Locker Room: Ferrum ‘extremely beneficial’ for Cougars

      For three days and nights last week, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, Pulaski County’s football team was at Ferrum in Rocky Mount for a three-day football camp. There were a number of teams there, but the primary teams in the Cougars’ section of the camp were Dinwiddie and Lord Botetourt, and Liberty-Bedford also saw some action. Dinwiddie is a strong Class 4 playoff quality team almost every season, and Lord Boty’s goal this year is to win the Class 3 state title and anything less will seem like a failure. So the opposition was considerable and the opportunity to learn about the team was obvious. Cougar head coach Stephen James was very pleased with the camp and his 2019 Cougars.

     “The staff believes the camp was extremely beneficial. The kids got some good work against good competition. The camp also gives the guys some time to bond as a team, while getting good work. It allowed some of the players to see where they need improvements as well as the coaches.”

       The Cougars finished the camp strong, and it was another step toward a season of promise. “I think we got better over the three days,” said James. “Obviously depth along the offensive and defensive lines is a concern, but overall we are very pleased after the camp and we returned home healthy. Really happy with everything for the most part,” added James.

      To have a totally satisfying football camp good food and plenty of it is required. Cougar football players were pleased with the food. It was buffet style which football players tend to enjoy. Of 10 football players polled, spaghetti was the most impressive entrée at the camp.

       Pulaski County coaches will not push the squad hard this week, and will concentrate on work in the weight room. Friday begins a 10-day break over the 4th of July. So for the next two weeks, the Cougars will get a lot of rest.  Next action on the field will be the Saturday, August 17th “Harvey’s Touchdown Classic” in Dobson Stadium when the Cougars will do battle with both Bluefield and Magna Vista. That event will begin at 11 am.

       On Tuesday afternoon Virginia got its third football commitment in a week. First Ira Armstead, a quarterback committed, then it was tight end Joshua Rawlings, and then athlete Dave Herard from Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. Herard took the Cavaliers over Indiana, Syracuse, Utah, BC, Marshall, Maryland, Minnesota, and South Florida. All three recruits have a 3-star rating. UVa’s class of recruits for 2010 now moves up to 44. West Virginia is 48, and Virginia Tech 81.

       It was a bit of a battle. When I was in high school girls were cheerleaders, president of the pep club, and played in the band. That certainly didn’t make them any less appealing, but slowly times changed. Women wanted the right to compete on the field of athletic competition. Eventually the government put Title IX in place. It guaranteed high school, and college girls the opportunity to play basketball, run track, play softball and all sorts of things. Just like the guys competed against the guys, the girls would do the same against the girls. A level playing field.

      In the beginning and still in large part today, girls sports are not profitable undertakings, but they still must be provided by law. However, girls basketball is one sport that has grown considerably. It has turned into easily the female sport with the most fan appeal. I enjoy it. History also shows that the first people that played basketball in America were the girls. My mother played for the George Wythe girls basketball team in 1942. Pulaski County once went 11 years without winning a basketball game. Nobody really cared. Now they do. But the level of competition in all areas of female sport has improved a great deal. But the level of play is not the most important thing. The opportunity to play, and compete is, but fairness will soon be the big question.

      The spirit of Title IX is being compromised. Transgender athletes are coming on the scene and the impact in some states is likely far greater than people around our rural county realize. The same people in government that championed Title IX have done the same for transgender athletes. Can you really be one thing one day and something else the next? I don’t fully understand the process and frankly don’t want to. I just know I disagree with it.

       A person with male genes can identify themselves any way they wish, but if we’re talking about female competition they have a distinct advantage. Men are bigger, stronger, faster. That’s a fact and there’s nothing any legislation can do about that. In the state of Connecticut every event in the state high school girls track and field meet was won by a transgender, somebody who was once considered a male.

      Simple question. You are the father and mother of a young girl and she strives hard to compete and accomplish, and she comes up short because she cannot overcome somebody who was once a male, but because of legislation, can now be considered a female. I’d be hotter than a two-dollar pistol. Yes, it could happen right here in Pulaski County!

       If you live long enough you see things go round and round, particularly in politics. And now the very government that created Title IX so that young girls could have a level playing field and compete against themselves athletically, has shot Title IX right between the eyes.

      This is eventually going to turn into a big fight, and it should. Trying to be all things to all people sounds nice, but it never works because it’s not possible. And often it seems like it takes our congress 10 years to digest its lunch. Our country is being crippled by “political correctness.”

      Maybe one day we will get back to making decisions based on common sense. Maybe on this issue. Maybe. Hopefully. But for the time being until somebody somewhere does the right thing, I wouldn’t blame the girls for simply one day not showing up. They’re being dumped on. And what those before them worked so hard to attain, is being abused. Time to go to battle. If that battle is not won, the level playing field for female athletes will be gone.