Penn State defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky is carried by players Rick Bolinsky (92) and Jason Wallace (88) after they defeated Texas A&M in the Alamo Bowl, Tuesday night, Dec. 28, 1999. Sandusky marks his 381st and final game as a member of Penn State's coaching staff. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
It’s been tough to get into the spirit of the holidays. In fact, this particular season, it’s been downright impossible.
At an especially delicious time for sports when we’re supposed to be consumed by the drama of the NFL, NBA and college basketball, instead I find myself having to go through story after story of child abuse scandals.
If it’s not Penn State’s Jerry Sandusky, it’s Syracuse’s Bernie Fine. If it’s not Bernie Fine, it’s veteran Philly Daily News sports writer and distinguished journalist Bill Conlin.
It’s gross, unsettling and mind-blowingly disturbing to know that these human beings violated many young children – boys and girls, in Conlin’s case – and continued living their lives as if all is well. How are we supposed to realistically focus on the spirit of a giving season when we know of stories like the aforementioned, with surely many, many, many more left uncovered.
The plight of these three individuals has done nothing but remind us of the constant suffering that is overwhelming our youth. It’s deplorable for two of these three men to use their status as coaches as bait for their crimes. It’s sickening to think how many children’s lives these three men alone have been responsible for ruining.
As coaches and influential administrators in a child’s game, they should know better. They should be better.
I hate to even bring this up at a time like this, with a new year on the horizon and hope and optimism never higher, but it would be wrong to ignore it. In my eyes, if found guilty, these men deserve life in prison without parole. And I understand this probably happens more often than we think, but it maddens me to no end that they took advantage of the trust and admiration of young boys and girls.
However, it also makes you appreciate more the coaches who do completely hold precious that trust and admiration and use it as a gift to, in fact, help the youth. We have plenty of those in Laredo. They are coaches who are under scrutiny because of that nagging win-loss column, but when tragedy – and yes, the circumstances involving these three men are indeed tragic – strikes, it forces you to re-evaluate.
And the bottom line is that Laredo is home to many coaches who devote their entire beings to benefit the city’s youth.
The stories of the three men have darkened public perception of the coaching profession, and sports in general. It’s unfortunate, but it’s painfully obvious eyes need to be opened. It’s not a good look, and it will only get worse before it gets better.
But the horrifying actions of the two coaches should not take away from those who do their job with honor and accountability. For every Fine or Sandusky, there are dozens of Hecky Noyola Jr.’s, J.J. Gomezes and Oscar Villasenors.
This holiday season, be thankful for who the city’s coaches are and what they stand for. For we have seen too closely what others have become.
Silva On Sports 