I don’t know how many Dopers have noticed this little story from the West Coast.
Obviously, this isn’t a pitting. I certainly don’t care that much. My normal interest in sports of any kind can be written on the head of a pin. With space left over. So, while I’m sure that some people may find it important, all I can consider it is mundane and pointless. I hope that this is the proper forum for this OP.
Last Friday, the San Francisco Chronicle broke a story showing that the long-time coach of Stanford’s very winning swim team had been editing out references and records of players with whom he had taken a grudge. In the case outlined in the article it was because the college athlete in question felt that his summer internship was more important than off-season practice.
As of the Friday story, the coach, Skip Kenney, was denying that any malicious intent had been behind the action. And the school was saying that while it needed to be investigated, there was no need to begin punative measures before a full investigation had taken place. And, of course, if anything did come up, since college sports is such a carefully self-policed activity, suitable punishments would be forthcoming.
Oddly enough, it appears that there’s been a change of heart. In a follow-up story on Saturday, the coach has now admitted he was doing it on purpose and maliciously - that it was payback. And, of course a lapse of judgement on his part, of which he is heartily ashamed. And the self-policing athletic department has put the coach on immediate suspension.
I’m afraid that this whole thing tickles the darker side of my funny bone considerably, and wanted to share it with other Dopers.
I’m especially amused how 24 hours seems to make a huge difference between what an appropriate action for a self-policing entity to take for a situation when said situation suddenly becomes public knowledge. Certainly it reinforces my mistrust of claims of any group to be self-policing. Unless said self-policing is taking place in complete public, with full access to all major hearings on the topic, I’m not likely to accept self-policing to be anything but a code-phrase for, we’re going to sweep this under the carpet after we slap a few wrists. Heck, even now the school has only suspended the coach with pay. Which doesn’t seem to be the normal procedure when someone is found to be abusing their position as greatly as the accusations seem to imply.
Any and all comments would be welcome.
I’m afraid my main thought seeing this is no more than: “Stir 'em with a stick, turn on the lights, and watch them cockroaches scatter!”
On edit: The website is SFGate.com, but the article is attributed to a SF Chronicle staff writer. I think it’s a Chronicle article, but I admit I’m a little confused as to how that works…
