Krause: Brickbats all around for this coach

Question: How far should we go – at all levels of the high school sports machinery – to protect kids from themselves?My answer: to great lengths, and without exception.The situation arises because of a story that appeared in another publication regarding the St. Mary’s-Newburyport girls soccer quarterfinal game (won by Newburyport, 4-0) this past Monday.Apparently, Newburyport coach Robb Gonnam was “made aware (his words)” that Amanda Webster of St. Mary’s said some disparaging things in an Item story about his team in the wake of its win over the Lady Spartans in double overtime for the Division 3 North title.Gonnam’s remarks appeared in the other publication’s game story Tuesday.Let’s make things very clear. Amanda Webster was not quoted in The Item’s story following the St. Mary’s defeat last year. The loss was gut wrenching, and none of those girls were emotionally ready to talk ? and that is absolutely fine with us, by the way.Nor was Webster quoted in any of the stories leading up to this year’s tournament games. So where these mysterious quotes originated from – such as whether they appeared somewhere else, or whether they were on MySpace, or some other blog – and how they got back to the coach, is anyone’s guess.All I hope is that the people up there didn’t use some made-up quotes to fuel the troops, as this type of anger-inducing motivation can very easily become dangerous.Such tactics do not belong in high school sports, and were I an athletic director, and I found out any of my coaches resorted to such tactics, I’d be all over my principal to fire them.But even if the quote did pop up somewhere, Gonnam’s subsequent quotes are really out of order.”To say something like that is just not smart,” he said. “These days with the internet everything is easily available. Also, not that my team needed the extra movitation, but she (Webster) provided it for a team that lost only one game all season.”Wow. Big man. Throwing a junior in high school under the bus and demeaning her intelligence. I hope he’s proud.But even if the girl said it, that doesn’t mean that an adult – who should know better – has to pounce on it. This isn’t the New England Patriots, where Rodney Harrison can take a snippet of a quote, that probably means nothing in its proper context, and rally the troops around it. They’re pros, they’re adults, and they understand the ethic.But resurrecting an obscure quote from a high school junior, and using it to get your team pumped and jacked for a game everyone figured it would win anyway, is pretty pathetic. And talking about it afterward is even more pathetic.At the very least, and at this level, we should not be in the business of damaging the reputations of kids unless they’ve done something that absolutely warrants it (and I think you know what I mean).This was simply wrong. And at the very least, Amanda Webster deserves a public apology.Steve Krause is sports editor of The Item