We stink, so we quit
September 28th, 2006A high school in Oscoda, Mich., hasn’t scored a point so far in this year’s football season, and so the district is pulling the plug and the team will forfeit the rest of its games.
Despite pleas from players and parents, the board recently upheld the school’s earlier decision to end the season, saying players risked injury in trying to take on much stronger opponents.
“When you go to a game on Friday night and see a team physically dominated, those are the indisputable facts,” coach Kyle Tobin said.
“Seniors, I feel for you. There’s nothing I can say other than I’m sorry,” board member Neal Sweet said. “But you’re not quitters. You went out there and did your best.”
Sweet is right — the football players aren’t quitters. The quitters are Sweet, the coach and the other school board members who voted to end the season prematurely.
What a lousy way for a school district to teach students about persevering through difficult times. The message the school is sending is obvious — “When the going gets tough, quit.”
UPDATE: Here’s my column about this topic.
I wonder what the high-school dropout rate is in that district?
Why should you try harder or implement smarter techniques when you can just quit. Makes perfect sense to me. Completely ridiculous!
I’ve decided to address this further in my column this week, which I’ll finish tonight. I just talked to the editor of the newspaper up there, and I’m waiting to hear back from the coach.
Ask him about this statement:
“I have 28 years of coaching experience in high school and college, and I know the difference between a team playing bad and a team that’s unsafe,” he said.
So if they were 2-2 with 60 points scored, they would still be ending the season?
it’s my understanding that this team was so terrible that there were real concerns for their health…they were getting the !!!??>))*&^#^@%%&())Q!!!@@ kicked out of them…not just in the score but in the action.
You know what my dad would say, “GOOD! THAT’S WHAT YOU GET FOR BEING SO LOUSY! NOW GO POUND SALT!”
That’s pretty bad. For example, as some of you know from my recent excitment, my high school football team won it’s first game in three years this year. Last season, in 10 games, we scored, I believe 14 points. But, we still played through a terrible losing streak. Since I’ve been in high school, we are 1-22. In the past 7 seasons, including the current one, we are 3-59. We pretty much stink, but we don’t give up. Everyone still loves our team, because in the end, sports aren’t always just about winning. It sounds like this team needs to learn that.
This man has coached for 28 years. He has seen every minute of every game his team has played this year and also knows all about the upcoming opponents (who for all we know could be the most physically dominant teams they’ve faced yet). Maybe he knows more about this than us and should be given the benefit of the doubt.
Also, after coaching this long he knows how psycho parents can act about sports. He had to have known that he would get more heat for this decision than for anything he’s ever done as a coach. Yet he STILL goes through with it?? He must have had a good reason for this and been genuinely concerned for the safety of his kids.
Or maybe he’s just a big quitter. I don’t know. All I’m saying is we probably don’t know the situation well enough to be able to pile on this coach or the school board.
The editor of the paper up in Oscoda said the coach did the same thing at a different school in 1991 when his team started 0-4.
Even if he’s concerned about the welfare of his players, this is a bad decision. These kids know what they’re in for when they go out for football. And unless they’re only growing a bunch of pipsqueaks up there in Oscoda, they can’t be in THAT much danger from another high school team.
Let ‘em play. Don’t teach them to be quitters.
Oh come on Marty, if he’s so concerned over his players getting hurt, he’s coaching the wrong sport.
When you are overmatched, you don’t just quit. You work harder. Run an extra mile, do an extra pushup, do a few more up-downs. You fight the fight no matter what - it’s almost insulting to back down.
Who knows. Maybe you’re right. Maybe he’s coaching a team of 4′8”, 95 lbs. guys. If that’s the case, by all means, quit. But if he would have went ahead and played the rest of the games, worked his team harder, and inspired them, he just might have been surprised what his team could do.
I might be able to defend his decision if it were the case of a college team against a high school team (Benton vs. Notre Dame), but the teams are evidently in the same conference. I can’t imagine that every team in their conference is that far ahead of them physically. I honestly can’t imagine 1 team being that physically more dominant.
Oh, Notre Dame is highly overranked. I bet a high school team could give them a run for their money.
On a somewhat relevant note,
I really love the Rocky movies, where Balboa is in way over his head, blocks punches with his jaw, gets the snot beat out of his brain, but endures to the bitter end and wins all but 2 fights. It is an inspiring story about getting back up after being knocked down…
But let’s be honest, in real life his trainer would have thrown in the towel after the third round beating.
Some victories aren’t always worth the price.
Maybe I missed it, but had any players actually gotten hurt? They played 4 games…almost half a season. Are they basing their decision on what COULD happen or on what DID happen?
Update posted, with a link to my column.
Good column, Tim.
Hey, my names Mitch, i actually play or rather ‘Played’ for the oscoda football team at Wide Receiver (#82), and theres been alot of stories going around about whats going on, but really alot of them of course are not true. Being part of the team i can honestly say that most of the stuff said such as we never had enough players to practice and that too many players were injured is definetly bogus. Were all pretty upset about this whole ordeal, as we all should be, but me being a senior it definetly affected me greatly. We would have gladly finished off the season 0-9 as long as we got to play. If anybody wants to ask any questions please feel free to ask, as i will try to answer them. Thanks,
Mitchell Davis
Mitch is legit, everyone. I talked to him on the phone earlier this evening.
Thanks for stopping by and contributing, Mitch.
It’s a shame what happened to your season, Mitchell - I can’t imagine how it feels to have that taken away from you without you having any say.
I’d like to know if the team did get together and go to the school board, or other officials, and plead your case. If so, what exactly was their response after seeing that you wanted to play? Also, what has the town/school’s response been?
Oh, and Scott, thanks for the kind words.
Thank you, yeah it is a shame. Yes the team did actually get together and talk to the school board, one member out of six was all for continuing the season, the rest believed that we should not. We even had a rally at the local Carters parking lot and had about a hundred people show up, ended up being a great turn out. The Town is kind of varied on responses about the whole thing, part of town is behind us then some of them are saying its our own faults(the players) that the season was cancelled and alot of them are extremely angry. Its school it was a mayhem for a couple days, there were signs posted EVERYWHERE telling people to bring back the team.
I’m not surprised by this, the coach in question has a reputation for being very focused on his ego. He’s been quite successful in the past, and he’s a legend in NE Michigan for turning a losing team into a perennial powerhouse, but he also has left a bad taste in a good many mouths.In my experience, small-town football brings a great deal of nepotism and small-town politics to the surface, and in many cases that is coupled with arrogance, egotism, and callow careerism on the part of the coaching staffs. That being said, I must add that in my experience, small-town high school football has positive effects that far outweigh the negative. My personal experience was colored by a good many of the negatives mentioned above, but I still wouldn’t trade a minute of it, and neither would most of my classmates. I can’t think of too many other activities that bring a town together and build individual character as consistently as high school football, but there are always exceptions. Bad apples notwithstanding, the positive outweighs the negative. Except maybe for the Oscoda Owls.
Mitch,
I really feel for you and your team for the poor decision made by a few adults. I played high school football (20 years ago) and love it to this days. You guys got a really raw deal. I think it was a Terrible decision and do not agree with it even a little bit.
That being said remember that it is not the end of the world. Please don’t let these actions by a few misinformed adults cause you much grief. Be a leader and lead the team to a mature response to the whole situation. I know it sucks, but compared to the rest of life this really isn’t that big of a deal. Your relationship to Jesus and the way you represent him has much greater importance! God bless you and I wish you well in the rest of your life.
I am so sad to be from a place known for bomb threats, eric harris, a high teen pregnancy rate, and the football team that wasn’t………I’m moving to tawas.