hawkfan
11-08-2006, 08:41 PM
I got this from smoaky.com.If I had not read this I would not have believed it. This guy has no integrity or class.
N.Va. Boys' Championship Dream Doomed by a Moment of Vengeance
By Timothy Dwyer
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, November 4, 2006; A01
The South County Raptors, a scrappy football team made up of 12- to 14-year-old boys from southern Fairfax County, were supposed to meet the Herndon Hornets today in the first round of the county playoffs.
Instead, the Raptors are at home, their season over with no possibility of a championship after a league commissioner fired the head coach and the assistant coach this week. Their offense? They moved the commissioner's son from defense to offense for the final game of the season last Saturday, an overtime win that put the Raptors in the postseason.
"Scott does not sit out on defense -- ever," the commissioner, Dan Hinkle, had warned the head coach, James Owens, in an e-mail sent before the season began about how he should play Hinkle's son, 12. On defense, the father said, "he goes in and stays in. That includes all practices, scrimmages and games. This entire league exists so he can play defense on the best team in his weight class. . . . He is my son, I own the league, and he plays every snap on defense."
The sudden end to the season, which began with preseason practice in the wickedly hot days of late August, has crushed the 19 boys on the team. The parents are just as upset. Meetings have been held. E-mails have flown all week as the parents tried to get Hinkle to reconsider.
"Every time I think about this, I get sick to my stomach," Owens said. "These kids worked hard to get this far. These kids were unbelievably excited about making the playoffs."
Hinkle would not comment for this article. The commissioner offered to hire a new coach, but the boys would play only for Owens.
The Fairfax County Youth Football League is one of the area's largest, fielding 314 teams in various weight and age categories. Hinkle is commissioner of the South County Youth Association, one of 23 clubs that make up the league.
The investment by parents in time and money is substantial. Parents pay a fee of as much as $160, which goes toward equipment and other costs. They also have to ferry their boys to practice three times a week.
Before the season, Hinkle set out the specific terms of his son's play to the coaches. In the e-mail to the two coaches, he said he would leave it up to them whether Scott played offense. But the commissioner also said that Scott must play every minute on defense.
When the coaches got the e-mail, they said, they spoke to Hinkle and believed that he understood that the coaches would decide where his son played.
"There was a phone call with Hinkle after that initial e-mail, and I thought we had an understanding on how we were going to coach the kids," said the fired assistant coach, Bill Burnham. "The season went great. We had great kids, a really, really good bunch of kids who became good friends at school, ate lunch together at school. Really, it was everything you wanted to see out of a team experience."
Hinkle's son played defensive end for most of the season but Owens moved him to offensive guard the week before the final game because he thought the team had a better chance of winning with him on offense.
Hinkle was not at the season's last game because he was attending his mother's funeral in Indiana. Owens said that the day after the game, Hinkle called him and asked him whether Scott had played defense in the game. "I said, 'Your son played offense. He played well and we won the game and we're going to the playoffs.' He said, 'You're fired.' "
Tommy Thompson, a member of the executive board of the league who is in charge of discipline and rules enforcement, said that under league rules, Hinkle had the authority to fire the coaches. He said that it is not unusual for coaches to be fired but that in the 10 years he has been involved with the league he had never heard of the coach of a team headed to the playoffs being fired.
"I am as upset" as the Raptors' parents are, Thompson said.
League Chairman Mark Meana said yesterday: "This is disturbing, because we have 5,800 kids, 313 other teams and 22 other organizations, and usually the only thing we ever talk about is the actions of one lunatic on the sidelines or the parents who make headlines nationally for doing something stupid."
He said that because the coaches did not violate any league rules, the league did not get involved in the dispute. However, he said, the league will investigate the firings. Owens has coached youth football for seven years.
The board tried to get Hinkle to change his mind but he would not, Thompson said. On Monday, the parents held a meeting. Hinkle told them he wanted to hire new coaches for the playoff game, according to parents who attended the meeting. The players decided they wanted to play only for Owens and Burnham.
"I really didn't want to play for anyone else," said Michael Holland, 13, a seventh-grader who is the middle linebacker on the team. Owens is "a good coach. He's nice. He listens."
Michael said he is upset that he is not suiting up in his Raptors uniform and playing today. "I am pretty mad, because we worked hard for it. The last game [also against Herndon], we had to fight really hard to win, and I think for sure we were going to beat them again this week."
When asked how his teammates are taking the end of their season, Michael said, "They are saying it is stupid and that we should be in the playoffs and we could have won the championship."
He also said his fellow players feel bad for Hinkle's son because he is well liked and worked hard. Michael added that he is sure the boy didn't know that his father had dictated what position he would play.
"If my dad did something like that, I wouldn't like it. I'd tell him not to do it. It's not fair," Michael said.
Burnham said he and Owens are still talking to the players, trying to help them deal with a season that has been lost for them -- off the field.
"As disheartening as this might be," he said, "this might be one of the biggest lessons these kids will learn in youth sports: how to handle adversity and disappointment and come out a better person for it."
N.Va. Boys' Championship Dream Doomed by a Moment of Vengeance
By Timothy Dwyer
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, November 4, 2006; A01
The South County Raptors, a scrappy football team made up of 12- to 14-year-old boys from southern Fairfax County, were supposed to meet the Herndon Hornets today in the first round of the county playoffs.
Instead, the Raptors are at home, their season over with no possibility of a championship after a league commissioner fired the head coach and the assistant coach this week. Their offense? They moved the commissioner's son from defense to offense for the final game of the season last Saturday, an overtime win that put the Raptors in the postseason.
"Scott does not sit out on defense -- ever," the commissioner, Dan Hinkle, had warned the head coach, James Owens, in an e-mail sent before the season began about how he should play Hinkle's son, 12. On defense, the father said, "he goes in and stays in. That includes all practices, scrimmages and games. This entire league exists so he can play defense on the best team in his weight class. . . . He is my son, I own the league, and he plays every snap on defense."
The sudden end to the season, which began with preseason practice in the wickedly hot days of late August, has crushed the 19 boys on the team. The parents are just as upset. Meetings have been held. E-mails have flown all week as the parents tried to get Hinkle to reconsider.
"Every time I think about this, I get sick to my stomach," Owens said. "These kids worked hard to get this far. These kids were unbelievably excited about making the playoffs."
Hinkle would not comment for this article. The commissioner offered to hire a new coach, but the boys would play only for Owens.
The Fairfax County Youth Football League is one of the area's largest, fielding 314 teams in various weight and age categories. Hinkle is commissioner of the South County Youth Association, one of 23 clubs that make up the league.
The investment by parents in time and money is substantial. Parents pay a fee of as much as $160, which goes toward equipment and other costs. They also have to ferry their boys to practice three times a week.
Before the season, Hinkle set out the specific terms of his son's play to the coaches. In the e-mail to the two coaches, he said he would leave it up to them whether Scott played offense. But the commissioner also said that Scott must play every minute on defense.
When the coaches got the e-mail, they said, they spoke to Hinkle and believed that he understood that the coaches would decide where his son played.
"There was a phone call with Hinkle after that initial e-mail, and I thought we had an understanding on how we were going to coach the kids," said the fired assistant coach, Bill Burnham. "The season went great. We had great kids, a really, really good bunch of kids who became good friends at school, ate lunch together at school. Really, it was everything you wanted to see out of a team experience."
Hinkle's son played defensive end for most of the season but Owens moved him to offensive guard the week before the final game because he thought the team had a better chance of winning with him on offense.
Hinkle was not at the season's last game because he was attending his mother's funeral in Indiana. Owens said that the day after the game, Hinkle called him and asked him whether Scott had played defense in the game. "I said, 'Your son played offense. He played well and we won the game and we're going to the playoffs.' He said, 'You're fired.' "
Tommy Thompson, a member of the executive board of the league who is in charge of discipline and rules enforcement, said that under league rules, Hinkle had the authority to fire the coaches. He said that it is not unusual for coaches to be fired but that in the 10 years he has been involved with the league he had never heard of the coach of a team headed to the playoffs being fired.
"I am as upset" as the Raptors' parents are, Thompson said.
League Chairman Mark Meana said yesterday: "This is disturbing, because we have 5,800 kids, 313 other teams and 22 other organizations, and usually the only thing we ever talk about is the actions of one lunatic on the sidelines or the parents who make headlines nationally for doing something stupid."
He said that because the coaches did not violate any league rules, the league did not get involved in the dispute. However, he said, the league will investigate the firings. Owens has coached youth football for seven years.
The board tried to get Hinkle to change his mind but he would not, Thompson said. On Monday, the parents held a meeting. Hinkle told them he wanted to hire new coaches for the playoff game, according to parents who attended the meeting. The players decided they wanted to play only for Owens and Burnham.
"I really didn't want to play for anyone else," said Michael Holland, 13, a seventh-grader who is the middle linebacker on the team. Owens is "a good coach. He's nice. He listens."
Michael said he is upset that he is not suiting up in his Raptors uniform and playing today. "I am pretty mad, because we worked hard for it. The last game [also against Herndon], we had to fight really hard to win, and I think for sure we were going to beat them again this week."
When asked how his teammates are taking the end of their season, Michael said, "They are saying it is stupid and that we should be in the playoffs and we could have won the championship."
He also said his fellow players feel bad for Hinkle's son because he is well liked and worked hard. Michael added that he is sure the boy didn't know that his father had dictated what position he would play.
"If my dad did something like that, I wouldn't like it. I'd tell him not to do it. It's not fair," Michael said.
Burnham said he and Owens are still talking to the players, trying to help them deal with a season that has been lost for them -- off the field.
"As disheartening as this might be," he said, "this might be one of the biggest lessons these kids will learn in youth sports: how to handle adversity and disappointment and come out a better person for it."