High School Coach
My high school coaching career began and ended with a “beat down”. What is a “beat down”? I was a young coach; twenty-five, perhaps too young to be a high school coach in charge of seventy-five young men, some only five years younger than me. But I didn’t know that. I just tried to do my job, coach my kids to success, and keep a lid on the craziness that is definitional for adolescent boys.
And I think I did a pretty good job. But then, it was time for my “job evaluation”. And when I walked into the Athletic Director’s office, it wasn’t just a “man to man” discussion. There was the AD, and there was the Assistant Principal, and then there was the Principal, all on one side of the AD’s desk, fifty plus years of educational experience. And there was twenty-five year old me on the other.
For the next two hours, even my successes were cited as failures. For two hours, whatever I happened to say was overwhelmed by the sheer volume of my three bosses, all talking at once, all disputing my efforts. Somewhere in the middle of it all, I thought I should just get up and leave. But then it dawned on me – if they were going to fire me, they’d just done that at the beginning. They just wanted to have their say, their “pound of flesh”, to draw new lines of authority. They really didn’t want me to change much, they just wanted to be able to say to someone, I don’t know who, that they “Put Marty in his place”. When it all ended, they handed me a paper evaluation they rated my performance as “good”. It was crazy.
Woman to Man
Once I got over the emotion, punched a wall or two, and stopped packing my bags, I realized that I was still the Head Boys Track Coach at Watkins Memorial High School. My “bosses” could report to whoever they needed to that I was “suitably chastised”. And life, teaching, my coaching career all could go on, pretty much like it was before.
That was in 1982. Thirty-five years later, I retired as the Boys Track Coach at Watkins Memorial. And a few months after, I was already an “ex-coach”. Then the Athletic Director and I had a disagreement about some T-Shirts we were selling at the home Cross Country meet. In the middle of that issue, we had a meeting. I knew as soon as I came in her office, that this meeting wasn’t to solve anything – it was to be another “beat down”. The AD, who had no problem criticizing the track program “woman to man” for the past year, now had “backup”.
This time it was the AD and the Assistant Principal. And this time, the AD said almost nothing. It was the Assistant who decided she was “the voice” of the Administration. And just like that day in June of 1982, there wasn’t any discussion. There was just a “beat down”. No one wanted to hear what I had to say. They just wanted “their view” on the record. They wanted to tell someone, some boss above them, that “Marty was suitably chastised”. It didn’t last nearly as long as back in ’82. There was really nothing on the table. I was already packed, already gone. I finished my commitments to Watkins Cross Country, and I was done.
A World-Class Beatdown
I still love Watkins Track and Cross Country, and that AD is long gone. So I go back, now the old, gray-haired guy, that used to coach here. It’s changed a lot. I officiate, and help out the coaches when I can, and realize that “my day” at Watkins is over.
I hadn’t thought about all that for years. That was, until I heard President Trump and Vice President Vance perform a “beat down” on national TV. Their target was the President of a sovereign nation, who, until literally weeks ago, was America’s ally. Volodymyr Zelenskyy is the President of Ukraine, a nation that has done nothing but honor itself in a three year war against the massive Russian Army. Ukrainians have endured unthinkable assaults, from Russian missiles and drones, from Russian tanks and troops, and on Ukrainian civilians and even children. Russia captured parts of Ukraine, then “exported” the children to Russia, renaming and reprogramming them to be “good Russian citizens”.
The United States and NATO have been stalwart allies of Ukraine. We have enforced draconian sanctions on the Russian economy, and spent billions of dollars on Ukrainian defenses. It has been Ukrainian blood heroically spilled to stop the Russian invasions, but it has been US and NATO weaponry that helped Ukraine hold against the Russian juggernaut.
Who’s in Charge
I guess that’s not what Donald Trump wants. And so he and Ohio’s “finest”, Vice President JD Vance performed a “beat down” on Zelenskyy today, live on US television. Trump shouted down Zelenskyy’s objections, and Vance had the unmitigated gall of claiming that President Zelenskyy was disrespecting the US President by not saying “thank you” enough. As if rivers of Ukrainian blood aren’t enough of a sacrifice.
In the end, hopefully, a deal will be reached; access to Ukrainian mineral wealth traded for support, and the US remains a Ukrainian ally. But you have to wonder: who did Trump need to show that “Zelenskyy was put in his place”. Who did Vance need to show that Zelenskyy was “suitably chastised”. To what “higher boss” must Vance and Trump report to? It’s not the American people – so what was the point of a world class “beat down” on world TV?
Who’s really in charge — another Vladimir?
