Florida HS football coach accused of child abuse, taking himself way too seriously
Nov 6, 2010, 2:00 PM EDT
Well, it wouldn’t be football season in America without a story or two (or several) about some self-fashioned drill-sergeant in a football cap treating the students left in his care like livestock as he goes ridiculously over-the-line in trying to “teach” the young men some discipline and sacrifice and character and whatever other malarkey he cribbed from the ghosts of Vince Lombardi & Bear Bryant to justify his school-sanctioned sadism.
James Barron, the 58 year old head coach of South Walton High School in Florida, is facing a child abuse charge for allegedly striking a player in the throat twice after he missed a tackle in practice. It has been further alleged that Barron often instructed his players in practice on how to properly (and subtly) strike their opponents in the throat during games — going so far as to put a medical neck brace on his players in practice for the purposes of demonstrating (gee, wasn’t that nice of him?).
[Barron] taught them to strike opponents in the throat with the part of their hands between the thumb and forefinger. He allegedly mentioned using the move against a tight end on the opposing Freeport High School team.
After having apparently missed his calling as a villain in a Karate Kid film, Barron now finds himself facing criminal charges — as he rightfully should. The majority of high school coaches across the country are caring instructors, genuinely concerned with the well-being of their student-athletes and there to support them in any way possible. However there unfortunately exists a subset of guys like Barron — pain-inflicting tyrants who confuse high-school rivalries with the Super Bowl and see no problem inflicting some collateral damage on a child to gain an advantage on the field. It’s important that these bad apples be rooted out of the system and we should all be glad the alleged victim came forward with these charges to allow that to happen.
High school football can be a amazing, exciting spectacle of homegrown enthusiasm and community cohesion, or it can be a sad testament to the damage a mini-despot can do when entrusted with 60 juveniles and total control over them for 10 hours a week.
For the sake of the kids involved, let’s try to keep working for the former.
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HS Football Coach accused of Teaching Players Illegal “Throat Thrust” Technique [badjocks.com]
