How late can a coach cancel practice?

[lovetoscrap]

Just curious what the opinions of others are (and I know the DIS has opinions!)


We have swim practices from 8-11 each morning. 3 different age groups practice for one hour each. We have always had practice on and around July 4th. The coach (she is new this year) decided mid morning today to cancel practice tomorrow because of the holiday weekend (no emergency or other plans on her part, she decided to cancel since some kids will be absent) and one age group was notified of the change. Coach requested that the swim team board send an email to let everyone else know of the cancellation.


There is now a split between those that think that coach needed to give more notice to the parents for this cancellation so that signs could be posted at the pool, an email sent out ahead of time, and all the kids and parents told this morning. They want practice held tomorrow. Others think that the coach has the right to cancel practice any time that she wants--her contract does say that she sets the schedule-- and everyone deserves a day off tomorrow and the others need to lighten up.

What do you think? Can the coach cancel practice at any time for any reason? Or should there be notice given so all parents know of the change?

Not sure if it makes a difference, but this is not a volunteer coach, she is paid for the season.

 

[mamacatnv]

IMO it was inconsiderate of her to not give more notice going into a holiday weekend. I am assuming many families delayed their plans to make it to practice and they deserve the courtesy of a phone call not an anonymous email from the "board".
IMO it should be her responsibility to at least phone each and every parent to let them know in person.

Other than that as you stated she sets her own schedule - as for the parents that expect practice it is probably because they delayed plans so that they didn't miss practice and I don't blame them for being annoyed but I would get over it rather quickly and proceed with my long weekend!

 

[AristocatFan]

A coach can cancel practice at any time for any reason. We've been warming up on the field, baseball and soccer, and had the coach cancel. It happens. A day ahead is 24hr notice. Plenty of time!

 

[KiminChicago]

A coach can cancel practice at any time for any reason. We've been warming up on the field, baseball and soccer, and had the coach cancel. It happens. A day ahead is 24hr notice. Plenty of time!

Yep, a coach can cancel at any time if there is a need for it. I'd rather have a coach cancel practice at the last minute than have my son standing in the middle of the baseball diamond during a thunderstorm.

It's possible that the coach was going to have practice but so many people were going to be missing that it didn't make sense. My daughter's dance instructor shortened a class once because so many of the girls were missing it made it hard for the other girls to find their correct position in the formations so my daughter had to call me to pick her up early.

 

[MaryAnnDVC]

I don't think they EVER should have had practice on or this close to July 4th.

As a soccer mom, I know that practices get canceled on very short notice for various reasons. I always check my emails before heading out the door, and if I'm not going to be home right beforehand, I call my DH at work and have him check his.

 

[Sheree Bobbins]

A coach has the right to cancel practice whenever she wants.

 

[pyrxtc]

anytime is fine as long as it is before you ahve to show up. This is plenty of notice for anyone and I, for one, would be excited that I can start my plans earlier than thought than upset.

 

[gina2000]

Personally, I don't see the big deal. My son swims in a summer league (very casual), a high school team (e-mail notification for everything), and a club team (come hell or high water there is practice).

I'm assuming that this is a summer league based on the length of the practices and time of the day they are held. I think a day's notice is more than sufficient to notify participating parents. It's enough notice for all other leagues as far as I'm concerned also. We've had high school cancellations and summer cancellations within an hour of departing for meets, never mind practices. It's the nature of the beasty.

 

[lovetoscrap]

When I posted this earlier the issue was still being debated and there hadn't been a resolution, although the last I had heard the coach was holding firm that there would not be a practice.


But now I have been told there is practice.


I told my kids that if there was practice we would be there. It looks like I will be at the pool in the morning.

 

[kirbsam]

count me as one of those that thinks a coach can cancel practice. and a holiday weekend, is a reason.

 

[goofy!]

I side with the ones that say the others should lighten up.

We are not having practice tomorrow for our summer league. Our older kids (11-up) swim from 6:30 - 8:30am and the younger kids (10-under) swim 8:30 - 10am M-F with meets every Saturday morning (warm-ups usually at 6:00am).

We have had plenty of occasions where practice or a meet had to be cancelled last minute. It happens in swimming.

Since we have a bye week this Saturday for meets, many parents are taking off for vacation. When the coaches found out how many kids were going to be gone, they cancelled practice for tomorrow. Our parents are thrilled to be able to sleep in for a day!

Since e-mail blasts are our primary mode of communication, we did send out an e-mail notification to the parents on Wednesday. With 170 families, there is no way the coaches could call each one individually. And the parent board (I am on the executive committee), sends out the e-mails. We also sent out a tweet to our parents that follow our twitter account.

The kids are not going to lose anything for one missed practice. If she had cancelled all next week, that would be another story. But one day out of the water is not going to do any harm and probably would do the kids some good. Swimming 6 days per week is hard work for a summer league and spontaneous vacation days are an unexpected, but much appreciated surprise.

 

[Imzadi]

It sounds like a childcare problem to me. The ones who are p.o.ed about cancelling would have had to find an alternate person or situation to take care of their child at the last minute. Not everyone is a SAHM who can handle a last minute change like that - especially on a holiday weekend.

 

[roliepolieoliefan]

A coach can cancel practice at any time for any reason. We've been warming up on the field, baseball and soccer, and had the coach cancel. It happens. A day ahead is 24hr notice. Plenty of time!

Totally agree!

 

[jlima]

When DH coached soccer, he canceled a 5:30 practice at 2pm in the afternoon once, because smoke from wildfires in California was blowing across the desert into Nevada; and the air quality was REALLY BAD. He just hit he phone & called everybody.

 

[ICF]

I don't think practice should have been scheduled to begin with, but since it was I think 24 hours notice is plenty of time.

 

[tinkerdoodle]

Others think that the coach has the right to cancel practice any time that she wants--her contract does say that she sets the schedule-- and everyone deserves a day off tomorrow and the others need to lighten up.[/quote]

Absolutely, the coach can cancel at any time for any reason he/she sees fit. Parents need to realize not every Johnny/Susie is not Michael Phelps or Dara Torres. One day of missed practice time to celebrate our country's independence is not going to hurt them. BTW, my son has swim practice every day 7:15 am-9:45 am 5 days a week this summer, and I know he'd love to not swim once in a while. During school year, it's 4:15 pm -6:30 pm, still every day. One day off here or there helps, rather than hurts them. They are STILL kids, after all.

Not sure if it makes a difference, but this is not a volunteer coach, she is paid for the season.[/quote]

Doesn't matter whether they are paid or not. Everyone deserves and needs time off once in a while. Besides, just because the coach doesn't have the kids in the water does not mean they aren't still working. Alot of behind the scenes work is always needed for practices, meets, keeping pool safe, clean, & ready, or even CPR classes.

Sounds to me the parents in your organization need to truly lighten up!

 

[merryweather20]

Never. Even in the most agregious emergency, the staff should offer the parents an apology and tell them no replacement coach could be found but if they would like to stay and work on there own they have lanes and the appropriate number of lifeguars on duty.

If there was a problem with the pool itself thats a different story. Sometimes with a pool problem, there isn't opportunity for notice, which is fine.

If the coach wants the time off she should find a replacement if the parents want their kids to miss they should (and discuss the absence with the coach beforehand if it was appropriate to).

When I swam it was a good chunk of money to shell out, and I also committed to being a member of a team (I swam synchro), so of course we took practice seriously. Cancelling because the coach didn't "feel like it" would not have been okay.

 

[WDWMom]

I'm with most the folks here. A coach can cancel anytime for any reason. My kids are all in sports in middle and high school. Practices get cancellled all the time for no reason and the kids show up at home from the bus or they call me to get picked up if they didn't hear the announcement. No big deal, we go with the flow around here.

Personally, there never should have been practice anyway. This week is considered a "dead" week in the world of HS sports. No one can have any kind of practice or training.

 

[mjkacmom]

24 hours is plenty of time. Seems like the coach just found out that a lot of kids would be missing, so she cancelled. Maybe if those who weren't planning on attending had let the coach know earlier, she could've cancelled earlier.