Can you handle the truth - Reservation Sports suck
With the completion of the high school sports season here on the Rosebud, time to get real about how everyone did.
By Rich Winter
Attended a Rosebud family dinner Sunday night and happened on a local youth that uttered the words, 'Reservation Sports suck.' While this person wasn't intimating that the athletes here suck, he/she was already dreading the upcoming basketball season wondering if the seniors were going to pull their grades out of the toilet, wondering who and when someone might be suspended for one thing or another and ultimately being unsure who was going out and wondering who would be ready for the upcoming Lakota Nation Invitational where this person is looking to put Crow Creek, CEB, St. Francis, Todd County, Pine Ridge, Little Wound, Red Cloud, McLaughlin on the map.
While I've been on a three week love-fest with Winner, Colome and Gregory, I kinda got slapped back into reality this week when someone asked me about why I never write about the local teams. Well, I told him.
A. No one reads them....I can write a heart-felt well prepared story about Winner and 1500 people read it...and I can write the same well prepared, heart-felt article here and 158 people read it. While I'm not doing this blog thing solely for money...(I'm in a site of 70-thousand bloggers and I'm always in the top 10 usually around 5th), and I usually make between 200 and 500 per month doing this, it helps to make $5.00 per post as opposed to 50 cents.
B. Everyone gets so butt hurt around here at the slightest amount of criticism....."That's no reason not to write and I enjoy your stuff, good or bad," I was told. Man, it's tough some times writing the things I'd really like to write about from first-hand observation, but can't, because someone is getting too much pub or not enough...and God forbid St. Francis doesn't get the same kind of coverage, and ya can't criticize a coach or an administration or even write a story that suggest a teams 44 turnovers contributed to the loss because the truth hurts too much and we only like the good stuff.
The inner dialogue in my head sometimes drives me mad, so for once, I'm just gonna let er rip.
So, here it is, Rich Winter unplugged telling ya what I really think...
Football teams: (See, I struggle, who I should pen first, St. Francis or Todd County...Ay, Yi, Yi)
St. Francis: Man, what a fantastic season...Seriously ground-breaking stuff and I was thrilled to see a bunch of St. Francis football players named to the All-Conference team. I wonder how good they could have been if everyone had showed up the first day of practice? I wonder how good they could have been if everyone was on point academically prior to the season starting? I wonder how good they could have been if they hadn't been satisfied with getting the 4th win of the season but stopped going to practice?
Someone needs to keep stats over there....I'm sorry but it really sucks not knowing how many rushing yards a kid had or how many tackles someone made. Realize that kind of thing takes time, effort and organization and volunteerism, but let's figure that out, needs to be done. Twenty years from now, some nerd like me is going to want to know how many tackles Asheton DeCory had this season and there won't be any record of that....That sucks!
Todd County football: I'm sorry but that was an ugly year. I feel bad because I stopped doing the player of the week about mid-season, and stopped visiting with coach Kornely instead opting to write stories from observation or simply from a statistical recap. That's bad journalism on my part because win or lose there is a right way to do things and sometimes that's where you find the best stories, talking about over-coming difficulties and hard times.
This team needs to spend some serious time in the weight room. As I've drawn ranks with the Winner football team, I always go back to pre-season for them and how everyone shows up at the weight room...EVERYONE....Crack of dawn, no excuses, sweating their butts off...Together...and look at where it gets them? Let's stop paying lip service to this terrific weight room at Todd County, and I mean at all levels. That thing needs to be open, someone needs to be supervising and the entire team needs to get in there together if they have any desire of reaching the 11A playoffs anywhere in the near future.
Volleyball: Just going to kinda link Todd County and St. Francis here.
If I had two minutes of Dennisa Valandra's time I'd tell her she has a special, special gift. That serve of hers is phenomenal and she's got a live arm that is a gift in volleyball. That said I'd tell her she has college talent but needs to go out for basketball this winter and track in the spring and work on expanding her athletic prowess so that live arm of hers can really unleash. Same thing with Gabby Iron Heart....The minute she believes in herself as much as we, the general public do from watching her jaw dropping athletic skills, she's gonna blossom.
Both teams need to play more volleyball in the summer! Man I see the talent there and I see the want and the heart but I watch teams that win more, there is a certain fluidity to their games that I don't see here...They play more and their back sets aren't so easily discernible because they're delivered with the same motion a regular set is. When I first moved here that gym being open at Todd County in the summer was awesome. Saw kids playing basketball and I saw a healthy group of girls playing volleyball...Not organized, but competitive where skills improve by repetition. Whatever is going on with that gym and the summer and not having supervisors or whatever the problem is needs to stop. Our kids are looking for stuff to do, they need to work on their craft(s) and we have facilities all over the place that through even the slightest amount of organization and volunteerism should be able to get something open from 5-8 every night during the summer months.
Cross country - I don't have a lot to say about this group except well done on that Academic Achievement awards....TC girls 3.77 g.p.a and the boys like 3.23 or something. Would love to see the town(s) a little more supportive of these kids who really grind it out and when they go to state, let's all paint our windows and have a town escort. While St. Francis and Todd County are different entities, certainly wouldn't mind seeing the St. Francis kids in the parking lot of the Ampride for a photo and then some community love as they drive out of town together. Like to see a few less sprained ankles from playing basketball, and coming to fall camp in shape and embracing the big stage, but that's about it!
Why aren't more Native American kids getting athletic scholarships to main stream colleges?
I have a lot of interesting conversations with my extended familie(s) here on the Rosebud. To my very close friends, I can talk about anything, even the hard stuff.
The cold hard truth about Native American athletes and main-stream colleges is Native American kids come in with too many strikes against them. I'm not talking about being brown, and while I'm sure there are some colleges out there with a racial bias, most of them just want to know can you play the game, will you put in the work, will you stay all four years, will you be a good student and are you a good kid?
Came across a really interesting job applicant recently. A person was applying to get a job to be a Youth Correction Officer at our facility here on the Rosebud. This person, after applying was told to get a drug test and clean up his/her Facebook page. I almost came outa my chair...BRAVO!!! People are watching, the world is watching and if you have crap all over your Facebook page, people, and people in power are going to notice, and make decisions based on what kind of social perception you're giving off.
Imagine you're a college recruiter putting up two kids side-by-side in trying to decide which kid to offer money to.
* 15 points per game, National Honor Society, Eagle Scout, 3.8 G.P.A
* 20 points, high-school record says three fights, two suspensions and caught with marijuana in their locker as a freshman.
Who are you going to invest in?
Lest you think I'm not sensitive to the challenges we face here, was yacking with someone who had a close family member recently get out of prison and was getting ready to see his kids for the first time in a long time. The guy getting out has a daughter in high school that I really like. She's plucky and fun, a good athlete and despite not having full-time parents around she's thriving.
I remarked that sometimes I'm shocked at how well the kids here do based on the circumstances they have to overcome.
That said, the guy/girl pushing paper and deciding who to hand out money to, while sensitive to those circumstances, isn't going to dole out a college education if they're not sure the investment is going to pan out. Feels like every time I see a Native American athlete come home from a college scholarship because it's too hard or too far away, I shudder because it's like every time a Native athlete comes home another angel loses it's wings. Seems like when someone quits the college where they were going, that college loses that scholarship for a certain amount of time.
The cold hard truth is taking that kind of risk has gotta make people doling out the dough nervous.
How do ya fix that, and any other deficiencies, above noted? Not sure but I think it has to start with everyone, self included taking a good hard look in the mirror.
* To the athletes - You need to work harder both in the classroom, on the court and in your personal lives. Stop doing dumb shit and stay out of trouble. Every time I see a kid get suspended I just wanna wring their necks and say do you realize how much you're letting your team, your teammates down by not being on the court. Get those grades up...Whether you go to a main-stream college or some form of higher education, what's going to take you places is that hunger and desire in the classroom. How do you miss the bus or stop coming to practice the last week of the season you've spent four years getting ready for? (I don't get that)
* To the parents, you need to get more involved - Really excited to see a group of young fathers getting flag football organized here on the REZ. Looks like a strong group that is organized and has a lot of father/son combinations, BUT, are you going to be there next year...Are you going to get it going earlier next season and are you going to make the phone calls necessary to get a real-live game or are you just going to pay lip-service and want it to happen but not MAKE it happen.
It's been interesting to see some of these other towns and how they just have so much support and volunteerism. Lotta people stepping up, unpaid to just be there. Think the parents here should really get more involved in their kids' lives. See a lot of great former athletes, there on the sideline, complaining about what's going on but not lending a hand to get in there and help. That extends to the classroom as well...We get all excited about this sports thing but I think parents could do a little more to get after their kid when the Biology grade drops to a C instead of waiting until it's an F and then raising all kinds of cain.
* To the coaches and administrators and such: Well done coaches, thank you for spending so much of your lives helping and guiding our youth. I know you catch a lot of flack and don't get told thank you nearly enough, but thank you for doing your best and giving up time with family and such to do what you do. Can you do more...Probably, but I'm just leaving it at thank you.
Like to see a little more cooperation between entities. Why doesn't the TCMS football program run the same offense as Todd County high-school? I don't watch TCMS football so closely, and I failed miserably in covering that group, but I've heard it from others, and seen it first hand...but seriously, why don't we run the same offense? Winner runs the same offense through their pee-wee program all the way up through high-school. How is that possible and why can't we talk about it out loud because it's important...
We gotta get those gyms open....Those are safe-haven places for our kids....Our kids need to respect those places and the people that get them open, and I think they generally do, but we've gotta quit hiding behind closed doors and talking about why they're not open and just get them open. Make the phone calls, alert the proper authorities, volunteer to help staff them...Kick someone out if they are being unruly.
* To the media - Don't stop covering someone just because it's not the kind of season you and everyone else hoped for. Don't forget to cover your peeps and try to be fair, HONEST and don't get all butt hurt yourself if someone doesn't like what's been written.
Lest anyone think I've lost my mind, I realize writing something like this usually invites a fair share of criticism and I'm ok with that. Yes, I've enjoyed watching those other schools do their thing, but if you squared off against any of those opponents, I'd be rooting for you, no questions asked. When I first moved here in 2005, February, they didn't let me cover the sports and there went the Todd County girls and St. Francis boys. Since then it's been want after want and no trips to the dance...Has it really been a decade?
Anyway, those are my thoughts....Peace out, love ya!
