I am an assistant coach to a high school gymnastics team, and I am very frustrated with the head coach. Last year both the head coach and I were new to the team. We had worked in a local club together for about a year before we took on this high school team. Last year there were a few frustrations, but I thought that it was really due to us just getting the feel for what coaching a high school team is like. I stupidly thought that things would be better this year. I was definitely wrong...Some of the things I would be willing to look past but when they start to pile up its overwhelming. Here are some of the problems I am encountering...
First of all, she is a full time student (as am I) and she stretches herself WAY too thin... She misses Monday practices for school. This leaves me the only coach there to lead a practice of 18 girls who are very easily side-tracked. She also sometimes leaves practices early to go to another job (One day a week I leave 30 minutes early for my job but usually by the time I leave, they only have 15 minutes of actual practice and then they have to tear down) For this coming Friday I signed up to do an event at the club we both work at which is during our practice time. She got mad that I said I wouldn't be there if we had practice at the normal time (even though she specifically told me "oh you can sign up for that. that's fine") and then she got really annoyed (but finally gave in) when I said "well you miss Monday practices so I thought missing one practice would be okay".
Another thing is she was talking to me the other day telling me that "she is sick of being the bad guy with the girls. she doesn't have any help reinforcing the rules" (at the time we were specifically talking about girls showing up late to practice). That really annoyed me because I was actually the one at the beginning of the year trying to be strict about it and she wasn't helpful so I gave up on it. I tried to say something about it and she got super defensive and gave me an excuse.
Also, she expects me to have a daily lesson plan of what my JV girls are going to do. This wouldn't be unreasonable except that she never tells me if we are doing the spring floor that day (we set up and tear down our gym each day and in order for us to get more practice time, we don't set up the spring floor every day) and what events she plans on going to and how long she wants to be there, etc. so I have no idea what I am supposed to plan for. Additionally it is a lot harder for me because she has about 6 girls while I have the rest, and not to mention, there are about 3 girls who can do every event. The rest of them do beam and a little floor so its hard to plan for them.
In addition to that she is just really bad at communicating and at following through with what she says she will do. Then at the last minute she whips everything together really sloppily. For example, last year we were supposed to get new competition leotards which the school was paying for. She didn't order them until THIS SUMMER and so we didn't get them until this fall. She does things like this all the time and then always says something like "we should have done this at the beginning of the year". I try to do what I can to help but as assistant coach I have very little power. And half the time it doesn't matter because I do my part and then she doesn't follow through on hers! I know her job is hard but if I was the head coach, I would not have any jobs during season other than coaching high school.
So basically what I am trying to get across with all my ranting (and trust me there's plenty more) is that I don't know what I should do about my situation. Honestly I don't know if I even want to coach next year simply BECAUSE of the head coach issues. I don't want to quit though because I really love working with the girls. I was talking to the team coach at the club I work with (she knows me and the head coach) and she was telling me how I should be working with the varsity girls too because I have so much to offer them and so on. Also the varsity girls were talking to me the other day and said, "why aren't you the head coach? you are a way better spotter than "head coach"." So I would feel horrible leaving them with the head coach. Plus I think that if I did quit she would tell them some story about me to make them hate me. I don't want to talk to head coach because she will just get all defensive about it and will cause more tension between us. I don't know if I should talk to the athletic director or what but its getting to the point that I don't think I can take another season like this.
First of all, she is a full time student (as am I) and she stretches herself WAY too thin... She misses Monday practices for school. This leaves me the only coach there to lead a practice of 18 girls who are very easily side-tracked. She also sometimes leaves practices early to go to another job (One day a week I leave 30 minutes early for my job but usually by the time I leave, they only have 15 minutes of actual practice and then they have to tear down) For this coming Friday I signed up to do an event at the club we both work at which is during our practice time. She got mad that I said I wouldn't be there if we had practice at the normal time (even though she specifically told me "oh you can sign up for that. that's fine") and then she got really annoyed (but finally gave in) when I said "well you miss Monday practices so I thought missing one practice would be okay".
Another thing is she was talking to me the other day telling me that "she is sick of being the bad guy with the girls. she doesn't have any help reinforcing the rules" (at the time we were specifically talking about girls showing up late to practice). That really annoyed me because I was actually the one at the beginning of the year trying to be strict about it and she wasn't helpful so I gave up on it. I tried to say something about it and she got super defensive and gave me an excuse.
Also, she expects me to have a daily lesson plan of what my JV girls are going to do. This wouldn't be unreasonable except that she never tells me if we are doing the spring floor that day (we set up and tear down our gym each day and in order for us to get more practice time, we don't set up the spring floor every day) and what events she plans on going to and how long she wants to be there, etc. so I have no idea what I am supposed to plan for. Additionally it is a lot harder for me because she has about 6 girls while I have the rest, and not to mention, there are about 3 girls who can do every event. The rest of them do beam and a little floor so its hard to plan for them.
In addition to that she is just really bad at communicating and at following through with what she says she will do. Then at the last minute she whips everything together really sloppily. For example, last year we were supposed to get new competition leotards which the school was paying for. She didn't order them until THIS SUMMER and so we didn't get them until this fall. She does things like this all the time and then always says something like "we should have done this at the beginning of the year". I try to do what I can to help but as assistant coach I have very little power. And half the time it doesn't matter because I do my part and then she doesn't follow through on hers! I know her job is hard but if I was the head coach, I would not have any jobs during season other than coaching high school.
So basically what I am trying to get across with all my ranting (and trust me there's plenty more) is that I don't know what I should do about my situation. Honestly I don't know if I even want to coach next year simply BECAUSE of the head coach issues. I don't want to quit though because I really love working with the girls. I was talking to the team coach at the club I work with (she knows me and the head coach) and she was telling me how I should be working with the varsity girls too because I have so much to offer them and so on. Also the varsity girls were talking to me the other day and said, "why aren't you the head coach? you are a way better spotter than "head coach"." So I would feel horrible leaving them with the head coach. Plus I think that if I did quit she would tell them some story about me to make them hate me. I don't want to talk to head coach because she will just get all defensive about it and will cause more tension between us. I don't know if I should talk to the athletic director or what but its getting to the point that I don't think I can take another season like this.
