re: If you played football in Highschool or beyond...

I got along with most of my coaches. They treated us good and seemed to care. Except for one prickkk who wore the same dirty, smelly blue Kentucky shirt, cap, and sweats. Always chewing nasty tobacco and coughing up luggies.

The meanest coach I had in high school who was a complete A-hole was actually one of my favorite coaches. He was tough but fair and he had a soft side to him a lot of people never saw. On the field, he was nails. Off the field, he wasn't a whole lot different but every now and then, off the field, the facade would slip and you'd see he was a decent guy.

I wanna be you, scrooster

My High School Football coach was an a-hole.

One day while we were all running he pushed me down an embankment because he thought it was funny.
It gave me the opportunity to finally do what I always wanted to do to him.

After I got back up and caught up to the group I hit him square in the mouth.

He kicked me off the team and that was that.

BTW this occurred back in 1979

My coaches were hard asses big time. College and HS

My HS OL coach was demanding and tough. He’d get on you if you made a mistake. He liked to yell. But he never disrespected me or treated me like a meaningless piece of meat; it was always to try to get me to be a better player and get the most out of us as individual players and a team. And I knew he cared about me.

He also was intense pretty much only during practice, rarely/never during halftime/on the sidelines of games (he was really relaxed then). And he was really cool off the field. Most of the coaches on staff were like that. And we were one of the best programs in the state of Ohio.

I don’t think most coaches can be successful being players’ best friends. Maybe a few (e.g., Pete Carroll) but not many. You have to be intense. But you don’t have to be a complete jerk either. In fact, I think if your players hate your guts, it’s hard to get them to respect you/hard to get them to play hard for you.