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Community Corner

Sportsmanship, High School Football and Disappointment

Daniel Hand played Guilford High for the traditional Thanksgiving Day football game this past week. I stood by the fence that runs along the sidelines and the stands where all the fans gather to watch the battle. The weather was wet and cold so I'm sure it played into the mood of the players on the field. After watching Hand take off to a quick lead I started to notice that some of the fans on the Guilford side were not happy with how the refs were calling the game. I also noticed people yelling at the refs because they said players were taking cheap shots at other players on the field. I asked the people about this and they said that Guilford players were known for their cheap play, which I was surprised to hear. The person, who told me this also had a son playing in the game and his son told him that the Guilford kids would say some terrible things about his mom, take cheap shots while in a pile up and would hit players when they weren't looking. I took it with a grain of salt since they were obviously Hand fans. As the game went on I found myself watching both sides to see if I spotted any of this so called behavior. Unfortunately, for me but mostly for the players I did see a couple of things I wish I hadn't. I actually saw one of the kids on the Guilford side say something and then spit in the Hand players face. Then when the game was basically over and Hand was going to a knee a player from Guilford hit the Hand player in the throat which obviously angered the Hand player who went after the Guilford player and a little scuffle started and was broken up. Even though the Hand player took the Guilford players helmet off the ref didn't throw a flag. I think he knew the Hand guy didn't start it. You can see this on a couple of videos that I've seen out there on the web. I'd like to say this is a player problem but in my experience this has to fall squarely on the shoulders of the coaches.

 If I'm seeing this at a game then this isn't a new problem and if it's not new problem then the coaches have witnessed this behavior and/or had other coaches complain about it. You can play a really tough and hard game of football game without bringing the game down in the gutter with trash talking, cheap shots and poor sportsmanship. Hopefully, they will be coached in a way that brings integrity back to football for these young men. Remember, these are the future family members, fiends and employees for all of us.

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