McKinley Technology High school lost 39-0 to Suitland High School of Prince George’s County.
Anacostia lost 41-0 at Morgantown High School, another West Virginia school.
Spingarn High School lost 56-0 at Edmondson-Westside High School, a Baltimore trade school.
Roosevelt lost 54-0 at Maryland’s North Hagerstown High School.
Every one of these games were subjected to the “slaughter rule,” which limits one team’s ability to run up the score in a lopsided game. It’s a rule we’ll likely see more of as the season progresses. DCIAA football, these days, is getting slaughtered. And the story of just why that is involves some ugly truths about life and education in the District of Columbia. In a school system that spends a lot of time talking about reform, varsity sports remain a conspicuous example of adults letting kids down.
“It’s embarrassing,” says Arnold Hudson Sr.
Hudson makes his assessment of the state of DCIAA football while sitting in the grandstand at Roosevelt, where the Rough Riders are hosting Pittsburgh’s Langley High School.
Hudson has two kids on the Roosevelt squad. He also went to school there, class of ’86, and played ball himself. He wanted his boys to play at his alma mater, too, so he enrolled them out-of-boundary at the Petworth school.
Hudson says he doesn’t understand why Roosevelt forfeited its opening game for an alleged lack of eligible bodies. He’s not happy that a lot of kids on the squad weren’t allowed to play against North Hagerstown, either. “There’s 33 kids on the team tonight,” he says, pointing to the home bench. “I don’t know why they said there wasn’t enough [to play Ballou]. Those things didn’t happen when I played.”
The eligibility snafus are dooming Roosevelt this week, too. As Hudson talks, eight kids wearing orange Roosevelt jerseys—but no pads or football pants—are watching the game standing behind the bench. The boys, some of whom are very large, see Langley score on a fourth and goal from the one yard line with 17 seconds left to win the game, 14-8. Roosevelt remains winless.
Keeping those large bodies behind the bench certainly didn’t help this game. And it wouldn’t have hurt to have had those kids on the field in that 54-0 whacking Roosevelt took from North Hagerstown a week earlier.
Moments after the final gun, I ask Roosevelt head coach and athletic director Daryl Tilghman about the kids in street clothes. Turns out Hudson isn’t the only one confused by their non-participation.
“Those guys, that’s all eligibility issues, physicals or transcripts or something,” says Tilghman, a big body himself, with a shrug and a roll of the eyes. “Paperwork. That’s what I’m told [by DCIAA]. I don’t know when they’ll get to play. Next week? I don’t know. That’s not up to me.”
It’d be easy to paint this kind of shenanigans as a byproduct of poverty, stuff that’s inevitable in a school system so worried about teaching kids to read and write that it doesn’t have time to focus on extracurriculars like sports.
Not so long ago, in fact, you could find ample visual evidence for this theory all over the District. Back in 2003, Spingarn’s Green Wave played their home games on a dustbowl because nobody at the school knew how to work the sprinkler system installed courtesy of a donation from the Washington Redskins. The team’s locker rooms didn’t have hot water. “I have to pay for my own footballs to practice with,” coach John “Peterbug” Matthews told me at the time.
But in the years since, D.C. has gone on a facilities building boom, which makes it hard to chalk up this year’s calamitous start to funding woes. The field at Roosevelt, on which the home team has just lost once again, is the product of a publicly funded $20 million upgrade of six DCIAA stadiums launched by DCPS in 2008. It’s an amazing facility, with a big scoreboard, a state-of-the-art artificial turf field, and a fancy press box. Even the bench that the eight ineligible kids in street clothes stood behind is new. All DCIAA schools have gotten the same upgrades.
It’s also hard to blame the kids: To judge by the makeup of NCAA and NFL rosters, the athletic talent pool in D.C. remains as deep as any jurisdiction in the country.
Which leaves old-timers like Tilghman, a former Roosevelt player who’s been coaching there for 24 years, worrying about the state of the game here. The past few years have offered a succession of embarrassments. Last November, Ballou was tossed out of the Turkey Bowl less than 24 hours before kickoff after league officials ruled the team had ineligible players on its roster. In 2008, Eastern Senior High School forfeited its entire season for lack of eligible players. In 2010, according to results tabulated by the omnibus website dcsportsfan.com, Eastern was outscored 293-0 on the season. The school doesn’t have a varsity football team this year, so its upgraded stadium is going unused on fall Fridays.
Our Readers Say
Who gives a flying f**k?! Fix the education first.
Mr. McKenna: Great article!! Hopefully your words will ring loud to those who don't realize how that function called a JOB that they are PAID money for is not being done properly and its full impact on kids and the community.
Oh, and congrats that Dan Sydner is no longer suing you. I appreciate your articles :-)
~Former DCPS athlete
It was unfortunate that Troy came along when the Chancellor and Mayor was only interested in firing teachers.
MICHELLE RHEE DIDN’T HAVE A CLUE! TO ALL YOU CLOWNS WHO THOUGHT SHE WAS EVEN ONE IOTA OF WHAT SHE PORTRAYED HERSELF TO BE WILL SEE OVER THE NEXT COUPLE OF YEARS HOW MUCH OF A FRAUD SHE REALLY WAS! JUST BECAUSE SHE REORGANIZED THE WAREHOUSE DOESN’T MEAN SHIT. ALL KINDERGARTENERS KNOW HOW TO PUT STUFF IN ITS PROPER PLACE. IT’S THE ONES THAT DON’T HAVE ANY SOCIAL SKILLS LIKE RHEE THAT WE LABEL AS SPECIAL.
DUDE FROM TEXAS HAVE SOME GOOD IDEAS AND SOME SHOULD BE IMPLEMENTED. HE IS ABSOLUTELY RIGHT IN HAVING EACH SCHOOL FILTER ROSTERS AND STUDENTS FOR ELIGIBILTY. IF SCHOOL ALLOWS A STUDENT TO PLAY THAT HAS NOT MET REQUIREMENTS THEN THAT SCHOOL SHOULD BE PUNISHED ACCORDINGLY. THERE SHOULD ALSO BE DIVISION COORDINATORS THAT COACHES REPORT TO IN ORDER TO HELP FACILITATE SOME OF THOSE ADMIN THINGS LIKE SECURITY AND MEDICAL.
DCPS PUT AN A.D. IN PLACE! COACH SAAH OFFERED UP HIS SERVICES.
@ John SLIM ACADEMICS AND ATHLETICS GO HAND IN HAND!
YO LANIER WHY CANT WE HAVE UNIFORMED MEMBERS OF MPD POSTED UP AT GAMES TO PROVIDE SECURITY? THAT WAY THEY PROVIDE A SERVICE, GET TO KNOW THEIR COMMUNITY AND WILL ALSO SHOW THAT DCGOV CARES. RECRUIT SOME EMT’S FROM DCFD, RECRUIT SOME MED SCHOOL STUDENTS FROM HOWARD, G.W. AND G'TOWN TO VOLUNTEER TO WORK SOME GAMES. IT’S ONLY ABOUT THREE HOURS A WEEK FOR A HOME GAME FROM SEPT THRU NOV.
AS FOR CHARTER SCHOOLS THEY HAVE AN ADVANTAGE OVER DCPS. THEY DON’T HAVE A RESIDENCY REQUIREMENT TO ATTEND THEIR SCHOOLS. AS LONG AS THAT STUDENT FULFILLS HIS ACADEMICS ACCORDING TO THE SCHOOL THEN IT’S ALL GOOD. EASTERN SHOULD REACH OUT TO FRIENDSHIP COLLEGIATE AND OFFER UP UNUSED FOOTBALL FIELD IN EXCHANGE FOR GATE AND CONCESSION RECEIPTS.
YO MS HENDERSON YALL BETTER GET IT TOGETHER! WITH OUT TRYING TO SOUND LIKE YUCKMOUTH MOTEN IF THEY DON’T FIX DCIAA PROMPTLY LIVES WILL BE LOST TO THE STREETS, TO DRUGS, TO POVERTY AND TO THE ATHLETIC DIRECTOR UPSTAIRS.
Cato June (Ana alum who played at Michigan and then with Colts and Bucs) had a one-day clinic down at ANA HS this summer. Alums in the pros want to help and give back, but it doesn't seem the system would even know how to use their help.
Lets you further know Rhee was some sh*t and left town just in time.
Having lived in the Anacostia area for the last 20 years, but having grown up across the river in Fairfax County, there were always jokes made about DCPS' playing on fields that had far more dirt, rocks, and glass fragments, than grass. Schools in the city rarely had a field for practice and a separate stadium with bleachers for fans to watch. Instead, the practice field was also the game field and often times fans watched standing because of broken bleacher seats if there was seating at all as most stadiums only had seating on one side.
I follow high school sports pretty closely, and one of the main issues this article didn't discuss is how the numbers of kids playing football is way down. But not just in the inner city, its happening even in the close in suburbs too.
I attended Stuart High over in the Baileys Crossroads/Lake Barcroft area. I didn't play football but from 6th grade until high school graduation in 1975 I probably went just about every Friday night game over a 10 week period. Most games had 3K to 5K attend, even for some of the teams they weren't that good. The varsity team might have 50 to 60 players, the JV would have at least 30, and the freshman team another 30 or so. In the farther out suburbs in Fairfax County you might be able to double that number. Today, many inside the beltway schools in Fairfax and Arlington County's are lucky if they have a total of 70 to 80 kids between varsity, jayvee, and freshman. And these are schools whose enrollments number between 1400 and 1800 students.
With charter schools syphoning off kids form DCPS, the typical DCPS high school might not have more than 700 students to choose from. And thats the offical number not the ACTUAL number, which appears to be much lower. With an absence of father figures in the home, many of the male students of these schools have no interest in playing football. A lot of kids don't even know the rules.
Thats one problem.
The other is DCPS open enrollment policy where kids can go to pretty much attend any public school they wish. That has made DCPS high school sports driven by recruitment. A few DCPS who have a go-getter as coach may have 50 kids or more on their roster, most of them not even living in that schools attendance boundary.
Ballou's program has cratered when their head coach, Moe Ware, left to take a college assistant job and the Knights football program has dropped off significantly. Before he went to Ballou, he was head coach at Coolidge and that school had a good program. Then four years ago he left to go to Ballou and took many of his best kids with him. His leaving is in part what led to Natalie Randolph becoming head coach because the schools football team went very very good to very very bad over a two year period where they struggled to find a qualified man to take the job. Randolph, already being a teacher at the school, stepped up to apply when no one else appeared qualified to do so. She seems to kow what she is doing, and because of the stability, they Colts may be a team to watch in DCPS this season.
Dunbar doesn't appear to have fallen off as bad since Craig Jeffries left at the end of the last year but that is another school that went from producing Division 1 scholarship athletes to appearing now to struggle to win games.
Over 20 yeas ago, Richmond, VA had a similar problem with interest in high school football. What Richmond did was to combine schools to be able to field complete teams. Thomas Jefferson, Huguenot, and George Wythe high schools became Jefferson/Huguenot/Wythe. They stayed separate academic schools but for athletics competition they combined under one umbrella. Armstrong and Kennedy High Schools combined, and so did Maggie Walker and John Marshall. It worked for a while for the Richmond schools, with Marshall-Walker becoming a power in the Central Region. But students and parents wanted to go back to neighborhood school athletics, especially for basketball, so after about a 10 year run, they went back to individual schools. I think DC might need to take a page from Richmond and do the same here. There are several schools, Anacostia-Ballou, Roosevelt-Cardozo, Eastern-Spingarn come to mind as schools that might benefit from combining their athletics teams. On the other hand, those schools also have students that have beefs with one another which may or may not be problematic.
In any case, seeing how high school football unites so many communities, its sad to see that after DC has put a lot of money into facilities, both athletically, and also the academic buildings, that interest has fallen off so much.
If the DCPS puts out great students, the recruiters will show up for the student-athletes. THEN we can bitch about the ADs and coaches not getting their act together as far as making the scheduled games go off when they're supposed to.
This may include getting rid of some of the longtime and well like Coaches and Administrators as they too are part of the problem and stand-offish to positive change because they are comfortable in their situation. The new AD for the DCIAA has to have the attituded that change is not going to be easy, but it can be done as many will try to buck the system.
Finally, as Mathieu mentioned, let's put the responsibility of eligability issues in the hands of the Principles and Head Coaches of the schools. The biggest problem is there is no recourse for using ineligable players at the Principle and Head Coach level. I have not seen a Principle or Head Coach removed from their job over the years.
I really liked the guy named Mathieu but he was forever doomed when he did not clean house. Those who were working with him were relics, matter of fact their team should be called the Tales of the Crypt!!!!!
If the student-athletes actually were exposed to quality athletics in DC, then maybe they would take more pride in their education and work harder in the classroom in order to be on the field, court, track, or in the pool. DCIAA needs to clean house and get people in th athletic offices who really care about the children and their futures beyond high school. Lead by example.
I was recently at a basketball game and the cheerleaders got more applause than the team. Those young ladies had tumbling and acrobatics down to a science, first major thought was "does Domonique Dawes have a gymnastic team in DC?" If not, then there is about 20 African-American young ladies who could be her nucleas.
You are missing the point. As someone who worked with DCPS kids and coached a DCPS school, let me firmly say that while I am no fan of the over-jocked atmosphere and celebrity-athlete status being cultivated at some schools (and by ESPN), the fact of the matter is that few things keep hard-to-reach and at-risk kids engaged with school and safe from the streets like sports. Even more, the lessons a great sports program can instill in players, coaches, fans and staff are one of a kind and are incredibly applicable to every day professional life.
I grew up trying to separate my academic/professional life from my sporting one. The more I matured, the more I realized that to do so was to miss an opportunity to make myself better in the non-sporting senses.
DCPS' pathetic sports programming is something out of a bad Jon Lovitz movie. If its foibles were presented by Comedy Central, it would seem fitting. That these insane stories of disorganization, neglect and disappointment are real -- and true across every school -- is heartbreaking. They are sad metaphors for the growing income gaps DC is experiencing.
Before anyone plays the "academics first" card again, go work in a DCPS high school for a year and find out how "easy" it would be for a teacher to engage a kid without sports (or band or drama or debate or...). It doesn't just complement education, it simultaneously makes education possible AND IT IS EDUCATION.
I was just visiting my alma mater (Roosevelt) earlier today and checking out their state-of-the-art football facility. What a shame to think that all the funds that went into upgrading DCIAA stadiums is essentially going to waste. Just another example of the taxpayers money being squandered.
It's positively disgraceful and embarrassing to have our young people subjected to this kind of incompetence from supposedly professional adults who are being paid to provide sound leadership and direction.
Needless to say, it starts at the top. I, for one, have absolutely no patience with grown folks. Anyone at DCPS who is not fully committed to their job and the welfare of the students should be summarily fired! End of story!! Based on the article, it sounds like a broom needs to be brought in to 'clean house'. If the head person at DCPS falls in this category, the mayor and city council needs to do whatever is necessary to have that person removed.
Folks need to stop looking at sports as just some side activity to be considered less important that academics. Those who have participated know that sports is the ultimate competition and character is build through competition. Having said that, if, as some have pointed out, there are a myriad of reasons beyond the control of administrators for this sad state of affairs, then those with the authority should simply remove football as part of their sports curriculum.
Yes ... I can already here those who think this is too radical a solution. But you have to ask the question ... what has more lasting harm to the students -- canceling football altogether or having them subjected year after year to the current nonsense? When all is said and done, we must remember that, regardless of the reason, these kids are witnessing a bunch of adults who can't get their act together. Do you honestly think that this kind of behavior won't rub off on some of these kids? When they become adults, perhaps some will remember this fiasco and, like their example-setters, choose not be as committed to their line of work. And we have the nerve to wonder why so many kids are the way they are!
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