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HighSchool Fan
04-22-2005, 06:34 AM
By Bill Spinks
Herald Democrat

A once-storied high-school football program has been torn asunder. Two coaches have already resigned, and more are facing a heap of trouble.

It's easy these days to bash Pilot Point, with all the dirty laundry that's been aired over the last several years.

Let's bash it some more.

With all the lawsuits, forfeits, underperforming seasons, overbearing boosters, transfer controversies, player mutinies, student vandalism and accusations of recruiting - and I'm just getting started - Pilot Point has become a microcosm of everything bad about Texas high school football.

Pilot Point's decline as a gridiron power has been a decade in the making, but the whole house of cards has fallen apart in a matter of a few weeks.

Newly-promoted head coach Mike Russell and his assistants were caught sending one another a series of e-mails that cannot be called anything less than patently racist and sexist.




Russell resigned three weeks ago, followed by assistant coach Darren Hall. Two other assistant coaches involved in the correspondence, Mike Segleski and Stephen Riddle, remain on staff - for now.

Right before that, Pilot Point was told by the District 6-3A executive committee it would have to forfeit a football game and its entire boys' basketball season for using an ineligible player whose family had moved out of the district. That ruling was allowed to stand by the University Interscholastic League on Tuesday in Austin.

The list of forfeited wins may grow. In Tuesday's hearing, more questions were raised about the family's residency. A monthly electric bill covering the early part of football season submitted for the rental property was for about $7, and a water bill showed only 10 gallons were used.

The final straw landed one week ago, when as many as five PPHS students allegedly vandalized Massey Stadium with orange and white spray paint (apparently hoping to pin the blame on nearby rival Celina) and - this is the cheekiest part - cemented a basketball goal on the 50-yard line.

How pitiful is that, when even your own students turn against you? Pilot Point has become the football equivalent of Wilmer-Hutchins - morally and ethically bankrupt, a laughingstock among its peers, and no longer deserving of its own control.

The school should do the honorable thing and pull the plug on football for a year or two - before the UIL does it for them.

The e-mails among Russell and his staff, published last week in the Denton Record-Chronicle, show the coaches making sexual jokes about their underage female students, using racial slurs, demeaning girls' sports, and making fun of students, trustees and administrators. One e-mail referred to Whitesboro as the "PotHead Bearcats."

Russell's lame defense to the Record-Chronicle: "We were just talking like coaches talk in the locker room."

If it began and stopped there, that would be bad enough.

But the decline of Bearcat football probably can be traced back to 1995, a year after Pilot Point went three rounds deep for the last time under former coach Jerry Jones.

From 1995-99, the Bearcats couldn't get past the second round of the playoffs, despite the fact that twice in that span, they ended the regular season ranked in the top four in Class 2A.

In 1998, Pilot Point took a No. 2 state ranking into their game with Howe, a team the Bearcats had smoked, 43-0, earlier in the season. Howe embarrassed the Bearcats, 28-14, all but cementing Jones' fate.

Jones lasted one more year, then the Pilot Point ISD board of trustees voted not to renew Jones' contract. Jones sued and wound up with a $20,000 settlement, and landed at Prosper.

The board at first hired assistant coach Lenny Gray to take over as head coach. The day he was promoted, Gray was enthusiastic and ready to charge ahead. Forty-eight hours later, Gray had withdrawn from the job, and he wasn't talking much.

Rumor had it a big businessman in town didn't cotton too much to Gray's choice as coach.

The board started their search anew. One of the applicants was Eddie Baca, who had coached Class 5A Del Rio to a 5-5 record in 1999 after one win in the previous three years.

Baca promptly returned Pilot Point to prominence. The Bearcats finished 11-3 and reached the 2A Division I semifinals, losing to eventual state champion Sonora.

But the following year, the bloom came off the rose anew. The Monday following a 20-6 loss to Boyd, as many as 15 Bearcat players mutinied against Baca and walked out of practice.

Most of them returned, but the damage was done. A loss to Callisburg in Week 10 ended Pilot Point's 2A state-record 22 straight playoff appearances, and Baca resigned. That led to the return of G.A. Moore as Pilot Point coach in March 2002.

Under Moore, finally a semblance of stability returned. The Bearcats went to three playoffs in a row despite being elevated to Class 3A.

But there was still controversy: An assistant coach was arrested for driving under the influence; one player was ruled ineligible after transferring from Whitesboro; and two brothers were ruled ineligible after transferring from Celina.

The two brothers, C.J. and Matt Hatten, played the 2003 season under a court injunction, despite having been ruled ineligible by the UIL and the district executive committee.

All that stuff is minor when compared with the offensive filth that came streaming out of the computers of Mike Russell and his cohorts. And that stuff is only a small sample over a couple of months.

On March 4, the last excerpt published, Hall wrote, "This ain't gonna be a [bad] place when we get everyone fired or killed off."

Way to go, slick! You succeeded all too well.

Is there one person responsible for the long, slow "killing off" of Pilot Point's tradition? The answer is no. Lots of folks seem to have had a hand in the dirty deed - parents, coaches, players, boosters, administrators.

If it takes a village to raise a football team, it only takes a few village idiots to tear it down.

The spray paint from the vandalized stadium will be removed in short order.

But it will take years for the overall stain to wash away from Pilot Point's reputation, if it ever does at all.

Bandera YaYa
04-22-2005, 09:30 AM
Sad indeed. But that's what happens when priorities get messed up....yeah, I'm with you, ....no football in Pilot Point for a few years might be what the doctor ordered to clear up this mess! Seems like a few always spoil it for the rest of us! :(

Bullaholic
04-22-2005, 09:31 AM
I have absolutely no knowledge of the incidents that have allegedly occurred at Pilot Point High School. However, at this point I think it is very important that we all remember that the majority of the students, faculty, administration, parents, and athletes at Pilot Point had very little control over the unfortunate events that seem to be coming to light concerning Pilot Point athletics. I make this point because I have seen entire towns and even universities, like Baylor, bear the scars of such scandals for a very long time. In no way is this an attempt to condone behavior which is not acceptable in any athletic program. I hope that all of the "bad" apples involved in all of the scandals at Pilot Point are purged from their program quickly and their athletic program can move forward to a brighter and successful future for the sake of all concerned. I think that the entire athletic community should be supportive of this community during this dark time in their history and wish them well in their attempts to put their athletic program back on the correct path.

Phil C
04-22-2005, 10:24 AM
But what about the innocent football players that are going to be there while football is banned. You may be punishing them for something done by others before them. That is what happened to Alabama a few years ago. They got on NCAA probation but the ones that suffered were the coaches and players that came after the guilty coaches and players have left.

KTJ
04-22-2005, 10:27 AM
Originally posted by Bullaholic
I have absolutely no knowledge of the incidents that have allegedly occurred at Pilot Point High School. However, at this point I think it is very important that we all remember that the majority of the students, faculty, administration, parents, and athletes at Pilot Point had very little control over the unfortunate events that seem to be coming to light concerning Pilot Point athletics. I make this point because I have seen entire towns and even universities, like Baylor, bear the scars of such scandals for a very long time. In no way is this an attempt to condone behavior which is not acceptable in any athletic program. I hope that all of the "bad" apples involved in all of the scandals at Pilot Point are purged from their program quickly and their athletic program can move forward to a brighter and successful future for the sake of all concerned. I think that the entire athletic community should be supportive of this community during this dark time in their history and wish them well in their attempts to put their athletic program back on the correct path.

But that's the issue. How do we know that the parents and students weren't involved? I don't think I would believe a student if he told me that in no way did he know that Moore was recruiting or that these actions were going on. I was an athlete in high school not too long ago. Trust me...the students know what's going on, and so do the parents. It's obvious because they turned their cheek when they saw the plethora of move-in's coming into PP. And then the big businessman who didn't like the move of the assistant coach going to HC after Jones? That sounds to me like the public knows exactly what's going on. The UIL should come down on them hard and if they don't, then you'll have witnessed politicking at it's finest.

rhs78
04-22-2005, 10:30 AM
Originally posted by Bullaholic
I have absolutely no knowledge of the incidents that have allegedly occurred at Pilot Point High School. However, at this point I think it is very important that we all remember that the majority of the students, faculty, administration, parents, and athletes at Pilot Point had very little control over the unfortunate events that seem to be coming to light concerning Pilot Point athletics. I make this point because I have seen entire towns and even universities, like Baylor, bear the scars of such scandals for a very long time. In no way is this an attempt to condone behavior which is not acceptable in any athletic program. I hope that all of the "bad" apples involved in all of the scandals at Pilot Point are purged from their program quickly and their athletic program can move forward to a brighter and successful future for the sake of all concerned. I think that the entire athletic community should be supportive of this community during this dark time in their history and wish them well in their attempts to put their athletic program back on the correct path.

very good bull,you make some valid points,its always is a few that spoil a good program. people caving in to pressure,sooner or later things will go wrong, just hope it gets straighten out for the students and atheltes sake.

Bullaholic
04-22-2005, 10:46 AM
Originally posted by KTJ
But that's the issue. How do we know that the parents and students weren't involved? I don't think I would believe a student if he told me that in no way did he know that Moore was recruiting or that these actions were going on. I was an athlete in high school not too long ago. Trust me...the students know what's going on, and so do the parents. It's obvious because they turned their cheek when they saw the plethora of move-in's coming into PP. And then the big businessman who didn't like the move of the assistant coach going to HC after Jones? That sounds to me like the public knows exactly what's going on. The UIL should come down on them hard and if they don't, then you'll have witnessed politicking at it's finest.

As I said in my post, KTJ, I'm not condoning any behavior which is unacceptable conduct or a breach of UIL rules. If rules have been broken, then penalties should be enforced. I just don't want entire communities and programs stigmatized by events such as those at Pilot Point. Not everybody in the Pilot Point community condones this behavior. If every EMail of every coach involved in high school athletics was made available to the public, we would be replacing a lot of coaches. I am not condoning improper behavior in any of those cases either, KTJ, but it probably exists to a degree everywhere and should be dealt with accordingly if serious violations have occurred. Pilot Point does not have a monopoly on move-ins or prominent citizens trying to use their influence on school administration decisions. Let's support the good guys in the Pilot Point community who are trying to deal with these unfortunate events in the proper manner by making the wrongdoers accountable for the benefit of their kids and forget about trying to penalize them for transgressions which may fall into the "heresay" category.

big daddy russ
04-22-2005, 10:57 AM
They shouldn't ban HS football at Pilot Point. That would be overdoing it and way too extreme for a HS program. Remember what the NCAA said after giving SMU the death penalty? That they would never do that to any school again. It completely shattered a once-proud football program and eventually led to the fall of the SWC... that event was the first domino.

Completely destroying a football team is much worse than letting a team play with walk-ons. Besides that, there was another post on the Downlow about that "recruit" the article talked about. Talked about how that house they had Pilot Point started having a bunch of problems so they had to move out. I'm not up there and I don't know all of the circumstances. I don't know what's true and what isn't but neither, it seems, do the news outlets. I think the papers up there need to take a step back and let some of the dust settle before going on a witchunt.