I think it should be mandatory that all coaches & DOC get drug tested twice a year.

Don't be so quick to judge. It is more common than you realize that coaches are late or no shows do to alcohol/drug use. Once my son's coach was a no show due to a bar fight the night before. He showed up for the second game with his jaw wired shut! Hard to coach when you can't open your mouth!

I hope you realize that alcohol will not show up on a drug test. Would you also like to give coaches a breathalyzer before any interaction with your child?
 
I hope you realize that alcohol will not show up on a drug test. Would you also like to give coaches a breathalyzer before any interaction with your child?
If you look at my earlier post #44, I acknowledge that drug testing will not work because it does not include alcohol as in the case of Stevo.
 
I coached a girl a few years ago. Her dad would come to all of the practices and walk laps around the field. I'm 99.99% sure he was high on the weed every time.
But now that it's "legal" is it even a big deal?
I was prescribed prednisone once for a bad chest cold. It made me a bit over the top crazy. I remember coaching a 5v5 winter league game after my 2nd or 3rd day taking it. I was noticeably much more vocal and fired up than usual. Would this be a violation of Sharks policy?
I suppose someone that shows up to a practice or game while on cocaine, lsd, heroin, crack, ecstasy, mushrooms, spice, meth, sniffing glue, ludes, etc probably should be dismissed. Or if they are pounding shots in the parking lot before practice.
But if i ever suspected anyone that was a coach or teacher of my kids was doing any of the above, then I'd log a complaint and then find another team immediately.
 
Drunk and popped off to a military person ( I don't remember which branch). The second game was in the afternoon and he was obviously high on Vicodin.
High on Vicodin, or on Vicodin for pain. Don't be so quick to judge.
As I said before, frankly I would have been surprised if a coach showed up at all the day after having his jaw wired shut. I would have been even more surprised if he wasn't on some kind of pain medication after having his jaw wired shut the night before or that morning.
 
Then what is your point?
I am acknowledging that it is an issue that is more common than clubs are willing to admit, but that drug testing will not solve the problem. Sharky has a valid point but nothing will change. Parents need to decide for themselves what is important for their child.
 
High on Vicodin, or on Vicodin for pain. Don't be so quick to judge.
As I said before, frankly I would have been surprised if a coach showed up at all the day after having his jaw wired shut. I would have been even more surprised if he wasn't on some kind of pain medication after having his jaw wired shut the night before or that morning.
Honestly it was the best game he coached all season. I do give him props for even showing up, but hearing accounts of his behavior the night before when he knew he had an 8 am game (7 am show time) made me question his maturity especially since he was in his late 30s at the time.
 
I am acknowledging that it is an issue that is more common than clubs are willing to admit, but that drug testing will not solve the problem. Sharky has a valid point but nothing will change. Parents need to decide for themselves what is important for their child.

I still don't see this "problem" you are referring to. A surf coach who was too beloved by parents for them to care about his issues so nothing was done, and your coach, who sounds like a little punk. Like I said, I've had kids at many clubs with many coaches and have never had a coach with a drinking or drug problem. About 95% of the parents who have posted on here have said the same. What is this "problem" that only you and sharky are able to see?

What happened with your coach? If it was a dumb mistake and he was just being a dumb kid, I hope he didn't lose his job. It doesn't appear that he was showing up to practicesor games under the influence.
 
I coached a girl a few years ago. Her dad would come to all of the practices and walk laps around the field. I'm 99.99% sure he was high on the weed every time.
But now that it's "legal" is it even a big deal?
Weed is the gateway drug to fitness now?
 
Ugh
I am not going to out the coach but there is a wellllllll documented case of substance abuse and parents ignoring signs and then an eventual free fall.
There is well documented example of a severe case of etoh abuse on an elite team resulting in DOC intervention
It's life- we all have flaws. But PLEASE all of you spare me with the "oh my I have never heard of such a thing" act. If you play for an elite club you do.
If you don't know about it good for all of you.
#Charger - as you can see I am not the only one that knows of cases. Maybe because these are the sort of things that are talked about when I played in the adult league, I am more clued into the issue? I am not saying it is a huge issue that something needs to be done, just that it exists and probably in the same percentage as the general population.

The coach with the broken jaw was fine for the remained of the season, but his problems off the field continued to affect both his non-soccer and coaching jobs. He was one angry guy when drinking and hungover. I don't know what happened to him.
 
I hope you realize that alcohol will not show up on a drug test. Would you also like to give coaches a breathalyzer before any interaction with your child?

Just give them a blood PEth test (phosphatidylethanol). It is a great indicator of alcohol use and can indicate an individuals consumption level over the past 2 weeks. If we are going to crucify the coaches, we may as well be overly intrusive in their life.

As a referee I have encountered more coaches that I thought were hung over or still drunk than ones that I thought were on drugs. Some of them seemed to coach better when hung over than when sober especially the yellers and joystick coaches.
 
Laced with
#Charger - as you can see I am not the only one that knows of cases. Maybe because these are the sort of things that are talked about when I played in the adult league, I am more clued into the issue? I am not saying it is a huge issue that something needs to be done, just that it exists and probably in the same percentage as the general population.

The coach with the broken jaw was fine for the remained of the season, but his problems off the field continued to affect both his non-soccer and coaching jobs. He was one angry guy when drinking and hungover. I don't know what happened to him.


I didn't say there weren't coaches out there who don't abuse. I said I knew of at least a couple but the club did nothing about it. My solution was to stay away from the club. To be honest I can today think of another coach right now as I'm typing this with an abuse issue but I had heard for many years to keep my children away from him. In every instance here , clubs should have done their job and dismissed the coach. They didn't need a drug test or breathalyzer to realize there was a substance abuse issue.

What I do think all coaches need is an anger management class. I'm way more concerned about coaches out there verbally abusing and berating their players than smoking some pot in their own home. I saw a Coach a couple weeks back embarrass his young teen players while they were on the field to the point where I'm sure they were humiliated. You could see a physical change in them after he called them out. I won't name the coach since I know he reads the forums. The guy needs a psychological assessment, not drug testing.
 
Laced with



I didn't say there weren't coaches out there who don't abuse. I said I knew of at least a couple but the club did nothing about it. My solution was to stay away from the club. To be honest I can today think of another coach right now as I'm typing this with an abuse issue but I had heard for many years to keep my children away from him. In every instance here , clubs should have done their job and dismissed the coach. They didn't need a drug test or breathalyzer to realize there was a substance abuse issue.

What I do think all coaches need is an anger management class. I'm way more concerned about coaches out there verbally abusing and berating their players than smoking some pot in their own home. I saw a Coach a couple weeks back embarrass his young teen players while they were on the field to the point where I'm sure they were humiliated. You could see a physical change in them after he called them out. I won't name the coach since I know he reads the forums. The guy needs a psychological assessment, not drug testing.
Yes. This problem is 1000% more prevalent and harmful to children than any drug abuse issue, and you don't need a personally intrusive test to establish the issue, just a video camera.
 
Between my kids, we have had various coaches at various clubs. I have never seen more than a coach sharing a pitcher of beer with parents at a team pizza dinner. I have heard only about two coaches with substance abuse issues in all these years of youth soccer and both are from the same club. Maybe the lesson here is to avoid that club if they make such bad hiring decisions.

And another TWO too many! As things keep going a few more people are talking about one here two there issues they have seen over the years. I bet if there was a random drug test today we would all be surprised one who was dirty.
 
Any reasonably-affordable drug test will have some degree of false positive results. In a population that has a truly low user population, it is possible that there will be more false positive results than there will be actual users correctly detected.
 
And another TWO too many! As things keep going a few more people are talking about one here two there issues they have seen over the years. I bet if there was a random drug test today we would all be surprised one who was dirty.

A drug test does not pick up on alcohol abuse.

Oh please tell me which coaches are "dirty" .... I like that
 
Any reasonably-affordable drug test will have some degree of false positive results. In a population that has a truly low user population, it is possible that there will be more false positive results than there will be actual users correctly detected.

And that opens clubs up to even more lawsuits
 
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