A Combination of Pride and Prejudice

When I graduated from Akron Central High School in 1983, I was proud to be an Akron Tiger Alumni. I met and married a graduate from Depew, a wildcat, which made my school spirit pale in his comparison. However, it was not until we moved and raised our two children in the Cleveland Hill School district, that I realized true school pride.

“Once an Eagle, always an Eagle” is our motto. My daughter graduated in 2007 and still wears the “blue and gold” with pride. It is a rare occurrence that I don’t wash something from hers each week that doesn’t sport the eagle pride. Now my son, Joseph, is a current senior, fourth in his class, and is an Eagle through and through. He is even Student council president as well as a member of three of our sports teams. But his pride for his teammates was never more evident than at the Cleveland Hill Puff Invitational Swim meet this last Saturday, January 3rd.

There were nine schools in total invited, one being Akron. I arrived just before the meet, and of course cheered our team along. However, I was troubled by a concerned look in my son’s eyes. I was later to find out why this look was there.

As the Cleveland Hill team was warming up and stretching, the Akron team arrived. Anyone knowing how a team warms up would know that the team would count these stretches as a unit. The Akron coach walked by our team commenting to one of our teammates, “So I see that they taught you how to count”. My son was stretching near this individual. “Excuse me, sir?” the boy said. “So I see that they taught you how to count,” he repeated smugly. My son and his meet mate were dumbfounded. How could a coach be so hurtful? My son could have confronted the Akron coach, making a scene and embarrassing him. He chose instead to be a witness to the incident and stand up correct it through informing our coaches, and later our Athletic Director. You see, the individual that the Akron coach had chosen to “attack” was the only African American looking individual on our team.

In this day and age, where does this come from? Moreover, how are our children supposed to be “politically correct” when the adults that they are supposed to be looking up to act in this manner? Further, before every sporting event, the officials give a speech about sportsmanship. Where has this coach been for all of these speeches? Where is his pride? As an alumni of this school, I am glad to find out that the coach was instructed to apologize to our team. However, in the same breath I am ashamed to know that a coach from my alma mater would stoop to such a juvenile and derogatory comment.

I am proud of my son and his teammates for being the model students that this country needs.