On the TUNNEYSIDE of SPORTS October 21, 2013 459 Up next…For Whom?
After further review…Yesterday, October 20, 2013 may have been a benchmark day! However, that touchstone may be in the wrong direction. At 8:00am PDT (the announcement stated PST, but since the west coast is still on daylight savings time more accurately it’s PDT), anyway, a two hour live event took place at South Bay (California) BMW—the title sponsor of this event/game.
The game? Yes, the “West Coast Bowl” is scheduled to be played on January 26, 2014 at Redondo (California) Union High School Stadium. So, the questions are: why and for whom? Is it BMW who will profit? Is it for the glorification of high school players, most of whom are 16-18 years of age? Is to eulogize two high school coaches who will draft these players? It seems here that perhaps this event places young athletes into the center of public interest too soon!
The West Coast Bowl draft worked thusly. Two west coast coaches actually drafted players from a pool of 200 nominated high school football players. The two coaches are David Dunn, recent San Diego CIF coach-of-the-year and head coach of Lincoln High School, and Manuel Douglass, head coach of four-time CIF Los Angeles City Section champion Narbonne High.
The draft process was touted in the announcement as similar to an NFL draft-“full of excitement and competitiveness”. There have been all-star games for many years; yet, this drafting of players is a first! Coach Dunn said, “Being able to actually draft my own players is so exciting. I’d much rather hand-pick my team versus being given a roster to work with”. The concern here is: are we exploiting young athletes with too-much/too-soon? Is this a good idea?
All league and all-star games have been in existence since they pumped-up the football–not always benefiting the players. Having coached high sports and being fortunate to have good players, post-season playoffs were icing-on-the-cake! This may be taking “icing” too far!
High school football season ends in late November. Then, some two months later—January 26th, selected players from all over the CIF Southern Section will have to “lace-‘em-up” again. Even with sufficient practice-time, will it benefit the players?
Will you log-in your thoughts about the idea of drafting players for this West Coast Bowl?
To contact Jim go to www.jimtunney.com or email him at jim@jimtunney.com.
