There appears to be a movement germinating within the Northeastern Conference coaching community to pull out of the annual Elmo Benedetto boys basketball jamboree, which is scheduled to be held a week from Saturday at Lynn English.The reason for this, according to newly-hired Saugus coach Paul Moran, is that it’s a way for coaches to protest English’s attempts to obtain waivers for several players who transferred into the school.Although Moran said that the move would not be directed toward any player in particular, English recently obtained a waiver for Classical transfer Jarell Byrd – who has been a Northeastern Conference all-star since his freshman season – to play his senior year for the Bulldogs.English athletic director Gary Molea, contacted last night by The Item, said he was unaware of any planned organized boycott. At least one other area coach who was contacted said that he, too, was unaware that any organized action was pending.Moran, however, said he knows of six teams, including his own, that have decided not to participate. He said no one wants to do anything to hurt the high school players, but he hopes that taking such draconian action will send a message that the coaches feel that the whole waiver situation at English is unacceptable.There are a couple of things wrong with this approach, however. First, this is a scholarship fund-raiser, which means that it really should not be subjected to this type of squabbling, regardless of the issue.Second, both the man who founded it – Ron Bennett – and the man for whom the jamboree is named had impeccable reputations within the local athletic community. Bennett certainly took pride in upholding honest standards, and he certainly played by the rules during his distinguished career as a coach.And Benedetto worked tirelessly on behalf of Lynn high school students, particularly when it came to placing them in colleges.It would certainly be a sad, sad thing if their legacies are somehow disturbed – even a little – over this.So I sincerely hope the coaches behind this – and I’m sure isn’t just Moran – can find another way to register their displeasure over the English waiver situation. People can think what they want about it. Those who think it’s getting way out of hand are certainly entitled to feel that way ? and may even have a point.If there’s the perception that Byrd’s waiver, for example, was granted a little too easily under the circumstances, or that other waivers may be too easily forthcoming down the road, then that’s certainly an issue for the adults to hash out.And I hope they do. Once upon a time, schools had to fight hard to justify getting waivers. But over the years, thanks in good part to MIAA setbacks within the court system, it seems to have gotten easier and easier to obtain these waivers.If there needs to be a meeting of the minds to come up with a better – perhaps more stringent – set of standards for granting waivers, then let’s do that.And to be fair, there’s probably no way for any of the coaches talking about boycotting the jamboree to know if there were extenuating circumstances that justified Byrd’s waiver.It could be that at this stage of the game, it may be necessary to form a league-wide board to tackle waiver issues. Maybe sometimes the granting of a waiver – especially in a case like this – absolutely upsets the competitive balance in a league to the point where there had better be a darn good reason to allow it. And maybe entire leagues should have the right to make the determination of what constitutes a valid reason, and not just the two schools involved.All I know is that despite Moran’s insistence that nobody wants to put kids in the middle of this maelstrom, that’s exactly what’s going to happen. And regardless of what the issue is, that’s a bad thing. There is absolutely no way to justify using kids as pawns in some high-level chess match involving competitive adults.The coaches who are talking about this are not going to garner much