By Allie Arnold

Staff Writer

A doctor’s daughter is given the amazing opportunity to work as an intern in the same hospital. The high school football coach’s son gets the starting position on his select football team. It is seen every day, and yet no one is fully aware of what goes on behind the scenes of these “coincidences.”

 We have all seen a child or teenager doing something that they do not exactly seem qualified for, usually in sports. It is not to say that they are not a good player, but maybe they are starting ahead of someone else who seems to play the position a little better.

 So why does that child get the privilege of being in the spotlight? The answer is simple. Most likely, the parents got involved in some way, whether it be bribing with money, threats of some kind, or saying the word and fully expecting their wish to be fulfilled just because they hold some position of power. Whatever it is, it is done, simply because their child is to be the best and have the best.

There are some cases in which the coach is not phased by the powerful position of a parent. However, if the parents have any say in the matter (which they usually do) that coach will not last very long, because in the parent’s eyes, any coach keeping their son or daughter out of the spotlight is to be fired.

Former Southlake Carroll volleyball coach, Arthur Stanfield, was recently fired after a 48-2 season, 960 career victories and 36 years of being a head coach. According to an interview he had with The Dallas Morning News, he claimed to have “angered the wrong parent or parents” after doing something they didn’t agree with. Stanfield explained that they were not going to be satisfied until he was gone, so gone he was.

A man who is capable of coaching a team to have a season as incredible as Southlake Carroll is not going to get fired because the athletic director thinks he can find someone better. Anyone who hears 48-2 would be crazy to think Stanfield was not fit to coach a successful team.

The parents did not agree with the decisions he was making, more than likely regarding playing time for certain players. And because he was not satisfying the parent’s needs, he was not a good enough coach.

Those parents obviously thought that their daughters deserved better, and I’m not by any means saying they didn’t. But as my dad has told me all my life, “a coach is not there to be your friend.”  A coach’s job is to make a winning team, and he did.

My parents drilled into my head since as long as I can remember that I get what I earn. If I do not study for a test, I will fail it. If I go to every volleyball practice to improve, then I get playing time. They do not believe in giving me an opportunity I do not deserve because that opportunity was obviously not earned.

 A parent cannot expect their child to grow and mature as a person if they are still holding their hand at 16 years old. If the child does not work hard for what they want because they have a parent to do it for them, they will spend the rest of their life expecting that same special treatment, and mommy and daddy are not always going to have the means of persuasion they do now.