Dave Rohlman and Darius McNeal (March 2009)
From ESPN and local media reports comes this story of sportsmanship and ethics heroism in high school basketball. On Saturday, Feb. 7, Milwaukee Madison high-school senior
Johntell Franklins mother succumbed to cancer. A starter on the school
basketball team, Franklin initially told his coach that he was too upset
to play, but decided, at the last minute, that he should be on the court
in that night's game against DeKalb (Ill.) High School. Franklin arrived at the gym late, in the second quarter.
Because his coach, Aaron Womack Jr,. hadnt expected him to be available,
Franklin's name wasnt in the scorebook. Under the rules, putting
in a previously unlisted player meant that the coach would have to be
assessed a technical foul. But the possible two-point penalty was not
enough to dissuade Womack from putting Franklin in the game. Assessed of the situation, DeKalb coach Dave Rohlman and
his players told the referees they did not want a foul called and the
penalty shots that indirectly resulted from a young mans family tragedy.
But the refs wouldnt let the team waive the advantage.[ Should they
have? I dont think so. The job of the referees is to call the game according
to the rulebook, not to make exceptions due to special circumstances and
individual justifications. The next team might want a waiver because a
players aunt who raised him died, or didnt actually die but was
in a horrible accident, or whose husband was in a horrible accident.
Soon there would have to be a dead parent exception in the Rules, and
coaches would argue over whether dead included a coma, or whether parent
included godmothers. It is better in the long run for the refs to just
follow the rules in this situation.] Heres what happened next, according to the Milwaukee Journal
Sentinel. When Coach Rohlman asked his team, Who wants to take these
free throws?,'" Darius McNeal, a senior point guard, raised his
hand. You realize you're going to miss, right? Rohlman asked. McNeal
nodded. He went to the free throw line, and set up for a regular
free throw. But he only shot the ball three feet in front of him, and
watched as it bounced well under the basket. Then he did the same thing
with second throw. "I did it for the guy who lost his mom,"
McNeal told the Journal sentinel. "It was the right thing to do.
After the game, won by Madison, Coach Womack wrote a letter
to the DeKalb Daily Chronicle, saying in part: "As a principal, school, school district staff,
and community you should all feel immense pride for the remarkable job
that the coaching staff is doing in not only coaching these young men,
but teaching them how to be leaders
I'd like to recognize Darius,
who stepped up to miss the shot on purpose. He could have been selfish
and cared only for his own stats. I hope Coach Rohlman doesn't make
him run for missing the free throws! I think Darius is safe.
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