Where does competitive sense end and common sense take over? That is a question that coaches must navigate on a regular, even daily, basis when pushing athletes to get the best out of themselves. Some recent incidents illustrate that if coaches and administrators are faulty in their judgment it can have unintended but nevertheless far-reaching and even catastrophic consequences.
Defining common sense is a tricky and nebulous task but in almost every physical education or coaching course there is an implicit Hippocratic oath of sorts that requires that the safety of students is always the primary concern of the coach or teacher. This "do no harm" approach is presumed to reach across the physical, psychological and emotional dimensions and to call upon the sensible instincts of those in charge.
The recent arraignment of a high school football coach in Kentucky for the reckless homicide death of one of his players is a tragic example of a worst-case scenario coming to pass. The student died of heat exhaustion-related complications following a pre-season practice in the sweltering heat of August. It is 
claimed that the coach denied the players water and neglected to swiftly attend to the young man after he collapsed. Afforded the benefit of 20-20 hindsight most people would look at the situation and determine a number of common sense mileposts were missed by the coach and his staff that may have resulted in a much less tragic outcome. While there is probably plenty of culpability to be meted out in this case it may be instructive to look at the fragile line that coaches often tiptoe between competitive sense and common sense.
Coaches and the innumerable methods they employ to accomplish their aims are a kaleidoscopic mixture of ideas , theories, beliefs, techniques, systems and philosophies. But, at the more serious levels of sports, high school, college and professional for example, there is an almost universal acceptance that an athlete, in order to accomplish their true potential in the physical and psychological realms, must be willing to push themselves through escalating levels of personal discomfort to the place where high achievement and accomplishment are to be found. In athletic terms this is how the proverbial wheat is separated from the chaff and if a coach is committed to excellence and winning it is a big part of his or her job to make that happen. The same way of thinking also applies to athletes and it is not at all unusual to find athletes that are willing to push themselves to incredible lengths in order to prove themselves. That sort of competitive sense is understood, accepted and in many cases required within the insular cultural circle of many athletic teams.
The unfortunate situation in Kentucky may have been a case of a coach or even an athlete being consumed by their competitive sense and blindly losing sight of the obvious warnings of common sense related to heat, hydration and fatigue. Sadly a well-liked and respected coach and mentor, who knows that safety comes first and is doubtless well aware of the dangers of heat-related injuries appears, by not being on top of the gravity of a situation in his practice environment, to have perhaps allowed, however unwittingly, competitive sense to trump common sense with disastrous results.
Common sense seems to have been a victim in another high school sports debacle that occurred in Texas recently when Covenant School trounced Dallas Academy 100-0 in a girls basketball game. To make matters worse, it was reported in the local papers that some Covenant parents and an assistant coach were 
gleefully cheering and celebrating three point shots made late in the game when the result was already irreversibly skewed. The outcome of the game and the conduct of some people associated with the school caused Covenant to issue an apology and to request that the game be forfeited citing the whole matter as "shameful" and an "embarrassment."
The Covenant coach refused to apologize for running up the score claiming that his players had done nothing wrong and were simply playing the game the way it is supposed to be played. In the arena of competitive sense he is absolutely right because after all, you play to win and if the other team isn't very good that's their problem. That way of thinking may be apropos in the NBA but it scarcely seems to make any sense in a tiny parochial league against a team that hadn't won a game in four years! Competitive sense versus common sense got that coach fired because in the context of a low-level girls basketball league he appeared to lose sight of some of the other reasons that kids play sports in small parochial schools. It is debatable whether a coach should be particularly concerned about the well-being of the other team but given the context of this event it seemed a particularly egregious flouting of the notion that one should respect and honor ones opponents.
Interestingly, Dallas Academy, the "victims" in this drama never complained about the score. After the furor in the media their athletic administrators decided to remove the team from the league and put the them into a JV league where the talent level is more comparable. After four years of seeing their team over-matched to the point of losing every single game, common sense would seem to beg the question "what took you so long?"
Ultimately these unfortunate cases both illustrate that all competitive coaches, whether they like it or not, still have a responsibility to maintain a level of common sense and perspective in their work. Being competitive does not grant immunity from respecting the accepted norms that operate in the particular culture or environment, especially where the physical, and sometimes, mental health and well-being of athletes is at stake.
