As cliche as it is, you can almost always expect athletes at the postgame press conference to blame themselves for the loss.
The more heartbreaking the defeat, the more they’ll usually talk about how they could’ve executed a play differently, how it wasn’t anyone else’s fault and how they could’ve done more.
Why shouldn’t we expect the same attitude from coaches and athletic administrators?
This Sunday, ESPN released an enterprise story titled “Track and Fear” about Baillie Gibson, a female thrower from the University of Arizona, who was threatened and harassed by her coach Craig Carter while she was a student there.
Carter sent threatening texts and emails before stalking Gibson at her home, ESPN reported.
The story details how administration and coaches had suspected something was amiss, even calling a further meeting with Carter, but did not investigate the matter further.
Gibson would reveal everything to police two years later, and Carter was arrested.
The tagline of the feature was: “Could the school have stopped him?”
The answer, in not only Gibson’s story but every other similar case out there, should be yes.
These students trust these coaches, many of whom recruit them with promises to help them grow into a better athlete, student and person.
They promise parents and families around the country that these students are like their own children, whom they’ll take under their wings during the players’ college years.
Breaking these promises shouldn’t be taken lightly, but those who do are rarely held accountable.
Arizona’s track and field director Fred Harvey has not faced any repercussions.
The Wildcats’ then-athletic director Greg Byrne isn’t with the program anymore – because he, essentially, got promoted.
Bryne, who would not comment for ESPN’s story, is now the athletic director at the University of Alabama.
It isn’t just Bryne or Harvey either. Few coaches or administrators are truly ever held accountable for what happens under their watch or answer questions about how some of these crimes could have happened.
Former Baylor football coach Art Briles and Oklahoma football coach Bob Stoops are some of the few that have shielded scandals for as long possible.
How can you trust coaches with mentoring young adults when they condone sexual assault, stalking and physical violence?
For Gibson, her family and friends, they’ll always wonder if administrators could have done more in the three years she hid her story.
It shouldn’t be that way though.
It should have been “Why didn’t the school do more?”