GO ASBURY PARK BISHOPS---WILL BE THERE WITH BELLS ON IN THE STADIUM---
SUPPORTING THE BLUE BISHOPS FOR A JOB WELL DONE---WILL BE IN FLORIDA IN SPIRIT
GIVING THE BLUE BISHOPS PEE WEES AND THEIR COACHES MY SUPPORT.
----- Original Message ----
From: justifiedright <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: AsburyPark@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Wednesday, November 28, 2007 3:08:34 PM
Subject: [AsburyPark] My AP High School Football Column
Dear friends,
Usually it isn't good business smarts to put a newspaper column on the
Internet, but I'm making an exception this week, just this one time, just on
this Asbury Park website.
A little dust up at the triCityNews. I want our High School Football team on
the cover, so people will go to their Championship game. The folks that run
triCity disagree. I'm sure my column about High School Football will get
bumped from the front page for the opening of the one millionth antique store
or the one billionth "artist" that can't paint worth a damn.
So in the spirit of the rebellion and using the power of the Internet, I'm
printing my column below, to alert everyone to Friday night's championship game.
What's triCityNews gonna do, fire me?
Enjoy:
ASBURY FOOTBALL VIES FOR STATE TITLE FRIDAY NIGHT
Adults And Politics Can't Stop Them This Year
An atheist is a guy who watches a Notre Dame-SMU football game and doesn't care
who wins. President Eisenhower
Football is import. A town is judged on the quality of its football team. A
school is judged on the success its program. Spirits soar when the school team
is winning. Even kids who don't play get the idea that their school is in good
hands when the adults have their act together enough to make sure all is in
place to help the team beat other schools. The scoreboard builds confidence.
Friday night, November 30 at 5:00, the Asbury Park High School Football Team
plays for their section's State Championship. Asbury Park hasn't played for a
Championship in 20 years, and hasn't won one in 23. The game will be held at
Rutgers in New Brunswick.
Please make the time to go to this game. The Asbury Park High School players
will get an adrenaline boost when they hear a roaring crowd. They play against
Keansburg. Keansburg is a football town, with a good program from Pop Warner
on up. Make no mistake, Keansburg will fill seats at Rutgers. They won't let
their players down, and neither should we. The only way to show Asbury players
support is to be there. They won't know you wish them well from your homes.
Let's let Asbury players beat Keanburg's numbers on the scoreboard, while we
beat Keansburg's numbers in the stands.
Let me tell you of three recent stories about Asbury Football that might
explain why we haven't been State Champs for two and a half decades.
About 7 or 8 years ago Asbury had a great team. We were 8-0 and heading for a
State Championship. Then there was a complaint made to the NJSIAA, the
governing body. One of our players was in a program that required him to go to
tutoring. He didn't go to tutoring, because the school never offered it.
So what punishment did the NJSIAA impose upon Asbury for having a student that
didn't go to tutoring? They turned our 8-0 record into an 0-8 record. Bye-Bye
playoffs.
They didn't care about all the work every kid on the team did on that field to
go undefeated. They punished everyone for an off the field infraction. They
stole the season. In professional football, if you have too many men on the
field it's a five-yard penalty. Throwing to an ineligible receiver is loss of
a down.
For the NJSIAA to wipe out a whole season and crush the hopes of all those kids
and the City for an off field "tutoring infraction" was a giant middle finger
to the City of Asbury Park. This Friday, lets give it back to them.
By the way, the young man who missed the tutoring, who this whole system is
supposedly set up to serve – he quit school. He never returned to High School
after the ruling because he felt responsible, even though the school never
offered the tutoring. What a heartbreak. I get sick thinking about it.
Then a few years ago, we had a star quarterback, who the NJSIAA said could not
play his whole senior year. When he was in 8th grade, knowing he was going to
be a star, the High School coach let him suit up and take some snaps with the
High School team, just to give him a thrill. The NJSIAA ruled that 8th grade
was his first year of eligibility for taking the snaps, and you only get four -
so no senior year play for him.
There was a challenge to the ruling, and a settlement was made where the
quarterback was suspended for two games. In a 10 game seasons, two games can
keep you out of the playoffs.
Then there was last year. The Asbury Park Board of Education (Bored of
Education?) is notorious for concentrating on gossip, tearing people down and
personnel issues. The students never seem to come up in their dealings. Last
year, the Board of Ed actually let the players start the season without a
coach, because some power play was going on having to do with who was hired in
a number of positions. The kids couldn't recover from the mayhem that resulted
from the lack of a coach and went 1-9.
This year is different. There is a new young principal in 33-year-old Tyler
Blackmore who moved here and has everyone excited. New football coach Don
Sofilkanich is getting the job done.
This year, no complaints about the School can stop us. The NJSIAA can't stop
us. Jackasses on the Board of Ed can't stop us. Only Keansburg can stop us,
and that's not going to happen.
Asbury Park 28 - Keanburg 17.
____________________________________________________________________________________
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