SpiritLedEd
Member
- Joined
- Aug 14, 2005
- Messages
- 5,315
In my community, we have a fairly large university that has an NCAA Division I basketball program of some renown. Recently the men's basketball coach was told "resign or be fired". He chose to accept a lucrative severance pay package.
This coach was highly successful in that his teams were always conference champions or near-champions and had been to the NCAA tournament a number of times. But his "success" was not viewed in a favorable light by the university's new president and with good reason.
For one, the coach had been recently arrested for drunk driving and film clips from police cruiser cameras were on all the local TV news reports showing him staggering as he attempted to take the field sobriety test.
In addition, while his teams were amassing winning records statistically and sending several players to the NBA, Other players found themselves embroiled in legal problems over things like assault, drug trafficking and DUI. As a group, his student athletes had woeful GPAs and many of them did not graduate.
The new university president wants to raise the bar for the school's athletesl. She wants to see them put in serious scholastic effort, raise their GPAs to respectable levels and (gasp!) graduate.
There wasa great hue and cry from the local citizenry over this matter, but was it a hue and cry to support the school president's efforts to see student athletes graduating with decent GPAs; prepared for successful careers and ready tobe good role models?
Oh no. The hue and cry was over questions of how the men's basketball program will fare next season and in the future and the negative effect the firing has on the school's ability to recruit star high school players for the future.
In the United States, our priorities have gotten way out of kilter. How sad it is when sports trophies and winning records on the basketball court are more important than preparing young men to be good role models and leaders.
Spirit Led Ed
This coach was highly successful in that his teams were always conference champions or near-champions and had been to the NCAA tournament a number of times. But his "success" was not viewed in a favorable light by the university's new president and with good reason.
For one, the coach had been recently arrested for drunk driving and film clips from police cruiser cameras were on all the local TV news reports showing him staggering as he attempted to take the field sobriety test.
In addition, while his teams were amassing winning records statistically and sending several players to the NBA, Other players found themselves embroiled in legal problems over things like assault, drug trafficking and DUI. As a group, his student athletes had woeful GPAs and many of them did not graduate.
The new university president wants to raise the bar for the school's athletesl. She wants to see them put in serious scholastic effort, raise their GPAs to respectable levels and (gasp!) graduate.
There wasa great hue and cry from the local citizenry over this matter, but was it a hue and cry to support the school president's efforts to see student athletes graduating with decent GPAs; prepared for successful careers and ready tobe good role models?
Oh no. The hue and cry was over questions of how the men's basketball program will fare next season and in the future and the negative effect the firing has on the school's ability to recruit star high school players for the future.
In the United States, our priorities have gotten way out of kilter. How sad it is when sports trophies and winning records on the basketball court are more important than preparing young men to be good role models and leaders.
Spirit Led Ed
Mike
