Originally Posted by Anonymous
Its the sad truth. Things were a lot simpler when we grew up. Here is the problem as I see it. First, lets remember coaches are employees of our school districts and they are educators in our community. They are, for the most part, paid very well in Long Island. Their job is to teach in the school and they are paid extra to coach during their respective seasons.

Along come the travel programs and they have done well. They offer services for your kid to play lacrosse for a fee. Whether you think its right or not but they are PRIVATE entities.

The Town coach looks at them and says we can offer the same thing at a discounted price. That is where the conflict comes in. Who decided the prices?: They did. Who are you selling your services to? The people who pay taxes to the school district who employs the coach. If the School Districts ran the programs like they do the sports I personally wouldn't have a problem with it but that is not what is going on. There is no oversight and that is the conflict. There are budgets and oversight during the school year.

They are preying on the kids and parents of their community play for us or else and charging what they want. What's next let them dictate prices to play sports during regular season. I bet they would like to do that but reality is the schools have no business in the PRIVATE sector when you are a PUBLIC school employee. Want money go work for a PRIVATE lacrosse program.

just my thoughts.


I understand what you are saying but I disagree. I have no problem with a coach working for a club or running his own communtiy based program for extra money as long as there is no coersion by the coach to play for him. And that can happen no matter which option the coach decides to pursue.

When the school coach offers a summer program it is also a private enterprise, just like a club, it is not run through the schools and has nothing to do with the school disctrict other than the name.

The coach is doing it on his own time as a side business to his teaching job just as other teachers have tutoring businesses or are electricians or carpenters on their own time.

For the most part from what I have seen, at least in my communtiy, the school coach offers this at a much less expensive price than the clubs do. Maybe he is trying to keep his future players playing for him to keep them together and learn his system. Maybe he feels that will benefit him in the long run to build a championship varsity team. As long as he is not telling players they MUST play for him what is the problem with that?

Other coaches go to work for the club teams and make a lot of money that way. I have no problem with that either as long as those coaches are not telling their players that the MUST come and play for the club he is coaching for.

To me, I would rather have my son play for his future varsity staff in the summer at a discounted price from what I would have to pay for a club team.

Either way, the coach is making money at a side job/business on his own time.

I have no problem with either option a parent chooses for there son as long as there is no coersion but I would personally prefer the less expensive option at the youth level.

It seems in these forums that everyone is trying to justify their own decisions by belittling what others have chosen for their own son.