Beyond codes of conduct: the importance of coaching the athlete to choose a healthy lifestyle.

"Student-athletes caught drinking alcohol will be..."

Most high schools have training rules or codes of conduct for all of their teams. It may be just a few lines in a coaches/athletes handbook or it could be a brochure that reads like a legal document.

QUESTIONS

Do these codes really work, or are they merely window dressing for the administration and parents?

Do the athletes consider the rules a joke, that they have no teeth and that no one is really interested in them?

Do coaches look the other way when their athletes - and especially their stars - are at risk?

We are talking about a very serious problem in our high schools - alcohol and (other) drug abuse. If any of the above remarks offended you, you probably are on the right path: you care for your kids and are making the right choices for them.

Like most of you, I am a coach who is struggling to deal with the problem. But I refuse to resort to tired old rhetoric and scare statistics to make a point. I believe that coaches and administrators have a golden opportunity to do something about the teenage drinking and drug problem in our schools and on our teams.

NO-TOLERANCE APPROACH

I believe that we have to take a Zero Tolerance approach: Don't drink! Don't do drugs! They are poisons that will kill you!

Those messages about "drinking responsibly" are absurd. How can teenagers be expected to know their "limits?"

Also absurd are those messages about being a "designated driver." All they do is encourage the other kids in the group to keep drinking - "somebody will drive us home."

Instead of benevolent understanding and tolerance, we must encourage, lead, and empower our athletes to make the right choices, particularly about going to parties where alcohol and (other) drugs will be consumed by minors.

The right choice is not to become involved at all - not to go to such parties, and to never tell your coach that you went to a party just to be with your friends. "But I didn't do any drinking, Coach. I just walked around with a bottle of pop in my hand all night."

Sound familiar? Of course. But it doesn't wash. All the kid is saying is that he doesn't mind everyone else drinking. That isn't exactly a comforting message for the coach.

When athletes go to a party at which alcohol is served, they put themselves at risk. It's going to be extremely difficult to avoid drinking with all of one's peers.

Coaches have to emphasize that mere attendance at a party can have many consequences. Just one sip may lead to another and another and to intoxication and the inevitable violence.

Any time an athlete finds himself in the company of drugs and alcohol, he should leave immediately. He cannot wait ten minutes or a half hour. Every minute compounds the pressure and risks.

ROLE-MODELING

Coaches can help athletes take the right direction. Kids already have the power to choose not to become involved with drugs. The coach should encourage them to exercise it.

Coaches must see themselves as role models, whether they choose to be one or not. It's the kids' call, not the coaches. Sometimes the coach will be the only role model the kids have.

As adults, coaches may believe that it's all right to have a drink "in the right circumstances." The problem with such thinking is that the kids may see them doing it and that the "right circumstances" can become any time, anywhere.

Coaches must also use common sense in speaking to kids about drinking. It is neither adult nor common-sense to join the kids in celebrating a victory or drowning a loss with a pitcher of beer...or something stronger. That's bar-room thinking.

We coach our kids to emulate our work ethic, our philosophy, our enthusiasm, and our beliefs. We want them to emulate these qualities on the fields and courts, and they do. They will also emulate them off the field and away from the team.

Alcohol is a major issue that they must really think about and about which they must make the right choices. Codes of conduct and training rules are steps in the right direction, but they can be effective only if we educate our athletes, coaches, administration, and parents about the danger, consequences, and alternatives involved with drug use.

THE WINNING STRATEGY

We cannot establish these rules and expect the athletes to abide by them simply because they want to play. It's much more complex than that.

Education is still the key to a winning strategy. Athletes have to hear our positive messages over and over again. Think about coaching for a moment. How many times do we go over a play or a fundamental before the athletes can get it right and run it to perfection? In practice we teach and repeat over and over again until the athletes master the skills.

It is the same way with the "no tolerance" messages we send. The athletes have to hear the message repeatedly to sell themselves on it.

Example and leadership are still the best tools with which to accomplish this goal. We have a great opportunity to inculcate these lessons and choices into our everyday coaching styles. We can no longer take the easy way out - look the other way and hope that our athletes are not out there abusing, or if they are out there abusing that they will be smart enough not to get caught.

We cannot live this dangerously. With the number of DUI's and alcohol-related accidents and the increasing potency of marijuana and other drugs, we are losing many of our kids.

When many of us were growing up, it was common to have a few beers just because it was illegal. Today our kids are doing it at a much younger age, many before puberty, and have much more mobility than we had.

They lead adult lifestyles, but do not have the maturity to handle the alcohol they are consuming. Nor are their bodies able to tolerate it without being damaged.

For all these reasons, we need a strong "no tolerance" approach. Just as we will never settle for anything but the best when we go out to compete, we should never lower our expectations when it comes to dealing with anything as deadly as drug abuse.

We work with our kids day in and day out. We love and believe in them or we wouldn't be in coaching. The ball is in our hands, and it's time to take a strong and positive stand.

Let's win one for the kids!