In Praise of Football

I have been gratified to hear all the positive response my campaign platform has generated in the county. I am especially pleased that the other candidates, for the most part, are supporting positions that I have been advocating for several years. While most of the buzz has been positive, I’m also aware that there are some negative comments out there as well. I’d like to address the one I hear most often.

I’ve heard that some people have said that I hate sports and as superintendent I’d try to do away with athletic programs. This is so incredibly untrue that I was tempted to ignore it, but I decided it might be better to set the record straight.

I love sports, especially football. In high school I was on the football, baseball, and track teams. When I was cut from the basketball team I became the scorekeeper. In my twelve years as a public school student, our high school had one winning season. My senior year we went 5 and 4, and we were ecstatic! We played some tough teams. Our rival across the river had a quarterback by the name of Joe Theisman. They had one basic play: hike the ball to Joe and let him go. It didn’t get much better when Joe went to Notre Dame. He was replaced by Drew Pearson.

I guess that’s why I fell in love with Weir football when I came to the school 20 years ago. I’d never been associated with such a winning tradition. I didn’t miss a game for over a decade. Not wanting to miss a thing, I walked up and down the sidelines following the ball rather than sit in the stands. For a few years I did the play by play from the press booth.

Later, when I began to teach half a day in Weir and half a day in Ackerman, I became an Indian fan too. I know that some Choctaw Countians feel that’s like rooting for Ole Miss and State too, but I couldn’t help myself. The year the Lions and Indians both went to state was as good as it gets. During the time that Dicenzo Miller, Conner Stevens, and the McKinley brothers played at State, I covered the games for the Plaindealer.

I guess the nonsense of me being against football began in the 2001-2002 school year when I was chairman of the Weir school improvement committee. The state of Mississippi made us come up with a school improvement plan because of extremely low standardized test scores. I and five or six of the best teachers in the school came up with a plan that had to be, and was, approved by the school board and accepted by the state department of education.

Among other things, the plan contended that we needed to stop using classroom instruction time for athletics. I don’t know how it is now, but in the past students were taken out of class to pick up garbage under the football bleachers. Some students in a two-period class were let out halfway through the class to lift weights in the fieldhouse. Some students were actually on the practice field during their study hall. As I said, I loved Weir football, but any competent educator knows that these things are plain wrong.

When the plan was released the feces hit the fan! Since there wasn’t anything in the plan that its opponents could attack, they attacked me. It was said that I wanted to do away with football. It was also said that I was a bad father, a bad pastor, and a bad person in general. I’m surprised I wasn’t accused of being Osama Bin Laden’s right-hand man. Believe it or not, I actually received one physical threat.

Of course, the accusations were completely false. I didn’t then, nor would I as superintendent, ever want to do away with athletics. Like most parents in Choctaw County, I believe athletic programs are essential to the success of our schools. My position is simple, straightforward, and honest. While I believe a good athletic program is vital, sports should never be a higher priority than academics.

It is unfortunate that some of those who oppose my candidacy are telling folks that I hate sports and will try to do away with athletics if I’m elected. To their credit, they’ve not yet said I’m a terrible person. I expect that will come later this summer. So be it. I will never back down or apologize for telling the truth, and the truth is that public schools must always put academics ahead of athletics.

Until next time, may God bless you and your children.
Bob Mamrak