Tournament Attendance Hindered by Coach

[JTakang21]

Our (Douglas Co. HS, GA) coach has been fairly supportive of our team to this point. However, it is now February, and we have only been to 2 tournaments this season. She doesn't seem to understand that we just want to play quizbowl. I have realized that the only way to improve is to play frequently. I am the defacto captain of this team, and I have repeatedly tried to promote this team, but each time I have proposed a tournament to her, she has flatly rejected me. This dilemma is made more painful by the fact that are coaches and players have said that the only reason that we are not as good a team as we could be is that we do not go to tournaments. She only wants us to attend 2 more events this year, Centennial ATTACK and the GA State Cup,even though Cedar Shoals, Collins Hill, and Norcross are all hosting events after State. She doesn't even want us to go to HSNCT nationals, even though we will have the funding to do so, and we qualified back in October. Don't get me wrong, I love her to death, but she is restricting the progress of our team. Sorry for such a long post, but thus is a rather pressing matter. Advice would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks guys!
Josiah T.
Captain, DCHS Quiz Bowl '15

[jonah]

What is her rationale for not going to tournaments?

[Nine-Tenths Ideas]

Yeah, I think I'd need to hear her rationale for refusing, here. If it's not a budget thing, what exactly is it? I had a coach in high school who was often... less than accommodating about going to tournaments, but that was more a result of there being bad tournaments and formats taking up a lot of the team's time.

[Corry]

Well, you could always just go independently. A lot of teams in SoCal used to do this. Some teams did so because they were almost wholly student-run, while other teams were just caught in the same situation as you: their coaches simply weren't very enthusiastic about attending more tournaments.

Find a parent willing to drive you guys to the tournament, and get everybody on the team to fork over $20 apiece for the registration fee. You can even play the tournament under pseudonyms, if you insist.

[Ben Dillon]

Do you feel comfortable approaching your principal with your concerns? And is there another faculty member who would be willing to be the assistant coach who accompanies you to tournaments the coach cannot?

[JTakang21]

I feel like it's not so much her rationale, but her indoctrination, but we (the team leadership) feel that she does not take quiz bowl as seriously as we do.

[JTakang21]

Well, you could always just go independently. A lot of teams in SoCal used to do this. Some teams did so because they were almost wholly student-run, while other teams were just caught in the same situation as you: their coaches simply weren't very enthusiastic about attending more tournaments.

It's more what you said, Corry. She only seems interested in attending a barebones schedule of tournaments. I did suggest the idea of a willing parent to take us, but so far, she has not taken kindly to that idea.

[Mnemosyne]

Happened to my team once in high school. Teacher said we weren't going to a tournament, so the next day the 4 of us got a parent driver, $20 each for registration, and told one of our other coaches we were going alone. With great quickness she (second coach) agreed to accompany us.

If you want to play Quiz Bowl, go play Quiz Bowl.

[Marble-faced Bristle Tyrant]

Happened to my team all the time in high school. It was especially frustrating because none of us knew about the online community, so our coach was basically the gatekeeper of everything. The crowning moment was when we qualified for the HSNCT my junior year and there was little communication between us players (who were excited at the prospect of going, or at least I was) and our coach regarding whether we'd attend or not. Predictably, we did not. He was (is) also too much of a square to break the county's rules regarding transportation to regular season events.

Yeah, I don't have any recommendations for you, just commiseration.

[Howard]

I feel like it's not so much her rationale, but her indoctrination, but we (the team leadership) feel that she does not take quiz bowl as seriously as we do.

It's critical that you know why this is occurring if you want to find the best solution.

One possibility is that the coach is only willing to dedicate a certain amount of time. A team attending most reasonably available tournaments requires a large amount of what would otherwise be personal time dedication from the coach. If this is the issue, she may be willing to enter you in some tournaments with the understanding that you'll have parental or other chaperones.

In any event, the solution is something like selling a car. If the customer isn't buying the car, it's important to find the objection and overcome it. Whatever the reason, do not make judgment, just try to overcome it. This may well require you to make reassurances you're just looking to overcome the difficulties and not assess the validity of their occurrence.

And if you still cannot make any headway, the option mentioned earlier about entering on your own still exists.

[Sniper, No Sniping!]

Our (Douglas Co. HS, GA) coach has been fairly supportive of our team to this point. However, it is now February, and we have only been to 2 tournaments this season. She doesn't seem to understand that we just want to play quizbowl. I have realized that the only way to improve is to play frequently. I am the defacto captain of this team, and I have repeatedly tried to promote this team, but each time I have proposed a tournament to her, she has flatly rejected me. This dilemma is made more painful by the fact that are coaches and players have said that the only reason that we are not as good a team as we could be is that we do not go to tournaments. She only wants us to attend 2 more events this year, Centennial ATTACK and the GA State Cup,even though Cedar Shoals, Collins Hill, and Norcross are all hosting events after State. She doesn't even want us to go to HSNCT nationals, even though we will have the funding to do so, and we qualified back in October. Don't get me wrong, I love her to death, but she is restricting the progress of our team. Sorry for such a long post, but thus is a rather pressing matter. Advice would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks guys!
Josiah T.
Captain, DCHS Quiz Bowl '15

Perhaps she's only willing to give up a certain amount of her Saturdays. Maybe there's a reason why she can't (perhaps some context would give us a better idea); is she a mother with young children, or is she an older woman who probably has difficulty walking? Maybe it should clarified what her interests and expectations are as being your academic team coach. If she's really only going to be your coach because she gets a stipend or your principal/AD decided to stick the labor of being an academic team advisor on her, then obviously she's not going to have a lot of motivation as your coach to take you to as many places as you'd like her to in the first place.

It's more what you said, Corry. She only seems interested in attending a barebones schedule of tournaments. I did suggest the idea of a willing parent to take us, but so far, she has not taken kindly to that idea.

Again, maybe more context is needed here. I doubt she's trying to be nefarious by simply not letting your parents take you. Does your school (district) have a policy on who can take students on school-"sponsored" activities? The school may have a problem with parent acting as a advisor, in part because your school probably has to assume liability in the event of something like a kid getting injured/killed in a car accident (because it happens on a school activity). Since the parent is presumably not a school employee, that probably creates problems when it comes to insurance, liability, etc. Even if that isn't the case, perhaps there's bureaucracy at the top to deal with.

TL;DR - a solution would be easier to reach if you do more inquiry on all your possible options.