Editorial: High school activities

Take Immokalee High School's inspired upset win at Clewiston last Friday night. The drama was heightened because the team and assistant coaches were working without their head coach, then in the middle of a three- game suspension for hitting and kicking a player.

Then there is the coach at Gulf Coast High School, who taught his young charges a life's lesson in teamwork: all the players have to be there for each other when needed. The moral came across the hard way when a key player was benched for breaking a rule against fighting, and the team lost.

The public-opinion brouhaha over band members from one high school being rude toward another band, at what was supposed to be a friendly celebration of musicianship and precision marching, brought further lessons. For now what happened and who did it is less important than the reminder to be courteous, because it's a chain reaction after the first transgression.

Sports and music are important. They are supposed to be fun. Look at the joy at Lely, where the hard-working Trojans are playoff-bound for the first time in four years and after managing only one win in the previous two seasons.

Maybe if these activities were regarded more often for what they are -- a privilege -- there might be fewer plummets preceding the pinnacles.