David Shores, Spain Park
What is happening to David Shores right now is a travesty. Shores is a great guy and a great football coach. I’ve interviewed him numerous times and liked him very much for his enthusiasm for his football team and for his kind and gracious manner. He was a solid defensive coordinator who helped lead Spain Park to the state championship game in 2007 and has done a fine job as head coach leading his team to the quarters last year.
The Hoover Board is making a big mistake with this. Something is wrong when a player attacks a coach at practice and the coach gets punished severely. It’s not right. David may be tough on his players, but what good coach is not tough on his players? Do you think Nick Saban ever takes it easy on his players? Of course not. That’s not the way to coach football.That’s not the way to get victories. It’s a tough and demanding game, and while you need to have care about your players personally, you’ve got to be tough at times on the football field. That’s just the game. Shores was probably being hard-nosed with the player and the player couldn’t handle it and lost his self control and attacked Shores.
Now all the parents are up in arms about the way A.W. Bolt, the Hoover School Board President, is handling this. And they should be. These players need their coach back. Most of them love the guy. There are always going to be kids who don’t like the way their head coach treats them, some kids who can’t handle tough love. But Shores overall is very popular with his players. The Hoover Board is just being too politically correct and making themselves look stupid.
They need to get it together or they’ll lose a good football coach and have a disastrous season. They may have already sealed their fate this year with the way they’ve messed this up.
(Spain Park Coach David Shores is suspended while Hoover Board investigates his incident with a player.)
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I agree that coaches need to be tough with their palyers from a vebal and intensity stand point. However, I do not care who you are, a coach should never lay a hand on a player with malcious intent as witness’s and current players that I know very well have testified of the incident. You have not ever heard of Nick Saban having to be pulled off a player in the same manner of what happened with Shores. I do not think that Saban has any problem motivating, or teaching his players with the absence of Physical altercation. It sounds like Shores has a “little man” syndrome that led to this. He is a Jerk on and off the field and people in the community familiar with the program know it.Your hypothetical statement of events was not what happened, and the current players are much happier now that Shores is not walking the sideline. My son who is a very talented player coming up through the ranks will be one that will be transferred out of the Spain Park System if Shores is re-instated, and that will not be the only one. The Spain Park football team will be much better off without Shores on the sideline. It is a shame that this issue is even up for debate, where has our society gone to think that this is excusable???
Well, you know more than I do about what goes on in practice. I just know him from a media standpoint and he seemed like a decent person. Maybe I had the wrong impression of him.
To your point about Nick Saban, he’s tough on players to a point that they’re driven to the limit. He comes close to being abusive, but the players know they have to take it and not throw a punch or yell back at him or they’ll be off the team. Nick Saban is no saint. i don’t think Shores is any worse than Saban, and, according to witnesses at practice, the player attacked Shores and was pulled off of him. The problem with society today as far as teaching values go, is that parents don’t discipline their children; they tell them they are the next Joe Montana or Rolando McClain. They don’t tell their kids no, and don’t set boundaries that their kids need to respect and, thus, the kids can’t handle authority. Kids need discipline and they need to be told no when they’re doing wrong. Today’s kids are pampered by parents who want to see them get a college scholarship to play football or whatever sport they choose. It’s unrealistic in a lot of cases. The only discipline the kids get is from their coaches, and when the kids come home and complain to their parents, the parents don’t support the authority figure, but rather support their son or daughter who misbehaved which allows that behavior to continue. That seems to me to be what’s wrong with society. Not the coaches’ disciplinary ways, but the parents who allow their kids to disobey authority figures.
You, being in the media know that there are two sides to every story, and I am not ignorant of this fact. However, there was a history between this player and shores…even an incident last season in the weight room…there is more, WAY MORE…We have not heard publicly the player’s account of the actions, only the Hoover Board Speak, and Shores Speak. It will be intresting to see how all the stories meet in the middle somewhere. If your account is true than Shores’ should not have engauged in the altercation, only get the player off of him and suspend the player.
In any event, I think Shores needs to be removed for the health of the Spain Park Program in the future. We need no “Clouds” over the program to linger years in advance.
I will say this, IF Shores were involved maliciously, and knowing some of the back story in the weight room and within the program, he needs some anger managment if he intends to remain in coaching at the high school level.
What’s the incident in the weight room?
Same player, coach broke a clipboard over his back…These two have a history…per a player on the team.
I understand motivation, but a good motivator can tell how to motivate from a Team (Group)perspective AND a Personal (Individual)perspective. Each individual is different and responds differently to motivational methods. Looks like he didnt understand this player as well as he thought he did.
I am old school….Take my son grab his facemaske speak to him stearnly, and Instruct Him. Demonstrate the blocking methods etc. by hitting him in the shoulder pads. Instruct him in the techniques however you need to,but when the contact or verbal altercation becomes personal on any level, the line has been irrevocably crossed.
I agree with you on that, but as you said, there are two sides to the story.