Okay, my husband says that he understands, but I don't. You hold a kid back in 8th grade so he can grow? You keep an honor student behind for football? Am I crazy? This local high school team is real popular though. You can tell by the coaches record how awesome they are. But please a little less pressure and vicarious living !!!!
Summerville High School's varsity football team has been barred from the state playoffs this year because the junior varsity squad knowingly used an ineligible player during a game.
The Green Wave, a perennial powerhouse, was placed on probation by the South Carolina High School League. If the school doesn't win its appeal Wednesday before the league's Executive Committee, Summerville will miss the playoffs for the first time since 1967.
Head coach John McKissick, the nation's winningest football coach with 527 victories against 126 losses and 13 ties after Friday night's 20-15 victory over Fort Dorchester, called the penalty unfair.
"Someone reported us," McKissick said. "It was an anonymous, unsigned letter that blasted me and crap like that. Sometimes when you're a high-profile program, they stick it to you. I don't see how they can stick it to 80 varsity players because of one junior varsity player."
The ineligible player was Corley Bridges, a son of Green Wave varsity offensive line coach Alan Bridges. Bridges, an honor student, is repeating eighth grade this academic year, McKissick said. He was held back to give him more time to develop physically for football.
"The rule is, if you're promoted in the seventh or eighth grade, you cannot be held back and play," Summerville Principal Dickey Dingle said. "You can practice but can't participate in a game. Participation means dressing for a game. We were guilty and self-sanctioned ourselves. We felt it was a pretty tough action. We think we have a pretty good argument against what the league has given us as a penalty."
The school paid a $500 fine and suspended for the remainder of the season the elder Bridges and his son, as well as junior varsity coach Kenny Walker.
The Green Wave closes out the regular season next week against Colleton County. If the school doesn't win the appeal, the team will be sitting at home when the first round of the Big 16 playoffs begins Nov. 11.
McKissick, who has missed the playoffs eight times in his 54 years at the school and has led Summerville to 10 state titles, said most students who are held back don't practice during the season.
"But he practiced and talked the coaches into letting him play in a game. I didn't know about it, and when I did, we reported ourselves. We paid the fine, suspended coach Walker, coach Bridges and his son. We thought that was it, but then we got the letter that said we were on probation."
Jerome Singleton, the High School League's executive director, said he placed Summerville on probation because the school knowingly used an ineligible player. He said he had to place the entire football program on probation because the league's constitution doesn't distinguish between the levels of competition.
"The constitution says a school may be placed on probation because of a violation," Singleton said. " 'May' could be the operative word. The Executive Committee could set aside the constitution and rule differently. They have the power to do that."
Dingle said Summerville has a good chance to win its appeal.
"We will have a fair hearing and I think we have a chance," he said.
I played football for 12 years. So I know the demands the sport can place on a student athlete. I also know the benefits and discipline a student can gain from dedicating himself to that sport.
That having been said, my studies came first. I took more pride in making the honor roll, but being a football player enabled me to fit in. As anyone who lived through their teen age years can attest, there is no worse cardinal sin a kid can commit than not fitting in.
This kid was a good student. He just wanted to play football. If all he did was dress for the game, but didnt play...I think the team was just rewarding him for staying involved and as a consequence may be unjustly sanctioned.
Wisconisn doesnt allow the mingling of junior high and high school programs, so this isnt a problem here. I guess the bigger issue here is will holding a kid back academically for athletic reasons be detrimental in the long run? A kid is only a kid once....I am not saying academics are not important...truly that is a kid's first full time job. However, to fully experience being a kid means enjoying a well rounded experience.
Athletics can have such a positive impact on a kid that I dont believe it is an unimportant area of develop[ment. His parents are inevitably the ones who have to sign off on this. I am on the fence on this one...to give up a year of your life so you can experience one of the most memorable things about being a kid....
You work a long , long time after you finish school.....The best times of your life, no pressures, no worries are as a kid....If I could go back and have an extra year of playing ball... I do believe I would.
I believe it is important for kids to be involved in some type of extracurricular activity, be it sports, clubs, etc. But the key word here is EXTRA. I went to a high school where sports were everything. If you had a coach for a teacher, forget about really learning anything in that class. Don't even worried about being recognized unless you played their sport or were a cheerleader. Encouraging your kids to be involved is one thing, but it's not everything. I think holding a kid back a grade only for sports is wrong. I think it's unfair for other players who continued on in school the way they're supposed to, and it's unfair for taxpayers to have to pay another year for that kid just so he can play sports. There's more to life than that.
I totally agree. I cannot believe that a kid wants to take another year of the same stuff! Not to mention not graduate with his friends. I hate the idea and that it is legal!
