Don’t worry, my dearest fans. My column has not been censored, I merely had a “bye week” in Week 14 of the semester.

It was not scheduled, but after coming off a few tough pick-up games at the Rec, I needed to ice down my ankles, lay in bed for a few days and receive nourishment through an IV.

Does the phrase “muscular atrophy” mean anything to anyone else who finds typing on the keyboard and lifting an aluminum can to be exercise?

Anyway, the news that has really gripped me in the last week is the story of Golden State’s All-Star guard Latrell Sprewell’s physical altercation with his coach, P.J. Carlesimo.

Sure, grabbing someone’s throat and threatening to kill them is not a good way to solve a conflict, but how many athletes have ever had a little less drastic idea cross their minds?

I’m pretty sure most people have been upset enough to think about quitting the team, making an “inadvertent” pass in the coach’s direction or in an even more mature attempt, egging the coach’s house.

How many more times in high school could I have handled, “Harris! Harris! Get a butt on somebody! Ah, %$@#!” before I finally snapped? (I’m talking about basketball, by the way.)

It’s amazing how many vocabulary words one can pick up after competing in athletics for several years.

How many times did I hear, “Ah, %$@#, ah %$@# me,” as my junior year coach booted a basketball into anything nearby, normally directed at the nearest scoreboard, wall or my head?

I’ll admit it. I didn’t always block-out my man in high school, my butt happens to be something I don’t like touching things all that often. And I have even taken an ill-advised pull-up 25-foot jumper on the break at the Rec. But in both instances I don’t think I always need to be sworn out.

I believe players can benefit most when they realize mistakes themselves, instead of constantly being hassled from above. For the most part, athletes know when they are performing up to their abilities and when they are not.

Sure, some criticism is constructive, but the methods, namely verbal abuse, sometimes used by coaches are not appropriate and can cause more damage than good.

Do I respect my high school coaches now? Definitely. They helped teach me some discipline and are great all-around people. But there were times…

Now I can look back and laugh at the way my old coaches would bellow out my name along with a handful of obscenities profoundly used as verbs, adverbs, adjectives, nouns, pronouns and even conjunctions.

But at the time, it was only mildly amusing and rather degrading. It can get to the point where someone with a temper gets out of control. Luckily, that wasn’t me. But it was Sprewell.

So I ask, was Sprewell so out of line, or have modern-day coaches pushed athletes to such an extreme where this eventually had to happen?

Has this type of coaching become accepted by society? Unfortunately, I think so. Will one day Sprewell’s behavior be tolerated as well? I hope not, but unless something changes, it is possible.

---

Drew Harris is a senior in journalism and mass communication from Peosta.