Like many folks, I like to watch many sporting events on TV and read the results in paper or on the web. I played sports in middle and high school and decided that college was not for me (at that time) and turned down a partial scholarship to play football. I also participated in several different sports in the military.

We all probably know or have at least heard about parents who pushed their children into sports sometimes to gain attention that the parent missed out on in school. We’ve seen the videos or read about the parents who went too far at a game. Many years ago as a football referee I ran into a few parents who forgot that the fourth and fifth grade flag football was just a game. As a former T-ball coach, I ran into a few coaches who wanted to steal bases and keep score.

Recently I heard (here in Montana) about some children being “red-shirted” or held back a grade in elementary or middle school by their parents so they would be stronger and faster when they got to high school and maybe have a chance at a college football scholarship. For those of you who do not follow sports, the term “red shirt” is normally a college term that means the player sits out a season to develop skills and get some more maturity to help the team down the road.

It’s pretty ridiculous for parents to do that to their children in middle or elementary school.

For some reason many folks expect perfection from the players on middle and high school teams. It appears, at least in Helena, when a player is not perfect, the sports reporter is supposed to look the other way.

That brings me to the reason for this column:

I happened to catch an opinion piece in the Helena Independent Record (IR) dealing with sports and a story written by one of the IR’s sports reporters.

The reporter, Mark Vinson, wrote a story about the hometown Helena Capital High football team losing in two overtimes to the Bozeman High Hawks. From all aspects, it was a very good game. There were good plays, bad plays, and turnovers. Sadly, one team had to lose (this is normal in the world of competitive sports).

Here is the part of the story that angered some readers:

In the end, however, it was a toe – specifically the toe of placekicker Zack Clinch – that proved to be the Bruins’ Achilles heel.

Clinch pushed a seemingly routine conversion attempt wide right in the second overtime, allowing top-ranked and undefeated Bozeman High to escape with a 24-23 victory…

You can read the whole article HERE.

Singling out the kicker by name who missed the extra point is what got people irritated. Some feel that was a little too much “reporting” for high school football.

My first thought was what if the kicker would have kicked a field goal to win the game?

There are about a hundred ways to write about the missed extra point, but the way it was done was probably the most hurtful to the kicker. These are teenagers. Sure it was a big game, but it is not the end of the world.

The readers’ anger brought out this very well-written opinion by the IR Sports Editor where he tells folks that he cost C.M. Russell (CMR) High School in Great Falls a cross country trophy in 2000, and he revealed some interesting things about a former CMR cross country coach – which was the most interesting part to me.

By the way, he stands by his reporter.

We’ve all messed up when something was on the line. Sometimes we get our names in the newspaper for good things and sometimes for not so good things. My name has been in the newspaper and on the television and radio news for both, so I do feel for the kicker.

Realistically, this is just small town stuff. It happens all over the state in sports, politics or whatever – some reporters don’t want to rock the boat and write stories about someone they may run into at the grocery store or at church or at a local ball game. When you do write something that may be detrimental to a person, you end up angering someone, like Vinson did. In politics, you anger one side of the other.

Sure, local reporters both in print and broadcast media have a tough time in Big Sky Country because they are so close to their readers and viewers. They need to take that into account and proceed cautiously. As the Sports Editor wrote, “We try to toe a very fine line…”

Good luck with that…