Let the coaches coach

So who’s the next brave soul to face the guillotine?

After Tuesday’s carnage, it will only be a matter of time before the Hortonville Area School District Board of Education caves in to outside pressure and runs another coach off the sidelines.

Tim Meyers’ head was the latest to roll out of the Hortonville High School Fieldhouse, the fourth boys’ basketball coach to be run in the last 10 ½ years.

But it’s not a parental problem, even though Geri Koeppl has taken the brunt of the blame. Her son Charlie - along with six others - quit the team because of excessive yelling and screaming.

Hortonville has a history of energetic voice boxes. Keary Mattson - arguably the most successful boys’ hoops coach in school history - screamed and shouted, but got results. The coach with Coke-bottle glasses amassed a 218-110 record in 15 years before being run out of town in 1993. He is currently the principal at Marion High School.

“I don’t know if my coaching style would be successful today,” Mattson said, “because I was so demanding.”

This also isn’t a coaching problem. It isn’t about X’s and O’s. It’s not whether he should be deploying a man or zone defense, or using the flex or motion offense. The team only won a single game last year, but this goes well beyond wins and losses.

This is a systemic problem. And it all starts at the top. Superintendent Gregory Joseph, PhD, along with his trusty school board as his henchmen, have failed the district yet again.

But Dr. Joseph doesn’t care. He’s been on cruise control since the school year started. His term is finished in June, and he’s trying to leave his mark anyway he can. The short leader rules like Napoleon, minus the fancy ornamentation.

Six years ago, the entire softball coaching staff turned in their scorebooks due to heat from needling parents. That resulted in the formation of a due process by the school board that would start with the athletic director, and then eventually trickle down to the principal, superintendent and school board.

However, that didn’t happen here.

“It was a violation of their own policy,” said athletic director Mike Sexton. “Could it have been done the right way? I think so.”

Even if this was the right thing to do, the administration failed to comply with their procedure. They had their closed pow-wow and came to the determination that Meyers should be stripped of his coaching duties, without one member of the athletic department present.

So how attractive does that leave the Hortonville coaching vacancy? About as inviting as Siberia in winter. No one in his or her right mind is going to want to be under that kind of microscope.
But there was a coach who wanted to stay.

“I liked it there,” said Mark Aune, who coached at Hortonville from 1995-98. “I never wanted to move to a different school.”

Aune coached the school’s last winning team in 1997 to a 14-6 record. However after being fed up with outside pressure, he left to be the athletic director, football and girls’ basketball coach at Gibraltar High School.

Parents want to have a successful program, but often times, they don’t agree with the hard work that it takes to get there. I had the luxury of being coached by Don Williams, who would holler at anything, including the opposing team’s coaches. But the baseball coach who’s entering his 28th season, turned out to be one of the best life teachers a person could ask for.

“Parents have to understand that coaches aren’t out to get their kids,” Sexton said.

Depending on what ex-JV coach Joe Russum’s long-term thoughts are about his new promotion, the next superintendent must hire a solid person, who has coaching experience. Then - and most importantly - that coach must have the backing of the entire administration, to prevent the spineless school board from making the same in-season mistake.

Bo knows best

He's the one that grits his teeth during a bad call and dawdles through his game-winning press conferences.

He has the smile of a grandfather, which is why Wisconsin gave him a rocking chair, among other things when he stepped down in 2001.

But Dick Bennett isn't the reason the Badgers are successful.

The salt-and-pepper haired man led Wisconsin to a Final Four 2000 - the school's first since winning it all in 1941 - but he did it on a defense that wouldn't break. Playing with a roster that could probably play in the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, Bennett turned the NCAA tourney into a high school state tournament.

He was nationally crucified for it, and with potential recruits watching the ''Don't Lose It" philosophy, his fate was vacuum sealed.

The one difference between Bo Ryan and Bennett is that Ryan can get the recruits that put the ball in the basket. During Bennett's Final Four season, only Mike Vershaw averaged in double figures.

Bennett only brought in kids that could get their butt so low to play defense, the entire coaching staff could use their backs as an ironing board. On offense, he disallowed shots before the shot clock was whittled down to a spec before either lulling opposing defenses to sleep with an easy layup or foul.

In Ryan's five-plus years at UW, there have been seven double digit scorers. Devin Harris became a lottery pick and now Alando Tucker appears primed to do the same after an impressive 28-point shredding of Marquette in the annual Dairy Dual.

It may not be enlightening to hear, but kids nowdays don't want to go to a school where they have to ice their knees following practice because they just did 45 minutes of foot fire. Kids nowdays want to score, see their name in the marquee and set records.

Coming from Division III Wisconsin-Stevens Point and Division I Wisconsin-Green Bay, Bennett considered UW more like a graduated nonscholarship program. He didn't bother going after the big recruits, knowing he would most likely have to let all the top talent in the state funnel to Marquette or out-of-state.

When Ryan convinced Brian Butch to stay home, that was a bigger moment than the Final Four. Since he said no to Roy Williams, Tom Izzo and other top coaches, that gave UW instant credibility and let him build even more.

The Badgers were helped by Bennett's unlikely run to the Final Four, but UW's future has been laid several years after that offensively-challenged team took the floor by a coach who won Big Ten coach of the year honors in his first two years.

That was why Bennett left. There wasn't anything left for him to do. He maxxed out his defensive wizardry, knowing that it would be tougher and tougher to sign kids to only play man-to-man defense.

Bennett may have brought wins back, but Bo is the reason UW will be a success years after his slicked hair leaves campus.

More high school hijinks in Florida

Frankly I'm not surprised. High school athletes these days have been exalted as if they were King David.

The prep phenoms now get their own Sports Illustrated preview section and are seen nationally on ESPN, but this goes too far.

Chris Rainey, the star halfback for Lakeland High School is experiencing what it's like to be a pimpin' pro. The senior flapped his jaw about accepting gifts because of his athletic status leading up the Class 5A state title game.

"I didn't even count it," he said. "When I walk around, people are buying me food, giving me money. I'm like, `Damn, I'm glad I'm Chris Rainey. It's real nice to be me.''

The Florida High School Athletic Association wasn't able to get an investigation finished in time, so they left the decision up to Lakeland. Apparently it didn't take long for the school board to decide that football banners are more important than a stained program, because they let him suit up.

And he was not only the force in title game with St. Thomas Aquinas, he was the fulcrum. He did it all. He rushed for 276 yards on 26 carries and three touchdowns in the Dreadnaughts' 45-42 OT win.

For good measure, Rainey also blocked a field goal in the first quarter.

I know football in Florida is the gold standard, especially in Lakeland, where they just captured their third-straight title. However, is this gold ball worth it?

Are all of Rainey's free meals, jewelry, clothes and countless other things worth what he's supposed to do willingly as a high school athlete? And who's giving him these things? Evidently, the standard pat on the butt aren't good enough anymore as means of positive reinforcement.

Kids need money and riches to give them the satisfaction of self worth. High school sports have lost their purity ever since they sold their soul to national TV outlets. This is nothing more than a trickle-down effect that will ultimately turn the preps into minor-league Division I football factories.

Rainey is probably smiling and he soaks in all of his newfound fame. But you're never bigger than the game, and he'll soon realize he was an idiot for even thinking he was.

Giants pay high to go low

Barry Bonds has been treated like a plate of leftovers -- and for good reason -- but luckily for him, the San Francisco Giants were right there to reheat the beleaguered star once again.

No other teams were even offering anything to the brut. Bonds didn't have any bargaining power whatsoever so the Giants in turn bowed to the thought of spinning turnstiles and ringining cash registers as he pursues baseball's most hallowed record.

The Incredible Hulk only has 22 homers before he breaks Hank Aaron's mark, but with the laundry list of elbow, knee and other ailments have caused the 42-year-old to resemble a frail Florida-bound retiree.

I thought Bud Selig and his henchmen were plotting to extrapilate the steroid problem from baseball. Don't look now Bud, but the steroid problem just got paid. There is no other reason for Bonds to come back. He's still jealous that Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa had more press during their home run romps of 70 and 66 bombs in 1998 than his 73 homers in 2001.

The Giants and Bonds are the root of the problem. No other team wanted to take a chance on Willie Mays' godson because he's a flat-out bad teammate. San Francisco was the only place that offered Mr. Bonds his own half of the clubhouse along with a personal masseuse and other ammenities.

And then there's that steroids thing. What team wants to be hounded all year as he gets closer and closer to the record? Teammates would probably start to bristle after the first week of drills in spring training.

At least the signing proves to be comical. Now that he's still in the National League, Bonds has to play the field. Which means, there'll be plenty of loafing with arms at the hips and when he is forced to make a play, he more often than not will pull up lame with his tried and true pulled hamstring.

The Giants needed Bonds as much as Bonds needed them. They're just hoping Bonds can break the record in their uniform before he's donned with federally-tailored pinstripes.

Bad basketball

With the Wisconsin prep basketball season 1/4 finished, it's pretty apparent hoops outside of Madison, Milwaukee and Seymour is pretty weak.

Two weeks ago, Amherst drilled a helpless Tri-County girls' team 76-15. No that wasn't a misprint. Fifteen points? Area elementary schools score more points than that in recess.

The Appleton East-Appleton West girls' game combined for 39 turnovers. And the Terrors are supposed to be the cream of the crop this year in the FVA.

Before that, Wrightstown and Freedom traded bricks before the Freedom boys were able to win a free throw contest that saw the Irish win because the Tigers couldn't move their feet on defense and put them in a bonus shooting situation very early.

This isn't a spur of the moment thing. It's more of an epidemic. The only Valley team that is consistently good is Seymour. They continually make reservations for Madison in March, and could play with any team at anytime.

With Marquette, Wisconsin and even Wisconsin-Milwaukee doing better than expectations, it's a surprise that the high school talent isn't there to fill those college needs. There will always be the double-digit D-III schools that pepper this state's landscape, but the premier players don't collect their mail in the Valley.

And don't give me the Brian Butch argument. Here's a kid that's 6-11 and his twiggy frame is still getting pushed around in the Big Ten. With Michigan State center Paul Davis gone, he will be called upon to lead the Badgers past freshman Greg Oden and Ohio State. However, that hope will likely get dashed when Butch's lack of athleticism and ferocity wilt under huge expectations.

Butch is a great example because he has been earmarked as the Valley's Hoop Savior. With the attention he garnered from schools like North Carolina, his AAU team, the Fox Valley Skillz, has seen kids from as far away as Madison on the roster.

I'm sure Roy Williams is glad he didn't sign Butch, because he's got this Tyler Hansborough kid that is playing like he wears shoulder pads. Which is somthing Badgers coach Bo Ryan would love to see.

College basketball is pretty darn good in Wisconsin, but it's not because there's been a surplus of talent in the Valley. There will always be the countless number of Lawrence and Wisconsin-Oshkosh kids that are solid hard workers that have excelled in other sports.

But, it's just not good enough.

Too much PC

Hear that? That's the sound of polictically correctness. The sound of, "Give everyone a chance" has reared its ugly head into sports' most entertaining venue.

The coaches and voters spoke with their pencils and wrote in Florida as the second-best team in the nation, thereby eliminating the real No. 2.

If I'm Michigan coach Lloyd Carr, I'm wondering, "How in the world does a No. 2 team drop, especially if its only loss is by three points to the No. 1 team?"

But this is exactly what college presidents wanted all along. They wanted constant chatter -- good and bad -- about the BCS. They wanted the buzz to continue all season long, and if that's what they're after they're certainly going about it the right way.

Mark McGwire is on Major League Baseball's Hall of Fame balloting, which is fine and dandy. But the real problem isn't whether he should be deemed worthy to earn a bronze bust, it's that Tony Gwynn and Cal Ripken -- two of baseball's model citizens -- will be overshadowed with drug discussions.

Covered a high school game last week between a pair of rival Appleton schools. At this girls' hoops contest, many of the visiting students began to rain down with jeers of: "When are you going to start to play" when Appleton "A" school feel behind Appleton "B" school by several points.

Come on. It's high school. Most of these girls are more interested in other things, but make a go of it, despite the shortcomings of a depressed program. I guess it all goes back to: "If you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all."

Quote of the day "I told him he was making me look good," Dallas Cowboys coach Bill Parcells on newly acquired kicker Martin Gramatica, whose 46-yard field goal with one second left beat the Giants.