Remember the HS kid who rushed for 658 yards?

Eli Saslow writes an interesting story on the situation in today's Wash Post:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/05/AR2006100501978.html

And no, I'm not friends with Eli nor am I him, though sometimes I wish I were. He's on A1 of the Post what, once a week?

 

You're D_B, though.

http://www.sportsjournalists.com/forum/threads/32455/

 

Dammit! Oh well, can't win em all.

 

Good story, though.

 

Yeah, really good. He handled delicate situations well, and even managed to talk to the coaches, which is hard, especially if the coaches don't want to be found. And when he found them, they talked. Every time I've found coaches who I needed to talk to about something delicate, such as:

players getting DUIs,
coaches getting DUIs,
coaches sleeping with high school cheerleaders and/or other students,
coaches blatantly disregarding the rules,
coaches' lack of instituational control, etc.

In many of those situations, once I found the coach, he usually pointed a shotgun at me.

 

From the W. Post story: "High school records should be the byproduct, not the purpose, of a stellar performance."

Couldn't agree more. What that coach did was horseshit.

 

Great read. A good case of a paper recognizing that it doesn't matter where a story takes place -- it could happen at any high school. There's a lopside game like this in everybody's coverage area every weekend, the difference being the intentions of the coaches.

 

I didn't like the ending of the Post story. I thought it was abrupt.

As I have stated before, Kinder is a piece of work. A few years ago the W.Va Sports Writers Association booted a guy out because he admitted that Kinder paid for his hotel room and trip to the Super Six (W.Va State Championship games weekend) as long as the (part-time) writer tried to get as many Matewan kids on the all-state list as possible.

Final straw came when said writer managed to squeeze all five starters from the Burch High girls team onto the all-state teams (first, second and honorable mention). Did I mention that team had a grand total of five wins that season?

WVSWA passed a rule banning all part-timer writers from participating in any all-state meeting.


That part of West Virginia is whole 'nother world. You would have to live there a few years to actually believe it. It is indescribable.

Incidentally, Kinder's team was forced to surrender two wins for using an ineligible player. The player grew up in Matewan, moved across the river to Belfry,Ky. After his mom was shot, burned and buried -- she was a FBI drug informant whose cover was blown (Also, two of her FBI handlers were indicted for engaging in sexual activity with her) - her son returned to Matewan to get back to a normal life.
The kid was ruled eligible, but the team, which originally had to forfeit four games, was forced to forfeit two games.
The whole situation is fucked up.

 

No kidding...wow.

 

Shot, burned and buried.

Mental note: don't become FBI drug informant.

 

Yogi Kinder's team falls to Tug Valley (4-2), 8-7.
I doubt McCoy had a huge night.

Against Man earlier this season he was held to 87 yards in a loss.

 

McCoy is a fraud.