Wes’ Words – Lessons Learned At A Football Game

Oct 3

Wes Vork-NSO

Have you ever had one of those days when you realize that, regardless of the amount of years you have lived and things you have seen, you are seeing something that tops all you have witnessed before in high school athletics. Friday at the Cloquet vs. Ashland High School football game was one of those days for me.

First off, let me say the Ashland football team earned the win Friday night
in every way possible. They blocked, they came off blocks, they tackled, and they executed better than any team I have seen in quite a while. Even though the Cloquet Lumberjacks were down only 14-0 at the half, you really had the feeling the Oredockers had the game well in hand.

What happened next, however, is well beyond this writer’s comprehension. I’ll give a little background for those who were not at the game.

In the third quarter the Oredockers scored to make it 21-0, then a quarterback run over the uncovered center of the field brought the score to 28-0. All of that is fine, simply a byproduct of good football on the Oredockers part. On the next play, Cloquet threw an interception which found its way to paydirt for Ashland. Still fine, they can’t be expected to fall down and not return the pick for a touchdown

Now is where it gets interesting, the Ashland running back makes a brilliant run and scores from 46 yards out. I remember saying at the time. “You can’t blame Ashland for that one, they ran it between the tackles and the Lumberjacks just didn’t make a play or a
tackle.” That is where any resemblance of class ended, however.

On the touchdown run, one of the Cloquet players was called for a personal foul. I obviously cannot read the mind of the Ashland coaching staff. Maybe it was the foul, maybe it was something else, but already up 41-0, it appeared as if they were going to fake the extra point and go for two. However, a penalty stopped the play before it could be completed and moved the ball back five yards. After the penalty, the Oredockers kicked the extra point and were up 42-0 and headed to run time in the fourth quarter.

With the personal foul penalty assessed on the kickoff, Ashland kicked from the Cloquet 45 yard line. Given the good field position, I can understand the temptation to onside kick the ball. But not with a 42-0 lead, not with the clock in run time, and not on a rainy night with a slippery field. The correct thing to do, in my opinion, would be to bet your kicker a big Mac on the way home as to whether or not he would put the kickoff through the uprights . At that point you put the ball on the 20, play a little defense and go home celebrating a well deserved win.

But for reasons unclear to me, and impossible to understand, the Oredockers kicked and recovered the onside kick. Further confusing is why they sent the starting offensive unit back on the field. In the end they did not score on the possession, but got one of their starting running backs hurt in the process.

Like I said earlier, this is one of the best football clubs I have seen in quite some time. I barely understand how the playoff system works in Wisconsin, so I have no idea who they will face in the postseason, but they certainly should like their chances and should be very competitive.

I am left to wonder why on earth you would put your top players at risk when the game is obviously over. More importantly, sports are suppose to be a vehicle to teach kids life lessons, not just winning or losing, or the technical aspects of football. Why would you use high school kids as pawns to make a point?

True, the Cloquet kids had two personal fouls, for which I am making no excuses. But one would think that passing out added penalties and learning experiences associated with the fouls would be the job of the Cloquet Coaching Staff. It should be noted that after the second foul the Cloquet Defensive Co-coordinator called a timeout and went out to talk to his defensive unit. While I was not in the huddle, given the timing, one could assume he was lecturing them on acting in
an appropriate manner.

If the penalties were the reason used to justify the onside kick, it needs to be pointed out that there are kids and there are adults. The heat of battle can cloud everybody’s judgment, but the coaches are not kids and should be the ones to exercise good judgment to calm a situation rather than make poor choices that could escalate it.

In my opinion, the powers that be at Ashland have a lot of folks to answer to. First, to the player who was injured, why was he put at risk? Next, to the team, why take the chance of hurting a player and a run in the upcoming playoffs by having the starters in during run time? Next, to the bench players, the future of the program, the ones who sat out all night in the rain to get a chance to play at the end of the game, they had to wonder, why aren’t we playing when it is 42 to zip?

Lastly, an apology is due to the parents. One of the biggest problems coaches deal with is parents sticking their nose into a program. Parents are supposed to give their sons or daughters to a coach and to the program. During this period of time, the coach is the de-facto parent. It is reasonable for the parent to expect in return that their child come out of the program with life lessons learned as well as sports skills
along with the
wins and losses. Quoting the late Eddie Robinson of Grambling seems to be in order here “Win without bragging and lose without excuses.”

Let’s hope all of the kids involved are mature enough to realize that sometimes needing to look past the irresponsible actions of adults are good life lessons also.

Wes Vork can be reached at wes@northlandsportsonline.com