student athletes (not!)

[titanscoach]

OK, I am back on my soapbox. I do this every year or two or three. The Ray Rice situation stimulated me to think about it, again.

For far too many athletes, there is very little 'student' requirements. They are given a pass, because they excel on the playing field. They are enabled in so many ways. They come to understand that they are special, and the standard rules don't apply to them. They become used to being heroes in their fans' own echo chambers. It goes through high school, college...then the pros. O.J. Simpson (The Juice!) was slobbered over by so many people (including me, sorry to say)...but could he pass a simple algebra test or write a serious essay at USC? Then he gets away with beating his wife on a regular basis, before killing her.

It is very clear to me that these protected athletes are protected by their coaches and alumni...winning games is the ultimate goal.

If we, somehow, get back to insisting that athletes also be serious students
we can avoid a lot of this stuff.

We can also bring back some integrity to our educational institutions.

Thoughts?

 

[mrsplitty]

Well said tc, Over the years I've also written about this with a little different slant. I've listened to travel ball managers (mostly) hype and slobber over their star players telling everyone who'll listen what great kids they are. Maybe they are and maybe they aren't, usually the TB manager doesn't know. The gist of this is that there are probably 10-15 other kids and parents on those teams that get tired of hearing about what "great people" the stars are when there are 7-8 other kids that really are the great kids on the team. I can write the response to this right now, it's so predictable.

 

[NCSF]

Splitty- Maybe you are listening to the wrong coaches. You are going to be a person a lot longer than a player. In our program, the greatest compliment you can give a player is that he is a great teammate!

 

[mrsplitty]

I'm sure you're right. I made a point to listen to all of them that were involved with my kids. Yours, overall were pretty good, some were excellent.
This post was edited on 9/18 10:41 AM by mrsplitty

 

[NCSF]

Splitty- I don't disagree with you by the way with some programs. These kids should not be put on a pedestal- they are kids. That's the problem with some of these groups. They placate these kids and are doing them a disservice. Too much individual and not enough team orientation.