The young men and women on our local sports teams are usually very well behaved — thankfully.

It’s something many local fans and even sportswriters take for granted, but after an incident at a local basketball game Feb. 3, appropriate behavior has a new meaning.

Cathedral High School was hosting Bogue Chitto High School in both teams’ final regular-season game of the year. The girls’ teams played first. With approximately seven minutes left in the second quarter, the Lady Green Wave and Lady Bobcat players suddenly rushed to their respective locker rooms.

We soon learned that several Bogue Chitto boys’ players had snuck into the Cathedral girls’ locker room and proceeded to steal more than $100 in cash and four cell phones from the Lady Green Wave players.

Understandably, the Lady Green Wave players were quite emotional the rest of the game. In addition to wanting to win, the girls questioned whether their belongings were going to be recovered or not.

Ginny Daggett, Cathedral’s lone senior, was supposed to be celebrating her final regular-season game with the Lady Green Wave on senior night. Instead, she was wondering if the $70 she had planned to spend on her senior prom the next night would still be there for her. Not to mention, her cell phone and three others were missing.

Eventually, the Bogue Chitto players confessed, and all of the Cathedral girls’ belongings were returned. On Daggett’s layup with 11 seconds left, the Lady Green Wave came back to win 46-45. Meanwhile, only five of Bogue Chitto’s seven boys dressed out, and the Green Wave boys had no problem against the Panthers, winning 66-32.

No charges were filed against the boys who reportedly stole the belongings, but Cathedral was scheduled to play Bogue Chitto again Tuesday in the opening round of the Region 7-1A tournament. The Bobcats were forced to forfeit that game, since three players were kicked off the team, and only four were left.

It’s not right to group the entire Bogue Chitto boys’ team together and call them all thieves. Contrary to the popular saying, a few bad apples don’t ruin the whole bunch. But the actions of the ones who did steal from Cathedral unfortunately cast a negative light on the school, when most of those children are probably good children.

Thankfully, to our knowledge, there have yet to be incidents like this one from a group of Miss-Lou athletes this year. Local coaches always say the same thing: We need athletics to keep these children busy and out of trouble. It’s been said so often that it started to become a cliché.

Well, Miss-Lou athletes by and large have been kept out of trouble. They’ve represented their hometown with class, which is a reflection of the coaches and faculty that are in charge of these athletes. No matter the sport, these boys and girls are being taught by good role models and are on their way to becoming good, upstanding adults.

If anyone doubts whether athletics has had a positive affect on our community and is something worth investing in, look no further than the results we’ve been getting. Athletics are working, and our community should continue to put time and energy into these children and young adults.

 

 

Michael Kerekes is the sports editor of The Natchez Democrat. He can be reached at 601-445-3632 or michael.kerekes@natchezdemocrat.com.