To the Editor:
There were 20 eighth-grade boys at basketball tryouts for the Carrollton Warriors on Nov. 11. Six boys were not chosen including one who has played since he was in third grade for the Carrollton Warriors. Nathan Swonger has been a starting point guard since he began playing basketball. He was one of the players that helped his team advance to three championship games scoring 30 points in one of those games. He was also picked for the All Star games from third to sixth grade. My curio cabinet is filled with his trophies and medals. I am his mother, Mindy Swonger.
Why wasn’t Nathan chosen to play for the eighth-grade team? Because his coaches do not like him. Coach Keane said Nathan was lazy and selfish. In fact, the coach told Nathan he wasn’t chosen because of academics. The principal told me the coach only asked her about Nathan Swonger. The only black mark against Nathan was that he was kicked out of choir along with five girls (one a cheerleader who’s dad is a Carrollton coach) for giggling during class. His grades are good and he had perfect attendance this semester. Coach Keane’s son, an eighth grader at Carrollton, informed Nathan’s friends prior to the cuts, that Nathan wasn’t making the team. Nathan, knowing about this, still went into the try-outs giving 110%.
Coach Keane had Nathan on his eighth-grade football team. Nathan didn’t miss any games, but he didn’t get to step one foot on the playing field. In fact, when one of the starting player’s shoulder pad broke, Coach Keane told Nathan to take his pad off to give to the starting player. Even when the Warriors were way ahead of the rival team; and the second and third string players were sent in, Nathan stood on the sidelines. During football practice, Nathan asked Coach Keane if he could use the restroom. Coach Keane told him to go into town as far away from him as possible. Coach Keane threatened Nathan countless times during the football season that he would be coaching basketball and Nathan would not make the team. When Nathan was playing basketball in sixth grade, Keane was just a referee at the games. He told my husband and I he couldn’t wait to see Nathan play basketball for the high school. Why the sudden turn around?
I believe my son is facing discrimination because he is not from the closed-knit community of Carrollton. We moved to Augusta Township (a division of Carrollton) from Canton when Nathan was 4-years old. He attended the elementary school in Augusta until seventh grade. That is when he started to attend the Carrollton Middle School and that is when the trouble began. This discrimination is not just happening to Nathan, but to other children who move to Carrollton community from other locations.
I’m writing this in hopes to open the lid on small-town discrimination. Nathan had his hopes and dreams shattered when these so-called coaches didn’t allow him to play basketball with his team this year. It wasn’t because of academics, attendance, or lack of talent, but because he is an “outsider.”
Mindy Swonger
Augusta, OH
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