Posted: Wednesday, 30 September 2009 11:04AM
The Going Just Got Tough
Steve Corbett Reporting
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Team spirit sometimes goes awry and causes problems. Male ritual bonding can cause problems. Group think can cause problems. Machismo can run amok.
If what some people claim happened at a Tunkhannock Area High school high school football game this month is true, we have more than our share of trouble.
So now is the time for real leadership to surface. Now is the time for problem solvers to surface. Now is the time for honor to take us into the end zone.
The best coaches, players and parents understand honor.
I remember watching my high school football team-mate cry one afternoon in 1967 because he hurt so badly during a brutal game. But his pain didn’t stop him from taking another hand-off and charging up the middle. Those lessons of courage and perseverance likely helped him survive combat in Vietnam. Although he came home confused and terribly wounded in his mind, he maintained his sense of honor.
High school football can help develop character. High school football can develop dysfunction as well.
If, in fact, members of the Dallas High School football urinated on the Tunkhannock tennis courts, the team’s honor has been damaged. If an adult school official stood by and in any way encouraged this disgusting act, the dysfunction is deeper than we might think.
Detectives from the Wyoming County district attorney’s office are investigating, Dallas school officials are lining up on defense and concerned citizens huddle to run the truth right up the middle.
Give me the ball, coach, give me the ball.
If notorious Dallas coach Ted Jackson is a real leader, he’ll make a public statement about what happened.
Jackson is well-known for his sideline profanity and for being disciplined for an incident that happened off school property. A fawning column about Jackson that mentioned his profanity and the disciplinary action appeared last year in the Times Leader. But the writer did not provide any details about Jackson’s mouth or the incident that led to his being disciplined.
In the wake of the Tunkhannock incident, we should revisit whatever mysteries exist in Jackson’s resume. A solid win/loss ratio is no longer enough. Character means far more than a tough guy persona that kids too often emulate and regard as real strength.
A Tunkhannock school board member called “Corbett” Monday and said that he has interviewed three people he knows by name and by their good reputation who told him they witnessed the urination incident.
One witness claims that an adult Dallas school official approached him and said in a threatening manner, “Mind your own (expletive deleted) business,” according to the board member. All three witnesses have named and placed the same adult Dallas school official at the urination scene, the Tunkhannock board member said.
Another caller said he was part of the power washing crew that scrubbed the visiting team’s toilet facilities and that the room was spotless just days before the Sept. 18 game. The power washer called in response to Russ Bigus, a defensive and uninformed Dallas School Board member, who called “Corbett” to argue that the facilities were unsanitary and that coaches were concerned about disease.
Another caller to “Corbett” said that portable toilets were available for the team to use. Another caller said he was at the game and that other toilets also were available.
Still, Tunkhannock had to hire a professional cleaning company to cleanse and disinfect the tennis courts.
Rumors now center on another “urination” incident involving the football team that allegedly took pace about two years ago. I first heard about this alleged incident about a year ago. The truth is long overdue.
I learned a lot about myself during my seasons of high school football more than 40 years ago. I still draw from those lessons as I live my life today. I might even have my varsity letters somewhere in a box in the attic. Playing high school sports can develop character, strength and discipline. Playing high school sports can help teenagers learn to control their emotions and not let emotions control their lives.
For that to happen, though, real leaders must emerge both on the team and on the coaching staff.
In the three varsity sports I played in high school, I had good coaches and bad coaches. I led and sometimes followed. But mostly I tried to discover who I was and what was happening in my life on and off the field and court that I could apply to growing up.
It’s time for Dallas to grow up. That goes for school board members, coaches, players and parents.
It’s OK if it takes a police investigation to help Dallas boosters find their way into the end zone. And when the truth is told, they can all start over again, learning from their mistakes, their weaknesses and their failures.
Like my old coach would say, “When the going gets tough the tough get going.”
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