Like most high schools, I’m sure Archbishop Murphy is run by good people and populated by a great bunch of students. The experience their football team has gone through recently with the forfeiture of their season is heart wrenching by any measure.
What has been sadly, disappointingly absent from the ad nauseam coverage provide by The Herald, and numerous letter writers, is even a smidgen of accountability where it belongs. There are numerous people that all failed the football team and none of them sit in the offices of the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association.
As a parent of three current or former high school athletes, I know that the season doesn’t start without a current physical exam. It’s required every year. You plan on it and schedule it without fail so your child isn’t excluded from any practices or games. How many football coaches are there at Archbishop Murphy? None of them were assigned the task of ensuring all the players’ eligibility? How many people in the administrative staff at the school, including the athletic director? None of them were responsible for the collection of medical documentation from the athletes? And please stop hiding behind the unfortunate and untimely death of the remarkable Terry Ennis.
Every coach knows the rules and penalties, especially those regarding the health and medical welfare of their athletes. “Compassion” is keeping all athletes safe. The rule they violated is in place for that very reason and we should never set a precedent of ignoring it, even accidentally.
Is anyone from Archbishop Murphy willing to stand up and accept responsibility for what they did to their own football team? I applaud the WIAA for making the difficult and correct ruling to protect our student athletes.
Jeff Foster
Granite Falls
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