School sports leaders can inspire and demoralize: Color Us Connected

This column appears every other week in Foster’s Daily Democrat and the Tuskegee News. This week, Guy Trammell, an African American man from Tuskegee, Ala., and Amy Miller, a white woman from South Berwick, Maine, write about school sports, the best and the worst.

By Amy Miller

The superintendent of schools in our community has held a slew of impressive jobs. John Caverly has been coach to a high school football team and athletic director at more than one school. He moved on to become principal first at the Marshwood Middle School and then at the high school before taking on the role of finance director and finally superintendent of schools for the Marshwood District.But the role that impressed me most in Mr. Caverly’s ascent up the career ladder was his 2010 cameo performance in a middle school production of "Mary Poppins." Principal at Marshwood Middle School at the time, Mr. Caverly was not cast as the friendly chimney sweep, nor the stern but loving father, nor the cranky old banker.Rather, all 6-feet-plus of Mr. Caverly was cast in the role of the wind. Flowing tails trailing off his costume, the school’s top administrator looked more like a giant Tinkerbell than a former college football center as he blew Mary Poppins into and out of town.This, I thought, is the kind of man who deserves to go far in the education of young people. This is a man who knows how to win the hearts of a school community. I heard rumors Mr. Caverly was trying boost the arts in a town and country obsessed with high school sports, football in particular. I heard he wanted to support the young thespians.Turns out the teenaged Caverly had acted in every high school musical and talent show. His parents taught him to "take risks, to try and develop as a total person." When he failed to make the high school basketball team, he joined the cheerleading squad.

This month, Marshwood High School is inducting the charter members of its first Hall of Fame. When the athletic director approached the school about creating this form of recognition, Superintendent Caverly made sure he planned to recognize more than just the quarterbacks and goalies.

“The goal is to promote as many successes as possible,” Rich Buzzell, the athletic director, told the School Board members. It would recognize teachers and students who have excelled in the arts, music, academics and leadership. This seemed to offer some reassurance to those who did not believe high school sports is the only way to be a hero.

This charter class includes eight former student-athletes; eight people with achievements in academics or the arts; four athletic coaches; five administrators or staff members; and the members of the Marshwood Hawks football team that won the 1989 state championship.Perhaps in the future, an award-winning chorus or theater troupe will also make the cut. In the meantime, we need more principals who are willing to prance across the stage in support of arts and music.

By Guy Trammell Jr.

While attending Alabama’s first integrated public high school, I experienced being the target of a racial slur. As I crossed from one building to another, daydreaming, I heard shouting and turned to look. I saw our athletic director walking away in anger.

Racism is mental illness. Racist attitudes and behavior for centuries ignored the humanity of another person or group of persons inhabiting this same planet. (If I insulted my groceries because the store changed the shopping bags color, you would know I had lost my mind!)

In Common Ground we are white, we are Black, and we know a better way to live and interact. We know how to work together, explore together, dream together, create together, and also appreciate each other as human beings. (The contents are important, not bag color!)

Disagreement is one thing, and yes, in Common Ground we absolutely disagree at times. That is to be expected because we each are different people, which has nothing to do with skin color. And we never jab each other with insulting racial insults. What would be the purpose of that?

Well, at Auburn University the men’s head basketball coach sees a purpose for racial slurs, and on his X social media he called Vice President Kamala Harris “socialist” and “woke.” And if you don’t know, in the South “woke” is another term for insulting African Americans.

This coach disagrees with the vice president on some issues and scoring points of disagreement is expected, and yes, leaders get slam dunked by criticism. However, racial insults are completely out of bounds. Doing so leaves the court floor of decency.

But I suppose since Alabama removed all Diversity Equity and Inclusion offices across the state, this sewage behavior is now acceptable. Auburn’s coach feels free and above reproach to racially insult the person holding the second highest position in the country, and technically, the second highest position on the planet, vice president of the United States of America.

So disrespect and insults are what Alabama prefers to DEI?

Since 2014, this coach has been comfortable at Auburn University, free to insult, disrespect and dishonor African Americans. Which is amazing since Auburn’s star players through the years have been African Americans - winning games, keeping him employed. They deserve better.

DEI has left Auburn’s campus, so maybe the athletes (white, Brown and Black) need to “wake up” and leave as well. Diversity, Equity and Inclusion lives at Historically Black Colleges and Universities like Tuskegee University, and will honor, respect and care for them with open, welcoming, loving arms!

Amy and Guy can be reached at colorusconnected@gmail.com.

This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: Commentary: School sports leaders can inspire and demoralize