I was listening to the news about the Oscoda Area High School football team, and how their season was arbitrarily cut short after being shut out for their first four games. Their coach, Kyle Tobin, is in his first year. His argument is that they are so physically dominated in their tough conference that it is not safe for them to be out there playing ball.
I do not have all the facts about what happened, just what I have heard on the news. What it sounds like to me is that the coach is so embarrassed by his awful football team that he doesn’t want to play any more games. The team is small, they aren’t very good, and they can not seem to score at all. However, the kids all want to continue playing, and they should be allowed to. It is not the coach’s job to deny them their season, it is the referees job to make sure the kids stay safe during play. Making them sit a season denies the seniors their last opportunity to play organized ball and does not help the underclassmen improve their skills at all for future seasons.
Let the kids play, as long as you can get enough of them out there to field a team. Sports build character and help the kids continue to lead a healthy lifestyle after school.
I agree. It’s a poor decision, and it is NOT up to the coach to make it. The kids should play without him.
That’s such a shame really. Someting similar was happening in NZ with rugby, in that a lot of parents were taking their kids out as they were outsized by the naturally bigger polynesian kids.
Y’get the feeling since the world is apparently unsafe these days, people are trying to force every wee bit of safety upon you they can.
The coach spoke a good bit on why he shut the program down, but a commenter on that article (see comment 2 above) who says he is with the board of education pointed out that he was being a bit of a revisionist in the interview with how the process actually went down.