Transferring The Message with Lester Rivenbark

Posted on by Don Moore

Andy Durham sat down with Lester Rivenbark, whose son transferred school a few years back. He offers his opinion in this 49 Minute Audio Interview:
[audio:2008-09-03-Rivenbark.mp3]

5 thoughts on “Transferring The Message with Lester Rivenbark”

  1. I took the time to listen to this interview while doing paperwork. 2 things hit me. 1) Why are we still talking about this? 2) I was afraid it would be a waste of time and it was.

    My take on what I heard, knowing there are two sides to everything.

    As long as these parents followed the rules I don’t see what there is to complain about. Parents will and should do what they feel is best for their children. These people made a choice. As long as they followed precedures why should we be concerned?

    There are two seperate issues here. 1) Did the people in question follow guidelines? Once the facts came out it has always appeared that they did. 2) Did Alan rceruit them? Only they know that. This is a totally seperate matter and I doubt we will ever know. I’ve been around Alan a lot. Everything I have witnessed has been clean. Don’t fault Alan for being a good coach that some kids want to play for. If you are a good coach some kids will follow you.

    Mr. Rivenbark made a comment about legal seperation from his spouse being a new stipulation. I know for a fact in two other cases in Guilford County that parents in each case were told the same thing. I don’t think this was something the School Board came up with for this situation.

    People have a right to transfer there kids for many reasons, some academic, some athletic, some social, some economic. As long as they follow the guidelines no one should have an issue. How people parent and what values they teach their kids is their business. Nobody is perfect and there is more than one correct way to parent.

    Mr. Rivenbark points out that Grimsley should retain Alan as coach. I can also attest 1st hand that Alan is an excellent baseball coach and that kids learn a tremendous amount when playing under his guidance. However I personally believe that being a good high school coach is about more than teaching the sport. Coaches are in a position to teach kids much more. Good coaches can HELP teach leadership, responsibility, accepting accountability, instill work ethic, and teamwork along with many other character traits that compliment the efforts of parents. Alan may do this. I just don’t know 1st hand. But there is more to being a good coach than just teaching the sport.

    I disagree with much of what Mr. Livenbark said. For instance I don’t think parents should be coaching high school teams or even Colt teams. I don’t care how much AAU they have coached. Anybody with a checkbook can start an AAU team. I don’t know how 4 kids and their families all stayed in that apartment but again, that’s not our problem. What these families did is their business. I’m not saying it’s right or wrong. But if they followed the guideline I just think it’s their business and not ours.

  3. Like I said. I disagreed with a lot of what Mr. Livenbark said. I’m still trying to figure out how 4 kids and parents lived in the same apartment. But the main issue is pretty clear. I can’t believe people still complain about something that is 3-4 years old.

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