Making the tough decisions

When the Aurora Huskies take the field Saturday against McCook in the Nebraska Class B state football playoff semifinals, it will be without three of their best players.

The Huskies won't have their leading rusher or their starting free safety in the lineup when the game kicks off at 4 p.m. CT.

This is because the young men decided that partying was more important than football -- even with a possible state championship on the line.

They were arrested and charged with MIP (minor in possession) of alcohol.

Aurora High School football coach Randy Huebert didn't hesitate when it came to making the right call -- the three players were suspended for the rest of the season.

"That's a tough situation," Huebert said in a an interview with KICX radio Thursday morning. "We just decided to move forward. Adversity breeds character. All of our guys stepped up (in a 35-0 win over Alliance)."

The Huskies missed the players in the team's victory over Alliance in the first round of the Class B playoffs, but their backups didn't miss a beat.

It might make a bit of a difference when the No. 2 Huskies host the No. 1 Bison in a battle of 11-0 teams.

But that's not the issue to Huebert. He was giving these young men a lesson in life.

This is understandable if you have ever met Randy Huebert.

He was the head football coach at Great Bend (Kan.) High School for five seasons from 1991-95. The Panthers won just 11 games during those five years -- now his Aurora teams win 11 games a season.

I covered Great Bend games for four of the five seasons he coached.

I know Randy Huebert.

So this decision doesn't surprise me because of the kind of person he is.

Huebert isn't the only high school football coach in recent weeks to make this kind of a decision.

A few weeks ago, the Pretty Prairie (Kan.) High School football coach asked the 23 players on the squad if they had been staying true to the no smoking/no chewing/no alcohol/no drugs policy the players signed before the season started. He wanted an honest answer from his players.

Sixteen of the 23 players raised their hands and admitted they had violated the policy.

The coach thanked his players for their honesty and made the decision that those players would be suspended for violating the policy.

Since the decision left the Bulldogs with seven players (the team plays eight-man), the school had to forfeit the remaining three games of the season -- all district contests.

If you listened to "Paul Harvey News" Thursday morning, Harvey told the story of the Marquette High School team from Alton, Ill.

This has been a dream season for Marquette, a Catholic institution and the smallest school in their conference. The squad was aiming for a state title.

"This was the best team the school ever had," Harvey reported.

However, 16 team members were suspended for the rest of the season for drinking at a party "sponsored" by parents.

By the way, this is a common problem -- not just in Nebraska but in other states as well. There is a school of thought by some parents that if they "supervise" a party for kids and serve alcohol, it's much better than if the kids went out and partied somewhere else.

But in some states, if someone gets killed by a drunken kid who was at one of those parties, the parents "sponsoring" the party will be charged with the crime.

During the next round of the playoffs, the 16 players stood on the sideline and cheered on the second- and third-stringers. The team lost the game.

High-profile NCAA Division I schools in the Big 10 and Big 12 Conferences are under fire for not taking action against their players for similar or worse behavior.

Coaches and presidents of those schools need to learn a lesson from Huebert and the coaches at Pretty Prairie and Marquette.

They need to do the right thing, even if it makes a few people mad.

Maybe the kids aren't the only ones that need to be taught a lesson in life.

John J. Mesh is the sports editor of the McCook (Neb.) Daily Gazette. He can be e-mailed at sports@mccookgazette.com.