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A three point
winner vs. a big time loser
By George Starks
TIPP CITY- Over the course of my career that goes back to September of
1988, I’ve seen a lot of stupid acts. All of which were at the
professional level of the sports world.
All until Saturday that is.
Over the course of the 25 plus years I’ve been at this, I’ve seen a lot
of silly things happen at the prep sports level.
I honestly believe not much could top what happened in the sectional
final of the D-III girls game at Tipp City Saturday.
In a very heated battle, the Anna Lady Rockets fought an uphill battle
until late in the fourth quarter when they were able to gain their
first lead of the day against Versailles.
With their backs against the wall, the Tigers were forced to foul and
with a few seconds left, one of those fouls was whistled as
intentional. The foul shots were made and the 47-44 final score had
been determined.
It was what happened after that that was more than I could deal with.
With 1.5 seconds remaining, the Tigers were grasping for straws and one
of the Rockets took a hard foul as time expired.
At that point, Anna head coach Jack Billing pulled a line from the
movie 'Forrest Gump'.
“Stupid is as stupid does.”
In a bit of a rage, Billing got in the face of Versailles head coach
Jackie Stonebreaker, yelling about the hard foul that was never called.
Of course, Stonebreakers’ staff, headed by her brother, Joe Raterman
and assistant coach Kim Custenborder, came to her aid, as the pushing
and shoving started.
To say the least, this was a complete spark of insanity on the part of
Billing. Let’s be realistic.
Your kids just played the game of a lifetime. They trailed by as much
as eight points in the game and trailed at all three breaks. The
Rockets just showed everyone, myself included, what they were made of.
Then it was a ruined by one totally ignorant move and it had to be by
the head coach himself.
We have spent a lifetime trying to teach our kids that good
sportsmanship is the only way to go as athletes. It takes a lifetime of
teaching these kids the proper way to act on the field/court of battle.
It took 15 seconds for one adult to tear that teaching apart.
I hope no one on his team saw what happened after that game was over,
and if just one of them did, I wonder what he said when he got to the
locker room.
I don’t think “I’m sorry” was good enough in this situation.
To the staff at Anna High School I say this…
You may have a winning team but your coach is a total loser. Even some
of the Rocket fans will admit to this as I spoke with one as we were
leaving the building.
He has left your school with a black eye and nothing he will ever do in
the future can erase this from his record.
I hate to see anyone lose their job, no matter what the job is, but
your girls basketball coach needs to be replaced.
There’s no excuse for this kind of behavior from a coach at any level.
Especially the high school level.
It was a great game but no one was a winner on this day. The sad part
is that Billing will deny the situation in an effort to save his job. A
little hard to deny when a gym full of people, not to mention the
press, witnessed it all.
I just wish we could have gotten pictures of the incident but no one
saw this coming.
Who knows, maybe the TV/internet people caught it on camera.
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