Giving Credit Where Credit is Due

Hats off to the Varsity Football Coach at my daughter's school. Doug Barnett was put in a situation where his character was truly revealed.

He found out one of his football players was, due to a technicality, not eligible to play on the team. No one would have ever known if he had kept the information to himself. Instead, he called the CIF commissioner and shared what he had discovered. One of his players had repeated the 10th grade before he transferred to BCHS, making him a 5th year senior. The young man did not know he needed a waiver to play, so he never sought one out. It was simply a paperwork issue.

Being forthcoming with the truth cost the team all the wins of the season. Why didn't he just keep the information to himself? In Coach Barnett's own words,

"... that's not what you do when you live, play and work for an audience of one who ultimately knows all that we do, says Barnett. And it's not what you do when you've preached from day one that admitting when you're wrong is a measure of one's true character."

There is nothing more wonderful than knowing my children are not simply being taught reading, writing and arithmetic. They are being led by people of character, living for an audience of One.

If you'd like to read the article in its entirety, here's the link. But be quick about it, the newspaper in our town tends to archive stuff pretty quickly. They also may ask you to register to read the article. Sorry about that. It's free, though.

link: Why being a good sport still matters