On My Soapbox

Back in September, a high school football coach in Utah made headlines when he suspended his entire football team.  Basically, a number of kids on his team had committed various offenses, ranging from skipping class to cyber-bullying, so he decided to suspend the whole team (from practice) and make them perform community service instead.  In the end, he let them play their regularly scheduled Friday night game, but they went into it without adequate preparation due to the suspension.

From the first moment that I heard about this story, I had a huge, almost physical reaction.  It repulsed me.  I was truly shocked at how many accolades he was getting, both from the media in general (that shouldn’t surprise me) as well as from many people who I know personally.  I think this is so very wrong.

Before anyone accuses me of tolerating ditching and bullying, let me assure everyone that I wouldn’t stand for any of that nonsense.  If you think I’d advocate such things, you don’t know me very well.  I believe very strongly that everyone, ages 4 to 104, are accountable for their actions.  I’m not arguing that at all.

What I do have a huge problem with is that he admittedly penalized the entire team for the actions of some.  Frankly, I think this is ridiculous.   As a woman who was a sports parent for well over a decade, and whose children were always the ideal teammates both on and off the field (don’t take my word for it, ask any coach either of them ever had), I find the idea of group punishment abhorrent.    Take my eldest for example:  Why should he, who was a Nighthawk award winner,  whose GPA was always above a 4.0 and who never missed a day of class or practice, ever have to run gassers, stay late, or (worse!) be suspended from practice just because of a few prima donnas and screw-ups on the team?  It isn’t right.  I saw it over and over again, especially with a few of our coaches, and it disgusts me.  

Here’s the thing…back in the day, like when my dad played football, group punishment was highly effective.  Why?  Let’s say that Bobby has been cutting class, bullying, or just generally acting like a moron.  The coach could impose some sort of team sanction and it would work because after school, the rest of the team could take Bobby out back and rough him up a little bit, or at the very least, lean on him.  They would send a clear message that Bobby had better get it together or he’d be dealing with them again.  It worked.   I’m not saying that was the best behavior, but it worked.  The team's ability to act resulted in successful group punishment.

However, in this day and age, the team could never do that.  If they did anything to Bobby, they would be immediately suspended from school, if not expelled.  If they put any kind of pressure on him at all, they would be charged with bullying themselves!  So really, if Bobby is going to have some sort of a punishment for his behavior, what does it matter to him if the team has to share in it with him?  It’s a bonus for him not to have to go through it alone.  There’s really no motivation for him to get his act together.  Perhaps Bobby would get the message a bit more effectively if the rest of the team went home or sat in the bleachers and ate pizza while he alone served his punishment.  

Ah, but what would that take?  It would require a coach who was willing to stay after practice, to be in Bobby’s grill, making sure that there were consequences for his actions.  It would take a coach who was willing to sacrifice to attempt to teach Bobby some character.  Honestly, it would take a coach who truly, genuinely cared about helping a young man grow and mature.  Many coaches claim that that is their goal; sadly, after many years of sports, I only witnessed a handful of such men.  It would also take a society that wasn’t consumed with the idea that everything has to be fair for everyone, even at the expense of others.  In this “let’s give everyone a trophy for participating” world that we live in, heaven forbid that one student would be singled out for inappropriate action and required to pay the price. 

One of the news articles said, “In a letter to the team from the school’s coaching staff last Friday, players were told that if they participated in community service activities, took character-education classes and participated in extra study hall sessions, they would earn the right to play again in upcoming games.”  So wrong.  Isn’t anyone out there curious and skeptical about school (which is state, therefore government) “character education classes?”  That sends up a bunch of red flags in my book.  

There were undoubtedly kids on that team who were much like my boys and countless other hard-working kids I know, who did absolutely nothing wrong and shouldn’t have been subjected to all of that nonsense.  "Earning the right to play?"  That right should have never been taken away.  Community service is great, so is studying; but they should never have had that forced upon them, or been asked to step into a game unprepared, because of the actions of a few.