DUCKING THE DOTS IS POOR PROTOCOL
Publication:
Published: 04/05/1997
Page: P1C
Headline: DUCKING THE DOTS IS POOR PROTOCOL
Byline: DOUG SMOCK
ANOTHER week gone and we're
closer to the day when all the high
schools in the valley have to travel hours to every game because they
refuse to play each other.
Such is the case with Nitro
and Poca, county border rivals who now
apparently won't play each other in anything, including golf, cross
country and Parcheesi.
You know the story by now.
Nitro Principal Paul McClanahan put a
damper on Poca's state basketball title by contesting
a player's
eligibility. Seems Chet Harless, is, or was, or is
again, a Cross
Lanes resident.
Thing is, Harless wasn't exactly blazing a trail. Jason Redman is the
most celebrated Nitro emigre, and his defection hurt
the Wildcats in
football and really, really bad in basketball. There were other good
athletes who found their way across the county line in the past few
years, and as far as I know, they all fled in one direction - toward
the shadow of the John Amos stacks.
It makes me wonder. Is Poca's academic atmosphere also better, or do
the transfers have their priorities mixed up? Does Poca
enjoy that
much of an advantage being a big fish in the Class AA pond instead of
an ordinary fish in the AAA ocean?
Or is something wrong at
Nitro High?
I don't profess to know all
the answers. But our very unscientific
survey of Vent Line diatribes, the ones we published and the ones we
disqualified, was eye-opening. For somebody who said he acted on
behalf of the Nitro community, McClanahan wasn't getting much sympathy
from his own flock.
He's not getting much from
me, either. He probably could have pursued
the eligibility issue well before Poca rose to state
title contention
in football or basketball. And I have no respect for the decision to
sever scheduling ties with Poca, a decision that appears
to have come
from McClanahan.
Ideally, I'd like to see
high school eligibility rules toughened. But
realistically, we might as well throw such rules out, all of them.
It's clear to me that high school principals need to focus their
energies on making their schools better.
Paul McClanahan might do
well to quit sulking and get his school's
house back in order. And tell his coaches to put Poca
back on their
schedules.