For John, BLUF: Sports are important, but so is getting into college. Nothing to see here; just move along.
Listening to NECN news this morning I heard of two (Beverly High School) high school lacrosse players not allowed to play in a championship game after a local newspaper showed them smoking cigars as part of their graduation celebration.♠
OK, the boys signed a "contract" to not use alcohol or tobacco products during the season, so this is probably not outrageous.
However, what about the article in Saturday's edition of The [Lowell] Sun? A playoff game was scheduled for Chelmsford High and Methuen High baseball teams at the same time as the SAT exams. However Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association (MIAA) was not willing to reschedule the Division 1 North semifinal, scheduled for LeLacher Park at 10 AM Saturday. As followup, here is today's article from The Sun
I think two things are needed. The first is the banning of the use of the word "Interscholastic" by the Massachusetts Inter-school Athletic Association. Scholastic implies education. I agree with General Douglas McArthur that "on the fields of friendly strife are sown the seeds that on other days and other fields will bear the fruits of victory", but sports shouldn't be at the expense of academics.
The second thing needed is for local School Committees to "draw a line in the dirt" over this. Time to say no to the Massachusetts Inter-school Athletic Association.
Regards — Cliff
♠ And why did school officials have to be "off camera" to say that they couldn't comment? Perhaps it is deep background on background information.
Where they smoking on school grounds during the actual ceremony?
ReplyDeleteOr were they in the parking lot after the ceremony?
While I doubt that any high school graduation ceremony would permit, let alone tolerate smoking cigars during the actual ceremony...or events leading up to it....PLACE is not the issue. Most HS athletic programs that employ the no smoking and no drinking rule direct its performance at the off-campus part of life. Parking lots, forests, beaches, urban malls.....if you do it and it's discovered..you pay the price.
ReplyDeleteIf these two kids had any expectation of participating in some post graduation sports activity for the school, they should have delayed their stogie until a more appropriate time.
Sadly, throughout the country, sports has replaced scholarship as the "red badge of courage" in high schools. Even more sadly, those who receive the adulation of their local community for sports excellence often internalize that attention as an indication that they are "somebody what be somebody." What a terrible lie to tell a kid who has yet to see anything of the world past the city limits.