The sad news that 3 Bishop England football players were arrested this week makes me wonder what ever happened to our high school coaches?
Back in the day, as a freshman you learned quickly how an athlete was supposed to act before, during and after a game, any game, even a game against a big rival.
In season or off season, in uniform or out, "coach" taught you how to act and that you were always expected to be gentlemen.You wore a coat and tie on game day, you played fair, gave 110%, did whatever the coach asked and hoped to God you didn’t have to run anymore laps. You represented your school from the first day of practice your freshmen summer until .. well.. forever.
An athlete was above reproach, not above the law, so if you messed up even in the slightest way “coach” was there to be sure that punishment was swift and memorable.
We had rivalries back then and we did some pretty crazy things to the other team’s, mascot, parking lot and even rewiring their football field score board so that points added for the HOME team during the game would reset to zero after 30 seconds.
We never beat up anyone or damaged any property, ok so we painted a rock or two with "our colors", but beating someone so viscously that they need a trip to hospital is senseless and something we would have never even considered.
Beyond these 3 players there’s plenty of blame to go around, the parents, one of kid’s father is even the principal, the school, the teachers and most to blame besides the 3 players, the coaches.
When it comes right down to it you have 3 athletes whose coaches didn’t impress upon them a sense of right vs wrong, so they lacked the understanding that their actions regardless how strongly they felt, were wrong.
These coaches didn't equipt them with the skill set to understand that forever Bishop England will be remembered not for the wins and championships but for the punks and hoodlums they allowed on their teams.
I’m not sure what has happened to high school coaches. Maybe today's high school coach is so concerned with winning that they forget their role of mentor and teacher.
Back in the day, my high school coach would have kicked our donkey's butts back to the stone age.
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