Tanner Bradley

HHP 324

Dr. Buchanan

3/6/17

Ethics in Coaching
Ethics in Coaching 2

The two coaches I interviewed for this project were my high school basketball

coach, Tony Vaughn, and my middle school basketball coach, Jared Harrison. These

two coaches have made a huge difference in my life, due in large part to their ethical

coaching and management styles and how they run their teams. In this assignment, I

was to interview two coaches, one being the more skillful in the Xs and Os while at the

same time being a moral and ethical coach, while the other might struggle to reach one

or both criteria. In considering that criteria for this paper, I knew that Coach Harrison

was going to be the coach that is skillful with the Xs and Os and can make the morally

right decision. I feel that Coach Vaughn is the one that didnt meet both of the criteria

completely.

A little background on my two coaches. Coach Vaughn coached 29 years before

stepping away from coaching to become my high schools athletic director. He was

influenced to become a coach because his great love for the sport of basketball. Coach

Vaughn said that he coached an optimist team while he was in high school and loved

teaching the young kids so much that he decided to become a coach. Dealing with and

having interactions with the athletes is what made it fun to coach. He played basketball

at Emory & Henry after graduating from Sullivan Central High School (my high school).

Coach Harrison, who also went to Sullivan Central, played collegiate basketball at

Campbell University. He has coached for 20 years, and he continues to coach, not only

in basketball but in football as well. Coach Harrison was influenced by his coach, Mr.

Dickie Warren, who was the first basketball coach at Sullivan Central. Another reason

Harrison was influenced to coach was because he played Division 1 basketball in

Ethics in Coaching 3

college and, after 4 years away from the sport, he missed it enough to go back and

become a coach.

Coach Vaughn stated that he had not had any real big issues, but one that he

faced every year was the conflicts that arose from his athletes wanting to attend youth

retreats at their churches that might be scheduled at the same time as team practices.

Coach Harrison cited another issue that has been a problem and has just gotten worse

and worse over the years, now being worse than it has ever been. That issue is that

more and more parents insist that their child never does anything wrong, and is

therefore never in need of discipline or corrective action.

In his early career, Coach Vaughn stated that the only dilemma he faced was

treating everyone the same and trying to stick with the rules he had set so that he didnt

seem like he was picking favorites on the team. He also stated that as a coach, you

have to set your own rules, such as not allowing team members to come late to practice

for unacceptable reasons, such as just wanting to come late or other bad excuses.

One of the dilemmas Coach Harrison faces is how much to push the athletes.

Some parents don't want little Johnny to ever be corrected or pushed too hard

because they are the best and dont need the push, while on the other hand some

parents want you to push their kid all the time, possibly even pushing them too much.

Another issue faced by Coach Harrison when disciplining an athlete is deciding when to

suspend a team member and for what reasons. Sometimes this choice comes down to

choosing to leave a team member on the team and increasing the chances of winning a

game, or suspending a team member because it means doing the right thing for the

student.
Ethics in Coaching 4

In determining how to handle situations like the youth retreat issue, Coach

Vaughn knew that it was potentially very touchy whether he ended up letting an athlete

attend a youth group function or not, and whether or not he should punish the student

for missing practice. He realized that although he had to stick to his rules, he still

needed to allow the players to go on the trip without repercussions, simply because they

were attending a religious youth conference. However, sometimes he punished some of

the players because they went and missed one or two practices. Punishments included

being benched and missing playing time. One way that I feel Coach Vaughn did not fully

perform in an ethical manner was that when he did punish a player for missing practice -

and I fell into that category occasionally - he would not communicate to that player why

he was being punished. On the surface, Coach Vaughn would say it was ok to attend a

youth group trip, while in practice he punished that player for missing practice, without

ever telling that player why.

Coach Harrison found out that doing the right thing for the student is the best way

to go every time, and that winning takes care of itself if you do the right thing from the

start. Then the expectations are built into your program, and that leads to winning.

When faced with an ethical issue - for example, how do you decide what to do

when your best player gets in trouble in school two days before the state tournament,

do you sit them or let them play and then punish them later Coach Vaughn stated that

if his best player had gotten in trouble he would bench him and put in another player. He

believes that the athlete will benefit more in the long run, getting more out of being

benched rather than being allowed to play and receiving delayed discipline. Vaughn

believes it is important to teach his athletes the difference in right and wrong, and that
Ethics in Coaching 5

such instruction will last longer in the big scheme of things. Youth sports are a means to

an end, and sports helps young people attain an education, which leads to a career,

which in turn will lead into providing for a family. If a player is taught right from wrong,

rather than a win at all costs mentality, he or she will grow into a mature person.

When deciding how to respond to an ethical dilemma, Coach Harrison states that

experience is the best teacher. Additionally, having mentors to talk to, such as his

former basketball coach, Coach Warren, helps out when it comes to making the tough

decisions. Coach Harrison was faced with an interesting situation in that he recently

was his sons and daughters basketball coach. Would they be treated differently than

another player? Coach Harrison states that rules and expectations are to be laid out

before the season begins, and no matter when the offense occurs or which player is

involved, a coach has to stick to the rules. While issues and rule infringements can and

do come up at any time, if the expectations for the program have been laid out and

stuck to for many years, the chances of things happening diminish. He said that he has

coached his own children for four years now and the rules are the same no matter what.

Although the rules are the same for everyone, one thing that does differ, as Coach

Harrison sees it, is the way he coaches one athlete as compared to another. Some

athletes need a butt chewing more often than others, while some need a pat on the

back more often. Trying the positive sandwich has always worked for Coach Harrison,

offering an encouraging comment, followed by constructive criticism, and then followed

up by something else positive.

Yes, I do agree that both Coach Vaughn and Coach Harrison made the right

decisions with the examples. I do not agree that Coach Vaughn was as consistent in
Ethics in Coaching 6

coaching with ethics and morals in mind. Whereas Coach Harrison was the same

yesterday, today, and tomorrow, Coach Vaughn could be fickle and moody, not always

reacting to similar situations or issues the same way every time.

Yes, coaching is a great example of a moral practice. When it comes to discipline

and sportsmanship, a coach has to have morals. If you do not have a good moral

practice as a coach, then the question is what are you teaching your athletes? Are you

showing them that it is okay to be rude or that it is okay to be unsportsmanlike? That is

the real question.

I believe that sportsmanship is best exemplified through coaching. Coaches

must treat opponents with due respect, both in victory and defeat, and should

encourage their performers to act in a similar manner. A key role for a coach is to

prepare performers to respond to success and failure in a dignified manner

(MACKENZIE, B.). In other words, if the coach of the team has sportsmanship, that will

lead to good character in the players and the team overall. The Markkula Center for

Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University states that - A more ethical approach to

athletics is sportsmanship. Under a sportsmanship model, healthy competition is seen

as a means of cultivating personal honor, virtue, and character. It contributes to a

community of respect and trust between competitors and in society. The goal in

sportsmanship is not simply to win, but to pursue victory with honor by giving one's best

effort. If the coach shows his team that winning isnt everything, that will benefit them

more in the long run, rather than, for example, teaching his team to cheat just to win.

Yes, winning is nice, but you dont win in everything you do. If you have the mindset that

youre immune to losing, when you finally do lose, it will tear you down.
Ethics in Coaching 7

In sports today, as in many areas of life, being politically correct has become an

issue. For example, in sports leagues such as Upward, players are taught that everyone

is a winner. Many times, especially in the younger ages, the score is not even kept.

Players in Upward get a participation trophy and are told everyone's a winner. Upward is

a great program that teaches good sportsmanship at a young age. However, the

problem starts when the players start to get a little bit older and that everyone's a

winner mindset rolls over into their middle school basketball career. The parents of

little Johnny want him to win every game and if that doesnt happen, then the coach is

terrible for making the team lose. Another aspect of Upward is that every kid gets

playing time, which is great once again until they get older. The parents want their kid to

be playing all the time and so does the athlete, but when they get older, they are not

going to be able to have equal amounts of playing time. The coach is going to put in the

game whoever he thinks is best on the court. Once you get into older youth sport there

is no participation trophy. As this points out, the societal norm of everyone is a winner

just doesnt fit into competitive sports.

Your rules need to come from your character. If you are a sound virtue-based

coach, then your rules should have great ethical values also. Most virtue ethics

theories take their inspiration from Aristotle who declared that a virtuous person is

someone who has ideal character traits. These traits derive from natural internal

tendencies, but need to be nurtured; however, once established, they will become

stable. For example, a virtuous person is someone who is kind across many situations

over a lifetime because that is her character and not because she wants to maximize

utility or gain favors or simply do her duty (Athanassoulis, N). Basically, if you are a
Ethics in Coaching 8

virtuous person you are an all-around sound person. You have good character and are

kind, you know right from wrong, and you are morally stable as well.

Hinman states in a PowerPoint that rule-based ethics follow the rules such as the

Ten Commandments, duty, human rights, etc. In that PowerPoint, he uses an Immanuel

Kant quote which states Always act in such a way that the maxim of your action can be

willed as a universal law of humanity. I like this quote because I think that if you follow

the rule-based ethics values, you are universally sound, which means that you are in

touch with the moral side of the spectrum as well as staying in the lines of the rules.
Ethics in Coaching 9

Works Cited

Athanassoulis, N. (n.d.). Virtue Ethics. Retrieved March 05, 2017, from

http://www.iep.utm.edu/virtue/

Hinman, L. M., Ph. D. (2013, September 24). Rule-based Approaches to Ethics:

Deontology. Retrieved March 5, 2017, from

http://ethics.sandiego.edu/Presentations/AppliedEthics/Theory/Rule-based

%20Approaches.pdf

MACKENZIE, B. (2001) Code of Ethics and Conduct for Sports Coaches [WWW]

Available from: https://www.brianmac.co.uk/ethics.htm [Accessed 3/5/2017]

University, S. C. (2012, August 1). What Role Does Ethics Play in Sports? Retrieved

March 05, 2017, from https://www.scu.edu/ethics/focus-areas/more/resources/what-

role-does-ethics-play-in-sports/