America is a multi-cultural place. The country has every skin color, language spoken and a representation of every type and kind of culture known to this planet. Even this part of northwest Arkansas has seen an amazing influx of people and institutions that has changed forever what used to the “culture” of Benton County.
Culture goes a long way to dictate how you do things, how you see things, and even how you think.
Old timers and long timers can remember a time when the social culture of Pea Ridge and the surrounding area was fairly homogenous. There was a time when most folks were famers or engaged in agriculture, and the social mores and standards were consistent and widely accepted.
Those times have changed, but a lot of the old culture remains. Pride in community, the importance of family, and the work ethic seems to have survived the societal upheavals of late, especially in small towns like our own.
Within every culture are subcultures and present in most cultures is a phenomena I would like to refer to as the culture of athletics. No one can doubt the importance of athletics in the American experience.
From small towns to big, millions of youths pursue participation in one type of athletics or another, and the amount of money spent and made on collegiate and professional athletics is staggering. In America, athletics is a big deal.
Athletics was invented by the ancient Greeks for three basic reasons. The pursuit of athletic endeavors kept their military forces in a state of preparedness, and they also believed that a strong mind is best accompanied by a strong body. Thirdly, the striving and dedication to their sports engendered feelings of loyalty and allegiance to their country.
When the Olympics were revived in the late 1800s, much homage and attention was paid to the ideal and the ideal of the amateur athlete. With football and baseball predating the emergence of the modern Olympics by a few years, the 20th century saw the rise of the popularity of sporting programs and along with it, the rise of athletic cultures.
As with everything else in life, most anything can be turned to evil despite the best of intentions. The recent sporting headlines would seem to bear that out.
Rutgers University, a venerated member of the Ivy League, and one of the two participants in the first ever football game back in the 1860s, has become a poster child for athletic culture run amok. It seems that they had in their employ, a men’s basketball coach who not only used profane and highly offensive language to abuse his players, but actually threw objects at his players’ heads and bodies and physically abused his players in an astonishing variety of ways. This went on over two years.
A new employ comes onto the scene, is appalled at what he sees and turns in a videotape of what was going on to the athletic director. The reporting employee gets fired but not the coach. The coach got a short suspension and fine.
The “school” wanted to keep the offending coach and it seems the school’s president claims he never bothered to actually see the tape, using that ploy to escape justice. After a furor on ESPN and overwhelming public anger, the athletic director, coach, assistant coach and some other school officials are now former employees. Sadly, had the videotape not have surfaced, nothing would have changed at Rutgers.
Just last year, we witnessed the unraveling of the Penn State’s vaunted football program after it was disclosed that the university and many of its top officials were covering up child molestation committed by one of its coaches.
As in the case with Rutgers, the desire to promote an athletic culture was deemed more important than protecting children and athletes from abuse at the hands of what can only be described as criminally minded sports persons.
Do these far away events have anything to do with us? Does the athletic culture of big time sports affect small time places?
When I was coaching basketball in the 1980s, the high school head coach at our school worshipped at the altar of Bobby Knight, the legendary coach of Indiana University. As a result, this coach was verbally abusive of his players and had a lot of anger issues. A lot of coaches emulated Knight, thinking that to make men of their boys required them to abuse them.
At another school where I coached, I learned that some of my players were not eligible and I was going to contact the schools through our athletic director and forfeit some victories. The athletic director not only refused to do so, he accused me of being naive and not realizing that all schools cheat. I was further accused of being disloyal.
Not knowing what else to do, I resigned as I refused to accept that “everybody does it.”
Auburn University is currently being swept up with a scandal regarding cheating, and schools like Ohio State and others have made headlines with their inability to play within the rules. College athletes taking illegal payments, professionals using illegal drugs and enhancements, along with college officials seemingly adrift in a sea of cover-ups and ineptitude, I don’t blame some people who look on athletics as something to avoid.
While high school athletic cultures don’t generally have the problem of what to do with all the moneythey are generating, there are good and bad cultures to reckon with.
Cassville High School, to the north of us in southern Missouri, recently made news with ESPN. It wasn’t due to some athletic feat or accomplishment, but it was a result of some actions taken by members of the Cassville varsity girls basketball team. It seems several members of the their team thought it would be funny to pour urine into the drinking canister used by Monett’s visiting girls team. It took awhile but the news eventually got out. I haven’t heard what happened to the offending girls but if the state still has a citizenship clause in their eligibility requirements, those players are likely toast.
Pea Ridge itself has an athletic culture. It has evolved a lot since I first came into the community 15 years ago, and it has all been for the good.
The percentage of students participating in athletics has been steadily rising, and the conduct of our fans and players should be a source of pride to anyone who calls Pea Ridge home.
The folks with the responsibility of conducting programs for the youth of our community have done so with the students best interests at heart. I have taught at schools where the kids were no more important than the equipment.
It is no accident that the more inclusive and responsive the athletic department has become here, the more honors and successes the programs have accrued in the process.
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Editor’s note: John McGee is an award-winning columnist and sports writer. He is the art teacher at Pea Ridge elementary schools, coaches elementary track and writes a regular sports column for The Times. He can be contacted through The Times at [email protected].
Sports, Pages 8 on 04/10/2013