Varsity Kansas - The Blog

by joanna

I just did my second coach resignation in as many days. Do these come in threes? Yesterday it was Derby girls basketball coach Bill Shaw calling it quits, although he’s coaching baseball through next season.

Today it was Northwest boys coach Eric Hofer-Holdeman. He coached the Grizzlies for 8 years and won the 6A title in 2006. He’s definitely one of my favorite coaches to deal with. He’s extremely mild-mannered and I have teased him — in print — over the years that he has the loudest clap I’ve ever heard. He used that clap and he whistled loudly to get his players attention, rarely yelling.

He obviously was a good coach, but I just liked him because he was a good man. He was enjoyable to chat with, for a story or not, and I’ll miss him. But he’s got good reasons for leaving, including spending more time with his family. You know, coaches take so much crap for people through the season — players, parents, media — more than we’ll ever know. They spend hours and hours preparing or coaching or driving kids home. And they’re certainly not well-compensated, not that they’re doing it for the money, that’s for sure. I’d say they earn pennies for every hour they coach.

Yet Hofer-Holdeman always handled things with class. I like that. I’m sure he’ll enjoy spending more time with his kids and his wife. That’s important, too.

This entry was posted on Friday, April 11th, 2008 at 3:12 p.m. and is filed under Basketball, City League, Coaches. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.