Joe Cravens is a guidance counselor at St. Joseph Catholic High in Ogden. He stepped down from his position as basketball coach of the Jayhawks’ girls team three years ago.
I called Cravens this week regarding a column I was writing on the problem of meddlesome parents. He said he was lucky enough to only have a few problems in that area, but did acknowledge that social media has been a game changer for coaches. We were discussing a UCLA quarterback whose father has been disparaging coach Chip Kelly on social media.
“I’ve noticed it from afar, certainly because of my involvement in college basketball and still as an announcer (for the Mountain West Conference),” said the former Weber State and Utah coach.
Two things stand out in Cravens’ mind.
“One, that it’s now socially acceptable for people to voice that type of opinion, anytime there’s displeasure. There’s no, ‘We’ll play through this.’ It’s gotta be someone’s fault and ‘we’ll call them out.’”
He went on to say, “Now with technology, everybody has a platform.”
Cravens said he isn’t sure if there are “more angry people than 15 years ago,” but that anger is more easily tapped due to social media.
“When I was a coach, there were very few complaints from parents, because I think they kind of felt it was a privilege for their son to be on a full-ride scholarship. I would start conversations by asking, ‘Can you give up this full-ride scholarship anytime you want?’”
Taking issues public, he says, “is now socially acceptable.”
He has no illusion things will revert to how they were when he was growing up and coaches had ultimate authority and issues were always resolved in-house.
“That cow is not only out of the barn; we’re not ever going to get it back in.”