[2006alum]

I played for one of those guys in high school. What's interesting is that a bad coach at a young age gives you insights into the frailties and shortcomings of adults in ways that you don't otherwise get.  Your parents and extended family love you, even the marginal teachers at least want you to do well, the parents of your friends are generally happy with you, and if you're fortunate enough to work, your boss has a fairly narrow set of rules and personality characteristics.  In other words, most adults in the lives of students are largely positive.

Hate to be a Debbie Downer here, but this is not even close to universally true. I'm glad this was your experience, but many kids grow up with abusive parents and extended family, teachers, priests, etc. And even those kids whose parents and family are not abusive per se may suffer from an early age due to the fact that the adults in their lives have deep character flaws that render them incapable of being fully effective/loving parents, aunts, uncles, grandparents, etc. Just think of the millions of kids who grow up with a parent who has a serious addiction, etc. 

IMHO, a borderline abusive high school coach is a luxury problem, because you can always quit the team. Much harder to run away when you are 8 and your parents aren't very good at parenting, or have the wherewithal to speak out when you're being abused by your local church's priest. To be sure, those are orders of magnitude worse than Mike Leach, but unfortunately millions of kids grow up knowing firsthand the "frailties and shortcomings of adults."

[2006alum]

I played for one of those guys in high school. What's interesting is that a bad coach at a young age gives you insights into the frailties and shortcomings of adults in ways that you don't otherwise get.  Your parents and extended family love you, even the marginal teachers at least want you to do well, the parents of your friends are generally happy with you, and if you're fortunate enough to work, your boss has a fairly narrow set of rules and personality characteristics.  In other words, most adults in the lives of students are largely positive.

Hate to be a Debbie Downer here, but this is not even close to universally true. I'm glad this was your experience, but many kids grow up with abusive parents and extended family, teachers, priests, etc. And even those kids whose parents and family are not abusive per se may suffer from an early age due to the fact that the adults in their lives have deep character flaws that render them incapable of being fully effective/loving parents, aunts, uncles, grandparents, etc. Just think of the millions of kids who grow up with a parent who has a serious addiction, etc. 

IMHO, a borderline abusive high school coach is a luxury problem, because you can always quit the team. Much harder to run away when you are 8 and your parents aren't very good at parenting, or have the wherewithal to speak out when you're being abused by your local church's priest. To be sure, those are orders of magnitude worse than Mike Leach, but unfortunately millions of kids grow up knowing firsthand the "frailties and shortcomings of adults."