Coaches need to teach their athletes more than just the fundamentals of a given sport: They must also, in conjunction with school administrators, parents and the community at large, teach their charges sportsmanship, how to handle adversity, how to dig down deep and get the most out of themselves and how to win with humility and lose with grace.

Coaches must also teach leadership skills and help athletes understand the roles they need to play to have success. They must teach teamwork and convince athletes that putting team above self will, eventually, make the team even stronger.

Coaches must, on occasion counsel athletes, serve as mediators in “family” squabbles and smooth ruffled feathers.

In other words, coaches have a big job, and most take that job seriously. Good coaches see a problem before it festers too long or erupts into volcanic proportions — and take action. They don’t overlook the problem when first identified, and they don’t put off the discussion until next week. They dig into the problem immediately, get to the crux of the matter and find solutions that are equitable.

While some might feel it’s not the coach’s job to teach values and ethics, a few years ago I heard one parent complain that all his child’s coach taught was how to win; nothing else seemed to matter.

While that might have been an overstatement, I understood what he was getting at: He wanted the coach to emphasize a few life values and ethical behavior. This coach was known for pouring it on the opponent even when his team was many points ahead.

Was the father wrong for asking the coach to consider complementing values and ethics taught by him and his wife at home? Was he wrong for questioning the coach’s behavior as leads continued to approach 30, 40 and even 50 points in many of the team’s games?

I think the father was correct in his assumption that coaching kids is more than teaching skills and X’s and O’s. It’s about teaching athletes how to play the game right — like taking the press off in the fourth quarter when his team was leading by 40 points or slowing down the fast break just a notch; showing a little compassion to opponents that may be down on talent or numbers; learning how to accept victory with humility, not arrogance.

I think school administrators should step in when a program gets out of hand — like when a coach is ahead 50-7 and is still throwing the football on third-and-5. I’ve seen that happen in a number of games over the years. It’s not right; and coaches, if they can prevent it, should not be allowed to stomp an opponent just to, well, stomp an opponent.

Take a situation I was a part of back in the ’80s at Gold Beach High, for example. I was an assistant football coach, and we had a young team with a lack of depth at some positions. Bandon, our opponent, had a big, fast team, and under their new coach, the Tigers had made remarkable strides in just one season.

As the Tigers ran a very effective double wing offense, with big, strong linemen leading the way and tough backs following the linemen through gaping holes in our defense, the lead quickly mounted for Bandon. Late in the game, with the Tigers leading by more than 50 points, Bandon kept the first-stringers in the game and added a few more touchdowns before it was all over, despite an outcome that was already certain. The final score was something in the neighborhood of 74-6, as I recall. Other Bandon opponents got the same treatment that season.

The next season, the Tigers continued their roll, stomping teams by 40 and 50 points. We met them again in a league contest, and this time the outcome was about the same — a margin of 50 or 60 points. That season, a number of teams protested to the Oregon School Activities Association, and the 45-point rule was born.

That didn’t have to be — at least in most situations.

Granted, it’s tough to hold down the scoring if the opponent can’t stop your third team. But in the case of the Bandon coach, the lopsided scores didn’t have to be so lopsided.

I have to admit, that since I usually pull for the underdog in any sport, I planned on confronting the Bandon coach at the league meeting following the season.

Unfortunately, he had returned to his home in California and left his top assistant to take the combined guff of league coaches.
Ironically, the Bandon coach, who was seldom on the teaching staff of schools where he worked, left the area, came back to re-establish the program a few years later and won again — but not with quite the point spread this time around.

The assistant I confronted at the league meeting? He became our head coach a couple of years later at Gold Beach and did a solid job of improving our football program. I even assisted him until I got the athletic director’s job a few years into his tenure.

It’s been years since the days of the south coast stompings and the advent of the 45-point rule (since modified), but I’ll never forget the helpless feeling of our entire coaching staff when Bandon kept pounding the ball into the end zone with their starters late in the game.

I’ve never seen so many shoulders slump so low in my coaching life — before or after.

Yes, coaches need to teach much more than fundamentals of the game and X’s and O’s. That, too, is their job.