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Croatan football program just fine
Rich Levey
One of the unfortunate as-pects of high school sports, and youth sports in general for that matter, is how priorities often become skewed.
A friend and co-worker of mine at the Carteret County News-Times recently wrote a column defending the Croatan High School football program, which has recently come under fire.
Though maybe Friday’s win over Clinton will quell some of that misguided anger.
J.J. Smith basically said in his Oct. 7 column, “Cougar football not as bad as some think,” that Croatan and head coach David Perry do as well as they can with the talent available.
And without rehashing all of J.J.’s facts, he was right.
Carteret County does not have the football culture that Jacksonville does.
Want some examples?
What do Willie Parker (Clinton High School), Mario Williams (Richlands High School), Andre Purvis (White Oak and Swansboro) and Mar-cus Jones (Southwest Onslow) have in common?
Successful careers in the National Football League.
(I know Clinton’s not in Onslow County, but it is an East Central Conference school.)
And the number of players from these high schools who played Division I college foot-ball are too numerous to men-tion.
How many kids from Carteret County have made it big in the NFL?
I know 1980 West Carteret graduate Vaughn Johnson was an All-Pro with the New Or-leans Saints, but I can’t think of any others.
The point here is simple, there’s a huge disparity in tal-ent.
That’s not to say there aren’t great athletes at local schools, there are. But there’s not an overabundance of foot-ball talent.
If David Perry coached at Southwest Onslow, he’d probably have a couple of state championships to his credit.
Well, J.J.’s column was not well received by a handful of indignant Croatan “fans,” who voiced their disapproval on the readers’ comments section on the News-Times Web site.
Some of the comments, most of which were veiled by pseudonyms, actually went as far as to criticize not only Perry, but also Croatan princi-pal Mat Bottoms. They went after Mat for not nurturing a more sports-oriented environ-ment at Croatan.
As though the school is a farm system for the NFL.
First of all, Croatan does a wonderful job of fostering stu-dent/athletes.
Croatan won the Wachovia Cup last year – the award pre-sented to the school in the East Central Conference with the best overall athletic prowess.
Then if you look past sports, as difficult as that is for some folks, Mat Bottoms and his staff have developed Croatan into one of the top academic schools in the state.
Croatan was ranked fourth in the state in the ABC Pro-gram for Educational Excel-lence. The schools ranked ahead of it were Greenhope High School, Charlotte Providence and Charlotte Kell – all 4A schools.
And two years ago, Croatan was even ranked among the top high schools in the nation by U.S. News and World Report.
So, what you have is a school that wins the Wachovia Cup, and also earns national honors for its academic excel-lence.
Croatan High School pro-vides a balance of athletic suc-cess, and proudly serves as a springboard to a bright and successful future for its stu-dents.
What more could you ask for?
And 10 years from now, what’s going to be more im-portant to an adult trying to make his way in the world?
The memories from a 7-4 football team that made it to the second round of the state playoffs, or the ability to enjoy a comfortable lifestyle and the luxuries that accompany it, achieved on the back of a strong education?
The answer to that should be obvious.
It’s time for some parents to get their priorities straight, stop living vicariously through their children, and look at the big picture.
One of the unfortunate as-pects of high school sports, and youth sports in general for that matter, is how priorities often become skewed.
A friend and co-worker of mine at the Carteret County News-Times recently wrote a column defending the Croatan High School football program, which has recently come under fire.
Though maybe Friday’s win over Clinton will quell some of that misguided anger.
J.J. Smith basically said in his Oct. 7 column, “Cougar football not as bad as some think,” that Croatan and head coach David Perry do as well as they can with the talent available.
And without rehashing all of J.J.’s facts, he was right.
Carteret County does not have the football culture that Jacksonville does.
Want some examples?
What do Willie Parker (Clinton High School), Mario Williams (Richlands High School), Andre Purvis (White Oak and Swansboro) and Mar-cus Jones (Southwest Onslow) have in common?
Successful careers in the National Football League.
(I know Clinton’s not in Onslow County, but it is an East Central Conference school.)
And the number of players from these high schools who played Division I college foot-ball are too numerous to men-tion.
How many kids from Carteret County have made it big in the NFL?
I know 1980 West Carteret graduate Vaughn Johnson was an All-Pro with the New Or-leans Saints, but I can’t think of any others.
The point here is simple, there’s a huge disparity in tal-ent.
That’s not to say there aren’t great athletes at local schools, there are. But there’s not an overabundance of foot-ball talent.
If David Perry coached at Southwest Onslow, he’d probably have a couple of state championships to his credit.
Well, J.J.’s column was not well received by a handful of indignant Croatan “fans,” who voiced their disapproval on the readers’ comments section on the News-Times Web site.
Some of the comments, most of which were veiled by pseudonyms, actually went as far as to criticize not only Perry, but also Croatan princi-pal Mat Bottoms. They went after Mat for not nurturing a more sports-oriented environ-ment at Croatan.
As though the school is a farm system for the NFL.
First of all, Croatan does a wonderful job of fostering stu-dent/athletes.
Croatan won the Wachovia Cup last year – the award pre-sented to the school in the East Central Conference with the best overall athletic prowess.
Then if you look past sports, as difficult as that is for some folks, Mat Bottoms and his staff have developed Croatan into one of the top academic schools in the state.
Croatan was ranked fourth in the state in the ABC Pro-gram for Educational Excel-lence. The schools ranked ahead of it were Greenhope High School, Charlotte Providence and Charlotte Kell – all 4A schools.
And two years ago, Croatan was even ranked among the top high schools in the nation by U.S. News and World Report.
So, what you have is a school that wins the Wachovia Cup, and also earns national honors for its academic excel-lence.
Croatan High School pro-vides a balance of athletic suc-cess, and proudly serves as a springboard to a bright and successful future for its stu-dents.
What more could you ask for?
And 10 years from now, what’s going to be more im-portant to an adult trying to make his way in the world?
The memories from a 7-4 football team that made it to the second round of the state playoffs, or the ability to enjoy a comfortable lifestyle and the luxuries that accompany it, achieved on the back of a strong education?
The answer to that should be obvious.
It’s time for some parents to get their priorities straight, stop living vicariously through their children, and look at the big picture.
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The following are comments from the readers. In no way do they represent the view of carolinacoastonline.com.
thare ya have it wrote on Oct 27, 2009 1:33 PM:
" Well said-- I have always wondered why in College they just did not make a degree for "Sports" and call it the name of the Sport-- Like BA in Football, this degree would mean you colored a nice poster or two and had two complete paragraphs about your drawing with no mistakes(without aid of a paid tutor)-- and you played football--A BS in Football would be you learned what was inside a football and could explain that information.
Then just let them play ball if they fail at playing to the level they should they would be like other students and would have to change their Major.
Mat Bottoms is now and has always been a great developer of fine minds, if the sports program would make its players have to carry a 3.0 in ALL classes(not just an average of all classes) wonder how many would be playing any sport? If you focus is how well your kid can run, hit, kick, spike, hit a back hand, pin an opponent, swim the 50 or putt maybe you are sending the wrong message. All these things are there to help a student enjoy learning in the classroom, not the other way around.
S. Lyon, I go you one better not many even get to play at the college level..never mind the NFL and I say well done on the article---Last, I remind you of a young baseball player who came from our county, a great young man, 95 mph fastball—million dollar contract, went to the Majors—did not go to college—hurt his shoulder—and that was the end of his sports and his money..nothing to fall back on because he did not have any college- Not that he failed, he did not, but the system of fast money and fame took him and then dropped him! Not everyone goes to college, this is a true thing but everyone should have the chance to try to go to college and have a chance at a better life for the student and the soon to be parents of our next generation- Yes, Friday night with the mist rollin in off the sound and the band playing the fight song, young men suited up for battle in their school colors is a grand thing—with the parent in the stand pointing to a number on the field, that is my boy --is a good thing- But that walk across the stage and the Degree from the college when you can only see a sea of mortar board hats and in your heart you say that’s my boy —will always win out! "
Then just let them play ball if they fail at playing to the level they should they would be like other students and would have to change their Major.
Mat Bottoms is now and has always been a great developer of fine minds, if the sports program would make its players have to carry a 3.0 in ALL classes(not just an average of all classes) wonder how many would be playing any sport? If you focus is how well your kid can run, hit, kick, spike, hit a back hand, pin an opponent, swim the 50 or putt maybe you are sending the wrong message. All these things are there to help a student enjoy learning in the classroom, not the other way around.
S. Lyon, I go you one better not many even get to play at the college level..never mind the NFL and I say well done on the article---Last, I remind you of a young baseball player who came from our county, a great young man, 95 mph fastball—million dollar contract, went to the Majors—did not go to college—hurt his shoulder—and that was the end of his sports and his money..nothing to fall back on because he did not have any college- Not that he failed, he did not, but the system of fast money and fame took him and then dropped him! Not everyone goes to college, this is a true thing but everyone should have the chance to try to go to college and have a chance at a better life for the student and the soon to be parents of our next generation- Yes, Friday night with the mist rollin in off the sound and the band playing the fight song, young men suited up for battle in their school colors is a grand thing—with the parent in the stand pointing to a number on the field, that is my boy --is a good thing- But that walk across the stage and the Degree from the college when you can only see a sea of mortar board hats and in your heart you say that’s my boy —will always win out! "
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S.Lyon wrote on Oct 23, 2009 7:33 AM: