Letter: Coaches impart important life lessons to kids

I’d like to thank the coaches for our high school and middle school students. They put a lot of time and effort into working with our children, for very little monetary reward.

Last weekend I watched our high school boys play Sunnyside, and I was so impressed with the coach, Craig Groth. He’s following right along in the footsteps of Jake Hunt, who was sick that day. One of the things that really impressed me was during the heat of the game, when you want everything to go your way, the refs were going to mistakenly give a jump ball to the Chiefs because notice had not been made of an earlier jump ball. So it really should’ve been Sunnyside’s ball, and all Craig had to do was keep quiet to receive an advantage from the refs. He came out into the court and said “It’s not our ball it’s theirs; remember the last jump ball.” When asked why he said anything, he said loud enough for most of us to hear: “You have to be honest!”

What better way to teach our students that honesty is the best policy than doing that in the heat of a contest? Teaching theory in the classroom is usually the best teachers can do, but for Craig to do what was right when it would’ve been easy to be quiet, giving up an advantage, speaks so much louder than what can happen in a classroom.

Thank you Craig, Jake, Mr. Strophe, James, Mr. Hohman, Jason M., Keith U. and all the other coaches that are or have been working with our students in sports, be it AAU, middle school, high school or Big Bend. You men and women are truly an inspiration to me.

Gerry McFaul

Moses Lake