and especially parents of athletes, is that coaches ultimately care the most about themselves. They will use code words and Pharisees to disguise that by saying that a decision is “in the best interest of the team” or “we’ve got to do what’s best for the program” but what that really means is “this is what’s best for me” or else “I’ve got reasons for doing this that have nothing to do with who’s actually the best”.

And coaches do not care if any one specific player ever gets to play unless it is some kid they have a relationship with for other reasons. All coaches care about is that some kid becomes good enough. So they want depth, they want high quality players that never play because it gives them insurance.

So IMO we need to relax transfer rules even more. We can’t let the coaches have that advantage over the kids. They already have more than enough.