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By Dayton Assistant Gary Pottebaum

…then why do you keep score?

Has doing the right thing left us?  There are too many players out there that have given up on their lunch pail ways.  Movies like “Rudy”, are seen as campy and outdated.  Players are more concerned with looking good, then getting things done the right way.  Luckily, this epidemic hasn’t quite hit us yet here at Dayton.  We don’t rock back in forth in unison in our huddle.  We don’t score or pass behind our backs.  We don’t care about how we look.  We just do work.  We may not be the most talented team out there, but we don’t care.  We win.  We win ugly more often than not, again we don’t care, but we work as a team and we win.  We win doing things the right way.  We win with class.

After four games this fall, I get more and more concerned about tomorrow’s leaders.  The stat chasers, the young men with the “I” attitude, the guys that don’t care if they hurt an opponent with a cheap shot.  Isn’t this supposed to be a gentlemen’s game?  A late hit will happen from time to time on a bang bang play, but a deliberate shot at someone after the play is just cheap.

Some will say it’s part of the game, but it’s NOT.  When someone cross-checks another player in the neck because he doesn’t get the ground ball he is fighting for, there is something inherently wrong with that person.  What is more wrong is the coach that doesn’t do anything to rectify this.  As long as there are people playing the game it will happen, I understand this.  Why???

I don’t know when it became “in fashion” to carry yourself this way on the field, but it is deep rooted in our sport.  It is an epidemic, with no apparent cure.  When the Ohio High School Lacrosse Association has to post a request on their website, we are making mistakes as role models in the Lacrosse community.  When the OHSLA Commissioner has to post this:

PLAY LAX – Lacrosse sticks are for passing, receiving, and carrying lacrosse balls, and sometimes for checking other sticks. Lacrosse sticks are not for checks to other players’ heads.

and this:

ETHICS – All coaches are asked to carefully review the NFHS published codes of ethics. A rule of common sense is expected to be practiced by all teams’ head and assistant coaches. Any test of ethical limits is bad for this truly great game.

It should never have to come to this, but it has.  We already play in a dangerous game.  For someone to deliberately make it worse, and go way outside the rules, is unacceptable.  Play the game the right way, or don’t suit up and get on the field.

We all need to think about the example we set as coaches for our players and as college players for younger players.  If our role models do it, why shouldn’t we be able to???

Being on the sidelines for a while, this has been something I have always had on my mind, but never had the proper outlet to vent it. I will be blogging all year long for CollegeLAX, and will do my best to get one out every week by Thursday at 5:00. Good luck to everyone this season.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 13th, 2009 at 5:00 pm and is filed under Blogs, Gary Pottebaum. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.