Originally published at: High school basketball player benched for poor sportsmanship beats up coach | Boing Boing
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I don’t understand stories like this. How did they imagine that was going to play out? Like…they had time to cool off and think about what would happen after they beat up the coach. Did they think he’d just take it, back down, and let the kid do whatever he wanted in games after that? How could they possibly think this was going to end in any way other than them getting arrested?
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Lead water pipes?
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Nice to see that the sportsmanship Texas football is famous for is branching out to infecting other sports.
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I dunno, you hear about all kinds of stories where disagreements get out of hand. I think some people just don’t know how to deal with conflict and disrespect (real or perceived). . 
I don’t think they think past the current issue at hand.
I saw on the news locally they had an outreach program by former convicts trying to teach conflict resolution to younger people, but I don’t know how much success they have had.
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… the possible drawbacks of presenting convicts to youngsters as role models sort of enumerate themselves without us even having to list them 
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I think it’s the delay that confuses me. If it happened in the moment, I still wouldn’t understand it, really, but I would get it. People make all kinds of irrational decisions in the heat of the moment. But this was later. He had time to cool off. And then to bring his brother, and maybe even some other family members, into it. I just can’t fathom what any of them were thinking was going to happen.
Way back when I was a senior in high school, in Texas, my senior year my school had a pretty good football team. I think they made it to the state quarter finals before they lost that year. Anyway, in the game they lost, there was a call by a referee that a lot of people didn’t like. And then I can’t remember if this was during the game, or after the game, but one of the players on my school’s team was just really pissed, and he started running at full speed right at that ref. He was going to lay him out as hard as he could. This was in 1986, so no cell phones or social media, but everyone in the crowd saw this, and the ref had his back to the player so he didn’t. Thankfully, several of his teammates caught him before he got there, and held him back. It was still stupid, but his teammates were more rational and stopped him. And, again, it was in the heat of the moment, not later on. That I get. It’s still wrong, but I get it. But the ambushing of your own coach well after the game is over…that’s just baffling to me.
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This is the sort of story that reminds me that brains are still developing to age ~25
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IIRC it was an organization founded by a guy who went to prison due to past mistake. It was a program the Mayors office funded and they are doing youth outreach to try to explain to people that a moment of anger isn’t worth years in prison when you end up shooting, stabbing, or assaulting somebody. There are more options to dealing with conflicts than physical violence.
I think there is value in “real talk” by people who aren’t square academics who have never been punched in the face. Hard truths from teachers aren’t absorbed as well as from people with, for lack of better words, street cred. People who have had similar challenges and understand where these younger people are coming from. Being lectured by someone who you don’t identify with often just gets tuned out. (ETA I should say, I don’t think everyone involved was an ex-con, just the person I remember on the news was. I am sure they have social workers and others as well.)
That’s understandable because some people stew and it build ups. They don’t simmer down, they lock the lid of the pressure cooker and the anger just builds and builds.
There was also two people involved, and I’ve seen people feed off one another where they wouldn’t do a bad idea alone as often as the two of them talk themselves into doing it. “Hey, man, you shouldn’t let him disrespect you like that. I’ll help you show that guy.” That sort of thing.
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The coach was certainly right about that jackass’ lack of sportsmanship.
Sports build character and teamwork, huh?
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This makes me think of the old adage:
One boy, one brain.
Two boys, half a brain.
The two brothers fed off each other, egging each other’s anger higher and higher until rational thought was completely gone and a red haze of anger was all that was left.
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To be fair, 99 times out of 100, it does. I’ve seen lots of hot headed, stupid and angry young men that only keep themselves together BECAUSE of sports. Sports got them through the stupid years until nature decided to finish developing their brains and they became functional and good men. Women, too, to a lesser extent, though their brains seem to mature a little quicker than the men. (Don’t really know how much of that is nature and how much is how society coddles young men, though…)
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This is true.
I’m also seeing many athletes getting busted for domestic abuse, and they don’t always appear steroidal.
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Story from the 90’s: a guy I worked with also coached football for kids in poorer areas of Boston. He seemed really upset one day, I asked what was going on. He mentioned a recent shooting, where a kid had brought a gun into school and killed someone at recess. “The kid with the gun was one of my kids.” This was pre-Columbine, when it was more shocking than today.
I commiserated and asked him what the kid was like.
He gave me a funny look, kind of piercing.“You really want to know?”
“Well, yeah?”
“He reminded me a lot of you, Snigs. He was quiet and thoughtful, and I never would have guessed anything was going on with him.”
I think about this whenever I hear of youth violence, what went right with me, that went wrong with them, and how to get at what they’re thinking.
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Broadcasting a high school basketball championship, game ends, one team wins, one team loses. I had cameras in both groups to capture the moment. Winning team of course were darned happy. On the losing team one of their players attacked my camera op and pummeled him before the refs and adults could get into the pile.
Kids are not taught how to deal with their emotions, and it’s kinda BS for a school to encourage activities that could send them crashing emotionally. One of the improper responses is to assault someone who had zero to do with your shitty play.
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