Sportsmanship Should Come First

We have become a me-me me society.  The only important person is me and what ever I have to do to get me what I want I will do.  During the state championship 3-AA game Northern Guilford had established that they by far were the better team and late in the game lead Charlotte Catholic 57-26.   UNC Five Star recruit T J Logan had shown the world that Carolina was getting a football player that indeed just might step in next year in Chapel Hill and replace Gio Bernard should he decide to turn pro this spring.

Logan had rush for 430 yards and tied the state record for touchdowns in a game at seven when Northern Guilford faked a punt  late in the game and let Logan go 80 yards for the state record in touchdowns in a game and also giving him over 510 yards rushing in one game.

Boo birds rang down  and I am sure most of those boos were coming from the Charlotte Catholic side of the field.  After the game the Northern Guilford coach explained that they wanted Logan to get the record.  You know I don't have any problem getting a record when it is in the coarse of winning the game.  In this case the game had already been won.  It is more important to me to put every player I have that has worked hard to help get our team to this point to have their turn to say I was part of a state championship game.

The final score will not be remembered two years from now but I can bet you that every time some one hears the name North Guilford for the rest of eternity all they will think about is the team  who ran up the score for a record.

Somewhere in  our society has forgotten about our fellow man.  Every team that lost in the state championship games yesterday had worked their tails off to just get there.  Some won and some lost.  There is that old adage "It's how you play the game".

Despite how much the coach may have wanted a record for a player he wanted that record for himself.  It wasn't enough to just say we are state champions.  He wanted to be able to say I am a state championship coach and we set a record to get it.  All the while he smeared Charlotte Catholic face in the mud.  He tried to embarrass them just so he could get a record to go on his resume'.

Our only team that played yesterday lost a heart breaker in the 2-A finals.  Thank God  we had a coach representing us who gave credit to the other team and didn't put the blame on his teams failures.  I don't think or let me say this I know of no instance in the three Tarboro State championships where Jeff Craddock tried to embarrass the other team.  Between Rocky Mount's two basketball titles Mike Gainey and Pat Smith's baseball title I know of nothing that would embarrass us about the way they  acted in victory.

Sportsmanship should always come first in victory and defeat.