Editorial: Immokalee High School

Immokalee High School football coach John Weber says it's not fair that this coming year's Indians football team is to be barred from postseason play.

That is where the big action and excitement is, and keeping a now-traditional powerhouse from being even eligible to compete at that level is stern punishment.

Weber makes the point that none of the players were part of the over-age violations that focus on the soccer team, which had five ineligible players this past season and loaned an over-age kicker, who saw limited duty, to the football team last year.

Whether it is fair for the Florida High School Athletic Association to include the football team in the soccer sanctions is open to debate. You could side with Weber, or you could say it goes to show the rules infractions reflect on the institution as a whole. Plus, the ineligible player on the football squad could have been used more extensively if his services had been needed.

Still, we are left with this thought: What happened at Immokalee High School is so serious that someone has to be punished. Someone.

With Collier County Public Schools officials reluctant to punish the adults who were paid to be in charge and supervise student-athletes and good sportsmanship, then it is the student-athletes who are left to be punished.

The student-athletes who were allowed to break the rules are gone. That leaves the student-athletes of today. Which is Coach Weber's point.

Perhaps school system officials can instruct on how this fits into the school system's most cherished set of values — called character education traits. Among the seven on official school system documents are fairness, honesty, respect, responsibility and integrity. Is a good example being set at the top?