Football’s Trifecta of Trouble

Clearly it’s been a rough couple of days for the sport of football and for once I’m not talking about the NFL but rather right in our own backyard.

Yesterday of course I went in depth on the situation at Sayreville High School where the Superintendent of Schools has cancelled the remainder of the season over what he called “pervasive, wide-scale and generally accepted forms of harassment, intimidation and bullying within the football team.”

Further reports claim some of that behavior might be “lewd” in nature and appears to involve the upperclassmen in the program with younger team members. The incident is being investigated by the county prosecutor’s office and once they are done the school will consider the actions it may take. Little has been said about status of the coaching staff but clearly everyone and anyone associated with the program is on edge and will be for some time.

Meanwhile at the same time you have negative stories associated with football here in Ocean County. Four members of the Lakewood High School team were arrested last Friday for their involvement in a series of armed robberies the night before in the township and three of them have also been charged with a pair of armed robberies in Toms River back in September. 18-year old Devin Delanie and three juveniles were all members of the Piners football team and the news clearly had an impact on teammates who were stunned by Jackson Liberty last Friday afternoon and suffered their first loss of the season.

I feel especially bad for head coach L.J. Clark and his staff because they have worked so hard to change the image and perception of the program and have done so with a contagious positive energy that has produced back-to-back winning seasons. I would hope people don’t make a general assumption that the program is filled with bad kids because it is not.

The final part of the football trifecta has to do with an incident after a youth game in Toms River Sunday in which a parent attacked a coach who reportedly had just informed the team of 12, 13 and 14 year-olds that he was ending their season over poor play and poor attitudes. However the coach has some culpability here because he reportedly used obscene language in his rant to players and it was not the first time that’s happened.

As a matter of fact he was suspended by American Youth Football on Tuesday while the attacking parent and his son have been banned from the league.