Defensive Coordinator Matt Burke was talking about how everyone wants to pitch a perfect game but the reality is you make several mistakes a game. You just try to not keep making those same mistakes and learn form them. With that said ... it's really hard to blame anyone for one play when they overall game is decided on many plays.
Agree.
<edited cause I didn't have enough time earlier >
A friend's daughter was telling me about the post game team meeting, when they lost the high school field hockey championship. The goalie was by far the best player on the team. (Went on to start her freshman year div 1). The goalie had made multiple unbelievable saves during the game but with 2 mins left in regulation and them winning 2-1, the goalie missed stopping an unbelievably easy pass from a teammate that scored. Tying the game 2-2, they lost 3-2 in overtime. Not surprisingly, she blamed herself for the loss as did all of her teammates and the rest of the school. She was teased by classmates that wouldn't know what end of hockey stick to hold. But probably the worst offender is the other team captain.
Coach calls a mandatory meeting for all teammates.
He starts by saying "okay everyone is talking about the one play that lost the game the one mistake that cost us the championship, so let's talk about one play, one mistake."
The goalie starts crying, "Do we have too? I know I cost us the game, I feel horrible do we really need to replay this".
" yes, you need to hear why one play cost us the game as does everyone else in this room." He brings up the tape. It is a play from much earlier in game in which the team captain blows a pass to an open forward in scoring position. He gets right in her face and starts screaming at her about that one play cost them the game, that if she didn't make that one mistake it would have altered the game".
He then bring another play, and another and over the course of 2 hours he berates every single one of his players except the goalie for multiple mistakes. He then says that is 108 unique mistakes that cost us the game. By my count there was 110 mistakes, I am not going to bother with the last two because one of them has been focused on way too much. We win as team and we lose as a team. We don't blame one teammate for a loss. And if you can't be a teammate that supports your teammates you have no place on my team. Decide if you have your teammates back or not. And if it is not, don't bother trying out next fall or for lacrosse this spring. Dismissed". By the end of the meeting the entire team was crying.
Afterwards her teammates each apologized to her for failing her as a teammate and as a friend.
One mom upon hearing that the coach had berated the players calling them "stupid" and "unable to complete a pass a toddler could" etc called the principal demanding he be fired. The girl whose mom called was mortified because like all her teammates they realized they totally deserved that speech. And all of them defended the coach.
Every girl on the team considers him the best coach ever.
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