Districts put varying weight on wins

Central athletic director Mark Ruark thinks the win/loss record of a community's most popular high school sports teams does matter when deciding to retain a coach.

"In my opinion, success is not always measured in wins and losses," said Ruark, who will vacate his position July 1. "But ultimately, I think in some of your higher-profile sports, it does come down to wins and losses."

Ruark, who said Central's high-profile sports are football, basketball and baseball, added that the evaluation form for Central coaches has a place where the win/loss record is listed, but win/loss record is not the only way a coach can be evaluated.

Local administrators, school board members and coaches said the importance of wins and losses varies from school to school.

St. Vincent athletic director and basketball coach Bruce Valleroy said the students and community all want to win at his school, but the school puts no stock in wins and losses when determining whether coaches retain their position.

"We want our kids to play," he said. "We want our kids to enjoy the experience. And we just want our coaches to abide by our rules of being a Catholic school and all that. And there are not expectations for winning and losing. ... We're not going to fire them because they're not winning."

Saxony Lutheran athletic director Larry Cleair said a coach never has been terminated at his school. He also said Saxony puts no stock in win/loss record, but instead wants coaches to have a positive influence on the spiritual and educational lives of the athletes.

"A coach could have 25 wins and not really be considered successful in our eyes if he didn't have a positive effect on the spiritual and educational lives of their athletes," Cleair said. "A coach could have zero wins and could be considered incredibly successful if they did have that positive effect."

Oran school board president Will Bucher said win/loss record isn't considered by his board when deciding to keep a coach.

"Not for us," Bucher said. "I can't speak for other school boards. I'm just speaking for Oran, and no."

Perryville school board president Scott Cooper said generally throughout Missouri, football is a more identifiable sport than others at schools. But he said he does not think a coach's win/loss record has as large an influence on the board as the coach's ability to help his or her players grow as a leader.

"Naturally, everyone likes to have a winning season, but that's not always first and foremost," said Cooper who's in his seventh year on the board and his second year as president. "When you're looking at programs and athletics, you want these kids to have a good experience, which you hope will include winning seasons. But more than anything, you want them to get more out of their activities than just wins. You want them to grow as individuals. You want them to learn what leadership is. Those are really things you have to take a look at your program and see if your coach has the ability to help those kids gain leadership abilities and teamwork and being able to work together."

Cooper said the Perryville athletic program has had its years with impressive records, but there probably have been more losing seasons. But he added that none of the losing seasons has been a determining factor in a coaching changes during his time in the community.

Jackson athletic director John Martin said his school looks more at yearly improvement.

"The biggest thing we want to see here at Jackson is that we want our programs to improve each year, and you've got to be realistic," Martin said. "Obviously, a lot of it comes down to whether you have the talent or not."