Plagiarism 101

Hops was suspended from the team. He wasn't doing any work in a couple of classes, so I pulled the plug on him for five games. In the months leading up to Hops' suspension, I kept warning him that a major price would be paid if he didn't get his act together eventually. Instead of changing his tune, Hops decided to play a game of dare with me, figuring there was no way I'd suspend a starter. He was wrong.

It was a major blow to the team since Hops was our most versatile forward. At the time, he was second on the team in rebounding and our third leading scorer. His first game out we got destroyed inside by the defending regional champions. It was a close game throughout and we almost won, but their size was too much for us to overcome. I was tempted to play Hops knowing he had the size to neutralize one of their bigs, but the lesson would have been lost. I basically cut my nose to spite my face because we ended up losing that game by 8 points.

My players weren't happy with me. In their minds, I had robbed them of an opportunity to beat the defending champions. I wasn't happy with them either. The loss bothered me, but I was even more dismayed by their unwillingness to hold Hops accountable, or offer him help. They all knew Hops was failing classes and was in danger of being ineligible for the following semester, but nobody seemed to care. 

During the first few months of every season I continually tell my players that they are their brother's keeper. I share stories with them about friends in high school who helped me apply for college. I talk about the friend who hid my box of cloves when he began to fear that I was developing a bad habit. Every group I coach hears the same stories, but few of them internalize the message. Instead, they adhere to "every man for himself." All the while, they refer to each other as friends and rally around my pregame messages of playing like a family.

After practice one night, I pulled one of my leaders aside to talk about an intervention for Hops without realizing he had already attempted to help his struggling "brother."

Me: What is up with you guys? I don't understand. You all roll like a little army everywhere on campus. Y'all chill off the court. Don't you care that he's failing classes? 
Hershey: Of course I care. We need him to win. He's our only inside scorer.
Me: Okay then. Help me reach him. Your grades are good. Ask him to study with you.
Hershey:  I do try to help. As a matter fact, he had this paper due for class and didn't know what to write about, so he asked me for help.Me: Did you help him?
Hershey: Yeh. I had just did the same paper and got a "A" so I gave him my paper and told him to just copy it.