By Steve Horan
A new NCAA study of college athletes reveals that half or more of Division I athletes in basketball, football, and baseball trust their coaches. According to a summary in USA Today:
- Only 39% of Division I women's basketball players said their head coach "defines success by not only winning, but winning fairly." Also, just 39% said their head coach can be trusted. A little more than a third of the players said they'd prefer to spend less time with their coaches, compared with 21% in all other women's sports and 21% in men's basketball.
- Only half of all Division I men's basketball players said they felt their coaches were as interested in fairness as in winning. In baseball, it was 43%. Football coaches scored highest, a still-modest 57%.The proportion of players who trusted their coaches ran much the same: 50% in men's basketball, 52% in baseball, 56% in football.
These findings raise important questions for athletes, coaches, athletic directors, and parents. Why is it that so many athletes do not trust their coaches? Is it mostly a case of youthful misperception of the intentions of caring adults? Or is it mostly a case of too many coaches being unworthy of trust? Given the hyper-competitive atmosphere present in so many athletic programs at every level, plus the countless documented cases of cheating and malpractice by coaches, it seems reasonable to conclude that many athletes have good reason not to trust their coaches.
This is a sad statement about college sports as a field of endeavor which justifies its nonprofit status by teaching sportsmanship and character. Perhaps this is an opportune time for college presidents to survey their own student-athleteson their level of trust in their coaches - and carefully consider what the results say about the academic mission of their institution.