Parents drive another coach out

Worthington High School football coach Brad Grimmius is the latest youth sports coach who’s had it with parents.

He quit yesterday, writing in an open letter that coaching has affected his family and that he’s been an “absent father” from August through mid-November. “As many know, I put so much into something and I forget the important things,” he said.

He said he loves coaching the game and teaching kids about “doing the right things in life on and off the field.”

As for parents, he won’t miss them one bit.

I will not miss the constant complaints from parents whose kid did not start, or did not play that much, or did not earn a scholarship. Each year this seems to increase more and more. I would like to tell them, here is my whistle knock yourself out and give it a try. I will take the high road and not look back over the years on the negative aspects of coaching. I personally have paid a price for the rewards over the years. It is now my turn to be selfish and direct my attention to what should be the most important things – Sheila, Haley and Cade.

Grimmius, a 1993 Worthington grad, was named head coach in 2010.

Earlier this month, Stillwater girls hockey coach Tony Scheid, who did nothing but win, walked away, citing “an unrelenting and vicious personal series of verbal attacks from a group of parents of intensity unlike any I could have imagined.”