For those who thought the reporter in Las Vegas was too one-sided in favor of the fighting football team, the same paper's columnist was just as strident in supporting the Nevada high school sports association. Excerpts follow, with llinks to the full story.:
Columnist Ron Kantowski: Hughes, NIAA make the right call -- again
November 14, 2003
http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/st...515860110.html
"Anytime you take a kid out of a playoff situation, it's very difficult," Hughes said Thursday after announcing the sanctions. "It's one of those unfortunate things, but you can't turn your head. Quite frankly, it puts a little pit in your stomach. It's not a fun thing and I empathize with the (innocent) kids."
At least he got it right. No further review is necessary, as far as I'm concerned.
Are innocent kids suffering because a handful (or two) of their peers couldn't control their emotions? No question. But coaches harp about football being a team game. You win as a team, you lose as a team.
Why should being penalized be any different?
Columnist Ron Kantowski: Adults become focus of a kids' game
November 18, 2003
http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/st...515879344.html
Owing to two football teams who decided to shake hands with left hooks, coaches and administrators who failed to control and/or discipline the wanna-be pugilists, a sanctioning body that has been put in the position of ruling with a heavier right hand than George Foreman, parents who can't leave bad enough alone, a judge who wants to be a sports commissioner, an attorney who fancies reading his name in the newspaper and a local media that has turned this story into front page news, the Southern Nevada high school football playoffs have been transformed into a circus.
This just in: Barnum & Bailey 7, Human Drama of Athletic Competition 0.
I also wonder what's going to happen the next time it is learned after that fact that a school had used an ineligible player and Hughes rules a forfeit, a fairly common penalty for such a transgression.
When that occurs, the whole team suffers because of one individual. Sound familiar?
But just when you think you've had enough, something happens to restore your faith in the thrill of victory, the agony of defeat and yes, the human drama of athletic competition. For me, that was Monday's game.
Under difficult circumstances, both teams played hard and by the rules. Cheyenne, the better team, won. Nobody from Centennial tried to start a fight afterward.
And when the referees whistled No. 64 for encroachment, his teammates accepted the 5-yard penalty, even though it wasn't their fault.