Under the Lights and the Microscope

It is just a football game, right? Just a bunch of teenagers on a field on a Friday night, a scene repeated across the country every weekend in the fall. The stands are full of fans, whether there to watch the football players, the cheerleaders, or the marching band. They are there to support with their presence, their cheers, their chants, their yells.

For many of us in the stands it is easy to second-guess what those young men did on the field. The missed tackle, the missed assignment, the trip that stymied a potential game-changing gain. But our glasses are shaded with our lifetime of experiences, experiences these young men don't have.

That is why it is so disappointing to me when the adults fail the students. I saw it again last night. I'm not disappointed by the loss. I am disappointed by what appeared to be a failure by the adults to prepare the student athletes for the moment.

My view on the playing field has changed a lot over the years. Many years ago, I would have criticized the quarterback for failing to throw the ball away or the running back for not hitting the right hole for the fourth-down conversion. Now I see the failure clearly. It is the adults that failed in some way.

I've heard Coach Matt Painter reply to criticism many times over the years with "I can't shoot or guard for them, all I can do is prepare them." And he's right. If a player misses a free throw or blows an assignment, that's on the player. But if Painter failed to give him reps at the free throw line or practice that right-hand move by the opponent's point guard, that's on Painter.

That's what I saw last night. The quarterback who took a twenty-yard sack instead of throwing the ball away didn't fail. He wasn't prepared enough for that moment, a moment that should have been expected against one of the best defenses in the state. The fourth-and-one call with the same play up the middle that hadn't worked for nearly four quarters? That wasn't a player failing to execute. That was an adult making the same decision and expecting a different result.

I've never walked the sidelines on a Friday night with thousands of eyes watching me, but I've been a leader with children under my care. Whether it was in the basement of Leo Methodist herding Webelos Scouts or at the top of Baldy in that tense medical emergency, I had young people in my care and all I could do was pray my preparations for them were enough.

Parents, coaches, teachers, mentors cannot do for the children, no matter what today's helicopter parents think. All we can do is prepare. When we fail to prepare the youth, we are doing more than failing that task. We are failing the children.

It is easy to see and criticize the football coach for play calling and time management, but the failures that hurt more are the ones we don't see from the sidelines. A teacher, a volunteer leader, an administrator... any adult that fails children through neglect, indifference, or worse yet, ill intentions.

Friday night under the lights looks different when you stop watching the kids and start watching the adults.

I've seen it my entire life, whether it is a coach, a referee, a teacher, or a scout leader. Adults failing the kids is sadder than the children failing.