Before going any further I want to make it perfectly clear
the incident described did not take
place locally or even in the state of Ohio.
“Coach Bobby” related to a group of us that parents of a
high school player had offered to double his salary, if he agreed to start
their son and play him the vast majority of minutes each game. Coach Bobby was seeking advice from our
group on how to handle this.
Coach Bobby went on to relate that the player in question
whom we shall call “John” was actually a pretty good player and although young
was competing for a starting position even before his parents approached with
this offer.
Of course, Coach Bobby did not intend to accept the parents
money but now that the offer hung over his decision making process for lineups
and playing time he was obviously uncomfortable with the situation.
The advice he received ranged from informing his athletic
director and school administrators to contacting the police about an attempted
bribe to cutting “John” from the team to remove any hint of suspicion that the
process had been compromised.
I asked a simple question of Coach Bobby; Does “John” know
what his parents have done?
Either John was a tremendous actor or he had no clue his
parents had attempted to buy him a starting position on his high school team.
He was distraught about the situation to say the least and immediately stated
he quit the team over the embarrassment he felt. Calmer heads prevailed and a more appropriate
response was agreed to; “John” voluntarily would not start a single game for
his high school team and would trust his coach to play him only minutes that he
earned. “John’s” parents were banned
from attending any of his high school matches.
Furthermore, John informed his parents if they did not agree to these
stipulations he would walk away from soccer never to play again.
I asked another question of Coach Bobby after learning the outcome,
Was John adopted?
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