weberwildcat
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http://www.greatfallstribune.com/article/20091023/OPINION01/910230320/Time+for+UM+s+Coach+Hauck+to+end+the+stonewalling+act
Time for UM's Coach Hauck to end the stonewalling act
October 23, 2009
The game is violent, and the people who play and coach it need to be tough, right?
As fans ourselves, we'd agree with that — on the field.
But from time to time violence extends beyond the field to a campus, a nightclub, or a home, and in those cases it is obviously unacceptable.
That's why two players for the University of Montana's football team were suspended from a game earlier this season — they allegedly beat up a fellow student at a fraternity last spring.
That's also why most readers thought it was good journalism early in the current school year when the Kaimin, UM's student newspaper, reported on the incident and gave the story context by listing nine other publicized incidents involving Grizzly players in the past couple of years.
Ironically, as was explained in a Kaimin editorial by Sports Editor Roman Stubbs, the Kaimin's reporter last month wasn't originally intending to write a major story about the incident.
"In reality," Great Falls native Stubbs wrote, "when Trumaine Johnson and Andrew Swink were unavailable against Western State, the student-run Kaimin was just looking for confirmation that the players were suspended for a violation of team rules and a nod that the matter was being handled internally. Neither came."
What they got instead was an obscenity, followed by stonewalling: Coach Bobby Hauck not only refused to talk to the Kaimin for that story, but also refused to talk to the Kaimin about any story. Further, no one else associated with the program is talking to the Kaimin.
As an example of the result, the typically nice pre-game publication produced on football weekends by Kaimin staff — a kind of football program called "GameDay" — a few weeks ago carried a cover story about the team that was visitingMissoula for UM's homecoming.
"This arrangement is not what the Kaimin would prefer," wrote Kaimin Editor Allison Maier, explaining what some fans might consider to be an insult, "and it's probably not what the students and community members who seek out GameDays would prefer either. But it will remain this way unless Hauck and his players decide to talk to Kaimin reporters again."
Yeah, we know: These flaps happen all the time, and it's just a game.
But it's a game attended by upward of 26,000 rabid fans on autumn afternoons in Missoula. It's a game that, on its good days, symbolizes the kind of achievement the state's university system loves to advertise.
These have not been good days for the UM program; the symbol of excellence is tarnished by Hauck's silly boycott of student journalists whose stories' accuracy has not been questioned.
It's time for this dust-up to end. UM plays good football, and the team includes many great young men. But nobody likes a bully.
Time for UM's Coach Hauck to end the stonewalling act
October 23, 2009
The game is violent, and the people who play and coach it need to be tough, right?
As fans ourselves, we'd agree with that — on the field.
But from time to time violence extends beyond the field to a campus, a nightclub, or a home, and in those cases it is obviously unacceptable.
That's why two players for the University of Montana's football team were suspended from a game earlier this season — they allegedly beat up a fellow student at a fraternity last spring.
That's also why most readers thought it was good journalism early in the current school year when the Kaimin, UM's student newspaper, reported on the incident and gave the story context by listing nine other publicized incidents involving Grizzly players in the past couple of years.
Ironically, as was explained in a Kaimin editorial by Sports Editor Roman Stubbs, the Kaimin's reporter last month wasn't originally intending to write a major story about the incident.
"In reality," Great Falls native Stubbs wrote, "when Trumaine Johnson and Andrew Swink were unavailable against Western State, the student-run Kaimin was just looking for confirmation that the players were suspended for a violation of team rules and a nod that the matter was being handled internally. Neither came."
What they got instead was an obscenity, followed by stonewalling: Coach Bobby Hauck not only refused to talk to the Kaimin for that story, but also refused to talk to the Kaimin about any story. Further, no one else associated with the program is talking to the Kaimin.
As an example of the result, the typically nice pre-game publication produced on football weekends by Kaimin staff — a kind of football program called "GameDay" — a few weeks ago carried a cover story about the team that was visitingMissoula for UM's homecoming.
"This arrangement is not what the Kaimin would prefer," wrote Kaimin Editor Allison Maier, explaining what some fans might consider to be an insult, "and it's probably not what the students and community members who seek out GameDays would prefer either. But it will remain this way unless Hauck and his players decide to talk to Kaimin reporters again."
Yeah, we know: These flaps happen all the time, and it's just a game.
But it's a game attended by upward of 26,000 rabid fans on autumn afternoons in Missoula. It's a game that, on its good days, symbolizes the kind of achievement the state's university system loves to advertise.
These have not been good days for the UM program; the symbol of excellence is tarnished by Hauck's silly boycott of student journalists whose stories' accuracy has not been questioned.
It's time for this dust-up to end. UM plays good football, and the team includes many great young men. But nobody likes a bully.