I disagree w/ closed practices and find it hard to believe that any parent w/ good sense would subject their 15U child to that. Once you get into HS then no biggy but younger children should have their parents involved and observing.

You know just because someone is a coach doesn't mean they are the end all be all. I've been around a lot of coaches in different sports that are all about stroking their own ego or are on power trips and not about the athletes welfare or needs. Not all coaches have the background or experience to be coaches. I do acknowledge that there are great coaches who know what balance is and are able to meet those demands. But it is rarer than one would think.

Some schools actually hire teachers on staff who have never wrestled a day in their life to coach their teams. Then you have adults who don't know how to deal with kids let alone groups of them. Coaches who play favorites, manipulative, vulgar, personal lives are screwed up and lastly coaches who are not flexible in their programs enough to differentiate between a 6U 45lber and 14U HWT. So to me having a closed practice looks real suspicious. In my opinion they either have something to hide or don't want to have anyone ask questions about what they are doing.

Consider this. Having had a law enforcement background myself. I know that if someone is a drug addict, alcoholic, child molester or any other type of criminal that it doesn't show up on a background check unless they have been caught in the past. Statistics prove that we only catch a very small percentage of these type of people and some go their whole lives without ever getting caught at all. It isn't like we subject coaches, refs or other officials to random drug screening or psychological examinations to see if they are fit to do the job. Most of this based on trust and volunteers. To me if you shut the door on people then you take away some of that trust as well.