McFarland Murph

HHP 324 Coaching & Officiating

Dr. Rebecca Buchanan
March 2, 2016

Ethics in Coaching
Ethics in coaching is extremely important in every single sport. The way a
coach conducts his or herself determines the way his or her players respond to
them. Ethics not only reflects the coach, but the team and school as well. In
general, ethics in coaching plays a huge role in the character and development of a
team.
When learning more about ethics in coaching, I decided to interview Emory &
Henry College head football coach Curt Newsome who has been coaching for 33
years. The reason I chose to interview Coach Newsome was because of the fact
that hes been coaching football for a long time and I felt like he could relate to
some of the ideas or concepts associated with ethics in coaching. Throughout the
interview with Coach Newsome, I asked him questions such as, how many years
have you been coaching? Who or what influenced him to go into coaching? Moral/
ethical issues hes encountered and how to handle an ethical situation. Asking
these questions helped me understand how coaches handle ethical situations and
how it affects the team, players and the school.
As I interviewed Coach Newsome about his experiences with ethical
situations, he described an incident where he had to dismiss a player from the
football team due to not showing up to morning film sessions. Coach Newsome
stated that, I tried to give him every chance I could, because I knew about his

situation back at home, but I had to let him go because he was hurting the team.
Coach Newsome continued stating that, he gave him every chance he could even
saying that he should have let him go a long time ago. After hearing about the
incident and understanding the seriousness of it, I came to the realization that
Coach Newsome had a difficult ethical dilemma when deciding how many chances
he should give this player despite all of the meetings hes missed in the season.
Learning about this situation reminded me of another incident involving a softball
player who violated team rules before leaving for the championship game. Once the
head coach (Mike Candrea) found out she had violated the rules he told the staff to,
Take her bags off of the plane. Shes staying home. We are going without her.
(Janssen & Dale 2002, pg. 72) In this statement made by then Arizona Head Softball
Coach Mike Candrea you realize how hard this decision was to not play his star
player on the team. However in the end, it came down to what was the right thing
to do, which was keeping the player from playing in the game. After hearing the
scenario given by Coach Newsome and the incident involving the Arizona softball
player, I totally stand by Coach Newsomes decision to get rid of the player,
because of the fact that the player violated the team rules and ultimately hurt the
team.
I think the most important concept to understand about coaching is that its a
moral practice. The reason its a moral practice is because your morals or values
affect how your players view you as a coach. The way a coach handles certain
situations and earns respect from his players is a direct reflection of your morals
and principles as a person. I think this concept is extremely important because your
attitude on and off the field affects your players and in the end, it determines how
your players respond to you. To further discuss this topic I interviewed Emory &
Henry College offensive line coach Josh Wellenhoffer who is going into his 13 th year

coaching. When speaking with Coach Wellenhoffer, he talked about when he got his
first college job at Emory & Henry College and how he had to make a tough decision
on who to play on the field. He stated in an interview that, One of the issues I dealt
with when I first got here was playing the best players not my friends on the team.
Coach Wellenhoffer also stated that it came down to, whats the right thing to do
when it came to playing the best players which relates to coaching being a moral
practice by the way he did the right thing that was best for him and his offensive
lineman. I feel that this is a great example of coaching being a moral practice
because, it emphasizes doing the right thing despite whether you like someone or
not.
Norms and values are extremely important in coaching in sports and play a
huge role in how a team responds to a coachs principles. Some of the norms and
values of society that are reflected and reinforced in sports deals with responsibility,
accountability, discipline and character. Coaches use each of these qualities to help
establish their players into better men and women so they can ultimately be
affective in society. An example of these norms and values come from Tom Renney,
the director of player personnel for the New York Rangers. In this example Renney
says that, If you dont have good people first and foremost in your dressing room,
it will be a long season. (Janssen & Dale, 2002, p.83) In this quote by Tom Renney,
he shows just how important character is and how it affects a team. By reading this
quote you begin to realize how it relates to character which is one of the values that
are associated with the norms and values that are in sports and society. Another
example of norms and values in society and sports comes from a quote by Joe
Gibbs, the former head football coach of the Washington Redskins. In the quote
Gibbs states, You must know your philosophy and convictions as a coach because
you will be tested. (Janssen & Dale, 2002, p.76) This statement made by Joe Gibbs

reflects the principles of norms and values in society and sports by emphasizing
that you must know and stand by your own principles in order to be respected as a
coach. Overall, the norms and values that are reflected and reinforced in society are
carried out through sports and play a crucial role in the development of a team.
While norms and values are extremely important in society, there are also
ethical dilemmas that coaches go through when making decisions based on these
norms and values. Some of the dilemmas that many coaches face are whether to let
a player play despite the fact he or she broke the rules, whether or not to renew a
players scholarship, determining what kind of players you want on the team, how to
handle a serious situation involving a star player and more. Ethical dilemmas such
as these affect coaches throughout the world and the decisions the coaches make
regarding these dilemmas determines how players view their coach. Ethical
dilemmas can be extremely challenging to a coach because you have to make the
right decision based on whats right and not necessarily how its going to affect the
way your players play in a game or throughout the season. An example of an ethical
dilemma comes from Janssen and Dales book in 2002 when they give a certain
scenario of what to do as a coach in a certain situation. The scenario talked about a
player who was in his or her junior year of eligibility and the coach had to make the
decision on whether to let the player finish out the rest of his or her eligibility even
though he or she hasnt really contributed anything to the team or take away his or
her scholarship and give it to someone who you feel you need on the team. (Janssen
& Dale, 2002) In this scenario you begin to wonder what you would do in that
position and how you would feel as a player if you had your scholarship taken away.
Both of these questions run through your head as a coach and a person as well, you
have to decide whether to look out for yourself or look out for the player and his or
her situation. Another ethical dilemma also comes from Janssen and Dales book. In

this dilemma you are a head coach and one of your assistants tells you that two of
your star athletes are allowing someone else to write their papers and do their
assignments for them. When you as a coach hear about this situation you find out
that the players who did this are your star players and youre trying to figure out
whether you need to discipline the players, ignore the situation and hope no one
finds out or rationalize the situation and tell yourself that you need these players to
win and that its not really going to hurt anyone. (Janssen & Dale, 2002, p.74) After
reading this situation that youre in and understanding the situations youre dealing
with, youre realize that you have to make a tough decision on whether you want to
ignore the situation because these players can help you win or punish these players
because they violated the rules and integrity of the school. Ethical dilemmas such
as these are some of the issues coaches have to deal with and they show just how
difficult it is to make these decisions and how it can impact your team, the success
your team has and your job as well.
Rule-based ethics and virtue- based ethics also play a huge role in the way a
coach teaches his or her players. In order to understand these concepts you must
understand what each of these ethics mean and how their difference impacts
coaching throughout the world. When looking at the differences between the two
ethics you have to realize that rule-based ethics have the concept of if it wasnt a
rule that I broke, then the action/behavior is ok while virtue-based ethics have the
concept of considering the effects of a decision on individuals and relationships. The
differences these ethics have has an important impact on the way a coach thinks
when he or she makes a decision regarding their players. These concepts also help
shape the mindset coaches have which ultimately sets the foundation for the
philosophy a coach wants his or her athletes to follow, which is critical for coach
who wants to establish trust, accountability and other morals throughout the team.

Overall, ethics in coaching play a huge role in the way a team is formed or
shaped. The way a coach makes decisions impacts the way the team and the
institution view him or her. I feel that ethics is the foundation for coaching because
it establishes character and how it not only helps the player on the field, but off the
field as well. In conclusion, ethics is essential to the overall development of a team
and without ethics many teams wouldnt succeed.