In the wonderful world of sports whether its amateur, college or professional, secrets have made their way into every gymnasium, locker room, and office. One example of this hits close to home back in California and my alma mater.
I had a full athletic scholarship for volleyball at the university that I graduated from. Right before my senior season that started in August 2010, I tore my ACL in April and had have to surgery putting me out for over a year. I met with my coach a few times to discuss my options. He didn't have money for me to play a 5th year and suggested I give up my scholarship or transfer. But I didn't want to do either. Giving up my scholarship would take away my eligibility, and transferring meant I would have to leave my team and school. I chose to stick around, graduate, and transfer to another school to play my last eligible season.
About a month later I received a letter in the mail from the school saying that my coach was not going to renew my scholarship and that I was "fully aware of this decision." The letter explained that if I chose to fight this decision I had to submit a letter stating my position. I called my coach and asked what this was about and he told me that he was hoping to give me the money in a few months, but that I could submit a letter if it made me feel more at ease. I had never had any issues with my scholarship money until I got hurt and my coach knew I would be out for the season. Scholarships are taken away from athletes due to bad behavior, grades or other major offenses, but not for getting hurt. My coach discussed with only a few others because he knew that taking away my scholarship due to injury was wrong. Unfortunately those others who knew did not do anything about it.
I was faced with a decision: Trust my coach that he would give me my scholarship in a few months or fight him. I fought the letter and he was forced to give me my scholarship. But the fight wasn't over. My school had hired a new athletic director at the beginning of the school year in August 2010. After the season was over myself and two other seniors went to lunch with him. He asked why I wasn't coming back and the Assistant Athletic Director (who was very close with my coach and talked frequently with him) told the A.D. that I had used up my eligibility. This of course wasn't true at all. I tried to politely interrupt but it wasn't the time nor the place to talk in depth about what my coach had done. So I sat in silence.
If I had chosen to speak up later to the Athletic Director, I know that I would not only have questioned my coach, but the entire program and school. My coach had previously won 2 back-to-back national championships in 2002 and 2003. Since then, the program had been in the top 15 every year. Without a doubt, I could have put my coaches job in jeopardy. I could have put myself in jeopardy making such accusations toward my coach. But my morals got the better of me and I chose not to tell my athletic director about what had happened. Because I chose to stay for my senior season, I didn't want anything to compromise the success of the team. Therefore I also kept this information from my teammates. I wasn't on good terms with my coach but didn't feel that everyone else needed to know. A few close friends were aware but that was it.
I could have easily put this situation on blast, attacking the program and coaches, but I knew this would damage how people viewed me. As a co-captain, I wanted to walk away from the program without burning any bridges.
Unfortunately this is the kind of secret that tends to get out all the time. Take for instance the Reggie Bush/Pete Carrol situation and USC's football team. Talk about secrets. These two and many, many others within the program kept more than a few secrets from everyone. As we all know, the program was suspended from participating in any bowl game for two years. Next season they are eligible again, but not without a lot of disgruntled athletes and coaching changes.
Our book talks about how journalists today are out just trying to get a good story. They focus on "packaging to highlight drama and human interest" (Patterson & Wilkins p. 29). And it seems that everyone has a secret to tell. Some are more juicy than others, and it is the latter ones journalists are seeking. So no, I don't think we can ever avoid getting entangled in such secrets. Especially with today's media via internet, television, radio and print, leaking secrets is all we do. Unfortunately half of them are false. Our book also talks about this and what is considered an "ok" lie. Chapter 2 talks about journalists being surveyed on how acceptable it is to lie to readers. Most said it is unethical to lie to readers, viewers and listenres, but more than half agreed that flattering a source for an interview is okay. Another question on the survey talked about omitting information and this seemed less of an offense than fabrication. So it seems that little white lies or okay, but those big fat nasty ones are just appalling? Who then is telling the truth these days??
"In other words, some journalists may believe it's acceptable to lie to a crook to get a story, but they professionally resent being lied to by any source, regardless of the motive" (Patterson & Wilkins p. 34).
It is really hard to behave well when others are behaving badly. I really admire you for looking at the big picture and how it would affect the team, not sure I would have been so mature. Ethical and moral infractions in my book to take a scholarship away because of an injury - that is really unethical, not to mention outrageous.
ReplyDeleteThis was a pretty big dilemma that you faced there. You played for a big name coach who tried to "do you dirty" as the homies say. You had to weigh your loyalty to your teammates and your program against gaining a little retribution against that coach. I think that if I were in that situation I would have the same conflicted thoughts on how to react. As we've seen in school sports scandals, when you blow the lid off the scam and leave, the only people who really suffer are those left at the program. More often than not, the ones left behind had nothing to do with the initial offense.
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