Many people like coaching their kids or having a parent as a coach, but it comes with difficulties. Even though it may seem very fun on the outside, sometimes, it can change what others think of you. But having a family member on a team can bring you closer with them. Former head principal at West Senior High, Joe Esper is on his way to retirement and has been coaching for about 23 to 24 years now and is currently an assistant coach for football at West. His son, Drew Esper is on the varsity football team and his father is very proud of him.
“He enjoys it and football has been one of his passions so I’m just glad he has a passion. It wouldn’t matter to me if it was football or cross country or choir. I’m just glad he is involved with something he likes and wants to get up and do it.” Esper said.
Just like Esper, Athletic Director Jason Carmien feels that his son should be able to have something to himself and he can watch from the stands and cheer him on. Carmien has been working at West Senior high for 29 years. He has two kids, his daughter graduated from west in 2025 and he has a son who is a freshman. Carmien’s son, Matthias Carmien plays soccer and basketball and hasn’t had his dad coach him in quite a while which he would like to keep that way. M. Carmien has some different aspects of his father coaching him.
“Everyone thinks you’re on a team just because your parents coach you, not because of work or the skill you put in. And the advantage is you kinda get a ride everywhere because he’s the coach.” M. Carmien said.
J. Carmien gets very involved with sports around the school and both of his kids are passionate about sports.
“I think some of the advantages are that you get to spend a lot of quality time with your kids. You’re traveling, you’re taking road trips to and from practices. There is a lot of windshield time so it’s a lot of time to talk and it’s a lot of quality time that I don’t know if I would’ve had if I didn’t coach my children. Some of the disadvantages is that coaching is about feedback and sometimes that feedback is critical. And your kid sometimes doesn’t always receive that well and so it can be difficult to coach your child. Other people think that you’re favoring your child, actually you’re probably harder on your kid than you are on other kids. And sometimes the dynamic can get difficult,” J. Carmien said.
J. Carmien really loved coaching his children while they were at a young age but now that they’re older, he thinks it’s finally time to let them go on their own paths.
“This is a great topic, you know just off the question path like it’s really prevalent right now because we need coaches, we don’t have enough. And parents are super important to coach and it’s not a bad thing when handled the right way. I’d like to think I did a pretty good job but my kids would probably say at times that it wasn’t perfect,” J. Carmien said.
