Naming wrongs

 The other day I ran into a girls basketball coach whose teams I used to cover.

I was having breakfast in one my favorite breakfast places, and, even though it's been a few years, I recognized her sitting a few tables over.  So when I was done I got up and walked over and said, "Hi, Coach."  

Hi, Coach.

I could have called her by name, I suppose. I mean, she wouldn't have minded.

Not so Deion Sanders.

The second-year head football coach at Jackson State, he got all huffy the other day when a reporter called him "Deion" at the SWAC Media Day. Stormed out of the news conference. Said a reporter wouldn't dare call Alabama coach Nick Saban "Nick," so it was disrespectful to call him "Deion."

God bless the man. As a relatively new college coach, what he doesn't  know, he doesn't know, I suppose.

Truth is, reporters call Nick Saban "Nick" all the time. Just like we used to call Bob Knight "Bob" and Gene Keady "Gene" and Lou Holtz "Lou" and on and on.

None of them went stomping off when we did it. Although I definitely could see Knight doing it.

Me?

I've always been far more likely to address a high school coach as "Coach" than a college or pro coach. This might seem odd, as might my reasoning. I figured as much coin as a Knight or a Keady or a Holtz was making, they didn't require any additional honorifics from me. 

High school coaches, however, sacrifice just as much for a whole lot less. They do what they do, it seems to me, for more than a paycheck. They do it because they love the kids and the game, and using the latter to lift the former.

And so they generally get "Coach" from me. 'Cause they deserve it.

Sorry, Deion.