R-E-S-P-E-C-T & Sportsmanship

Where has respect and sportsmanship gone? Now we are seeing taunting in cross country races. The headlines in our sports page on Sunday were “North Port’s Grantham puts a spin on his victory.” It turns out this kid was on his way to winning his fifth straight invitational (Whoopee – in a time that girls are close running in California) when he decided to showboat and spin a 360 in front of the fans cheering him on. They actually quoted him in the paper as say it was getting boring so he had to something. He ended winning the race by a whooping 9 seconds – a real dominating performance! This kind of behavior should not be tolerated at any level. If I was his coach he would be suspended at least for the next race. This shows no self respect much less respect for his competition. He ran an amazing 16 minutes 39 seconds for Five Kilometers on a billiard table flat course. Down here they are talking about him as the next Steve Prefontaine – can you believe it! Even if he were running 14:39 that kind of behavior in intolerable.