What would you do as a college coach?

This new series of articles talks about a incident that may or may not have happened and what the college coach should do about it. If these situations are not real, they will be realistic stories that are not completely fabricated. Being a college coach is a tough job and they have to make tough decisions. Here is one of them.

During the AAU season, an athlete has a great showing on the circuit. He ends up getting a scholarship from your program and eventually commits. While it may have been from lack of other offers, he eventually signed with your program in the fall. Early in his high school season, he gets arrested for a DUI. That is his third strike as an athlete and is kicked off the team. As a college coach, what do you do now?

Keep him
The reasons why he should be brought to school are pretty simple. The first is that he has already signed his Letter of Intent and it may not be easy getting rid of him. The next is that kids make mistakes. Yes, he has done it multiple times but you must realize that 18 year olds do dumb things. He did get caught up how do you know sitting out all year has not taught him his lesson?

If the athlete was currently on the roster, chances are slim that they would actually kick him off the team. They would discipline him and keep a shorter leash on him. The college coach saw him disciplined by the high school coach and will keep the soon to be freshman on a shorter leash as well.

It is pretty obvious that kids mess up at times. If this kid is truly sorry, which it appears he is, then he should be given a second chance.

Get rid of him
The first argument for getting rid of him is that if he cannot control his drinking in high school, would the freedom of the college atmosphere really help him? This was his third strike against him so he obviously has issues. And now he is not only getting caught of drinking, he is also driving at the same time. He could have caused some serious harm to himself and others.

When people are trouble makers and they get in trouble three times over a short time span, chances are good that this person has done it multiple other times but not gotten caught. Unless he is the unluckiest person alive, chances are great that he has driven drunk before. And how many times has he drank?

The athlete needs to realize that he has the rest of his life to drink. He may need counseling or some sort of help but the last thing that he needs to do is leave home and get to a college campus where partying and drinking is the norm.

What would you do?
If you were the college coach, what would you do? The high school coach had the toughest task of kicking him off the team. But do you honor that Letter of Intent or have him move on?