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CLOUDY Temp: 45 °F Wind: CLM at 0 mph Wednesday, February 19, 2003 SECTIONS Home Page Local News Sports Business Obituaries Life Opinion - Politics AP News Weather Classified Archives Site Map EXTRA HomeLife Magazine W3 Magazine Jobs @ Mail Tribune Tempo A & E Oregon CarZone Wellness Connection Real Estate Newspaper in Education Prime Times Outdoor Journal Personals Movie Times TV Times E The People CLASSIFIEDS Find a Car Find a Home Find a Job Find Everything E SOUTHERN OREGON Automotive Communities Entertainment Publications Recreation Calendar ABOUT US FAQ What's New Advertise Home Delivery Classified Ad Contact Us Media Kit Email Story to a Friend January 21, 2003 Use of coach’s quote raises ire, questions Prep Notebook By DON HUNT Mail Tribune The Mail Tribune has taken some heat this past week after publishing remarks from Roseburg High girls basketball coach Bob Feasel following the Indians’ thrilling, 46-45 victory over Ashland last Tuesday. With the score tied at 45-45 and just 0.2 seconds left on the clock, Roseburg junior post Katie Fuller was fouled going up for a shot. She missed the first free throw and then made the second to seal the outcome between the top two teams in the Southern Oregon Conference. Afterward, Feasel told reporter Tim Pyle, "I don’t know how the hell that kid made that free throw. She’s a good free-throw shooter, but, Jesus Christ, you talk about some pressure." I had been in Ashland that night covering a college game. When I picked up the paper the following morning and read the quote, I said to myself, uh oh, now there’s a bomb that’s going to explode in several places. And it has. Feasel was suspended for Roseburg’s following game — a 63-34 victory over Klamath Union on Saturday. Pyle received several nasty e-mails, M-T sports editor Tim Trower got more than one phone call demanding an apology or a retraction, and two radio play-by-play sportscasters — Brian Prawitz of Roseburg and Randy Adams of Klamath Falls — lambasted Pyle and this newspaper on the SOCTODAY.com Web site for having the audacity to print such a passage. The Roseburg News Review also came out with a big piece Sunday detailing the incident. Some questions to ponder: 1) Did Pyle have a right to quote Feasel verbatim? Of course he did. Feasel made his comments in front of a tape recorder. This is America, land of the First Amendment and all that goes with it. 2) Does this newspaper generally quote a person in that fashion? No. There are certain words, once prohibited, that find their way into print these days, but Jesus and Christ aren’t among them. Rest assured the term won’t reappear in our sports section any time soon. 3) Should a writer cut a coach some slack in the heat of the moment? It depends, but generally speaking, yes. If a coach is hopping mad after an official costs his team a game, he might say something he would deeply regret 10 minutes later. I’ll usually say something like, hey coach, are you really sure you want to say this? If he then says, "You’re damn right! And you can print that," then we’ve come to an understanding. In the case last week, Feasel was highly excited rather than angry, and Pyle felt that using the quote in its full context would add emphasis to its meaning. What Pyle didn’t know was the uproar it would cause afterwards, or he wouldn’t have used it. Bash him all you want, but I’ll say this much: In my 27 years in this business, the reporters and sportscasters I’ve admired the most — people like Jim Murray and Howard Cosell — are the ones who have the guts to tell things as they see them, without fear of reproach. You can wholeheartedly agree or vehemently disagree with people like that, but you always know where they stand. Almost lost in this whole mess is the issue of whether a coach should have a license to use profanity in front of his players. Should a football coach be allowed to swear like a drunken sailor in front of his players following a poor performance, when a similar diatribe by the school’s biology teacher would get him fired? The answer is no, and yet there are a lot of coaches in this valley that routinely use foul language and think nothing of it. "I talk to my coaches every year about that topic," says Roseburg High football coach/athletic director Thurman Bell, who levied the suspension against Feasel. "Coaches are role models, and when they’re out there cussing and swearing, they’re not setting a good example for the kids." Bell has also told his coaches that any time a reporter has his notebook or tape recorder out, anything they say is fair game. "You like to think a reporter will cut you a little slack, and when you get to know them personally, you realize which ones will and which won’t," says Bell. "If I say something in the heat of the moment and then say, ‘Hey, that’s off the record,’ I would hope the guy would honor that." If only Feasel would have added those five words. "The way I see this whole thing, everyone can learn from it,’ Bell says. THE GREATEST wrestler in the history of the Rogue Valley has finally been honored by his alma mater. Les Gutches, a 1991 South High Medford High graduate, was handed a plaque commemorating his feats as a three-time state champion, two-time NCAA champion (at Oregon State), world champion and Olympian. Gutches was honored during a dual meet at South last week. "This was something that was long overdue," said South Medford wrestling coach Ken Thompson, who took over the program last season. "There was never an intentional snub or anything like that, but there hasn’t been much of a connection between Les and this school for the past several years." The plaque will be displayed in the South Medford gymnasium lobby area. Reach reporter Don Hunt at 776-4469, or e-mail [email protected] Printer Friendly Version Email Story to a Friend Subscribe Archive: Click to Search M Mail Tribune Home Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life Opinion - Politics | AP News | Archives | Site Map E Southern Oregon | Classified Copyright 1997-2002 Mail Tribune. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy web master feedback A D V E R T I S E R S