Jon's Blog
Weighing in again on Smiley controversy
Feb 26, 2008
We are all suckers for drama.

As a whole, our society loves to see the battle between good vs. bad. We need that, because it would be a pretty boring place if we didn’t have something to take sides on.

Inevitably, if someone sees good in something, there will be four other people who view it as bad.

Just look at the forum on the New Castle News Web site. Click on “Local Issues” then hit “Neshannock Topics.”

The thread is centered on Neshannock High boys basketball coach Jim Smiley and his alleged misconduct with players. More on this in a minute.

It’s free and it’s the best entertainment in town right now.

I wrote about this last week, got some feedback, and thought the issues would be dead by now.

If anything, it has gotten dirtier and uglier.

According to this week’s posts, Smiley is accused of the following:

1. Dropping his pants in front of his team.
2. Spitting at them.
3. Taking the school drivers education vehicle home for personal use.
4. Being crazy (according to some doctor at the school board meeting).
5. Being an egomaniac.
6. Having a “hissy fit” on the team bus.
7. Singling out one or two players each season, then making their lives hell.
8. Saying Kevin Covert wasn’t a good shooter.
9. Not being able to coach against a 2-3 zone.
10. Having bad hair.

Assistant coach Ricci LaRocca is accused of:

1. Offering chewing tobacco to players on the team.

Just to be fair, all of these allegations were made by anonymous posters, using names such as “MysteryGirl,” “GetWorked (my favorite)”, and the latest addition, “d-dog.”

A few other posters, “hoopslover” and “Stryker12” don’t defend Smiley as much as they call out the complaining players and parents, branding them wimps and sissies.

Lawyers have been hired by a group of parents.

Ahh.

I wish I would have known all of this last week, because the blog would have been much longer with all this new material. From what has been posted on these boards over the past week or so, many say that Smiley has been out of control his entire career, and that players are finally going to come out of the woodwork to tell everyone what he did to them.

So far, the only players who have contacted The News have been in support of Smiley.

Oh, yeah ...

11. Smiley is accused of having his friends write letters of support for him.

OK, got all that. Eleven things people hate about Jim Smiley. Here’s my take:

Nos. 1-2. Dropping the pants and spitting on the floor in front of the team.

Dropping the pants and (presumably) exposing yourself to a bunch of teenagers isn’t a good idea. Maybe a motivational technique?

If my son told me that his coach did that, I’d have a word with the coach personally to let him know that under no certain terms, he is ever to do that in front of my son ever again. Period. Or else.

Not hire a lawyer.

Spitting on the floor is a different story.

Here’s probably how it went down.

SMILEY: (Waving arms) You guys are a bunch of (here’s where the swearing comes in), you don’t belong on the court, you suck — SPIT!!!

Every coach has one of these moments. If this offends someone in the locker room, grow a backbone. If you play sports long enough, you’ll see this at least once.

Nos. 3-4. Taking the drivers ed car and being called crazy by a doctor.

The story about the car is just hilarious. Maybe true, maybe not, but just great, great comedy.

Being called crazy by a doctor who never sat down with him? I don’t take much from that.

Remember, there is such a thing as crazy. From my talks with him, I don’t think Smiley is.

No. 5. Being an egomaniac.

Again, there is a general term for an egomaniac — jerk. Most people don’t like egomaniacs.

It’s no surprise then, to hear that no players from the team want to have a banquet after the season, and that some have even said that they will not play next year if Smiley is the coach.

Then, the players must think he is a jerk.

There are a lot of egomaniacs with jobs, though. It is not a firable offense.

No. 6. The hissy fit.

Every team gets chewed out once, really good.

It happened to me. It’s not pleasant. There is probably a lot of swearing. And a lot of blame going around.

I would think that even if Smiley is, in fact, a jerk, he was doing this because his team was badly outplayed by Mohawk, and frankly, looked as if it didn’t care if it won or lost.

He probably used it for motivation, it just didn’t have that effect.

If I were a dad I’d let it go.

No. 7. Singling out one or two players each season, then making their lives hell.

Finally, some meat.

This is the main accusation. Smiley is accused of singling out two football players who also played basketball and, basically, blackballing them from the team.

He is accused if not even giving them a chance to play because they missed some summer basketball practices.

If he did this — from all I know this is true — something should be done about the system, not the coach.

The athletic department should mandate a policy that doesn’t allow football and basketball conditioning/workouts to be scheduled at the same time.

If I were in charge:

1. Football workouts take precedence in the summer. The coach gets whatever time he wants (for example, 7 to 10 a.m.)

2. The basketball coach must schedule all of his activities opposite to what the football coach does, leaving at least five hours in between practices. (the basketball team would be allowed to practice at 3 p.m. at the latest in this scenario).

3. Encourage cooperation between football and basketball coaches. If a kid wants to play in the summer league, work something out. If he’d rather learn the new offense, allow that.

4. Under no circumstance should a multi-sport athlete be discriminated against.

5. At the same time, the ultimate decision on playing time goes to the coach.

But, if I were a dad, and I believed that my son were GOOD ENOUGH to be playing, I would have him sit and talk with the coach first. If I was dissatisfied with the answer, I’d talk to the coach myself. If that didn’t work, I’d talk with the athletic director. If that didn’t work, I’d talk to the coach again.

Nos. 8-11. Kevin Covert, the 2-3 zone, the hair, the letters.

He coached Covert, he can say what he wants. Should anyone care what he thinks about this? No.

He must know how to break a 2-3 zone. He might not have the players to be successful at breaking it (high post players with skill to pass or hit from the foul line OR shooters who are consistent enough to get a team out of the zone).

The hair? C’mon, people.

The letters. He might have done this. With all of the venom coming his way, can you blame him?

No. 1. Ricci LaRocca allegedly offering a player chewing tobacco.

That’s pretty stupid if he did do that.

If that’s true, something should happen to him.

And, really, if you did hire a lawyer, do you think it is wise to keep posting these allegations about Smiley?



NOW, SOME BASKETBALL

The PIAA playoffs are here, with the New Castle girls and the Union boys the only two county teams left.

Here’s the breakdown:

New Castle (19-6) vs. Peters Township (20-8), 6 p.m. Friday at North Hills High School:

While at Slippery Rock University in 2000, I had a friend named “Squirrel” who was from Peters Township. He had red hair, a red beard, and was little from what I recall. My roommate was Pasquale Romano, who’s sister, Maria, is a freshman guard for New Castle.

One day, while Pasquale and I were out, Squirrel managed to break into our dorm room, smoke weed inside it, took my sweatshirt, left his sweatshirt behind, then left the room.

He left a note saying he did all of this.

Great story. I haven’t seen him since.

Well, if Squirrel decides to show up to Friday’s game, I’d like my sweatshirt back, because yours didn’t fit me.

The Lady ‘Canes lost to the Lady Indians 79-60 earlier this season, but will make this one interesting.

PETERS TOWNSHIP 49, NEW CASTLE 47

Union (16-7) vs. Shade (25-3), Friday 8 p.m. at North Hills High School

It’s trip down memory lane night.

Next door to Pasquale and I lived Chad DeVore, Slippery Rock’s starting quarterback in 2002.

Guess where he’s from? Shade High School in beautiful Shanksville, Pa.

Pasquale, my buddy Ziggy, and I all went to see Chad in August of 2001 for a night.

Being city folk from New Castle, the three of us got lost in Shanksville as soon as we left the turnpike. We pulled off in a secluded corn field and had to call for directions.

Little did we know, that a month later, about a two miles from where we all stood in that cornfield, is where United Flight 93 crashed.

I get chills thinking of that.

Anyway, Union is going to kill Shade on Friday.

UNION 90, SHADE 55
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