I try to think of how I might emulate Ted Lasso on teams I am associated with many times and identified the Lassos I’ve been lucky enough to be coached by.Īs Americans, we tend to be fascinated by the coaches I’ve listed above who’ve committed crimes. I’ve seen the benefit of sports in myself and my athletes. I’ve spent years thinking about positive team environments, negative team environments, and how to create a positive athletic community. The juxtaposition of Ted Lasso with these abusive coaches has been particularly clear to me because I have coached 14 high school teams of different sports. In June, Katey Stone announced her retirement after nearly three decades as the Harvard women’s ice hockey coach amid accusations she had hazed and berated players for years. A month later, filmmaker (and former athlete) Jennifer Fox made similar allegations of sexual abuse against famous crew athlete and coach Ted Nash. In February, Olympic medalist Lynn Jennings alleged that she was abused as a teenager by longtime college running coach John Babbington. In the past few months, we’ve been living through another round of disturbing allegations about athletic coaches. If Ted Lasso is an international symbol of American coaching, our news coverage of American coaches doesn’t appear nearly as sunny or funny. This is just misbehavior I’ve seen personally if I include stories I’ve heard from families and friends, the list would be much longer. The coaches and parents I’ve seen encourage athletes to monitor their weight and intake to an unhealthy level to the point where many of my teammates developed disordered eating to compete better. The erratic coach of a peer school who frequently yells at his athletes, his assistant coaches, and even athletes on a different team. Let me tell you about some of the antagonistic Nate Shelleys I’ve come across, first as a student-athlete and then as a coach myself: The coach who pressured me off the team for “missing too many practices”-right after two of my family members died in short succession. We’ve all probably been coached by a lot more Nate Shelleys than Ted Lassos. When I first watched the character’s progression from underdog to (temporary) antagonist, I realized that I’ve been coached by a lot more Nate Shelleys than Ted Lassos. In his coaching role, he quickly started taking out his own lack of self-worth on his athletes and obsessing over the team’s wins and losses. The college running coach who showed me that I could run at the collegiate level and cheered me on while I stood up to challenges.īut there’s another coaching storyline on the show that I see much more frequently: Nate Shelley, who climbed from being an equipment manager to the head coach of a rival team. The elementary school principal who guided me and my family when I was falling apart in 2nd grade. As an educator and coach, this show has reminded me of the Ted Lassos I’ve had in my life: The skiing coaches who helped me get back on skis after a scary accident made me want to give up the sport.
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