by Mike Butler totalUTAHpreps.com

One year ago this week, nearly to the day, I was approached by people in the community and asked to sign a petition to encourage the Hurricane High Principal to remove the current football coaches from their duties.

The petition claimed that the players were getting verbally abused and challenged their manhood amongst other things. I had a son who was a senior on that 3-8 team. He was a starter, not a star, but one that was involved in the program in each of his four years at Hurricane High.  He said there were comments that were not appropriate at times, often in the heat of the moment. They often, if not always were followed up with apologies from the coaches for not using better judgment.

I have wondered if that team, which loss a number of games by a very small amount of points, had they been 6-5 or 7-4, if the petitions would have been as rampant or even written in the first place. I didn’t sign the petition. I felt the accusations were based more on the frustration of the wins and losses and people used these other things as a scapegoat.

Many, if not all of those people pushing the petition a year ago, have been spotted at the games this season. I haven’t heard a word about getting rid of the coaches. I haven’t seen a letter calling for their heads to be placed on a platter. Instead, I have heard cheers. Ironic isn’t it. What is the difference?

Have the coaches made changes in their personal behavior? Did they need to in the first place? I have attended some practices this season and have not seen or heard anything that drew alarm. In fact, just the opposite has been observed. Cheers, encouragement and motivation.  It is amazing what winning does. 

People are just as emotional as they were a year ago. This time they are passionately rooting for the Tigers to get their first championship in 60 years.  Will they put the coaches (and their families) through the guillotine if they lose this week. Nope. It will be a lot of ‘atta boys’ complementing them on a great season.  A win Friday actually puts more pressure on them to do it again and then it is always a failure if you can’t repeat.  You just can’t win, even if you do win.

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