Mixed Message

<a href="http://www.billingsgazette.net/articles/2007/01/30/news/state/35-coach.txt" >Coach could lose job over alcohol rule</a><br />n<br />n<blockquote>The Plenty Coups High School athletic director and boys basketball coach faces suspension today in a dispute with the superintendent over the dismissal from the team of a player who drank alcohol.<br />n<br />nLarry Lee Falls Down, a Billings West High graduate hired for the coaching and director's job last August, said Monday he's sticking to his decision not to reinstate the player. He will take his suspension as basketball coach to the school board through the grievance process, he said.<br />n<br />nWhile recognizing the superintendent's right to overrule his decision, Falls Down said he made a commitment when he took the job to help the players set and achieve goals and to maintain standards for the program. He's not changing his mind, he said.<br />n</blockquote><br />n<br />nGood for the Coach. Stick to your guns. I hate the mixed message that sometimes gets sent to athletes that the rules only apply to them when they are losing. When they are winning they can do anything they want and get away with it. That is exactly what we are seeing here. The Coach says no to a player because he used alcohol, illegal for youths under 21, and the Superintendent wants to overrule the Coach. Why? I assume because the team is winning.<br />n<br />nMaintaining standards and living by the rules is important throughout life and this Coach should be hailed for his stand to stick by the rules through thick and thin. The student needs to learn there are consequences for your actions and you take them like a man, learn from them, and go on. The Coach is showing exactly this by sticking to his guns and not bowing to the pressure from the Superintendent. Hopefully the students learn a lesson from this.<br />n<br />n<strong>My life is my message. Mohandas Gandhi</strong>