Huron football player says former teammates instructed by coaches to take him out
As if the Huron High School football team doesn't have enough to deal with this week.
Huron receiver Quavon Smith told WXYZ in Detroit that he's been receiving threats from his former teammates at Westland John Glenn High School.
Smith, who used to attend John Glenn and played football, had his picture hung up in the John Glenn locker room. He told WXYZ that his former teammates told him coaches instructed players to take him out of this Friday's contest.
Wayne-Westland Community Schools Superintendent superintendent Greg Baracy instructed the coaches take the picture down, but said the coaches denied the claims of instructing players to take Smith out of the game. Smith said he will not play in Friday's game.
This comes days after an on-field brawl involving players and coaches broke out following the Huron-Pioneer game. Huron will already be without its head coach Cory Gildersleeve for the game who has been suspended for his role in the fight and is expected to have multiple players suspended.
Ann Arbor Public Schools officials have yet to release the amount of players suspended for Friday's game, but Huron is a team that has been plagued by low numbers this season. Huron is 0-8 on the season.
-The Associated Press contributed to this story.
Comments
darre james
Fri, Oct 19, 2012 : 6:39 a.m.
wowwwwwwwwwwww
darre james
Fri, Oct 19, 2012 : 5:32 a.m.
sounds like pioneer coaching
Boohoo
Fri, Oct 19, 2012 : 1:25 p.m.
And you sound like....
Chase Ingersoll
Thu, Oct 18, 2012 : 10:02 p.m.
If coaches are hired from the ranks of successful players, you have to wonder if we are not seeing the effects of concussive brain injuries long term affects on the reasoning and emotions of the coaches. If that is the case, do the coaches then the qualify for protection under the ADA ?
RuralMom
Thu, Oct 18, 2012 : 5:56 p.m.
When my Son played for Chelsea Football, and then Wrestled for them, we didn't have this issue. We made it VERY clear the consequences of poor sportsmanship, coming from us the parents. So while I get the "coaching" staff end of things, it also seems like a parental involvement failure as well. My kids worst fear would be for me to come down ON the field or mat, for something they know is not acceptable by OUR FAMILY standards of sportsmanship. Our son graced the Ann Arbor News more than once on the defensive line & heavy weight wrestling, always striving to do his best but most of all be a good sport about it. Every dog has its day, you cannot win every time, every game, frankly that would be boring and you wouldn't learn anything that way either!
aamom
Thu, Oct 18, 2012 : 5:36 p.m.
Thankfully someone told him ahead of time.
Billy Bob Schwartz
Thu, Oct 18, 2012 : 7:51 p.m.
At least some football players have enough decency to let a friend know he's on the chopping block. Coaches who do this kind of thing, if they really did, should be canned, at the least.
cinnabar7071
Thu, Oct 18, 2012 : 5:19 p.m.
If this is true I feel criminal charges are in order. Ordering a hit deserves prison time! Football or not.
Laura Jones
Fri, Oct 19, 2012 : 3:21 a.m.
The difference here is that we are talking about minors, being directed by a person set in authority over them, to injure seriously another minor. It's a criminal conspiracy. He is not playing (smart move) but if he did and had been hurt, I think the parents could have made a strong case for having the coach charged. Were it my child, it would be a done deal, followed by a gigantic lawsuit against the coach. The school has one option here to limit their liability - fire the coach. It's also the right thing to do, but that doesn't seem to have occurred to them.
say it plain
Thu, Oct 18, 2012 : 5:25 p.m.
But, see, the bigger boys do it too, as we've been learning lately. So perhaps this is just the young ones learning how to be, or maybe their way of expressing their approval of such tactics in the ranks of their elders! That, plus, high school coaches playing along at home that they are pro coaches lol...I don't doubt that there's a lot of *that* going on too! Such fun diversions from actual education!
say it plain
Thu, Oct 18, 2012 : 4:54 p.m.
And, oh, my, this *really* happened? Does this happen often?! Are the kids being all "hey, so, cool, look at us, we're like the pros" in the recent scandals involving orders to 'take out' players ? Is this their way of expressing an opinion on the idea, their essentially saying, Hey, football *is* intimidation and so why not have the most intense psych-ops we can? Don't the marines do the same, after all!? I think I'm getting this idea, and wish the military energies were re-directed. We can have competition in other realms more constructively, more usefully. Peace everyone!
say it plain
Thu, Oct 18, 2012 : 4:49 p.m.
I hate being a grammar scold, but, please, "amount" is for stuff like milk and flour...*number* is for units you can count, like "players" or "footballs". I know the players acted sort of like a mass noun, pouring on to the field last week and all, but they still come in named individual units. Thank You.
average joe
Fri, Oct 19, 2012 : 11:04 a.m.
If AAPS won't reveal the NUMBER of players involved, at least tell us the total combined weight (amount) of the players suspended....
Admiral Halsey
Thu, Oct 18, 2012 : 9:20 p.m.
It's fairly common in team sports to refer to players en masse as 'numbers', especially when success of a team can depend on "how your numbers are" (how numerous your available players are). Strictly correct or not, it's certainly not going away, and I think Bryan Garner would approve.
PineyWoodsGuy
Thu, Oct 18, 2012 : 4:42 p.m.
High School Football Moms and Dads need to be more involved with the team and the coaches. What enters the brain of a high school coach that he would tolerate such a thing?
Billy Bob Schwartz
Thu, Oct 18, 2012 : 7:48 p.m.
Reading too many tuff-coach stories??
Craig Lounsbury
Thu, Oct 18, 2012 : 4:41 p.m.
Having a picture up of an opposing player seems very odd to me.
Craig Lounsbury
Thu, Oct 18, 2012 : 7:54 p.m.
when i played just this side of the leather helmet days, the most we ever had was maybe a jersey number of an opponent. Not to hurt the guy but because of his skill set. Double team 83 and don't let him beat you long, contain 42 and don't let him outside the end , that sort of stuff.
say it plain
Thu, Oct 18, 2012 : 5:47 p.m.
I think in this day of social media and cell phones everyone has pictures of someone available, and maybe some of the kids need to get a visual for the "intimidate the traitor" games to work out!
Linda Peck
Thu, Oct 18, 2012 : 4:29 p.m.
Mr Baracy said the children would play "professionally" at Friday night's game. If he is referring to professionally playing the game of football, that is not a very good analogy in this case. In my opinion, just asking for the picture to be taken down is not quite enough. There needs to be some punishment for the people who were involved including the teachers/coaches.
ViSHa
Thu, Oct 18, 2012 : 10:16 p.m.
@ some will send a kid to the hospital for free apparently.
Billy Bob Schwartz
Thu, Oct 18, 2012 : 7:47 p.m.
Yeah, Walkin'....How much do you pay a kid to send another kid to the hospital? What kind of crap is this, anyhow? Are these people nuts????
WalkingJoe
Thu, Oct 18, 2012 : 5:12 p.m.
Does he mean play professionally as in New Orleans Saints style?
infrequent visitor
Thu, Oct 18, 2012 : 4:18 p.m.
So then why were they hanging up his picture? Role model?
badboybobbybrown
Thu, Oct 18, 2012 : 4:40 p.m.
No - his picture was hung up as a reminder to the players of the other team that they are to injure him on the field when they play Huron. It's a pretty nasty thing for coaches to do on any level, especially when the players are just kids.