Get on the Bus

By Riverdale Ghost

April 18, 2008 11:33 PM | Link to this

Well, now, first of all, let’s get back to things like the shootings. What has to be figured in (likewise figured into the 9-11 matter and other things) is a small consideration we might call “expectations.” If a number of people were shot and killed in Dayton (at either college in town) the comments would be something like, “Well it’s in DAYton — what do you expect?” If it happened in Cincinnati, the comments would run to something like, “Merciful heavens! How on earth could something like that happen in CINcinnati?” Where do you think there would be a follow-up about how this affected the janitor?

By Mary

April 18, 2008 10:44 AM | Link to this

Laura, as I have pointed out before, an unintelligent education and political system ultimately punishes everyone, including athletes. I am attacking the system priorities and the quality of leadership, not so much the individuals. Some of the perpetrators of violence are highly “intelligent” people. At least one of the student shooters at Columbine was identified gifted. Both had Ohio roots. I would like to see all students nurtured to use their unique talents in a fair and positive way. And yes, I know athletes have their mental issues, too. Heisman trophy winner Herschel Walker just came out with a book on his multiple personality disorder. The sports pages at least offer many other examples of mental health issues among athletes.

By Mary

April 18, 2008 7:35 AM | Link to this

Karen, I appreciate your comments, but I think you are missing some of my points and perspective. Do you know how much more your school district will be spending on your son in dollars and services than “regular” students, just because he is an athlete or likes sports? My point is not that young people who are athletes should be discounted, but that they appear to be the favored ones who count in the current education system. The rest of us are paying their sports bills and trading off improvements in academic services while athletes are being touted as the future leaders of the free world. Look at the political treatment of the Olympics in Beijing. Sport and athletes are more important than basic human rights issues. Look at the tax dollars we spend on stadiums, sports and the Olympics while basic infrastructure collapses for roads, bridges, water and sewers. We can’t afford some basic health care for some citizens, but tax dollars are spent on trainers for athletes and sports injuries. I am objecting to the system and the media’s treatnment of it. The media feeds the sappy stories to the public about sports and athletes, and dedicates roughly one fourth of their newsprint to them, but rarely provides the public insights on who is paying for all this and how the system works and does not work the way it should. I read newspapers quite frequently, and I will tell you the students and issues overwhelmingly discussed at the K-12 and college level are predominantly about the small minority of athletes. “Regular” students and parent issues are rarely addressed. When do the vast majority of “regular” students and regular people get their own section of the newspaper like the sports section? The media is dumbing the public down on these issues instead of enlightening them to the facts, the finances, and the consequences for all of us, athletes included.

By Laura

April 17, 2008 11:14 PM | Link to this

Scott, you are right on both accounts. It is a powerful and insightful story and Mary is over the edge when it comes to sports. Many students do receive help in many forms for many reasons. I received a work study and grant my final year of college because a professor took an interest in me and wanted to be sure I could finish. Without her intervention, I probably wouldn’t have. A close friend of mine was offered a secretarial job at a local university and one of the “perks” would have meant her son would have attended college for free. How is that any different? As far as medical help that Cho did not get, anyone who has had any experience with the mentally ill know that it is not as easy as some people think to get them help. Even if Cho had been an athlete, it is very possible that the result would have been the same. Money, nor the access to all the medical care in the world does not guarantee that a mentally ill person will allow themselves to be treated. That is one way we know they are mentally ill. They don’t realize it themselves. Mary, would you have been so callous in your attack had the students been honor students who received full academic scholarships and just happened to also play a sport??

By Karen

April 17, 2008 8:45 PM | Link to this

Mary, I frequently agree with you, but not on this one. My son is an athlete, will be in high school next year and it’s not so hard to imagine him as a college student. Should we discount the experience and perspective of these students because they are athletes? Calvin, where did anyone say that these young people were “better” than anyone else? It just happens that this author is familiar with athletes and is writing to his audience. Is it a problem that he shows them as human? Mary, I should think that showing them as human is actually a step in the direction that you would like to go. Calvin, I happen to agree with you about the Penn Station Athlete of the Week. Have you ever pointed it out to Penn Station? It’s easy to complain about institutions and the way things are. But when we do too much of it, it’s also easy to lose sight of the fact that real kids are involved and that they are more than just athletes, but also human beings. And then are we any better than the system we are railing against?

By joe mamma

April 17, 2008 1:23 PM | Link to this

Scott, Don’t you remember how Coach Harris got the Dean to let the football players (Alpha Betas) take over the Tri-Lams house after the AB’s burnt their own house down? Or how they ruined the party with the Omega Mu’s by releasing the pigs. I still can’t believe how Stan Gable and Ogre treated those Tri-Lams. Seriously man. You shouldn’t have to justify posting something like this on your blog. Now…if you’ll excuse me I have to go watch the Women’s College Bowling that I Tivo’d off of CSTV the other night.

By Calvin

April 17, 2008 11:46 AM | Link to this

Have to agree with Mary’s point on this. The concept that a sports player is actually a better person than an ordinary student permeats high school and apparently college minds. I agree the kid playing a tube, editing the paper, or acting isn’t different than the one playing lacrosse? So why didn’t the author talk to some of them? Or he could have left out the “fact” that they were different and were a member of this or that sports team. This is like th Penn Station student/athlete of the week! They would never value the WGI person who was on the world champion team here in Dayton last Saturday. They would never value the science major getting a full scholarship to OSU (if they have any money left for US non athletes at OSU)or the high scoring SAT and ACT people in our schools. Let’s get real about the prejudice in favor of sports folk. And why is it? It’s because the majority of principals and Peter Principal administrators are athletes in their past or/and past coaches themselves.

By Scott Elliott

April 17, 2008 10:57 AM | Link to this

How is a kid playing college lacrosse significantly different than a kid playing tuba in the marching band, editing the school newspaper or acting in a university theater production? Each activity has some perks — travel, uniforms/costumes, individual specialized instruction, a chance to measure yourself in competition with others. Minor sports athletes might be on full scholarship, but most are not. Besides, I knew band kids on scholarship for their musical talent and I even got a stipend for working on the student paper. A top student in theater probably gets a deal in financial aid. Lots of kids have special deals or perks at school for lots of reasons. But except for the major sports at the big schools, they are not lavishly pampered. In class, you would not recognize the soccer players as anything but “regular” students. I had two close friends who played college baseball and soccer while we were in school. Both played for nothing more than the love of the game. They got partial scholarships, true. But another friend got a full scholarship simply becuase his mom worked as a secretary on campus. The soccer player eventually quit the team because there was such a time and effort commitment and so little reward. The baseball player thought about quitting, but played all the way through simply because he loved playing the game. Certainly not because he got a couple grand off tuition and a free gym bag every spring. Again, I am completely in agreement with Mary when it comes to the millions spent on major college sports. It is sickening and I admit to being part of the problem because I enjoy watching college teams play even though I know it supports a bad system. But it’s a more than a stretch to lump soccer and lacrosse players in with football and call them all pampered and privileged.

By Mary

April 17, 2008 8:10 AM | Link to this

Deal with the facts, Scott, not labels such as “anti-athletics”. You are the reporter. Students in lacrosse, baseball, and soccer get pampering also, maybe not to the level Michael Vick received when he was at Virginia Tech. They get scholarships and coaches, and the costs of their low revenue sports are passed off to “regular” students. “Regular” students take out student loans, work part time to pay bills and eat, go to class, and do not have special staff services. Studies have shown athletes in all sports are spending typically 40 hours a week training, not studying. How does this qualify them as “regular students”?

By Scott Elliott

April 17, 2008 7:37 AM | Link to this

Mary, you’re sort of over the edge here with the anti-athletics stuff. Borden’s story is really not about athletics. He is a sports columnist, so he looked at this through the eyes of kids on sports teams. But let’s be real. Kids who play minor college sports like lacrosse, baseball and soccer are hardly pampered. They are really not much different that other college kids. I ran cross country in high school. That hardly earned me any special treatment from the faculty or parents or the adoration of my classmates. We wore old uniforms that desperated needed to be replaced and finished races on an outdated cinder track. One thing I liked about the column was that it was about regular kids grappling with what happened, not superstars or talking heads. I agree with you about the evils of big time college sports. If this had been a column about the VT football team, you would have been right on. But it isn’t and to portray this as another story glorifying sports is to totally misread a very thoughtful and different take on a wildly over-reported story that often fails to look at the impact on the kids themselves.

By Mary

April 16, 2008 11:25 PM | Link to this

Scott, I thought the mantra was supposed to be athletes are not “regular” students - they are the “leaders”. Let me guess, the journalist is a former college or high school athlete and thinks the 3% or so of college students on athletic scholarships are “regular” students. Like most journalists, he probably does not think “regular students” are worthy of a newspaper article. Sorry, about the deaths and sorrow, but no sorrier than for the many young Americans who have been dying in similar numbers every week in Iraq for the past five years. Cho did not get the medical attention he obviously needed, but you can bet every athlete at Virginia Tech had probably been seen by the medical staff many times for their sprains and torn ACLs through sports. Athletes are the precious commodity at places like Virginia Tech, not “regular students” like Cho. I have seen so many sappy articles about athletes by so many sappy journalists I could puke. You would think journalists think athletes are the only ones who face challenges and troubles in life and are the human class to themselves. Cho’s professors surely did not get the respect and support they deserved when they pointed out all the warning signs and concerns with Cho to administrators and medical staff. I’ll bet 10 times the medical attention, expense and response was given to college athletes and their coaches for hurt pinkies.