When he came to Archbishop Murphy as a freshman, J.D. Melton admits he was a bit hot-headed, he HAD an attitude.
But he had a coach, Terry Ennis, who used to encourage him, nudge him a bit, talk to him when something was bothering him.
“Definitely he gave me a sense of direction,” Melton said. “Do right, that was his thing. I tried to do that. He was kind of like the foundation.”
It was common for Melton to talk to Ennis three or four times a day, about football and about life. Ennis was a source of encouragement for many students at Archbishop Murphy. Taped to the windows of many classroom doors are photocopied pictures of Ennis. His memory is something the school doesn’t want to let go.
The Class 2A state championship will be decided at 10 a.m., Saturday morning at the Tacoma Dome. Maybe Archbishop Murphy, the team that dedicated its season to Ennis, its legendary coach who died Sept. 12 of prostate cancer, would have been there. Maybe not. But the fact its season wasn’t decided on the football field is a travesty.
The discovery of a lapsed physical of a player meant forfeiting eight games and the end of their season as decided by the Cascade Conference athletic directors. Appeals at the conference, district and state level fell on deaf ears.
Melton found himself in the middle of the firestorm. It was his physical that had lapsed, something he said he was unaware of.
The physical lapsed four days before Ennis, the former athletic director, died from prostate cancer. As with all the coaches at the school, Ennis had been given a list with that information. But he was a man facing his final days. Sometimes, details get overlooked.
Ennis, who built the Archbishop Murphy program from scratch seven years ago, was a father figure to many of his players.
For a player like Melton, whose father left when he was a baby, Ennis filled a void.
“For me, I don’t really have a father. Terry was, he was there,” Melton said. “He was a big part of my life.”
J.D. attended Evergreen Middle School in Everett and became interested in Archbishop Murphy because friends were going there. He shadowed a senior at the school and decided it would be a good place for him.
“I liked the academics and everything,” he said. “It was a better fit for me.”
The athletics were the icing on the cake for J.D., who hopes to play football or basketball in college. He’s received recruiting letters from football coaches at schools such as Boise State and Hawaii.
Co-athletic director Patti Means, Ennis’ assistant of five years, took over many of his duties this year. She sends out reminders in the summer to families regarding things like expired physicals.
J.D.’s mother, Gina, who drives a water truck to support the family, moved to Yakima in mid-summer to work at a construction site. While she is away, Melton has been living with teammate J.J. Quinlan’s family in Everett.
J.D. and his mom are close and she usually handles things like making sure he gets to the doctor. It slipped through the cracks.
An appeal could have been granted at any level, but members of the Executive Board felt there was sufficient time to catch the error, despite Ennis’ death, WIAA executive director Mike Colbrese told The Enterprise. In the past, WIAA member schools have stuck to enforcing forfeits when ineligible players have been used, even when it’s a paperwork problem.
“The school administrators understand it tugs at everybody’s heart but the board did the right thing because of the situation,” Colbrese said.
There’s always a situation. This one was unprecedented.
In “To Kill a Mockingbird,” lawyer Atticus Finch tells his daughter, Scout, “You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view … until you climb around in his skin and walk around in it.”
Maybe the folks at Archbishop Murphy, who had other things on their mind at the time, shouldn’t have let this slip. But, hindsight is always 20-20.
In October, Coupeville, another team in the league, self-reported that it had used a football player who was academically ineligible for the first five games of the year. At the time, the school was in the middle of a move and the academic records were boxed up. The school asked for a year probation and a chance to review its grade checking policy.
The athletic directors didn’t want to set a precedent of granting exceptions. Archbishop Murphy’s Means was the only athletic director who voted to give Coupeville a break.
Every once in awhile, the WIAA makes a ruling or policy decision that raises eyebrows. The organization’s core job is to provide avenues for high school athletes to achieve their dreams. Sounds simple enough, but to adminstrate such an organization, a lot of tough decisions have to be made and not everyone is going to be happy. In the end though, it should be about the student-athletes.
Part of being in a position of power is knowing when to use discretion. This was an exceptional case, not one that would have set a bad precedent, like the police giving a break to the guy speeding to get his pregnant wife to the hospital.
“I don’t think their judgment was the best,” Melton said. “It was an infraction. It was their decision. I don’t think the punishment fit the crime.”
The WIAA patted Archbishop Murphy on the back for doing the right thing and self-reporting the mistake. But that praise rings hollow.
In the Chief Sealth recruiting scandal, it took a Seattle Times investigation to bring the misdeeds to the attention of the WIAA. The school never self-reported the violations. Only after it became public, thanks to a newspaper investigation, did the WIAA take action.
Sometimes you hear complaints that there are too many bleeding hearts in our society, that compassion and emotion can run amuck and compromise wisdom. I disagree. Sometimes a little compassion and understanding wouldn’t hurt.
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