Behavior and freedom to make bad choices fall back on the individual

I will not drop the names of local athletes I have covered and written about who were recently arrested on gun charges, recklessly endangering anyone innocently skipping down the street in their neighborhood without a clue.

Three of these young men have always been respectfully nice to me. They are socially poised, articulate and soft-spoken. I know their families and generations of relatives. And I know they understand right from wrong, that they have had the benefit of good advice and they have known tremendous success in sports.

Individuals inside families who use insanely bad judgment and end up arrested and inside the ring of public ridicule bring the entire extended family and integrated community of people who care for one another down. If you think we all contributed to the moment when these individuals made bad decisions you would be wrong.

Young men can go instantly stupid all on their own and to blame parents, coaches, teachers and sportswriters, accusing them of always looking the other way, is just inaccurate. Behavior and freedom to make bad choices without regard for consequences all fall back on the individual.

A NEW DAY - It is a new day and a new way in athletics. It is now routinely acceptable for athletes to be a member of a school team while playing “travel agent” on the weekends for the sport of their passion.

The question remains if your linebacker is a baseball player on weekends or your hockey player picks up a lacrosse stick, does it take away from the school team in any way – from focus to skill contamination?

I have my personal opinions on this matter, but the reality is that head coaches have gone soft on a generation of athletes who have gone softer. Say it isn’t so, but when I hear all the time about “athletes today” my next question is, “What about coaches today?” Are they up to the challenge? When the going gets tough do coaches lament and whine for the tough kids of yesterday or just give in, figuring you can’t bake a biscuit without a convection oven?

CLUB SANDWICH – “They allowed me to order a club sandwich at Augusta, and I’m not even a member.”

Tiger Woods wrecked a Cadillac in the middle of the night and a friend asked me, “Why do women like attacking Cadillacs?”

It seemed a bit like an insensitive and caddy statement, to use golf terminology. Larry King had on Pat O’Brien who was recently embarrassed by some on-air drunken rant and is a total idiot talking about the tarnished Tiger image, but what about the Swedish girl image?

A 9 iron off-the-hizzy Nordic track-fit and angry woman standing in the middle of the street over the unconscious kung fu-trained Tiger. No charges and no admittance.

“Yes, I did take a half swing, like a short pitch onto the fast green.”

She was one full swing away from completing a double bogey - irony with an actual iron, and I’m not talking Procter and Gamble. The danger here is if that scenario is true, the Tiger is still in the house with this person.

SNIPPETS - The Goldey-Beacom men’s basketball team is 1-1 on the young season. Former Cape point guard Kyle White is the team’s leading scorer, averaging 24 points a game. Shemik Thompson, now a junior for the Central Connecticut Blue Devils, is on the cover of the team’s media guide. Thompson is averaging 12 points a game for the 1-3 Devils.

Megan Knowles from Thunderbird High School in Phoenix, Ariz., is a junior on the Goldey-Beacom women’s team and is 6-foot-5.

I saw where 6-foot-8 Mike LaPointe was listed on the basketball roster at Delmarva Christian, so I’ll make the wild assumption that he is, in fact, eligible and not too old to compete as I was previously told by an unreliable source.

Derrick Elzey, a senior and former player for the Royals of DCHS, is on the roster at Sussex Central.

Steve Perry begins his tenure as head coach of the Sussex Tech Ravens basketball team hosting Caesar Rodney Friday, Dec. 4. Cape will host Sussex Tech Friday, Dec, 18.