Part of what has riled some parents and athletes is how Madison coaches came to discover the violation in the first place. News of the incident(s) was allegedly leaked after a weekend episode following a 48-6 road loss to Polk County. First year head coach Darren Ponder then asked for an open confession from the accused. Team captains, believing that honesty would get their teammates a lighter sentence, urged them to come clean. Coach Ponder, a Madison alumnus, threw the book at them instead, and those who gave the advice feel betrayed and somewhat guilty for their counsel, although no indication was given that leniency was promised or implied.

Despite their candor, Coach Ponder says he had no choice but to suspend the guilty parties for the remainder of the schedule.

The more vocal parents at the meeting made it clear that their boys were being punished not for breaking rules and team standards, but for telling the truth, seeming to forget that admitting fault does not clear someone of wrongdoing, or of the consequences that follow. Other parents begged Ponder to amend the punishment to something other than permanent suspension. He steadfastly refused.

This same mindset (avoiding full punishment) is at the root of so many of the troubles we face in society. Pick your own problem. Team, school, or county rules, stated clearly and/or written out, must be enforced consistently for team discipline to amount to anything. Otherwise more broken rules, dissension, or further conflict are sure to follow. If the penalty was known and understood before the infraction occurred, then Coach Ponder had no choice in the matter. Where mercy is granted, it should be done under extenuating circumstances. Life lessons are invaluable and long-lasting at the high school level. An argument could be made that the rest of the team, school, and community are being “punished” along with the guilty. That is unfortunate but all too common. The innocent often suffer the most. 

Other parents at the meeting were concerned that the successful JVs were being short-changed by having to play up before they were ready. Moving a half dozen or fewer JVs up each week is anticipated at this stage of the football season. It’s a reward for those hoping to mature and grow in the sport. As Ponder says in the Sentinel, “We’re one program. We’re supposed to be one program.”

The Patriots were 0-6 prior to the incidents, yet held the talented Bearcats scoreless in the opening quarter last Friday. Naturally, they ran out of gas against a faster and numerically superior foe. Their closest calls before the suspensions were a 20-14 loss to Cherryville on September 15 and a gallant, 14-6 defeat to arch-rival North Buncombe.

Parents quoted at the meeting have overreacted to the ordeal. One even claimed that the boys’ lives have been “ruined.” Actually, their lives should count for the better. They will forever realize that bad decisions bring unwanted and sometimes disastrous results.

The world of NASCAR makes up or changes the rules as it goes. Major League Baseball has countless legal loopholes to jump through, a complex appeals process, and innumerable chances for repeat offenders. Other professional unions are similar, and this is what our children see out in the real world.

If any motive can be questioned on the Madison High athletics department, it would be this: the decision to play out the season should not be made to keep from paying the $3,000 fine for every forfeited game. Football pays the bills for other sports as well, but this is an unfair burden to place on teenage boys—in particular, those who are in the clear.

Madison has an open date this evening. What better way to ensure the life of the football program than for a swarm of supporters to visit Owen High Stadium on October 12.