“I do feel bad about that trophy I threw in the Mississippi, because you don’t want to pollute an important, historic waterway,” he said. “But I don’t want any of those trophies. I appreciate the gesture, but a coaching award distracts from the essence of a coach’s job, which is to educate the students. You can only justify the existence of a team at a college campus if being on the team benefits the athletes’ educational experience."
That is Tom Donnelly, the track and field coach at Haverford, who represents everything I believe about coaching and athletics at the college level. I’ll write more about collegiate athletics when I have more time.