold Balls in the school’s trophy case.

Hart outlined the rigors of coaching high school sports, the commitment in time and energy. High school sports are a privilege, and are best served when a school community works together, he wrote.

“While questions or concerns may arise from time to time, publicly critiquing coaching decisions, playing time, or strategy — whether in person or online — undermines the program, the team culture, and ultimately the student-athletes themselves,” Hart wrote.

It’s obvious Hart has spent a long career in high school sports. His statement reads like he’s seen it all, because undoubtedly he has. Hart says what he feels needs to be said, calmly and with dignity.

If only the loudmouth parents who force coaches out acted the same way.