Stress of the Job Sends Coaches Over the Edge
By: Meredith Hillgartner
Updated: November 12, 2012
Recently Texas Tech has seen more trouble than anyone.
"I think over the years that I have been in the business it has changed how you treat kids and how we were treated by our coaches," Long said.
Don Long is the Athletic Director for Idalou Independent School District and has been coaching for 35 years.
He said the ways coaches handle different situations is changing.
"I think in order to reach certain kids you got to be some way," Long said. "You have to be tough with this kid, with this kid you got to find what pushes his button, and all in all it's very tough to be the same all the way through."
Long said the media has a lot to do with why coaches are put under a spotlight.
"I think a lot of this has to do with there is so much more exposure," Long said. "Ten years ago there wouldn't have been a camera on a coach on the sideline like that it. Just so happens there are more cameras, more opportunity to see things like that."
Long said a coach's job can be more stressful than others- that is why you see so many emotions on the sideline.
"Because you put a product out on there for display," Long said. "In his case of fifty-five thousand, sixty thousand people watching, yes that does add stress."
Long said with stress comes pressure, and the pressure of job security.
"Well I think your job depends on whether you win or lose, " Long said.
Long said it is the same pressure that lead to a coach to victory as well as defeat- it just depends on how you face it.
"I think most coaches put more stress on themselves," Long said. "More than what anyone else can put on them. That's just something that comes from within and that is why you are in that profession."
