An editorial is an article that reflects the opinion of the Wildcat Chronicle’s staff, offering analysis and commentary on a current issue affecting the school or larger community. Unlike news stories, editorials aim to persuade or influence readers’ perspectives.
WEGO is coming off a very successful year in sports, starting off with the football team making the playoffs for the first time in 21 years. Senior Brady Johnson went back-to-back in swimming for the state championship. The girls’ volleyball team won conference. The boys’ basketball team started a new era with Coach Ramos. But still, we students feel that there are still some left out changes in the sports department that could potentially better our experiences now and in the future.
One change we would love to see in the future? Evaluations for coaches: some means of allowing students to provide feedback as to what is working well, and what might need further consideration. Coaches are constantly providing feedback to their athletes, but it is hardly a two-way street.
“Some coaches are better than others, however, the bad coaches need to learn how to listen to their athletes and understand that when they tell them that they’re injured, they are injured, and not try to push them to their extent and allow us to take proper care of them,” former student and four-time IHSA state qualifier Kali Waller said.
Considering a coach is responsible “for 20 percent to 30 percent of the variation in team outcomes,” according to the University of Chicago, their role cannot be taken lightly.
As with the Five Essentials Survey, or even the Google Forms some teachers put out periodically to gather feedback from their classes, a survey sent out at the end of every season would allow the coach/athlete dynamic to be evaluated after every season. This includes getting input from the players and parents, and then working through that feedback with the head of the athletic department. Right now, however, the process falls primarily to the athletic department.
“The Athletics Department, we kind of are in charge of evaluating everybody. A lot of that is done through kind of like our observations and our conversations with people,” Athletic Director Nick Parry said.
Those conversations start with the coaching staff.
“I meet with the coaches pretty regularly. During those meetings, it’s a lot of trying to check in with the coaches to see how things are going, what issues are coming up, what issues are not coming up, and then at the end of the season, we kind of do a full evaluation of what went well, what did not go well?” Athletic Director Nick Parry said.
According to Parry, gauging student perceptions can be difficult.
“Every team everywhere, all the time, will have certain athletes that are like ‘This coach is not good,’ you know? And then the flip side is also true. We’ll have at least a couple athletes [who] are like, ‘This is the greatest coach ever.’ So our job is to kind of [look] between those and see where everybody’s perception lies. Because you can have one extreme to the other. We have to find kind of that middle [ground],” Parry said.
While it is natural to have a range of opinions about any coach, gathering feedback from athletes themselves is key to gaining a clearer understanding of where a coach stands. Currently, student input is not typically sought in the formal evaluation process, yet it could provide valuable insights into how well coaches foster development and maintain team morale.
As per the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS), “Just as you want your student-athletes to grow and develop, this should be the same objective for your coaching staff. In order to provide the best environment and learning opportunities for your student-athletes, your coaches also have to continue to learn and improve, and this is where your evaluation process comes into play.”
In an ideal world, this evaluation process would be taken into consideration when determining whether to re-hire certain coaches. While we understand that finding the right fit for an athletic program is likely difficult, the same could be said of teachers, who are, in fact, evaluated on a regular basis. For a new teacher, these evaluations might be tied to whether or not they are rehired.
The head of the athletic apartment should decide whether WEGO retains a coach or not based on the feedback and improvement of players; if that if not possible, then at the very least, a conversation needs to happen that takes into account athletes’ compliments as well as concerns.
“A coaching evaluation should not simply be a means to terminate an individual, even if this is the final result after all efforts have been taken to help a coach to overcome a few shortcomings. Your evaluation process should highlight all strengths and positive contributions that a coach makes, and then also list a few aspects that warrant steps for improvement,” Dr. David Hoch of the NFHS said in the article “Purpose, Value of Coaching Evaluations in Education-Based Athletics.”
We have many great sports at West Chicago Community High School, but there is room to grow, especially if the athletics department wants to remain in sync with other highly competitive schools in Illinois.
We need to acknowledge everything our athletic department has done for our school, as the staff are a big part of students’ lives here. With open dialogue and a willingness to make changes, our school could see more students try different athletic categories, and maybe even fall in love with a new sport. And if that does happen, we could have more athletes compete with state awards – if they win we would have a higher variability than most schools. After all, we believe WEGO has the best sports teams in the entire state.
