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

I learned long ago that people don't have your back in club sports. Most people are only interested in their kid's best interest. If a coach is verbally abusive to a kid and the manager hears it but the manager's kid is getting playing time, chances are that the manager is not going to say anything about someone else's kid.

So even though people should say or do something, they won't. That is a fact of life. I applaud you for your passion on this issue and wish you luck.
 
sandshark said:
Let's clear something up here. We are talking about drug use in any form, all illegal drug use it wrong! We are talking about drugs in the USA and yes their is a drug epidemic in the US. So it doesn't have to be an addict to be a problem when dealing with children. ZERO tolerance should be the rule.
No such thing as OK or acceptable on anything illegal if your chosen profession is anything to do with children.
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Something being legal or illegal doesn't make it moral or immoral.

If the soccer coach was to bang your wife, it would be legal but most likely immoral, no matter how much better he was at it than you.

Cutting hair without a license isn't legal but claiming it is immoral is silly.

I have a much greater fear my kids will hurt by a drunk driver than ever be harmed by someone under the influence coaching a sport.

The greatest problems caused by drugs is not the people that use them but the crime that gets committed because of the black market that is created to produce and distribute them. Billions of dollars wasted fighting the drug cartels that only exist because drugs are illegal. Your war on drugs if futile; people who want to use drugs will use drugs whether illegal or not. All you are doing is making the bad guys more money and streets more dangerous. If you want to reduce the crime associated with drugs the best thing we could do is start legalizing them.
 
sandshark said:
All very interesting responses and some eye opening points of views. I think this topic should be something that should be addressed county wide and brought to the attention of the correct people so that they can set out to set a new standard in youth sports across the US starting with SD County!
I love it when a social media platform like a talk forum can hash through a topic like this and get the tools needed to make something happen for the children. This is a great way to do research on how to prepare for the proper way to address such an important issue.
Lets see how far this can really go.
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As others have well stated, good luck with that. Pot is legal, alcohol is legal, and no sports (or other) organization even if they had a drug testing policy is going to make the results public. Will. Never Happen.

You may not want or like that, but its reality. Look at every drug program in place: strictly controlled access to results, not made public, etc. Even if a club were to random drug (alcohol??) test all its coaches (never happen), they would keep the info private for their own use, and you the parent would never see it. There are varied legal, social, and other reasons for this.
 
I'm bringing a drug test to practice tonight and making the coach pee in the little cup while I watch just to make sure he doesn't cheat

FOR THE CHILDREN

Really though I appreciate the general feeling that we need to keep our kids out of harms way. I just don't see a coach drinking or smoking pot in his time off a reasonable threat if he is sober at practices and games. No harm, no foul.
 
Actually I have had some PM in support about this, I'm guessing most don't want to get involved because they don't want to get on the wrong side of their clubs and coaches?
I am far from a hovering, overbearing, worried parent but I see a flaw in a system that has way to much free time with children and I think it needs to be addressed. Its just as simple as that.
I truly believe that every small step towards children's safety is worth the effort. Examples could be as simple as the US has a drug problem as a society and there is no doubt there are coaches across the US with substance abuse issues. Just in our own back yard at SURF soccer club there was a confirmed issue. I guess we can all put our head in the sand and say its not worth addressing until it is proven and I child pays the price. Not my style when dealing with children.
 
zebrafish said:
I think a lot of parents and coaches could use a little more weed in the system. I think this would probably be a good thing for the sideline atmosphere.
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Field marshaling a tournament a couple summers ago I got a report from a very offended parent that another parent had just hotboxed the porta-potty! She was not happy when would not investigate, tried to explain that was not on the list of duties for a field marshall!
 
sandshark said:
Actually I have had some PM in support about this, I'm guessing most don't want to get involved because they don't want to get on the wrong side of their clubs and coaches?
I am far from a hovering, overbearing, worried parent but I see a flaw in a system that has way to much free time with children and I think it needs to be addressed. Its just as simple as that.
I truly believe that every small step towards children's safety is worth the effort. Examples could be as simple as the US has a drug problem as a society and there is no doubt there are coaches across the US with substance abuse issues. Just in our own back yard at SURF soccer club there was a confirmed issue. I guess we can all put our head in the sand and say its not worth addressing until it is proven and I child pays the price. Not my style when dealing with children.
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I'm going to go out on a limb and say you watch Fox News
 
chargerfan said:
I'm going to go out on a limb and say you watch Fox News
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For me this is not about politics this is about a flaw in a system. I could care less who it offends or who it ads an extra work load to. Keep fishing buddy, I wont get personal on this topic.
 
sandshark said:
Actually I have had some PM in support about this, I'm guessing most don't want to get involved because they don't want to get on the wrong side of their clubs and coaches?
I am far from a hovering, overbearing, worried parent but I see a flaw in a system that has way to much free time with children and I think it needs to be addressed. Its just as simple as that.
I truly believe that every small step towards children's safety is worth the effort. Examples could be as simple as the US has a drug problem as a society and there is no doubt there are coaches across the US with substance abuse issues. Just in our own back yard at SURF soccer club there was a confirmed issue. I guess we can all put our head in the sand and say its not worth addressing until it is proven and I child pays the price. Not my style when dealing with children.
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People aren't buying it. You ignore questions about other (much more personal and important) areas of your child's life, saying "all we can talk about here is soccer."

You aren't accepting reality. Why would people who don't see a need to random drug teachers, police officers and fire fighters, do it for soccer coaches? It it just silly, actually.

Now, I presume your real answer to the above questions based on your posts, is that they all should be randomly tested! Which many feel is punitive, presumptive, a violation of personal and constitutional rights, and equally as silly.
 
sandshark said:
I guess we can all put our head in the sand and say its not worth addressing until it is proven and I child pays the price. Not my style when dealing with children.
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What personal liberties are YOU willing to give up in exchange for other people to feel comfortable in your presence?

If no crime has been committed, and there is no documented or anecdotal evidence (outside of one publicized incident) what clear and present danger does this pose to the children? If you don't want drug users around kids, I get that, and I'm not going to argue against it because I think that's a reasonable opinion.

Bus drivers and commercial drivers get drug tested and have their driving records examined because those factors have been shown to affect how he/she does their job.

Can you show a correlation between drug/alcohol use and coaching youth that would necessitate a drug test?
 
If I chose to be in the business of teaching, training or mentoring children I 100% think that drug testing me is reasonable.
 
BeepBeep Boop said:
What personal liberties are YOU willing to give up in exchange for other people to feel comfortable in your presence?

If no crime has been committed, and there is no documented or anecdotal evidence (outside of one publicized incident) what clear and present danger does this pose to the children? If you don't want drug users around kids, I get that, and I'm not going to argue against it because I think that's a reasonable opinion.

Bus drivers and commercial drivers get drug tested and have their driving records examined because those factors have been shown to affect how he/she does their job.

Can you show a correlation between drug/alcohol use and coaching youth that would necessitate a drug test?
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Random drug testing without any sort of reasonable suspicion that a coach has been abusing drugs is a clear violation of privacy. There is no club willing to open themselves up to that lawsuit.

If you think your coach is drunk or high during a practice or game, pull your kid out of the situation and notify the doc. Problem solved.
 
sandshark said:
When working with children I think it should be mandatory for all soccer coaches be drug tested every 6 months to keep their coaching license.

Why would any club NOT want this for the sake of the children?
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With California's marijuana laws, you cannot fault the coach for getting high with the soccer moms.
 
sandshark said:
Actually I have had some PM in support about this, I'm guessing most don't want to get involved because they don't want to get on the wrong side of their clubs and coaches?
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I am going to respectfully disagree with you. My daughter has played (either as a member of the team or as a guest player) for no less than 15 different coaches since she has been in competitive soccer; not one has exhibited ANY signs of drug use/abuse. She has had yellers, and coaches that over coach, but not one out of the 15 showed any signs of drug use/abuse. I respect that you are passionate on this topic, but I just don't see it as the issue that needs to be addressed with additional rules/regulations.

I didn't want to get involved in the topic as many others have already articulated how I feel. I am not worried about her coach, club or the DOC finding out my thoughts on this. I just disagree with your view.
 
MyDaughtersAKeeper said:
I am going to respectfully disagree with you. My daughter has played (either as a member of the team or as a guest player) for no less than 15 different coaches since she has been in competitive soccer; not one has exhibited ANY signs of drug use/abuse. She has had yellers, and coaches that over coach, but not one out of the 15 showed any signs of drug use/abuse. I respect that you are passionate on this topic, but I just don't see it as the issue that needs to be addressed with additional rules/regulations.

I didn't want to get involved in the topic as many others have already articulated how I feel. I am not worried about her coach, club or the DOC finding out my thoughts on this. I just disagree with your view.
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And that is exactly why there are talk forums for youth sports.
I'm going to say throughout the US there are plenty of good and bad soccer coaches that are clean and sober and others that are not.
It's simply a fact for both sides of this discussion.
 
outside! said:
Which drugs? I remember hiring into a new company. All the new hires were in a meeting when they passed around a list of drugs they tested for. It was all I could do to keep from asking "Does this mean I can do all the LSD and Mushrooms I want since they are not on the list?" Not all drugs can be tested for. Two of the most dangerous are legal. Many drug tests give false positives. If you are really concerned about drug use, you should never eat out.
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Drug testing program oversight is one of my responsibilities at my job with the Navy. The Navy currently randomly tests all Sailors at least once a year for 16 drugs and pulse tests for another 10. Pulse testing is the lab randomly tests about 75 percent of samples for 1-10 of those other drugs. They also have the ability to test for another 84 substances if requested. The military is the gold standard when it comes to drug testing and the testing process and lab results have held up in 1000's of court marshals. LSD can only be detected for about 18-24 hours after use, but shrooms can come up positive for 2-4 days. I have to know how long all these drugs stay detectable in the body and the effects on the body during and after the use. The science of drugs is really interesting.

This website has some good drug information. Pick a drug and read some of the experience reports. https://www.erowid.org/new.php
 
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