Roy Exum
After word came that Marion County High School had beaten “the team of the hour” by 40 points on Friday night, there isn’t an insurance writer in all of America who would offer a policy to Brainerd High School head coach Brian Gwyn. Brian is the terribly misguided soul who suggested his players should stand for “black power” this weekend and, when he did, he committed what is known in sports as “suicide by stupidity.”
If he isn’t relieved of his duties by the Hamilton County Department of Education first thing
tomorrow morning, you can be virtually assured there will never be a football player in the future who will ever call Gwyn “coach” for the rest of his life.
This is not because he wanted his Panthers to disrespect our military and our police before the 74-34 slaughter
Friday night. He had proposed a “black power” salute during the National Anthem. And it is not because Brainerd has yet to win a game this season.
No, Brian Gwyn committed the No. 1 sin in all of athletics: Never embarrass your team or your school/university. Earlier in the week Gwyn went “rogue,” declaring his team would stand up for social injustices during Friday’s anthem. The trouble was that no one else shared nor even were aware of his convictions – not even his players -- and the recoil from Brainerd High’s administration, the county schools’ leaders, and dozens of our elected officials was vehement, as well as entirely predictable. Even then, that wasn’t the most embarrassing part.
What Gwyn did was draw greater attention to the fact Brainerd High School is the worst high school in Hamilton County. We already knew from its iZone designation that now-stagnant Brainerd, once heralded for its number of National Merit semifinals every year, is at the bottom of the worst 10 percent of schools in the state. Gwyn’s racist stance just did more universal damage to Brainerd High than the Chattanooga 2.0 report.
Are you kidding me? Roughly 250 Brainerd students are suspended each year. The Panthers continue to lead the league in truancy. Fewer than one percent of its graduates quality for college and, yes, on the same night the football team was getting bashed by Marion County, a dozen police cars answered “shots fired” on the school’s North Moore campus.
All of us agree that Gwyn has the freedom to voice his opinion, yet “the right way” to do that is easily debatable. San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick started the trendy craze of not standing for the National Anthem and it has leeched its way into the sports spotlight; a high school team in San Francisco took a knee “in unity” this weekend and there were other “look at me” signs, even among the parents of the Brainerd players at the Marion County game.
I am certain conferences will be held, interventions will take place, and debates will roil how oppressed blacks who are stuck in poverty are mistreated. There will be no conferences, interventions or debates over two police officers who were shot in Philadelphia Friday night as another two were shot in Fort Worth. Kaepernick’s anti-cop sentiment is really sweeping the country, huh?
But our focus ought to be on the Brainerd High football team and lean in close so you’ll pay attention – 80 percent of babies now born at Erlanger arrive in this world out of wedlock. That’s right, never before have as many children been without a father …. strike that, “a father figure.” Never before have schools like Brainerd been the lone source of nutrition for “our” children. And never before have schools like Brainerd been as vitally important in our society.
I have spent the majority of my life in gymnasiums, baseball stands, pre-dawn football practices and around sports where the color of your skin, your street address or your dad’s job doesn’t mean squat. Everybody’s got the same chance. But here’s what’s different. Some dads pick up their children after practice, some kids don’t have a dad show up.
So in the great and mighty way my Jesus made coaches, they take care of the kids who are the first to realize their coaches are all they have. Every kid wants a role model. God gave them coaches. Pay attention: I have seen more coaches build boys into men than the Marine Corps. I can ask any of my friends about their high school principals and their answers wouldn’t fill a thimble. I ask about the football coach, their golf coach, even an assistant coach, and get ready for an inspirational sermon.
I truly believe if Brainerd High School’s magnificent principal Uras Agee (yeah, I never met the guy but he’s got a well-earned reputation) could steer boys and girls into athletics, “the rules of the game” could influence a bunch of them instead of the lessons they learn in juvenile lock-up. A “latch-key” kid goes home to an empty house; an athlete or manager or trainer has the every-day fun of being part of something big.
Not everyone can play football, has the height for basketball or the speed for track but every child, no matter his skin color, the clothes he wears, or the lisp he tries to hide, can be part of something far bigger than a black-power salute. All it takes is an invitation from someone you trust.
What if we could take Brainerd High and open it every Saturday? First, we could feed kids. Then my army could work on bettering the school, tidying the library, or whatever for half the day, apply two hours on the arts to read a book, and then watch some fun movie. Bring in education majors from UTC, Lee, and Bryan … wherever, and give them in-class credits.
I remember a far-different Brainerd than you see today. I remember Pete Potter on the sidelines. I remember Robert High playing a major role in young lives. I deeply believe that can happen again and I know that when it starts, nobody will have to keep Brainerd’s football team in the locker room during the National Anthem. Pride takes care of all the dumb stuff.
When an athlete has earned pride, it is amazing what a coach can do. Trust me, I have seen it all my life. Let’s make Brainerd a winner again.