I played high school football. I was awful. I rode the bench a lot. I got some more playing time my senior year, but I digress. The coach pretty much ignored me on gameday. I was never resentful about it. I knew I needed to be better than I was to earn more playing time. On gameday, the coach was focused on his guys that were playing, helping coach them up, and watching for any adjustments that were needed. I never expected him to give me special attention. Why would he? I'm not playing. In blow-outs, he'd get me some snaps, and I'd appreciate it. He also put me on several special teams units, even though I wasn't the best, I was still solid there.

In practice, on the other hand, I worked my tail off, and the coach recognized me for it frequently. I wasn't nearly as talented as many of my peers, but I worked extremely hard, and everyone knew it. I respected him for respecting my effort.

My parents, who didn't see what was going on at practice, but they could see how hard I was working outside of practice, but then having little to show for it on gameday, didn't like the coach and thought he was overlooking me. I knew better, and knew that effort counts, but it's not everything, and there was a lot that they weren't seeing.

My point with sharing my own personal experience is, just be aware that you only see a tiny fraction of the coach's interactions with his players.