Coaches are known for their dedication, passion and ability to mold players from boys and girls to men and women.
They are tasked with the job of being teachers, mother and father figures, and plenty more.
To meet all of these expectations, many coaches may not coddle or pamper their athletes as much as some might like. Their job is to push them to their limits to get the most out of them in order to achieve their goals.
Sometimes that limit is exceeded, like it did in May when Maryland offensive lineman Jordan McNair needed medical attention after a conditioning test. He died a couple weeks later from heatstroke.
Strength and conditioning coach Rick Court has since resigned and others are on administrative leave and an investigation is ongoing.
Court has a reputation for being a tough coach, which is why he was hired in the first place. Now it's the reason he's unemployed.
Coaches are hard on players, some more than others. It's part of their job description. Were Court's demands too much? The results of the investigation may shed light on that.
What we do know is the training staff didn't complete its responsibility by treating McNair properly. But the coaching staff seems to be getting much of the blame.
Are coaches tougher on athletes these days or is a more rugged coaching style becoming unacceptable?
Football practices have a certain sound to them. It's loud and there's plenty of tough love. More tough than love sometimes. It's the way it's always been but it might not be the way it always will be.
Coaches in other sports are getting the boot for being what is perceived as too tough. When he was fired as the softball coach at Missouri, Ehren Earleywine, now athletic director at Jefferson City, told the Kansas City Star it was because of a "philosophical coaching difference."
Current Jefferson City Jays basketball assistant coach Tony Phillips didn't have his contract renewed this year as the girls basketball coach at Southern Boone for a similar reason.
It seems it's time for coaches to change their tune. The key is finding the right balance of being hard-nosed and a friend.
Southern Boone recently hired former Jays baseball coach Brian Ash. His replacement, Kyle Lasley, said Ash is able to do that.
"That's why he is such a good coach because he could handle his business by getting on somebody but at the end of practice he picks them right back up," Lasley said in July, when he was hired as head coach for the Jays.
"He can get intense, but that's just the way he coached sometimes. Then again, you saw the other side of him where he's very easy going. As a coach that's just how you have to be. There's times you have to lay the law down and make your points."
First-year Jefferson City football coach Terry Walker preaches hard work and physical play, and it led to plenty of winning at Blair Oaks. It appears he's able to find the balance in his coaching philosophy as well.
"I'm usually pretty passionate about stuff," Walker said. "I don't' know about the previous staff, but the kids have seemed to adapted very well. When you set the expectation and once they know what the expectation is, they tend to start working to meet it. We've set the expectation high and we expect them to do their very best to meet it."
What occurred at Maryland will have a ripple effect across all sports at all levels. For the rough, old-school coaches, it's either ease up or get the boot.