Image provided by: West Linn High School; West Linn, OR
About The amplifier. (West Linn, Oregon) 1921-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 1, 2009)
12 Sports October o te? J ennifer S itton When I have a question about college or feel overwhelmed about everything going on in my life, I have someone I can go to— my coach. The mark of a good coach is someone who can teach and mentor their athletes about something other than their sport. I have been lucky enough throughout my years of organized athletics to have played for some excellent coaches, but not everyone is as fortunate as me. Tough times may be upon us, but that doesn't mean all morals and ethics can be flushed down the drain. High school coaches around the Portland Metro area have received more news coverage in past months for bad behavior than all their student- athletes combined. As a high school athlete, it's frightening that my peers’ coaches are ending up in jail, losing their jobs and being questionable influences on their players because they are too stupid to stop and think! In February, David Adelman, Lincoln High School's Varsity Boys PLAY by the NUMBERS Consecutive league victories won by the Varsity Volleyball Team before loss to Lakeridge. year-old football rivalry—the old est west of the Mississippi— with Oregon City. Basketball Coach was arrested on drunken driving charges for the second time in four years. Disregarding the allegations, the school allowed Adelman to stay on as head basketball coach and continue influencing their youth. Next came the baseball coach who thought he would enrich his high school players' trip to San Francisco with a jaunt to a local strip club. Michael Todd, Lincoln High School's Varsity Baseball Coach, was accused of taking his teenage players to the club during the school-sanctioned trip. Todd resigned once the allegations were made public. Then the Lincoln football- coaches, enjoying their "coaches' night out" ended their evening in the company of Portland police officers. It seems one of their former players pinched a woman waiting for the MAX and when he was questioned by officers, the coaches "verbally interfered" with the investigation. All three were intoxicated at the time. Shocking, I know. The district has since fired them. Most recently, Kathryn Adelman-Naro (Yes, she's the brother of aforementioned David Adelman.) resigned as Jesuit Girls’ Varsity Basketball Coach after receiving her second DUII in less than a year. While she taught her girls a valuable lesson in resigning, I'm sure those 13 girls will remember waking up to their coach's disheveled mug shot in the morning paper for many years to come. While some people will be politically correct and say everyone makes mistakes and that we need to give them a second chance, I'll be sitting there rolling my eyes, wondering how these adults can look themselves in the mirror. They knew how much their players depended on them. They knew that most of their players held them in very high esteem. And they also knew what they were doing when they made their respective poor decisions. Some tried to make amends by resigning, but what of the Varsity Sport _ . |i | ¡¡¡lg ..... ¡¡¡MM Girls’Cross Country If coaches who are allowed to stay or who may be reinstated after being gone for just a year? How do you make your players sign a contract that they won't drink when you were just in the paper for receiving your second DUII? How do you look their parents in the eye and tell them you will do your best to keep them out of trouble, when you can't even take care of yourself? Maybe it was a coincidence; maybe it's a sign of the times. All I know is that as an athlete, I entirely respect my coaches and I look to them for guidance. I want every athlete to have that same mentoring Boys' and Girls' Cross Country Teams are in the running for a top spot in the Three Rivers League imk. “Both the boys' and girls' teams are doing very well. They're looking very good with Dis tricts and State coming up.” —John Linman, assistant coach games Oct. 2 8 - 1 p.m. Districts @ Clackamas Community College Photo by Tracie Kreiiwitz. StopActionMemories Taylor West, junior, crosses the finish line in first place, just edging out Kevin Kavanaugh, Beaverton freshman at the Tualatin Invite on Sept. 9. Boys' Cross Country is been undefeated this season and is ranked third in state. 9 Sophomores Juniors 2 9 -6 10 ■ 1 2 H v, 3 Record Seniors m Football . >1 1 1 . E le v j^ o p ten girls finishes through three meets Seventeen top ten boys finishes through three meets Boys undefeated, ranked third in state ■ ¿4#iidf§ 3 .7 4 Q Op 0 .0 0 i l ts: Freshmen 3 .6 5 M s. GPA Girls’Soccer till ■ Nov. 7 - To be an- ■ nounced, State @ Lane Community College 1 3 5 -0 13 4 7-0 13 25 4 -2 Boys’Cross Goals allowed in the last nine games by the Girls' Varsity Soccer Team. and positive influence in their lives. Something needs to be done. Either coaches need to step up, do their jobs and be a role model to the formative teenagers in their care, or athletic directors and principals need to step in and make a change, because it can't go on like this. I can't stand to see another headline with the words coach and arrest next to each other. I just can't. 3 î - . -- - . 4+ ' 'ti Boys’Soccer 3 .3 5 1 6 6 4 4-4 Volleyball 3 .2 7 3 S 3 1 6-1-1 mm
