Skyline Football-A Storied History and Storybook Poor Sportsmanship

As the man on the loudspeaker with the endearing phonemic disorder touted the past 40 years of Skyline High School football during the homecoming half-time celebration, we sat in the visiting stands reveling. 40 years and 20 state championship games, 14 state championships, local celebrities contributing to the sportsworld, etc...It all was drowned out by my thinking. Every other year since its inception, this school competes for the crown in football. Surely, I thought, this team, this school, is a champion.

And then they lost. And to American Fork High School nonetheless! Maybe there were bad calls by the refs, but bad calls didn't make the punter fumble in the first half resulting in a short field and an AF touchdown. Refs didn't make the kid hit the quarterback after the ball was away or even pile on the runner who already was down on the sideline late in the game. The ref didn't miss the extra point, and the subjective pass interference call mentioned in the paper this morning doesn't change the fact that Skyline coaches abandoned a gameplan to run on first and second downs to throw more in the second half. Quite frankly, the calls were equally devastating by the refs against both teams, and champions don't let officials decide games.

As a relative newcomer to the area, I don't know the history of AF sports drama or reputation. I went to the game last night because Skyline is supposed to be good, and my friends were going in support of their daughter who is a cheerleader, and because I usually love the emotion in high school sports. However, the post-game emotion of this one was a mixed bag.

American Fork won. The kids celebrated. The coaches for AF walked toward the Skyline side of the field for well-wishing and were left standing there with hands on hips. The AF players followed their coaches over for the ceremonial handshakes with the same result. The paper today says that the Skyline coaches rushed the team off the field to avoid a confrontation after an AF player took a swing at a Skyline player. I was there. I didn't see it. Frankly, winners don't usually start the post-game fights, and this statement in the paper sounds like a poor excuse from a poor loser, definitely not from a champion.

The more than half-dozen capable police and law enforcement officers didn't react to any post-game altercations because there weren't any. The losers last night were Skyline's players who were deprived of an opportunity to suck it up and learn that sports are as much about how to lose as they are how to win. Here's to hoping that they get plenty more opportunities to learn that lesson the rest of this season and that their coaches show more class as they do.

To the coward who threw the half-full, 2-liter bottle of Mountain Dew up and over the visiting bleachers and then ran off after the game, sleep well knowing that you hit somebody's grandma in the neck and that your bottle will always be half-empty.

And to the fans, players, and especially the coaches of the Skyline High School football program, you were not worthy of being called champions last night. Do better next time.