[NU Sports] Asking the impossible

[Beamsley, Jeff]

You don't have to think this through very far to appreciate how and why
the coaches are involved and happy to be accountable.  It isn't PC
police or paternalism or the ACLU.

If you haven't had a kid in college lately, you may not realize that all
of these kids are required to sign an agreement that includes violations
of the code of conduct as reasonable grounds for dismissal.  Kids that
are on athletic scholarship have an even higher code of conduct and
academic performance that they agree to.

Coaches want to keep their kids on the field, so they have a whole
formal and informal infrastructure to make sure that their kids are
going to class, turning in their work, and staying out of trouble.  When
this infrastructure fails (Duke, CU, and even NU gambling), the coaches
take responsibility because they are used to having their players backs
AND because they know that an important part of holding others
accountable is holding yourself accountable too.  Failures also
represent a breakdown in trust between the coaching staff and the player
and that also reflects poorly on the coach.

So it becomes natural for the institution and law enforcement to engage
the coaches because in many other situations that don't make it into the
paper, the coaching staff has volunteered to be engaged.

Jeff






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From: nwu-sports-bounces at tssi.com [mailto:nwu-sports-bounces at tssi.com]
On Behalf Of Dennis W. Brandt
Sent: Monday, March 16, 2009 2:06 PM
To: nwu-sports at tssi.com
Subject: [NU Sports] Asking the impossible

>because he/she has failed in his/her role as an educator : to educate 
>the team members (and leaders in particular) about the visibility that 
>the team activities have and how the team's behavior on and off the 
>court/field/pool/etc.  can and do impact public perception of the 
>university.

Do you truly believe that coaches don't do that?  Do you really think
that athletes don't know it?  Do you think that education will stop them
when they are largely brought up in a society that eschews discipline
and raises them with a sense of entitlement?  If they're a great
athlete, a REAL sense of entitlement.  Just how are you going to police
them 24/7?  You can threaten, cajole, wheedle, plead, beg, pray, and/or
smack 'em up side the head, but some of them are going off the
reservation.  You might solve it by requiring all students to live in
dorms, check in by 9:00 PM, and give nightly blood and breathalyzer
tests. The ACLU needs something important to do for a change.

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