I wanted to share a few positive thoughts regarding Coach Rodgers and the Gilbert High football program this season. All too often the media spectacle overshadows an enormous amount of hard work and dedication by these individuals, mostly from volunteers and had Gilbert had a better record, this would not even be a story.
First, my son Stephen Bundy #62 received all-Gilbert honors for both offensive line and defensive end. I cannot thank you enough for taking the time to write these kinds of articles and Stephen’s awards were well deserved. He has worked as hard as anyone in the state, has overcome tremendous adversities to become better and actually won Gilbert’s "most improved player" award last season. Stephen, and his mother and I are confident he will be an asset for a program at the next level depending on how the college search plays out.
I give a tremendous amount of credit to Coach Rodgers and his staff for helping my son not only improve in football, but in teaching him to become a leader, a positive role model for his school and his community. In my conversations with these coaches, I have heard nothing but positive thoughts and encouragement regarding Stephen and his fellow students and teammates. Perhaps more importantly is that I have heard many students praise Mr. Rodgers as a teacher.
Certainly coach had made mistakes like anyone in their first year in charge, often as a consequence of his eagerness to excel Gilbert High football. For example, many players were intimidated by his fast start and subsequently quit, he angered some boosters in not appreciating some of their long-standing traditions, and other parents have complained to me regarding his blunt personality. I thought these were issues that would be easily resolved with experience and guidance but I am disappointed that Principal Stroud and Athletic Director Daniel Haasch could not develop young talented coaches in their program. I certainly hope this does not bode the same with developing up-and-coming educators.
Bob Somodi
Gilbert
Arizona Willie posted at 10:37 am on Mon, Dec 10, 2012.
studentathlete ... I will grant that things have changed a lot since I was in school.
But I seriously doubt that the activity fees schools charge cover the entire expense of the program(s).
And you state that you think you are going to get scholarships. Good luck on that one.
I hope you do. But the odds are stacked against you. Hopefully you will be one of the lucky ones.
I don't know what percentage of high school athletes get scholarships to college, but I suspect it is fairly low. And many of the scholarships are not full rides either.
Even if things do work out for you and all goes according to your plan ... you will be one of the lucky ones. Those dreams don't work out for very many.
And that is one of my objections to school sports. They encourage kids to dream of pro careers and scholarships and those dreams sidetrack many many kids. You, hopefully, will prevail but many others will not.
Now you talk about fees paying for the programs. But when the land is bought and the school is built that is taxpayer dollars that buy the land. There are no student fees yet.
Society values the wrong things.
Every day in the paper they cover school sports and they cover them on the tv news. They even broadcast the game of the week for football.
When did you ever see the papers covering an academic contest? Once in awhile they will cover a spelling bee. Mathletes? haw haw never happen.
You get the idea. Society makes heroes out of athletes and jokes out of academics.
The hit TV show the Big Bang is one non-stop joke about the ineptness of the characters who have doctorates and masters degrees and are professors and an astronaut.
People who have achieved intellectually are portrayed as buffoons.
Can you imagine a TV show that depicted 3 wide receivers for the Chicago Bears that way?
studentathlete posted at 5:03 pm on Sun, Dec 9, 2012.
Arizona Willie
But I am a charter member of Geeks and Nerds International, I doubt that. Geeks and Nerds as you put it, generally know that sports are not an economic drain on public schools.
Its not like the "old days" when sports were paid for by all, in fact no extra curricular activity is anymore, not even debate or math team. Each athlete (participant) must pay a sports fee( activity fee), Districts charge admissions, and booster clubs must make enough money to pay for needed equipment, uniforms, fireworks if they choose, and paying for coaches. Athletes/participants fundraise to support their programs, from car washes to the dreaded gold cards.
My parents do not dream of me being a pro athlete. A well rounded, grounded young man, yes. My work ethic used on the field and in the classroom will afford me my college education by athletic scholarship, and academic scholarship.. Sports have taught me perseverance, focus, and how too put first things first. I will be successful no matter what i choose to do.
It is my opinion, that the most successful programs in the valley, have the most successful students. And its contagious. My school has closer to 60% of our students involved in sports ...swimming, diving, tennis, golf, volleyball, wrestling, basketball, cheerleading, cross country, track, baseball, football , softball, soccer, and lets not forget marching band.
Economics? I believe it costs a lot less to keep young kids active and involved, busy in their teenage years. Young kids who are not involved fall more often to drugs, unwanted pregnancy, delinquency, and failure to graduate. And many will continue to remain inactive, out of shape, overweight and obese... adding to our growing national medical costs, that WE ALL pay for..
Arizona Willie posted at 10:20 am on Sun, Dec 9, 2012.
Irons1 ... no I didn't have any bad experiences with athletics.
But I am a charter member of Geeks and Nerds International :)
In my opinion, for every person for whom athletics is a motivator and who succeeds as you have, there are 10,000 for whom athletics is a distraction and a fantasy that will never come true. Less than 1% of students get to play on the teams but 100% of parents and taxpayers are paying for all this -- and I haven't even got into coaches who sometimes get paid more than the Principal of the school and almost always get paid more than a regular teacher.
It is true that athletics can teach team work and perserverance but that can be taught just as well on a debate team or math team.
My objections to athletics in schools is based on pure economics.
Drive by a middle school in the Phoenix area and observe the acres and acres devoted to sports and the amount of ground devoted to class rooms.
I drive by one all the time with sprinklers going day and night to keep the grass green and I see hundreds of acres in different fields ( football, baseball, soccer, etc. etc. ). Each sport has it's own fields with lights and fencing. The school even has it's own aquatic center!! And it's only a middle school.
This is prime land that developers would pay millions and millions of dollars for that could run that school for a generation.
The State keeps cutting funding for public education on a yearly basis but athletics never seems to get cut and it < should > be the first thing to go.
I grant that this is the fault of parents who have dreams of their kid being a pro-athlete and whom would scream bloody murder if the school districts dropped athletics.
But, in my opinion, all the money spent on athletics in public schools is mis-spent and athletics should be done away with and the money spent on better teachers.
Some districts try to pay teachers only 30K - 40K and then people wonder why there is another story of a child molesting teacher almost every other week.
There is never enough money to increase school funding but there is ALWAYS enough money for athletics.
I don't know who pays for it, but there is a school a mile or so from us and we hear them setting off fireworks when the home team scores all the time. Hopefully school boosters pay for that -- but I wouldn't bet on it.
Leon Ceniceros posted at 3:42 pm on Sat, Dec 8, 2012.
Not enough is known about the reasons for this Coach being fired by the School. Hopefully it will all come out but it's doubtful. Just look at the foot dragging of Penn State and all the other Colleges, Universities and High Schools across America where ..."sports are a religion"...not just an activity. But with the demise of the Bobby Knight's and the Joe Paterno's....this emphasis is dying off like the dinosaurs. Even the era of the small town "Coach is Gawd".....is coming to a close.
I remember a couple years ago when the horrific hazing at an Arizona or New Mexico High School Summer Football Camp exploded all over the News Media. Senior players sodomizing younger players with broom handles while coaches and other assistant did nothing and then claimed to know nothing about what had occured. Student victims forced to move to another school and forego any further School sports activities.
ENOUGH IS ENOUGH.......EVERYONE FROM THE BOOSTERS, THE PARENTS, THE STUDENTS THEMSELVES, THE COACHING STAFF, THE SCHOOL ADMINISTRATORS SHOULD ALWAYS PUT.....EDUCATION FIRST AND SPORTS SECOND. WHEN I WAS GOING TO HIGH SCHOOL BACK IN THE EARLY 1960'S THE MOST ANY FOOTBALL PLAYER WEIGHED WAS 180LBS.....NOW THEY TIP THE SCALES AT 250LBS.....THIS IS MADNESS....THE INMATES ARE FUNNING THE HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL ASYLUM HERE FOLKS.
Irons1 posted at 10:50 am on Sat, Dec 8, 2012.
I was a high school football player and college football player. I have a Masters degree with a 4.0 gpa and am currently almost finished with a second one with a 4.0 gpa. Do some football players end up like this, working in convenience stores? I suppose so, but for many athletes I knew and am currently associated with (I coach), athletics is what motivates them in the classroom and does propel them to success and quite frankly, more succeed then fail. I have players that are motivated by staying on the team and being eligible that are being very successful in the classroom. By the way, I wonder, did you have a bad experience with athletics? I'm guessing you did.
Arizona Willie posted at 9:20 am on Sat, Dec 8, 2012.
Good lord --- football coaches of all subjects and TWO letters about the same one!!
All athletic programs in schools should be SCRAPPED. And every coach FIRED.
If you want your kid to be a pro athlete send them to a private after school program PAID FOR BY YOURSELF INSTEAD OF TAXPAYERS and ran by ex pro athletes.
Less than 1% of students play on school teams but they are paid for by 100% of taxpayers and it is just a distraction from the learning environment.
There is never enough money for education and the state is constantly cutting it year after year. Every dollar spent on athletics is a dollar taken away from actually teaching kids subjects that will help them to make a living and be productive members of society.
If parents dream of their child being a pro-athlete THEY should pay for the training ... not taxpayers.
If you want to see high school football players 10 years after they graduate -- stop by the local convenience store. That's where most of them are working.