What makes a good high school football coach?

That question was raised this week after two Hoover High School coaches were placed on leave and have now resigned due to their activities toward members of the Hoover football team.

Several longtime head coaches at high schools in Alabama who were asked Thursday about their jobs – and not directly about the situation at Hoover – said it essentially boils down to one thing.

relationships.

“I always tell people that a kid doesn’t care what you know until he knows you care,” Auburn High School coach Keith Etheredge said. “Most really good coaches are also really good teachers in the classroom.”

Helena coach Richie Busby said he doesn’t think the way student-athletes are coached has changed over the years.

“I think you can train the kids as hard as you want as long as you build a foundation and a relationship with them first,” he said.

Etheredge has been a coach for 25 years.

In a few weeks he will begin his 19th season as head coach. He has won 181 games and five state titles.

He agreed with Busby that student-athletes, while perhaps more demanding in today’s world, haven’t changed much. In his experience, they still respond to good coaching.

“I think the most important thing as a coach — and I tell my coaches this every year before we start, and I think this has been true in coaching since I’ve been in it — is don’t do anything that will cause a negative reaction in a kid,” Etheredge said. “In other words, don’t put your hands on a kid and berate them and demean them. You can coach without doing those things. If you can’t do that, we have to move on and let the kid move on and do something else. If you do any of those things to a kid, I tell my coaches, ‘You’re going to be the one moving on.’ I’m not going to put my livelihood on the line for somebody that does that to a kid.”

Etheredge said this doesn’t just apply to coaching.

“The most important thing in our profession and in any profession is to be professional,” he said. “In any profession, if you touch someone or call them names, you get fired. … We’re here to teach these guys how to be young men, and I don’t think this teaches them anything.”

Louis LeBlanc of Westminster Christian began as a volunteer coach in 1997 before becoming a full-time coach and teacher in the fall of 1998.

“I think the people who hang whistles around their necks really need to remember the impact of what we do,” he said. “It’s not just about winning games. That’s part of it. If it’s just about winning games, then I’m treating people’s sons like commodities. I’m going to exploit them and get rid of them, or I’m going to recruit other people’s kids because I have to win. I can’t live like that, and we need more people to say, ‘Your sons, your daughters are valuable, and we’re going to treat them that way, and we want to hold them to a standard, and we want to help them develop strong character and integrity.’ And what better place to do that than sports?”

LeBlanc said he is always aware of how he, his coaches and his school are perceived and the impact that all has on the limited time a student-athlete spends in high school.

“We talk about how we can be successful on the field, but if that leads to people in the community having a bad opinion of Westminster, then we’ve failed as football players and coaches,” LeBlanc said. “If these young men that we coach see us in public 20 years from now with their families and then go a long way to get around us, so they avoid us and don’t talk to us, then we’ve failed as coaches. I want them to make the effort and say, ‘Man, coach, that’s my son, what are you doing, it’s so good to see you.’ I mean, that’s the goal, man. So, that’s got to be your goal, whether it’s your starting quarterback or the backup holder, because those kids see the difference.”

Spain Park coach Tim Vakakes played at Homewood under coaches such as Gerald Gann, Bob Newton and Dickie Wright. Even though that was three decades ago, he said, his opinion hasn’t changed much.

“I think the same things about the culture back then still hold true today,” he said. “Be a consistent role model, try to be a leader and you’re going to make mistakes and when you make them, own up to it, admit it and move on. Be humble and treat the kids like you would want your own son to be treated. I tell our coaches every day to treat these kids like they’re your sons. If you want your son to be treated that way, then do it. If you don’t, then don’t, nothing more, nothing less. I constantly email our parents thanking us for giving us their sons. It’s a blessing to be a part of this four-year period with these guys.”

Etheredge shared the same opinion as Vakakes.

“The last kid I grabbed coming off the field was my son, and he’s mine,” he said. “I always tell parents I’m going to treat their child the same as if he were mine. The only difference between your child and mine is I’m not going to touch your child. I’m not going to call my child names. I’ve never called him names. I’m not going to belittle him. I want him to understand there are ways to reach people without having to do those things.”

Theodore’s head coach Steve Mask is already in the Alabama High School Athletic Association Hall of Fame. In his 28 years as head coach, he has won 218 games. He has been in the profession for 45 years.

He said player safety is now a top priority at all levels of football and that is a good thing.

“I think the most important thing is being able to take care of your players,” he said. “By taking care of them, you have to build a relationship of trust with the players so that they know that whatever happens, all intentions are ultimately for the best interest of the player. I’m not saying you can’t coach hard. I’m not saying you can’t push them a little bit, but the kids have to trust you and they have to know that ultimately you’re going to do everything you can to prevent harm from coming to them or anyone else.”

Most of the coaches surveyed agreed that they need to know their players personally and know what motivates each of them.

“I think the best coaches are the ones that really teach the game and find ways to motivate so many different kids on your team,” said Faith Academy coach Erik Speakman. “When you have 70 kids on your team, you have 70 different personalities. Figuring out what makes each kid play hard can be challenging. You can yell and scream at some kids and they love it, and you can yell and scream at others and they completely retreat into their shell.”

If all these things are elements of good coaching, what is bad coaching?

“I think bad coaching doesn’t prepare your kids for success, doesn’t do a good job in the offseason, all the things that prepare them to be football players,” Busby said. “The offseason is very important for all of us, especially in a lot of professions where you can develop kids from middle school through high school and hopefully make a positive contribution all the way through juniors and seniors. I would say bad coaching just puts kids in a position where they can’t be successful.”

Mask said that good and bad coaching can be reduced to a five-letter word.

“If you’re constantly berating them and the kids don’t trust you and you’ve done things to them that make them not trust you, that’s going to be your undoing in the end,” he said. “If you don’t do something now that encourages them to want to play and encourages their friends to want to play, you’re going to see the numbers go down. Football isn’t much fun in August. It’s 40 degrees, but if the kids know you care about them and trust them, they’re going to trust you.

Trust is a big thing these days.”

Editors Dennis Victory and Thomas Ashworth contributed to this report.