Coach Education: Is it worth the time and effort?

When I last coached high school basketball, I was forced to attend a mandatory "coach education" seminar. It was a three-hour lecture by a septuagenarian athletic director. Most of the clinic resolved on how to ignore parents. It was a complete waste of time and had no real relevance to actual coaching.

So, are coach education programs meaningful? I received this comment today via email from Coach Townsend, a varsity girls' basketball coach in Arizona:

The information alone is great. You would have to attend multiple clinics, classes or read multiple books to get all of the information that is presented in this curriculum at once.

I was amazed with the all of the information that was presented as well as the fact that it was free to take the course and be certified.  I had to pay over $30 to take the NFHS one that I didn’t learn half as much with and it took 8 hours to complete.  Overall, I really feel that any basketball coach would benefit from taking this course!