12/03/24
November 07, 2003
Cancelling the season...Overreacting or justified?: Woodside High school administrators cancel the rest of the HS Football team's season after some of the team members do a nasty chant about their coach after losing again. Is the action justified? Is there be a better alternative? Are they teaching these kids a good lesson? Note that it's not just because of the chant but also because of ongoing discipline problems with the team.
Welcome to life, kid. Playing football in high school is a privilege, not a right. I agree wfrazerjr, but I still don't know if this was the right way to handle it. Were the players aware that they faced the cancellation of the season if nobody came forth, or did that just come out of the blue? I'd like to think that there was something they could have worked out with the captains of the team before it came to this.
posted by smithers at 12:49 PM on November 07, 2003
Well, it didn't sound like anything else was working, and why go through your captains if the team is already out of control? It's not really that big of a deal, if you ask me. 2-6, so no chance of a postseason, and why not drop the A-bomb in response to the F-bomb and clean house? I bet they don't have this problem any more.
posted by wfrazerjr at 01:03 PM on November 07, 2003
wfrazerjr, I think they should have done it even if they were 8-0. (but would they have? Doubtful.) The point is kids have to learn discipline, and this is sure to get their attention in a way that traditional discipline sure hasn't. The news here is reporting that almost 100% of feedback from parents is positive regarding the decision. Amazing. I would have thought the parents would do what parents seem to always do in this day and age and make excuses for the kids and blame the coach.
posted by msacheson at 08:14 PM on November 07, 2003
Surely they're a school firt and a football training camp second - as such, enforcing the rules and discpline comes first. How much poor behaviour by athletes (headline hitting or otherwise) as adults comes because schools and the like give them a free pass on bad behaviour when they're teenagers?
posted by rodgerd at 12:21 PM on November 09, 2003
Good point, Rod. I got in a lot of trouble as a teenager, but never really got in much trouble (aside from all the community service hours) probably because I got decent grades and played on three sports teams. My pothead, non-sporty friends weren't given the same chances when they screwed up. Sad, really.
posted by Samsonov14 at 01:08 PM on November 09, 2003
I probably could have phrased that fist sentence better.
posted by Samsonov14 at 01:09 PM on November 09, 2003
"The players respected the coaches for half of the season, but the coaches dissed the players, and it eventually blew up," said Blekis. (The coach) said players were often fighting, stealing from each other and skipping practices. The staff tried to aggressively rein in the players, even forcing some of them to sit out games, but it was to little avail, Moss said. Welcome to life, kid. Playing football in high school is a privilege, not a right. Chanting "Fuck Packy" was just the icing on top of a rotten cake. You choose to act like a knob, you pay the price. And no, it doesn't make a damn bit of difference whether you were the one chanting it or not. You didn't try to stop it, you're just as guilty. That's what being a team means.