Marco Aurelio: “i really do not care who was the correct idiot that started the war” . . . them is pretty serious fightin words. You must not be from around here. BTW, do you know the difference between and yankee and a dang (wouldn't let me use the real word) yankee? Nevermind . . . getting back to the original subject . . .
FWIW…it sounds to me like a majority of SSC parents really did want to make the change (or A change), but just did not care for Hyslop’s “condescending tone.”
I have had conversations with both Tormey and Hyslop, and have heard conversations they’ve both had with other people (hey, I wasn’t TRYING to eavesdrop), and while they can be just like you say, Marco, they can also swing the other way (no reference there other than to soccer diplomacy, or lack thereof).
Old Stool makes an excellent point – it is actually possible to be “straight-forward and honest,” and not “pull any punches,” without giving “attitude.” Remember, SSC is/was looking to hire these two - would you allow any of your employees (or anyone you were interviewing) to “talk down” to you?
Keep in mind also that many of these parents have experienced coaches in the past who have not had the best communications/diplomacy skills – and many still have a bad taste in their mouths from it – I don’t think they want to get themselves back into a similar situation.
Here’s another theory I haven’t seen expressed here: is it possible that the board of directors at SSC, after many, many years of low and/or basically non-existent parent participation, came up with a novel idea for getting these same parents to get involved? Said plan being, hire the current directors of a club that they knew many (local) people did not care for, change the name to include that of the “hated” club, and also change the colors to those of that same club; KNOWING that it was pretty much a win-win situation. The two possible outcomes they might have expected to see: 1) the new “managers” do a great job, membership increases, the level of satisfaction of members increases, and SSC becomes a sleek, well-run, profitable and highly successful club, OR 2) the whole idea of “sleeping with the enemy” infuriates so many people that all of a sudden, SSC now has large numbers of members volunteering their time and energy the way it always should have been, and SSC returns to a place of prominence within the state of South Carolina.
Just a thought…
