McCort Wrestling

[El-Moldo]

Many have been saying that it's not fair to the kids. But wasn't it their parent's who made the move to change schools? How about "You reap what you so" or "The best-laid plans of mice and men often go astray".

[ERAChamp]

How about the kids they got from CV several years ago, including the one "stud" boy. It didn't seem to help their baseball or football teams. Granted, he wasn't as good as these wrestlers though.

[Manfred]

Let the kids wrestle. Also let the opponents have a half dozen or so girls on their rosters, as BMCHS STILL has a rule preventing them from competing against females. Problem solved. Those girls will never even have to 'suit up' , just be on the rosters and show up against BMCHS.

[PAMDGrappler]

The most ironic thing about this whole situation is that 95% of the kids were already at Forest Hills. The All-Star team was already there and approved by the District/PIAA for competition. This is a situation were you have a selfish, egomaniac dad who wants to see his name in the headlines for being the head guy. If that weren't the case, they'd all be at FH wrestling for one of the most decorated wrestlers to ever come out of the state instead of on probation and suspended wrestling for a guy who went like 7-23 in HS and spent most of his career as a JV wrestler. It's the same reason that this coach is pushing to have this super-team compete in D6 and the PIAA instead of competing as a prep school like the other teams that have no transfer restrictions. It's the "beat up on the little guy", "big fish in a little pond" mentality that is characteristic of egocentric individuals. Kudos to D6 for making a statement.

[bradbarbin]

First, this isn't intended for the bleachercoaches regulars, who will not be convinced. This is a letter to the our community whose hearts have not become so hardened with hate.

I'd like to start by saying that that there's very few things that irk me more than today's "woke" cancel-culture. But this takes the cake for the most embarrassing thing I've heard to date. On one hand, it proves the "woke" right. On the other hand, it takes their cancel-culture to new lows: cancelling kids.

Now if you've lived in Johnstown for a number of years, and you have any sense, you know that it's worse to be a black person in court than a white person. Under normal circumstances, this fact would be too embarrassing for me to acknowledge publicly.

Here I'd suspect that a number of readers might reject this fact because it is too uncomfortable to bear. Or say that race isn't the issue here. And in that case, it is better for them to stop reading here. But for the reader who understands that people aren't perfect -- that we, as a community, aren't perfect: this may come as no surprise.

Let's recap the events, for outsiders:

Many students transfer to Forest Hills from out of the area to join a stellar junior-high wrestling program under Coach B. When the kids reach high school, there is a power struggle between Coach B, and the high school coach: Coach A.

A black wrestler goes to Coach A and tells him that he's getting racist insults from within the team. Here the perspectives diverge. Supporters of Coach A think that Coach A takes appropriate action by telling the kid, basically: that's life: you can't let it get to you. And supporters of Coach B think that Coach A's failure to take action is akin to supporting the racist insults.

Personally, I've heard a lot of good things about Coach A. And I suspect he is a decent person. But that is not the issue. The issue, dear reader, is whether the black wrestler was within his rights to leave the school where he felt alienated because of his race? He was certainly not the first person to leave Forest Hills for that reason.

Certainly, if he does not have the right to leave, then no one has the right to refuse a vaccine mandate. If he doesn't have the right to leave, then no one should be able to own a gun without government permission. And if he doesn't have a right to leave, then no one has a right to reject taxation without representation.

But this is America. Where we do have the right to call bullshit when we see it. Where we are not held hostage by our governments or cancelled for not falling inline.

But these hypocrites forget. They love censorship, when it's a differing viewpoint. They want rights without extending rights to others. They want to act like there's no racism in their neighborhoods, but as a soon as a kid says, "no I won't let you treat my brother like this," they put on their hoods in backrooms and conspire 17-1 to cancel them for 3 years.

Embarrassing.

[bradbarbin]

What's the point in having a online forum if only the right opinions can be published?

[MikeFLN]

The most ironic thing about this whole situation is that 95% of the kids were already at Forest Hills. The All-Star team was already there and approved by the District/PIAA for competition. This is a situation were you have a selfish, egomaniac dad who wants to see his name in the headlines for being the head guy. If that weren't the case, they'd all be at FH wrestling for one of the most decorated wrestlers to ever come out of the state instead of on probation and suspended wrestling for a guy who went like 7-23 in HS and spent most of his career as a JV wrestler. It's the same reason that this coach is pushing to have this super-team compete in D6 and the PIAA instead of competing as a prep school like the other teams that have no transfer restrictions. It's the "beat up on the little guy", "big fish in a little pond" mentality that is characteristic of egocentric individuals. Kudos to D6 for making a statement.

Your argument for giving Kudos, just shows how absurd this punishment really is. All these other schools that voted 16-1 were about to get steamrolled by this team anyways, but because the team moved to a private Catholic school, everyone is now taking exception with it. There was no outrage when it was being formed in a Public school district.

[MikeFLN]

Many have been saying that it's not fair to the kids. But wasn't it their parent's who made the move to change schools? How about "You reap what you so" or "The best-laid plans of mice and men often go astray".

Yes D6 has been reaping what it sows for a long time now. This line of thinking is why this region/district that used to D1 talent in most sports with regularity now barley produces any. And the future D1 stars this area is about to produce that are on this BM team, everyone is waiting and hoping they fail. You think this line of petty and simpleminded thinking is why the region is a shell of it former self in population and production of goods?

[bradbarbin]

I'm very proud to be from Johnstown. And even prouder to be from America. But there's a stinking truth about this area, that I would normally be too embarrassed to say publicly: in Cambria County, it's worse to be black in court.

It's something that anyone whose been around knows, but no one will say. But nowhere does it show itself more the district's recent decision to ban kids from wrestling for 3 years.

Let's recap the events for outsiders:

Many students transfer to Forest Hills from out of the area to join a stellar junior-high wrestling program under Coach B. When the kids reach high school, there is a power struggle between Coach B, and the high school coach: Coach A.

A black wrestler goes to Coach A and tells him that he's getting racist insults from within the team. Here the perspectives diverge. Supporters of Coach A think that Coach A takes appropriate action by telling the kid, basically: that's life: you can't let it get to you. And supporters of Coach B think that Coach A's failure to take action is akin to supporting the racist insults.

Personally, I've heard a lot of good things about Coach A. And I suspect he is a decent person. But that is not the issue. The issue, dear reader, is whether the black wrestler was within his rights to leave the school where he felt alienated because of his race? He was certainly not the first person to leave Forest Hills for that reason.

Certainly, if he does not have the right to leave, then no one has the right to refuse a vaccine mandate. If he doesn't have the right to leave, then no one should be able to own a gun without government permission. And if he doesn't have a right to leave, then no one has a right to reject taxation without representation.

But this is America. Where we do have the right to call it when we see it. Where we are not held hostage by our governments or cancelled for not falling in line.

But these hypocrites forget. They love censorship, when it's a differing viewpoint. They want rights without extending rights to others. They love to say "there's no racism here!", but as a soon as a kid says, "no I won't let you treat my brother like this," they put on their cloaks in backrooms and conspire 17-1 to cancel them for 3 years.

Why? So they can crown themselves champions?

Is that what we're teaching our kids now?

Embarrassing.

[CCDevil2012]

The most ironic thing about this whole situation is that 95% of the kids were already at Forest Hills. The All-Star team was already there and approved by the District/PIAA for competition. This is a situation were you have a selfish, egomaniac dad who wants to see his name in the headlines for being the head guy. If that weren't the case, they'd all be at FH wrestling for one of the most decorated wrestlers to ever come out of the state instead of on probation and suspended wrestling for a guy who went like 7-23 in HS and spent most of his career as a JV wrestler. It's the same reason that this coach is pushing to have this super-team compete in D6 and the PIAA instead of competing as a prep school like the other teams that have no transfer restrictions. It's the "beat up on the little guy", "big fish in a little pond" mentality that is characteristic of egocentric individuals. Kudos to D6 for making a statement.

Your argument for giving Kudos, just shows how absurd this punishment really is. All these other schools that voted 16-1 were about to get steamrolled by this team anyways, but because the team moved to a private Catholic school, everyone is now taking exception with it. There was no outrage when it was being formed in a Public school district.

There was plenty of outrage, it’s just harder to prove when it’s public school. But was kind of obvious when kids from around the country were all moving into the district. Heck, a kid from CC moved to FH and his siblings were still at CC. The difference is they were moving in junior high so even though they were forced to sit out a year, it happened prior to varsity time