What's that smell?
Why would they do that? Another story to file under the heading "What the hell were they thinking..."
Apparently last Friday night, three Akron-Fairgrove varsity basketball players and one junior varsity player were caught drinking an unspecified alcoholic substance in the back of the school bus while the team was traveling to Kingston for a game.
That's right...they were drinking on the bus...while going to a basketball game.
Reports that surfaced today stated that the players snuck the alcohol onto the bus in Gatorade bottles, and then began to pass the substance around while the team was on the road.
The team bus driver is the town sherriff, and I don't know yet if he smelled the booze or if someone else turned the young men in, but they were busted, given a breathalyzer when the bus stopped in Kingston, and then all hell broke loose.
Nine playes from the varsity squad were held out of the game.
Two players from the JV were brought up so the team would not have to forfeit. A-F played with just five players, and when Adam Foster fouled out in the third quarter, the Vikings finished the game with just four on the floor.
I spoke with coach Leon Westover today and he told me that as of right now, he was uncomfortable speaking about the incident, since he had yet to talk to the AD at the school, but he could tell me that he was sure that some serious consequences were waiting for those kids involved in the incident.
This is just a real shame. Westover is one of the nicest and most accomodating coaches I have ever met and he deserves a lot better than to be treated like this by his players.
But I feel validated in a way from my previous observation when I stated that these kids have quit on their coach (which ruffled the feathers of a few readers).
If that was ever in doubt, then this incident just proves my point.
I see a defeated attitude by almost the whole team when I watch them play...they just don't seem to care anymore.
And how can you, when your best hope during any game is to get beat by only 20 points.
That's no excuse for the young men's behavior that were involved in this incident, that's just a fact.
Here's what makes me mad...
High school sports are supposed to be the best time in a young man's life...a time when you learn important life lessons that will help to be a guide for the rest of your life. When you learn important lessons that can make you a better person.
Lessons such as teamwork, that when you get knocked down, you need to get up and finish what you started.
It's supposed to be a time when you make lifelong friends who share experiences in the heat of battle with you that bond you together for the rest of your days.
It's suppposed to be a time when you learn that the importance of the team comes before the vanity of the individual.
What these kids did was not only stupid, but it was incredibly selfish. They obviously don't care about the team, otherwise they would not have acted with such wreckless abandon and they would not have acted so foolish. These kids threw away that chance and in the process, spit on everyone who has ever tried to give them a chance to play sports.
Here's hoping that Coach Westover and the entire Akron-Fairgrove administration use this an opportunity to set an example. This is a golden opportunity for the sports staff at A-F to show the rest of the community how they want to be seen by others...as a bunch of self absorbed losers who don't care about the plight of their athletes by trying to protect these kids and by just brushing off this incident as a sort of 'boys will be boys' incident.
Or will they show themselves as a school who truly cares about their athletes and believes that only those who play by the rules are worthy of getting a chance to earn the rewards that participating in sports gives someone.
Coach Westover is a standup guy and I have no doubt that in the end, he will do the right thing.
Apparently last Friday night, three Akron-Fairgrove varsity basketball players and one junior varsity player were caught drinking an unspecified alcoholic substance in the back of the school bus while the team was traveling to Kingston for a game.
That's right...they were drinking on the bus...while going to a basketball game.
Reports that surfaced today stated that the players snuck the alcohol onto the bus in Gatorade bottles, and then began to pass the substance around while the team was on the road.
The team bus driver is the town sherriff, and I don't know yet if he smelled the booze or if someone else turned the young men in, but they were busted, given a breathalyzer when the bus stopped in Kingston, and then all hell broke loose.
Nine playes from the varsity squad were held out of the game.
Two players from the JV were brought up so the team would not have to forfeit. A-F played with just five players, and when Adam Foster fouled out in the third quarter, the Vikings finished the game with just four on the floor.
I spoke with coach Leon Westover today and he told me that as of right now, he was uncomfortable speaking about the incident, since he had yet to talk to the AD at the school, but he could tell me that he was sure that some serious consequences were waiting for those kids involved in the incident.
This is just a real shame. Westover is one of the nicest and most accomodating coaches I have ever met and he deserves a lot better than to be treated like this by his players.
But I feel validated in a way from my previous observation when I stated that these kids have quit on their coach (which ruffled the feathers of a few readers).
If that was ever in doubt, then this incident just proves my point.
I see a defeated attitude by almost the whole team when I watch them play...they just don't seem to care anymore.
And how can you, when your best hope during any game is to get beat by only 20 points.
That's no excuse for the young men's behavior that were involved in this incident, that's just a fact.
Here's what makes me mad...
High school sports are supposed to be the best time in a young man's life...a time when you learn important life lessons that will help to be a guide for the rest of your life. When you learn important lessons that can make you a better person.
Lessons such as teamwork, that when you get knocked down, you need to get up and finish what you started.
It's supposed to be a time when you make lifelong friends who share experiences in the heat of battle with you that bond you together for the rest of your days.
It's suppposed to be a time when you learn that the importance of the team comes before the vanity of the individual.
What these kids did was not only stupid, but it was incredibly selfish. They obviously don't care about the team, otherwise they would not have acted with such wreckless abandon and they would not have acted so foolish. These kids threw away that chance and in the process, spit on everyone who has ever tried to give them a chance to play sports.
Here's hoping that Coach Westover and the entire Akron-Fairgrove administration use this an opportunity to set an example. This is a golden opportunity for the sports staff at A-F to show the rest of the community how they want to be seen by others...as a bunch of self absorbed losers who don't care about the plight of their athletes by trying to protect these kids and by just brushing off this incident as a sort of 'boys will be boys' incident.
Or will they show themselves as a school who truly cares about their athletes and believes that only those who play by the rules are worthy of getting a chance to earn the rewards that participating in sports gives someone.
Coach Westover is a standup guy and I have no doubt that in the end, he will do the right thing.
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