The phone lines were buzzing this week
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Caller 1: I want to congratulate the Mustangs for their fine football season, especially for Justin breaking that all-time record. It really would’ve been nice for those at Friday night’s game to know his progress through the game, so the crowd would’ve been able to congratulate him when he eclipsed the record. Although the announcers would’ve probably given credit to the wrong player, as they have done all season. If they need help in the booth, all they’d have to do is ask … there’s plenty of parents that would step in and volunteer to make sure these kids get credit when credit is due. I’ll admit those numbers are a little difficult to see against those jerseys, but maybe next year the parents can help spot for the announcers because it gets really embarrassing sometimes for them, how many times they miss stuff in games. Thank you.
Green Phone: GP dialed itself and made a call over to the always-helpful Jack Daley, GHS athletic director. Regarding the Sweeney situation, he conceded he might have dropped the ball on that one – recalling that an announcement was made last year at Mustang Stadium when North Salinas tailback Ronnie Drummer set TCAL’s all-time regular-season rushing record (only to be broken this year, of course).
Regarding the PA situation, Daley said he has received some complaints and “are certainly happy to have all the volunteers we can get.” As he pointed out, though, among those volunteers are two spotters and the public address announcer, who has been giving up his fall Friday nights for the past 16 years on a volunteer basis.
“We definitely want to give the kids credit when it’s due, so we apologize for that,” Daley said. “But these guys are volunteering their time and doing the best they can.”
Caller 2: The Edge … great column today. Nice job.
Green Phone: Short but sweet. The caller was referring to Brett’s column last Saturday regarding a few Green Phone calls that were critical of the Gilroy High football team and a couple of its players. If you missed it, you can access the column online at gilroydispatch.com. You can also catch the response of one of those callers later in this article.
Caller 3: I’m calling about this week’s topic about our kids being taught good sportsmanship….obviously not by Palma’s parents and booster club members. Last night we attend the Baler-Palma game at the Salinas Sports Complex and from friends we received three passes for box seats – unfortunately they were on the Palma side. We had been there on two previous occassions against Alvarez and North Salinas, and there were no problems with fans intermixing and rooting for their teams. One Palma parents decided we were too loud, though, and she demanded we leave and asked for the name of our booster friend. Later the booster president came down and threatened our booster friend would have to give up their season passes if we didn’t move. It was just before halftime and the Balers were winning. I will admit our kids sitting with us we’re at times loud and a bit obnoxious, but they were not rude to Palma’s team or fans. So Palma took the lead and the fans became taunting and very unsportsmanlike. In the end, Palma won the game and we applauded for a great game and tried to be gratious in defeat. But that football mom couldn’t let go. She came over and said she was so happy they had won and told our kids we jinxed Hollister by sitting on Palma’s side. I guess when you send your kids to a private school you don’t need sportmanship.
Green Phone: We put a call into Palma athletic director Steve Clayton and when we relayed the story to him, he was not a very happy man. His anger wasn’t directed toward Caller 3, though. It was directed inward.
“We don’t stand for that in any circumstance,” he said. “We expect our athletes, coaches and parents to behave in a sportsmanlike manner at all times.”
Clayton said all his school’s athletes, coaches and parents are required to attend a meeting on sportsmanship before the season and sign a contract the vows they will “pursue victory with honor.”
“That’s what we teach our kids and we would certainly expect the same out of our parents,” he said. “That’s our No. 1 priority, and that’s why this pisses me off. It definitely sends the wrong message.”
Clayton said he’s “always available” to discuss matters such as these and strongly encouraged Caller 3 to give him a direct call so he can get to the bottom of this incident. His number is (831) 422-8510.
Caller 4: I don’t have a beef. The only question I have is the Mercury News listed the Gilroy High playoff game Saturday night at Independence at 7pm and the Dispatch showed it as Saturday at 2 in the afternoon. I just wanted to make sure which one was right.
Green Phone: Oops. Um, the first one. We had it right for Tuesday, but pulled off a late-night typo for Wednesday. The game is indeed at 7. We apologize for any confusion.
Caller 5: I would like to recommend a name for Damon’s column … Sports Fan Insider.
Green Phone: Thanks, Caller 6. We’ll pass along the suggestion. As for the next caller, we’re guessing his column name suggestion is … I’m Not the Edge.
Caller 6: I just wanted to say I’m glad to see Damon is now with the Gilroy Dispatch. I look forward to reading his articles. Hopefully he’s not as sensitive as some of the other writers. Recently I criticized a high school athlete about some comments that I thought were absurd. And apparently teenagers are old enough to drive or vote and do a lot of other things, but when it comes to criticism, God forbid. That was the reaction I got from another columnist there who wrote an article commenting on my comments. And ironically my comments were criticizing someone for taking themselves and their success too seriously. Anyway, I think the comment was, ‘it was just emotional time for the young man’ and that might explain the comments that were greatly exaggerated, if not ridiculous. That was the answer. So I just hope these guys and girls get as excited and emotionally into it when they score an A on their test or get good grades on their college entry exam. I look forward to reading your article and please don’t get too sensitive when us loyal readers make comments about quotes that appear in your newspaper.
Green Phone: Caller 6, we’re sincerely appreciative of your feedback and do appreciate loyal readers like yourself. We’re still confounded, though, as to how you managed to place academics into this argument. We’re guessing it’s just another unfair “dumb jocks” stereotype, but the reference is just so random we can’t tell. We’re also confused as to how the comments made by Shea Lemos were absurd, exaggerated and ridiculous. They beat Palma for the first time. That’s history. He never said when people think of Gilroy football, they’ll ONLY think about this team. He simply said they’ll think about this team. And you know what? If the Mustangs go on another long losing streak to Palma, I’m sure people will think back to that one year when they did beat that private powerhouse. And if they somehow pull of three wins in a row in the playoffs, they WILL go down in history – it’s not over yet. So stay tuned, Caller 6. If they lose, we’ll be waiting for your call.
Caller 7: This is the fourth year my grandson will have been involved in high school football at Gilroy High School. And I just want to say to anybody and everybody these kids play as hard as they can. They win or lose depending on the day, the time, the situation. Nobody should single out any player for any reason, win or lose. And I think it’s time we start looking at high school sports as high school sports. Honoring the people who win is a wonderful idea, but dishonoring them is terrible.
Green Phone: Amen.
