Being a coach at the college level isn’t easy. Competition is fierce and dealing with student-athletes who’ve been coddled their entire lives makes it tougher to bring out their best.
For Louisville women’s basketball coach Jeff Walz, whose No.7-ranked Cardinals lost at home to No. 5 Maryland on Thursday night, he’s trying to set an example for his players. During a post-game press conference, Walz ripped on “participation trophies,” and now his rant is going viral.
“You’ve got to have a will. You’ve got to have a will,” Walz said after his team’s 78-72 to the Terrapins. “Right now the generation of kids that are coming through, everybody gets a damn trophy, okay? You finish last, you come home with a trophy. You kidding me? I mean, what’s that teaching kids? It’s okay to lose. And unfortunately, it’s our society. It’s what we’re building for.”
Walz continued by saying this mentality has carried over into everyday life.
“You know, everybody thinks they should get a job. Everybody thinks they should get a good job. No, that’s not the way it works. But unfortunately that’s what we are preparing for. Because you finish fifth, you walk home with this nice trophy, parents are all excited,” the coach said.
That’s when Walz started to get too real, “No. I mean, not to be too blunt, but you’re a loser. Like, we’re losers. We got beat. You lost. There is no trophy for us. But unfortunately the way these kids are brought up today, there is a trophy. Because nobody wants anybody to have hard feelings; nobody wants to get their feelings hurt. But unfortunately in the real world — I’m not sure how it is with your all’s jobs — but with mine, if you lose enough, you get fired. And that’s just the way it is.”
The Washington Post called Walz “salty,” while others were calling his rant “stupid.” Yet, a lot of these liberals criticizing Walz are calling for recounts in states like Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Michigan because they can’t stomach Donald Trump defeating Hillary Clinton fair and square.
Maybe it’s time to look in the mirror and sharpen that sense of irony.
Watch an excerpt of the press conference of Jeff Walz ripping participation trophies below:
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