July 13, 2017
HIATUS
SportsCentral will be taking a month off to give everyone a breather. The program will return on Thursday, August 10, 5pm on Central First Facebook Page.
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THE WIZARDRY OF OS
Assistant Basketball Coach and Head Swimming Coach at Central High
I promise I will get to the 2016-17 basketball wrap up and 2017-18 look ahead soon, but I need to rant for a moment.
There is some faulty reasoning that continues to go around in the discussion regarding college athletes and coaches. Before I get into the faulty reasoning, I want to go on the record for saying that I think college athletes should be allowed to transfer wherever they want and play according to transfer rules. If a person qualifies and is accepted to an institution of higher learning, I think the principles of our country say that the person should be able to attend and participate in all the activities offered.
That being said, there are people who don’t think coaches should be able to restrict where players transfer, like me, but they are using reasoning that should not be accepted. I have heard many people suggest that players should be able to transfer anywhere they choose because a coach can leave and take another job at any school.
Okay, let’s play that game, but in reverse. Most head coaches have to have a master’s degree. So according to the logic that says players and coaches are the same, then players should not be eligible until they earn a master’s degree. I know. The argument is really foolish. That is the problem with equality, it has to go both ways. If a=b, then b=a. Of course, players and coaches are not the same.
When you put two positions that are not equal in a position of being equal you run into many foolish conclusions. Here are other examples. Police can speed, so I should be able to speed. Teachers don’t have homework, so students should not have homework. The positions are not equal, therefore the arguments calling for equality are invalid.
Student-athletes should be allowed to transfer because students can too. The argument works because students and student-athletes are close to equal. Though it must be pointed out that there are exceptions.
Student-athletes should be allowed to transfer because it is a free country. No mention of coaches necessary.
Jumping to basketball (see what I did there?), 2016-17 was a miserable basketball year in Louisiana. There is my summary.
Looking forward to 2017-18, there is reason for optimism. If the Pelicans can ever stay healthy (huge IF), there is talent. Holiday, Cousins, and Davis are top 10 players at their positions with Davis and Cousins actually being in the top 2-3.
Of course, you need role players. Specifically, in the NBA today, you need players to knock down open shots that result from the attention Davis, Cousins, and Holiday can draw. The Pelicans don’t have that and the West is brutal, so I don’t foresee a 50 win season.
The Warriors, Spurs, Rockets, and Thunder are the class of the conference. That leaves 4 other spots for the playoffs. The Jazz and Clippers appear to be falling back a bit. The Grizzlies, Trail Blazers, and Nuggets are good, but not great. As good as the West is, there is a chance for the Pelicans to have a chance for the playoffs.
As for the LSU, Will Wade is off to a great start. Most Tiger fans had written of 2017-18, figuring LSU would have 8 scholarship players and have to fill out the roster with walk-ons. That certainly will not be the case.
I think Mays, Sims, Sampson, and Reath have SEC talent. I have never been a big believer in Patterson’s skills, but he will be a senior. Aaron Epps has a chance to contribute in an uptempo, pressing style like Coach Wade plans to implement.
It is hard to tell which of the signees will contribute next year, but it is safe to say that all of them have ability. Thankfully, Wade was able to find a true point guard in Tremont Waters. Most importantly, most of the players on the roster for next year fit a style and that style fits Coach Wade’s philosophy.
LSU will be undersized, but as I have said in the past, that can be overcome with shooting, depth, effort, and physicality. If LSU is able to impose their style of play on opponents, the Tigers will counter their opponent's size by the pace of play.
The SEC will be a quality conference next year. Kentucky and Florida a notch above the rest, but Alabama, Texas A&M, Arkansas, and Vanderbilt have a chance to make the NCAA Tournament. Don’t count out South Carolina either. With that many quality teams in the league, LSU will have a tough time competing. Nevertheless, this team has the makings of a team that will compete and make Tiger fans proud.
HEY REF
There’s always been a couple of things this writer has enjoyed doing while writing a weekly column. First and above all else I’ve stood firm in refusing to bend to the so called status quo. I’ve never been one to “go with the flow” so that I’ll be liked. The other thing is I’ve done my best to be honest and write stories the way they happened during my twenty plus years of working football games on Friday nights in south Louisiana. There is one thing though that I’ve got to blow my own horn about and that is when I’m asked to repeat a column I’ll do my best to get it out as soon as possible.
As I was talking with a couple of former and fellow officials they asked if I still had the column(s) I’d done about how things have changed for the guys that now attempt to call games. I use the verb “attempt” since we all agreed the sorry and sad show on display now between the lines leaves so much to be desired. Well, I dug into the treasure chest of past columns and I think I found the column in question.
To my surprise it turns out the column in question is actually in three parts. So, I hope those that missed these columns the first time around will enjoy them the second time around. I’m going to ask everyone to do me a favor; after reading all three parts no matter if you do or if you don’t agree with what I’ve written then please send me your opinions on what was contained in this special three part series.
Let the show begin and I hope everyone will write to me and send me their thoughts on this subject which is so close to my heart… … … …
THIS IS THE FIRST PART OF A SPECIAL THREE PART SERIES DELVING INTO THE LHSAA’s HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL OFFICIALS:
I never thought I’d use the words football officials and cannibals in the same sentence. But that’s the easiest way to describe the attitude in at least three football official’s associations in the Baton Rouge area. I’ve been doing some fact finding the last four years into why the performance of LHSAA’s football officials has declined in recent years. It goes against every fiber of my being to be writing this story but this story must be told. There won’t be any fireworks or front page headlines to announce that I’ve decided to retire effective immediately but I’ve seen enough and am sick to see just how bad the officiating and the attitude of many officials has become in this part of the state.
I started working high school football games in the Baton Rouge area back in 1979. I took 1980 off and resumed my career in 1981. Back then we played under NCAA rules but in the mid to late 80’s Louisiana made the switch to National Federation (High School) rules. So we had to hit the books hard to insure we enforced penalties as prescribed in the high school rule book.
I worked games for 20 years before major health problems sidelined me. You know little things like several surgeries to both knees then a total knee replacement, a triple by-pass, four abdominal operations and the “Big One” where my lower spine collapsed and to fix things the doctors took bone out of my hip and spliced it into my lower back. I bring this up because I never expected to be able to call another game. I kept this information from many other officials since I didn’t want or need pity. The facts are that after one Friday night game I’m in bed for two to three days unable to walk and dealing with all the pain.
During my time off (almost twelve years) I would still talk to coaches in our area and tried to keep up with how teams were doing. I’m not sure of the exact time frame but things started changing for the worse as far as how football games were being officiated. Coaches would tell me about plays they had run on a given Friday night and how the officials ruled wondering if this or that was correct.
I don’t like to question how fellow officials enforced penalties or how they handled game situations just on a coaches version of the events but it became clear something was amiss. And it wasn’t just one coach or fan that would ask me questions so I decided to get back on the sidelines so I could see for myself just what was going on. Back at the start of my stint as an amateur football official there was this feeling of a brotherhood among a crew of officials working games together.
That was the first thing I noticed missing among the membership and in fact before I started back I called and talked to an official that was still calling games and has more than 40 years in the Baton Rouge Association. He told me “Things have CHANGED! Don’t ask questions just do your games and don’t worry about anything else but what you do”! That conversation only made me want to get back to see why things had changed for the worse.
I admit I was excited to have the chance to catch up with many of my old friends. But when the meeting got underway I was shocked in that I only recognized a handful of the guys I used to call games with. I didn’t make it through the first meeting back as I was asked to leave. The Baton Rouge Association was still meeting at LSU’s Williams Hall so I felt comfortable sitting in the seat I’d spent nearly 20 years occupying. It was close to the top row of the room’s seats and it felt like old times. But not more than twenty minutes into the meeting I’d noticed many officials talking on their phones, in small groups and some were even playing games on their laptops and cell phones. I noticed a couple guys with laptops never looked up and just continued being focused on the screens. So I walked by them to get a peek at what was so important and I was shocked to see them on the internet as the meeting continued onto new business. It was like being in a bad daycare center with all the noise and inattention to the discussion on the floor.
Well, I couldn’t hear because of all the talking, walking around, laughing and phones ringing so I raised my hand and asked what was being said on the floor. The president made the remark that if I wanted to hear what was going on and to “fix my problem then I should come sit on the front row”. This upset me and I stood up and told him to “Fix this problem everybody needs to shut the F*CK up so we can hear”!
When I got home I had more than a dozen calls on my answering machine from members thanking me for saying what I said because it’s just mass confusion at the meetings and I said what needed saying. Well, it didn’t go over very well with the president and I was almost immediately put on his sh*t list.
And from there things only got worse. I was used to meetings where you could hear a pin drop. Every meeting had a purpose in that before the rules test we opened the rule book and discussed what they meant and how to enforce penalties. We had a study guide with over 300 questions and we’d go over the first 50 questions then the next week another 50 and so on until we’d read all the questions and understood what they meant.
The new way of doing things is handing out the study guide along with the dates that the test would be given. When no discussion on the rules happened I wanted to devote a minimum of 30 minutes before the test to our study guide and the rules then after the test the 30 minutes would be to review game situations from the previous Friday night. Needless to say, it wasn’t received very well and was turned down. I asked one of the veteran officials if he’d support my motion and he told me “Man, you know the real meeting is after we leave here (LSU) in the parking lot or at a local “watering hole”. You can see that this was not the way I was taught but I ran up against so much resistance that I knew nothing good was to come from doing business this way.
I’ll leave things to your imagination as to just how good the product would be if this was “NEW” way of learning the rules.
Till next week… …
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