<p>top-prep-football-prospect-expelled-for-x-rated-tweets-college-career-could-be-in-jeopardy… From the perrenial powerouse Don Bosco Prep in Northern NJ…his twitter account has been closed but from what i’ve read abut the tweets it was not only racial,but also x rated towards women…Michigan has withdrawn its interest, and i’d be surprised if Notre Dame doesn’t follow… This athlete was ranked 40 th best HS player in the country by one ranking… What a dope</p>
<p>I guess males of all ages never learn. :rolleyes:</p>
<p>Twitter has taken down a number of college athletes as well. You’d think that more coaches would ban its usage to prevent their non thinking athletes from self destructing.</p>
<p>Oh, that’s right, they didn’t recruit them to think…</p>
<p>;)</p>
<p>There was just an interesting article about Don Bosco in The New Yorker. I don’t recall this particular kid being mentioned, though.</p>
<p>I’m not criticizing the school’s decision to expel him, but I hate to see the entire course of a person’s life changed by something stupid they did at the age of 18.</p>
<p>I can’t imagine what he tweeted, but I pretty much object to the entire idea of Twitter. There is a definite tendency towards over-sharing these days, IMHO, and in some quarters an apparent feeling that the minutiae of one’s life and one’s every thought is newsworthy. Perhaps even that one needs the validation of the digital realm to really exist.</p>
<p>Consolation, I saw a link to his tweets. Very explicit, disgusting tweets. Very disrespectful of women and their body parts ;)</p>
<p>I saw many responses claiming that he was merely quoting lyrics from rap songs; therefore, since they are not his words, he is not responsible for them. Also, that “all 18 year old boys do this,” etc.</p>
<p>Apparently he was told 10-15 times (per a high school coach) to knock it off. He continued, they had enough, and expelled him.</p>
<p>One of my favorite things that I do is follow my favorite college basketball players on Twitter. They are wonderful, positive young men and I think the coach has made it clear what the rules are. </p>
<p>Here is a typical tweet from a young man who is known as “the most positive person on Twitter”.<br>
“Thankful for another day.”</p>
<p>The guys are fun, funny, supportive and appreciative.</p>
<p>I love Twitter and in 140 characters, there isn’t TOO much over-sharing. You have to understand what Twitter is all about. I am addicted to my Twitter feed and have loved getting to know others with the same interests.</p>
<p>I’m sorry some of these young athletes have such poor judgment.</p>
<p>Consolation…I read that New Yorker article. Not to hijack this post…but after finishing the article the only thought I had was …wow…child abuse in the name of football is not only sanctioned but encouraged and admired.</p>
<p>The article goes on to explain how the Don Bosco coach will give punishment to a player who bends over to retch due to over exertion (no signs of weakness allowed!). </p>
<p>Doing and exercise that seemed "to me like a recipe for concussions’…the coach yelled…
"’ ‘Run your feet’ and soon grabbed on of the players forcibly by the helmet, dragging him back to the goal line. "Again!’ he commanded "we’re going to ge the girl out today’. …Heads collided, and after a few more seconds of struggle, the players toppled. " The quote goes on using ‘getting the girl out’ as a metaphor. Big surprise the player doesn’t really value women.</p>
<p>The coach chastises a mother for telling him her son has a pulled hamstring and will not be able to practice. Dear Coaches response…until you told him he had a pulled hamstring he didn’t even know he HAD hamstrings. </p>
<p>There are other numerous examples, which if perpetrated by a non football coach upon a minor child would result in a visit by Child Protective Services.</p>
<p>And, as a Catholic I find it embarrassing and reprehensible that the administration of this school would allow this treatment of students…and then have a hissy fit regarding s*xting. Maybe the kid could use the 'I didn’t know right from wrong since I’ve been hit in the head so many times".</p>
<p>Dietz, i know the school well,and the headcoach…you have described the program and coach accurately…That said, this is a Bigtime HS football program,almost like a big college program…the goal is simply to be as good as possible, win at all costs…which of course is a terrible goal…Though any person in the program is well aware of the philosophy, so it is hard to feel bad for the players…What is the worst thing is this is a Catholic HS, so you’d think this wouldn’t go on</p>
<p>qdogpa
.</p>
<p>Again, from the article…here is the PRIEST giving a pep talk…“Jesus Christ will teach you a thing or two today. The first thing is, when Jesus was carrying that Cross, defeat was not in his mind. VICTORY was on his mind. The second thing, gentlemen, that Jesus Christ can teach us is that weakness was not in his heart. So, when you feel pain, when you feel like vomiting, when you feel nervous when you feel like you CAN"T no more, think about that”.</p>
<p>What the blazes! I’m sure JC himself is so proud. How can a parent subject their CHILD to this? It brings the Bruce Springsteen song ‘Glory Days’ to mind. Something most of these kids will be able to look back on (assuming no severe long term memory issues) as their glory days. This can be done while popping lots of NSAID’s to alleviate pain. Ohhhh and the parents will have great pics to frame and put on the mantel…reliving ‘the big game’ with their own friends until the day they do wheel chair races in the assisted living facility. You can’t ride a horse until it is 3 years old…it’s skeleton can’t take it. Yet, we can beat up 13 - 18 year olds and cheer the effort from the stands…hot dog, coke and school banner in hand.</p>
<p>My problem with Bosco is they insist on playing and winning championships against public schools. They should do what St Benedict’s did and drop out of the NJSIA. These schools that recruit have no business playing the local public schools.</p>
<p>Don Bosco is a football machine. Kids go there to be seen and recruited by the top D1 schools. It’s also known for other sports, but football is #1 and IMO, academics take a back seat. I have 1 degree of separation to the coach and he is tough; often rumors swirl that he will head to a D1 program. </p>
<p>I also saw some of the tweets and they are disgusting and graphic. Yes, he sent them from home, but it reflects badly on the school and I can understand why D1 schools backed away. What coach will want to deal with that headache next year? There are lots of top football recruits out there and it’s easy for a coach to move on.</p>
<p>Our school, a middling public, has had to play DB and others like it (Bergen Catholic, for instance), in the past. It’s hugely ridiculous and sets up regular schools and their students, who come from one small town instead of the cream of the tri-state region, to be humiliated. That NYer article was sickening.</p>
<p>garland- the star running back from St Peters Prep last year is from my town. We live at least 50 miles from the Prep. Now I will acknowledge that a Prep education is superior than the one offered at my local high school but he was not at the Prep for the education.
Let Bosco and St Peters and Bergen Catholic and St Joseph’s form a conference with other schools and compete against each other. No need to play Hackensack or Teaneck etc.</p>
<p>Same goes for basketball. There is a kid at St Pats that travels about 80-90 miles.</p>
<p>Tom–agreed. The playing fields aren’t simply uneven right now; they’re in two different universes.</p>
<p>Not just on the east coast. My state has 5 classes of football. In the state championships, 8 of the 10 schools were Catholic–in a state where going to private school is rather uncommon. Nothing against Catholics–it’s the fact they can recruit rather than take who is in their district. I have read some other states make such a school move up a class. I hope ND drops him.</p>
<p>To defend Bosco a bit, is they do play Nationally ranked opponents, it isn’t like they trounce the publics all season…But, i do think they should form a league with others of the same mentality,Bergen Catholic,St Joes, etc…Heck, even poor old Paramus Catholic has gotten caught up in the frenzy of ‘recruiting’,their hoops team has been very good in recent years</p>
<p>I have no issue with what they do except they should play schools that do the same thing.</p>
<p>St Benedict’s does it.</p>
<p>I do put St Peters in a different category than DB, as it’s the only Jesuit school in NJ. H went to one in a different state and we thought it might be good for S1, so we attended the open house when he was in 8th grade. It’s relatively weak in science and they swim (his sport) at the college, which would put him home after 8pm with a few train changes, so we passed. We have a friend who sent her son there for football and academics. He blossomed and probably would have sunk academically at our public HS.</p>
<p>I have nothing against these schools as schools, but I think as Tom says they should be separated in sports since they draw from different size pools (one town vs the entire tri-state area.)</p>
<p>Agree they should be in their own league. I don’t understand the sport league groupings in NJ. I’m from the DC area where the private schools (boys & girls) only played private schools in all sports. My school was in suburban MD and we traveled to DC & VA for games. Interestingly, all swim meets were held in the evening at National Cathedral’s pool in DC, so no one had home field advantage.</p>