Fall is here!
Well, unofficially until September 22nd.
So, sip your pumpkin spice latte, nostalgically remember jumping into a front yard leaf pile, and take note of two youth sports stories from week one of another Autumn tradition – Friday Night Lights!
79-0…YIKES!!!
My alma mater, Cedar Rapids Jefferson High School, was throttled by crosstown rival, Washington High School, 79-0 in the first week of their season. Yes, 79 points in a high school football game!
As if the score didn’t do so adequately, the stats provide the color for this lopsided picture:
- First downs: Washington 20, Jefferson 1
- Total Yards: Washington 504, Jefferson 28
- Jefferson carried the ball 29 times for 4 yards.
Once the shock of the final score and lopsided statistics wanes, many questions swirl in my head.
How does one team outmatch another so dramatically?
What must it have been like to watch this contest from the stands (or sidelines)?
Is a game like this safe for kids, parents, and coaches?
Should the game have continued past halftime?
While I tend to be a “they should play it out” type of parent, there are no easy answers here.
First, I feel awful for the kids sporting the blue and white of my old high school. I cannot imagine participating in such a blowout. Those athletes deserve some credit for taking the field against a superior opponent, knowing full well what was to come.
Next, though, I wonder how much courage, perseverance, and grit a high school kid learns from such a beating. I’m tempted to say none. At minimum, anything they’d learn in the long term may be dwarfed by the real threat of a short term injury. While there were rules adjustments done during the game (ie: a continuous game clock), in a violent sport, there times when a hardline must be drawn for a forfeit.
The rules should have given Washington a win when leading 48-0 at half – even if all participating parties wanted to continue. At times like this, I think, rules must protect parents, student athletes, and their coaches from themselves.
Trent Dilfer’s Sideline Tirade
Former NFL quarterback Trent Dilfer is now coaching high school football in suburban Nashville, Tennessee. The former Super Bowl winning quarterback lauded for his “game management” on the field, appears to lose his cool with his superstar quarterback during their recent blowout victory. Dilfer has since apologized for the confrontation, saying,
“I should have been a better leader and shown greater wisdom and discernment in how I handled this incident.”
Lipscomb Head Football Coach, Trent Dilfer
I am glad to that Dilfer ate crow and apologized – that was the right thing to do. This story will likely fade way while Dilfer’s team parades through their season. While his former NFL legend stature brought this negative attention to a national scale, I hope that his status does not dismiss the acknowledgement of Coach Dilfer having broken the most important rule of coaching: NEVER PUT YOUR HANDS ON PLAYERS.
Never.
Full Stop.
I don’t care if you’re a “fiery competitor”, or “caught up in the emotion of the moment”, it is never acceptable to physically handle a player on a team. No coach should ever get the benefit of the doubt when it comes to initiating contact with anyone – fan, student, athlete, or official.
Quickly dismissing Coach Dilfer’s actions does an injustice to the lessons coaches, players, and parents can heed from this on-field ugliness.
As we get off the field of play and back to enjoying the crisp air that fall promises, I’m hoping to tell happier stories – a big upset of a perennial powerhouse team, or an unlikely hero emerging to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.
Maybe, though, it is too early for this fall talk in the first place.
It is never, though, too early for pumpkin spice lattes.
