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The JM football team loses its season Date published: 11/19/2009
The spirit, the will to win, and the will to excel are the things that endure. These qualities are so much more important than the events that occur. --Vince Lombardi AWINNING season is sweetly satisfying, a reward for months of sweaty hard work, aching muscles, and disciplined practices. How bittersweet, then, is a season lost after the fact because of a rules violation. The James Monroe football team was headed for the playoffs--bound, in fact, to defend last year's state championship in Group AA, Division 3--after an 8-2 season. Then the other shoe dropped: A player on the team was in his ninth semester of high school--and was therefore ineligible by Virginia High School League rules. JM was forced to forfeit six winning games and drop out of the playoffs. That's a sad scenario for the 50-some eligible kids on the team, and the coaches, parents, and students who cheer the Yellow Jackets on. Coach Rich Serbay, who has spent 24 years at the helm of JM, takes the blame: "I take pride in my job and, obviously, I made a big mistake," he told The Free Lance-Star. Crushed, he offered his resignation as athletic director. First-year Principal John Gordon was also quick to step up and take responsibility, saying he'd signed off on every player's eligibility at the beginning of the season. Playing by the rules is important: Everyone would cry "No fair!" if the goalposts were moved during the game. And so it is with other requirements, like student eligibility. Tainted wins are not wins at all. From all accounts, however, this was a simple mistake, one anyone could make. Trophies gather dust, records are forgotten, but the lessons learned in sports persist for a lifetime: Work hard, put the team first, overcome failure--and play by the rules. Despite the downer ending, JM players should be proud of their season, their coach, and their school.
hopefully the students at JM will learn the importance of rules and following them and how not following them has consequences... big consequences. in order for them to take these lessons with them forward in their lives it is important that the adults in their lives, the parents, the teachers, the coaches reinforce the lesson to be learned... follow the rules, the rules made For Everyone, so that when you win , you win honestly. If adults try to make excuses, they will not learn the lessons they should
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