The Backyard Batting Cage

published: Thursday, September 09, 2010

FRANK JOLLEY

Sports Columnist

The most creative football minds in Lake and Sumter counties weren't on the sidelines during last week's season-opening games.

If the vocal minority at Friday's East Ridge-South Sumter game was any indication, our area's top gridiron genuises are in the grandstands, making personnel decisions and dissecting gameplans.

The dark side of fanaticism, apparently, will be out in full force again this season.

As I've said countless times in the past, I feel bad for the players and coaches who put so much time and effort into making Friday Night Lights so special.

I should've been expecting to hear the second guessers, many of whom have never tried to coach a football team or break down videotape for an upcoming opponent. They watch games on television and listen to the talking heads analyze every action and reaction.

Never mind that many never suited up after playing in Pop Warner or High School. The closest most of them ever got to college football was the retaining wall behind the home-team bench.

Still, they're experts -- more so than East Ridge coach Bud O'Hara and Inman Sherman, O'Hara's counterpart at South Sumter.

Nevermind that O'Hara and Sherman have more than 65 years of head-coaching experience between them. It doesn't matter that O'Hara won a championship in Mississippi and Sherman has turned the Raiders into one of state's most tradition-rich programs.

Between them, the two coaching legends have won more than 400 games, but I guess that's also a moot point.

"Joe Warehouseworker," with his three hours of "experience" in front of the television every Saturday and Sunday is supremely more qualified to coach a high school football team, at least in his eyes.

And, if that's true, I'm proclaiming myself to be the next Grantland Rice.

South Sumter's naysayers were out early against the Knights. On the Raiders' opening possession, their quarterback tossed a pair of incomplete passes to take the steam out of a potential scoring drive. After the second incompletion, one expert voice bellowed from the anonymity of the cheap seats, "Get him out of there!"

After two passes.

In the first six minutes of the first quarter in the first game of the season.

Later on, the same quarterback tossed a 10-yard touchdown pass in the third quarter and the home side of the stadium erupted in cheers. It's safe to assume that "Bleacher Lombardi," who wanted to end the signal-caller's season after only two passes, was among the boisterous throng, albeit with a sarcastic smirk on his face.

I moved to the East Ridge sidelines in the third quarter and learned that South Sumter wasn't the only team with fans who consider themselves to be coaching legends.

As the Knights defense battled to preserve a five-point lead, one fan began offering his expertise to O'Hara and team.

"You guys have to work on that pass defense," the authoritative-sounding voice yelled almost as if it were an audiotape looped to run continuously.

Apparently, the Urban Meyer wannabe was more interested in yelling than watching. In the fourth quarter, East Ridge limited South Sumter to 2 of 10 passing for 23 yards. Over the final eight minutes of the game, the Raiders completed only one pass for 10 yards.

Perhaps my standards are too low, but that seems like pretty solid defense to me.

So what's the point here?

Why am I harping on this point ... again?

Because more and more people seem to believe that a $5 ticket to a game is a license to berate players, coaches and officials.

It doesn't

A ducat affords admission for the purposes of cheering for your son, daughter, or favorite team, and the chance to grab some cheap eats at the concession stand. If you want to boo the opposition, that's fine, as long as it doesn't get mean spirited or nasty.

It does not give you right to create animosity by yelling for players to be pulled from a game -- trust me, if a coach feels that needs to be done, he'll do it. They don't need a bystander in the grandstands advising them, their staffs or their players.

As for coaching accumen, I've said it before and I'll say it again. If you can do a better job, get out of the recliner and go do it!

The men and women who coach our area's student-athletes aren't doing it for the money -- they get only supplemental pay for their time and effort. They coach because they want to help student-athletes achieve their dreams.

Get off their backs and let them do what they enjoy doing!

If you don't, your sideline expertise will almost certainly be needed to replace the coaches you chase away.

Frank Jolley is a columnist for the Daily Commercial. Contact him at frankjolley@dailycommercial.com.

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