Sporting events are always about more than the score

Ever wonder if high school sports have gotten a bit out of hand? If you were still not certain, last week's ESPN national game between a tiny Ohio charter school and a Florida powerhouse program, both of which represented schools that were essentially founded to provide top-notch football competition and which ended with a 58-0 blowout by the Florida school should be the decider.

It turns out that the Ohio school is only three years old, founded by the head coach, and had played just TWO DAYS before this nationally televised "contest."

Everyone is embarrassed. The announcers early on recognized that the rosters they had been provided did not match uniform numbers and that the ten Division I prospects the coach had boasted about did not exist.

I have not even begun to get into all the craziness involved in this, but you might want to read this article to get some sense of it all.

What did not seem to rise to the level of "news" is the very existence of high school football programs that play national schedules and that act as feeders for hot shot college programs. Education officials in both Ohio and Florida should be ashamed and tax payers should be outraged. Neither will occur because this is America and, you know, freedom.

Back in the dark ages when I played high school sports, there were no club teams, no charter schools... heck, my high school did not have a weight room! I was able to play at a mediocre level in three sports, but that is now so rare as to deserve a special story in the local press.

My guess is that the new Ohio charter school will soon be disbanded. Good. But there WILL be a next time.

If there is money to be made, Americans always find a way.