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Congratulations to Cody, our Friday News Quiz champion!
We’ll do the news quiz as always! It’s your chance to win a $25 gift certificate to the Bel Monte restaurant at Sherwood Hills!
Special thanks to Michael Capell at ionicdesign.com for help with file compression.
We’ll also discuss news from Thursday’s Deseret News:
Guy said the disciplinary action on the five players arrested for drug possession over the weekend in Logan
has already begun, but he said none of them will miss any games.
“We’ve already handled it. It’s a first-time offense,” Guy said.
“I’ve met with all of the kids already and basically like being a
parent: You can make a mistake like this and overcome it if you learn
from it. If you don’t learn from it and it reoccurs, then it can be a
problem.”
Although Guy has handled the situation internally, Marcus Cross, Ryan Tonnemacher, Steven Downs, Kendall Fisher and Brennan McFadden now face what the legal system will hand down.
There’s an interesting discussion going on right now at UStateAgs.com, a message board for Aggie fans. Excerpts of some of the posts:
“It looks like there is a snitch following the athletes around and trying to get them in trouble? In a small town,
there are a lot of small minds trying to get everyone in trouble just
to make themselves look better. I wonder if you or I had the same
Jackasses looking at us every day if we would get caught for inhaling.
I’m not condoning the actions, but it looks like they may be getting
more than there fair share of picayune treatment. LET THE GAMES
BEGINE!!!!!” -Aggieboy73
“Pot is on the NCAA banned substance list. Alcohol is not on the banned
substance list. If a player tests positive for a banned substance
during an NCAA random test, the NCAA rules state that the player cannot
play for one year and loses one year of eligibility. Good thing they
got caught before the season starts and not during the season.
Apparently the NCAA rules to not apply to off season incidents. Every
player is required to read and sign the NCAA banned substance list when
they join the team.” -kickee
“I will grant you that there are certain players that are ambassadors,
such as Nate Harris, Jaycee Carroll, Leon Jackson, etc., but the entire
team can’t be and never will be ambassadors. And those players that are
ambassadors are chosen. They are chose for very good reasons.” -ejmpalle
“I’m glad that these young men were not kicked off of the team even
though they broke the law, NCAA rules, team rules and likely, school
rules…I’m glad because it will help our team out by having them play.
I’m glad they will not miss any games because all they did was break
the law and putting themselves above their team…no biggie!
Now if only I could get a job where I could smoke the weed and not risk getting fired…” -aggiesdotcom
”
Did the coaches make the players smoke the whole bag?
I’m just kidding fellas…its from Super Troopers.” -stynervandal
“Is there a matter of “situational standards” that is being applied in
the case of these young Aggies? Since it’s our ox that is being gored,
are we willing to be more lenient in their cases? Maybe we are. I don’t
know. Someone with a better undestanding of the circumstances and
closer to things would need to judge if the penalty has been equal to
the crime. I’m unqualified to do so. But I’d like to pose a question:
Is what these kids did any different from the “crimes” committed by
athletes from other schools that resulted in their dismissal or
suspension from their teams? I’m referring to the Ute wide receiver who
stole some condoms a while back and the CSUF b-ball player (Pape Sow?)
who swiped something from a store. Maybe smoking pot is more akin to
alcohol possession by a minor and not as serious as stealing or
cheating.
I am not interested in rationalizing this. But I know this, I would not
be fired from my job if I were caught smoking weed, unless I was caught
doing so at work. The same would hold true with stealing. Otherwise I
would be forced to pay my debt to society, recompense those who were
harmed and then get on with my life.” -utaggies
It’s also interesting to note a similar incident earlier this Spring that resulted in the dismissal of two players. From the April 22, 2006 Deseret News:
Just inside the Utah State football locker room is a bulletin board
where news articles of college athletes throughout the country getting
into various trouble with the law hang to serve as a reminder to the
Aggies of the consequences of unwise decisions.
Now, some of those same problems are affecting their own.
Freshman quarterback Jerod Walker and junior wide receiver Dionte
Holloway were dismissed from the team earlier in the week for smoking
marijuana.
Also, leading to Walker’s dismissal are the charges of aggravated
sexual assault he faces stemming from an incident at an on-campus dorm
room earlier this month.
Walker surrendered to police last week and posted $10,000 bond. He
was arraigned Thursday and faces a preliminary hearing on May 16.
“We want to make the kids aware of the seriousness of the problem,”
Utah State athletic director Randy Spetman said. “We will now step it
up again and hopefully the kids will listen more intently now that it
has struck closer to home.”
The bulletin board is only one item in a long list of measures Guy
and the Utah State athletic department take to educate their players on
sexual assault, drugs and alcohol. Officers from the Logan City Police
Department and the University Police Department have spoken with the
athletes as well as Rachel Brighton, director of Utah State’s on-campus
Sexual Assault and Anti Violence Information office (SAAVI).
“The thing I try to tell them is these things are very serious in
nature,” Utah State football coach Brent Guy said. “(Something) at an
off-campus party may not seem like the action that is as profound as it
can end up being.”
Players of various sports at the university participated in “Walk a
Mile in Her Shoes” last week, an awareness activity held during April’s
Sexual Assault Awareness Month. Also, athletes have heard lectures from
“1-in-4″, a group of men that travel to college campuses and educate
other men on sexual assault and domestic violence.
“I always post those things in the locker room to make them aware
that we’re representing Utah State and their actions on and off the
field both can have a significant impact positively or negatively on
the program,” Guy said. “When you sign up to play you accept the
responsibility that you’re going to be in a fish bowl. This is a lesson
(with Jerod and Dionte) that they’ve learned in what can happen.”
