A little more than a year ago, the Buena Vista football team suffered an upset loss to Colorado Springs Christian in the Class 1A playoffs.
What wasn’t published at the time was that several players were missing because they violated the student-athlete code of conduct — a code very similar to the one found in the Manitou Springs Athletic Handbook.
A Safe2Tell report wasn’t filed. It wasn’t an anonymous complaint by someone with a vendetta against the school’s athletes.
The head football coach discovered the violation and took action. From a football standpoint, he was willing to play with a depleted roster rather than sidestep the ethical boundaries the Demons had established.
He and athletic director Adam Bright came under fire from football players’ parents. It was a playoff game — how dare they hold these kids accountable for their actions?
A year later, the Demons and Lions met again in the first round of the playoffs. This time, Buena Vista won and advanced. A player essential to that win was a player who missed last year’s game because of that code of conduct violation.
“Since then, he’s been a model player, teammate, student, classmate and member of the community,” BV coach Matt Flavin told me.
So, let me get this straight: A kid broke a rule and was held accountable, and he came out of the experience better?
Weird.
Last week, I wrote about the fear that surrounds high school athletics. I should probably clarify that the fear exists at every level.
It exists with parents, it exists with coaches and it exists with administration. This is something I see at a state-wide level and it’s an instance like what I saw in Buena Vista that gives me hope. Flavin and Bright have no problem identifying the role that high school athletics is supposed to play in a kid’s life and sticking to it.
That’s rare and fear is the reason for it.
I can’t decide if parents are more fearful of losing or of a team winning, but their kid not having a role. But that fear gets in the way of student-athletes developing through sport.
Coaches have a justified fear of parent vendettas. My friend Kyle Newman at the Denver Post wrote a fantastic story about coaches getting losing their jobs because of parental pressure.
This isn’t conjecture, Kyle outlined documented situations. This fear prevents coaches from utilizing the full scope of a practice, game or educational situation the way they are intended.
Administrators fear it all. Losing, parents and kids not reaching their full potential.
This can put them in a situation where they don’t stick to a consistent policy and manage situations on a case-by-case basis. That can undermine a coach and not help kids understand the full scope of decisions and consequences.
In Manitou’s case, as crazy as this sounds, the fear of athletics stems from city leadership. The Manitou Incline brings an insane number of people into town every year and I’ve heard mayors and City Council members say that Manitou doesn’t see any revenue.
That’s a different issue for a different day, but when we say a problem starts at the top and trickles down, it’s hard to ignore that a community’s fear of some athletic trend can work its way into a school system.
Fear of thriving and success has no place in high schools. It’s something that should be embraced.
Last week, I asked what we were so afraid of. Now, I want to know something else.
Why are we afraid of it?