Dissed and dismissed

This week gave us two examples of the sportsmanship and life lessons athletics is supposed to teach but so often gets lost in the avalanche of wins and losses and statistics and standings.

As has been reported, four members of the Flathead Braves boys basketball team were dismissed for the remainder of the season for violating school rules.

Flathead officials declined to identify the individuals involved, and even if they had I'm not sure I would include their names here. They've already been punished sufficiently without me hanging them out to dry.

What Braves Activities Director Mark Dennehy would discuss was the nature of the violation that resulted in the penalties.

"We had some kids who were cited for drinking," he said. "At that point our drug and alcohol policy kicked in. A student cannot be using, or have in possession, drugs or alcohol or be at a party for an extended period of time."

A violation of that policy results in immediate dismissal from the team for the remainder of the season. Students are eligible to return the next sports season, meaning any of the four busted Braves can play in spring sports should they choose.

Flathead's strict, no-tolerance policy has been in effect for at least 13 years and perhaps as many as 20, Dennehy said, so it's fair to say that the consequences were hardly a surprise. Getting caught probably was, but not getting kicked off the team.

This is in stark contrast to what happened down in Ronan a few weeks ago. An alcohol related incident resulted in the suspension of several basketball players and a head coach.

The high school in a community that has dealt with several alcohol-related deaths of teenagers in the last year or so opted not to make an emphatic statement against underage drinking with a definitive dismissal of the offending parties, and instead handed down suspensions varying in length, but no more than two weeks.

It's hard to imagine how anything short of permanent removal would even be considered in the face of the alcohol problems in Ronan, and you hope the punishment wasn't influenced by the somewhat lofty perch of the boys and girls basketball teams in the standings.

Indeed, the rising incidents of alcohol-related deaths among teens and the inexorable link between sports and booze make it incumbent on schools to set the standard for intoxication intolerance among athletes.

(And lest you think me a hypocritical blowhard, I am aware that I frequently make jokes at the expense of my proclivity to partake in the distilled spirits and fermented brews. To that end, I am part of the problem.)

Discrepancies in discipline between what happened at Flathead and Ronan call to attention the lack of a statewide guideline. The Montana High School Association's 316-page official handbook has a scant three lines outlining its drug and alcohol policy:

"The MHSA Prohibits any use of tobacco, alcohol or other mood altering drugs during competition. Violation will cause the competitor to be disqualified from further participation in that event."

The MHSA does sponsor a drug and alcohol awareness program, AIM Higher, intended to help schools supplement their own programs, but there is no uniform policy on how to handle kids caught drinking, smoking or using other illegal drugs.

That sets up situations like this, where a few Braves get kicked off the team and a few Chiefs and Maidens get out of practice for two weeks. And that can lead to irked parents and boosters, especially if a team with a tough policy loses to a team with a lenient policy in the aftermath of dismissals and suspensions.

"I think in the community you get a mixed bag from whomever you talk to," Dennehy said. "The greatest strength of the policy is that it's understood. There aren't any questions.

"We have preseason parent-athlete meetings for all three seasons" to eliminate any misunderstandings in policy, he said.

Still, wouldn't a statewide policy ensure fairness in competition and consequences?

"I don't know," Dennehy said. "I really think it's a local issue. It depends on the community.

"If you keep it with local control, the folks in the community will let you know what it should be."

As both Dennehy and Braves coach Fred Febach said, the players that got dismissed from the team aren't bad kids, they made bad decisions. To that end, they will be welcomed back at the conclusion of the winter sports season. In the interim, Flathead High, as it does in all instances like this, is providing the punished with guidance and counseling to help avoid a repeat offense.

"Any of our kids, we're going to work with them," Dennehy said. "They might be removed (from competition), but we're going to continue to work with them."

Our second example is one of sportsmanship - or lack thereof - and it comes courtesy of the Missoula Hellgate Knights wrestling team.

The Knights visited Flathead on Thursday for a wrestling dual on senior night, the Braves' last home meet of the regular season.

Unfortunately, Hellgate offered up only four varsity opponents for the Braves, who had won an entertaining dual with Polson earlier in the day.

"Overall a great dual with Polson, very disappointed with the Hellgate dual," Flathead coach Jeff Thompson said after the Braves won 78-6. "They wrestled a lot of their guys JV, didn't want them to step up and wrestle us varsity. We could have had 11 matches, instead ended up with four."

There are several ways to describe what Hellgate did, but I'll keep it clean and go with weak.

If I've learned anything about wrestling the last two seasons, it's that the coaches - from Thompson to Whitefish's Pat Cheff to Columbia Falls' Wes Knutson - are all in agreement: to get better, you have to wrestle the best.

Dropping varsity kids down to JV to avoid … I'm not even sure what was avoided - Flathead won almost all of the JV matches, too. But to do that on senior night and willingly forfeit 11 weight classes is a disservice to all involved, not the least of whom were the paying customers.

"That hurts," Thompson said. "These people paid good money to come in and see the defending state champions on senior night, and I was really saddened by that."

Additionally, the four matches that were wrestled had all the excitement of the Pro Bowl. The crowd was dead and the wrestlers seemed almost disinterested.

"It's really hard to get up when you know there are only four matches out there and you're one of them," Thompson said.

New York Jets coach Herm Edwards is famous for saying "Why do you play? You play to win the game." Running up a white flag of surrender so wrestlers don't get beat quite as bad is disingenuous to the nature of competition

This week's top 10: Taking the week off to prepare for next weekend's Super Bowl party.

Andrew Hinkelman is a sports writer for The Daily Inter Lake. He can be reached at hink@dailyinterlake.com