Things you just don't do

Once upon a time I saw a high school girls basketball coach get booed by a team he wasn't even playing.

Actually it was fans of that team, and it was at the state finals back in the single-class days. Those fans were there to cheer on the area team I happened to be covering that day, and which was playing in the second afternoon game. But the aforementioned male coach, and what he was doing, was not something they were willing to let go, no matter how casually invested they were in a game that didn't involve their girls.

What this coach was doing, see, was manhandling his players.

Grabbed at least one of them by the arm as she came out of the game. Shoved her down on the bench. Did something similar several times to several other players.

"That's terrible!" the area fans shouted.

And also: "Get your hands off her!" 

And also various and sundry other boos, catcalls and expressions of look-at-this-jerk outrage.

I'm remembering all this (best that I can after so many years) because of something that happened in upstate New York the other day.

It also happened in a state finals game, and it also involved a male coach. His name is Jim Zullo, and he's 81 years old and in the state's Hall of Fame. His team, Northville High School, had just lost. And one of his players, Hailey Monroe, was crying, as kids will do when they're in high school and every bad day feels like the worst day in the history of the world.

Zullo apparently either didn't understand that, or didn't like to see it. So he stepped behind Monroe and yanked her ponytail so hard it pulled her head back and prompted a teammate to get up in Coach's grill, presumably telling him not to do that.

As ever in a time when everything eventually winds up on video, there is of course video. Here it is.

The upshot was swift. Zullo was immediately fired, and almost as immediately got up in front of the microphones and minicams to publicly apologize to Monroe and everyone else involved. Said a coach should never, ever put his hands on one of his players, and if he could take back the moment when he did, he'd do it in a heartbeat. But he couldn't, and he accepted the consequences.

Me?

I think the guy is absolutely right.

I think you don't get to be a Hall of Fame coach without knowing where the boundaries are, and without knowing when you've crossed them. And recognizing that when you do, you get what you get -- no matter how momentary the lapse.

All those years back, a certain fan base at a certain girls state finals game understood that. But you know who didn't?

The coach they were booing. 

And his administration, because as far as I know Coach remained the coach.

And at least one of his colleagues at the scorer's table, who turned around, glared at that certain fan base and said something along the lines of,  "They don't get it." 

Sorry, buddy. But you're the one who didn't get it.