Why ... Because I Guess...
Wow! Every time, it just seems every time - at least over the past 15 months or so when something of note is discussed on this forum, folks jump in and more pointedly jump to conclusions based on either unfounded assumptions or partial and/or misinformation.
This thread is a perfect example. I know in our house both of us are concerned for the safety of our son who is a first class man. I also expect all the parents who read this are too, but the way this thread veered off onto a set of posts that seem to me to immediately assume that the football team was going to be handled any differently than the rest of the regiment was surprising to me. I know I had some additional knowledge as I was originally planning to move a sailboat we have purchased from the USMMA Sailing Foundation down from KP to Annapolis this weekend (now working on plan B and very grateful to the entire waterfront staff for pulling our boat out of Hague Basin with many, many others over the past couple of days), but I didn't have any information about the special liberty, etc. other than what I got from my son via a cell phone call after I was already home about 280 miles from KP - so am really like the rest of you. I'll also grant it's probably different for parents of members of the Class of 2015 because I don't know when the Plebe Candidates were given their cell phones and allowed to call their parents but I'd guess it was sometime on Thursday as well.
My adds, pleas, and points to this thread are three-fold:
1) Back when I started reading this forum in 2008/2009 as my own DS was getting ready to/considering USMMA, it sure seemed like the posters and participants took a breath before they posted and they posted either fact or at least qualified and gave some background to their speculation, or they asked each other questions. I'd suggest that at least for me, that sort of effort made the overall information here more valuable and easier to find.
2) Jumping to conclusions about what is happening at the USMMA based on a single or even a couple of data points, even when they are coming from an individual midshipman, who may actually be your own child, is often unwise. As even some of the parents of the current Class of 2015 Plebe Candidates have probably already seen from the Dr Jekyl and Mr Hyde nature of some of their Sunday call conversations with their own DS/DD the perspective of a midshipman on even the same exact topic can swing wildly in a day or two. They (the Mids in the Regiment) live in a uniquely contrived environment, they are often over-tired - the pace is blistering - even for "old hand" members of the Class of 2012, they often do not get nearly enough sleep for days. BTW this will only get worse as the Trimester goes on. Top it off with all the rest of the stuff and at times they (our own DS/DD) are pretty much reactionary, raw nerve endings. For most of the 2015 parents, you'll see and sense this shortly at "Acceptance Day/parent's Weekend" - you'll also marvel in most cases at the change and the maturity level difference from the kids you sent off to KP what at that time will be just 10 weeks prior.
3) Finally a word on coaches, bandmasters, etc. at the USMMA. It cannot be said often enough just how fine a staff and special group these people are and as such we parents really need to step back and give them the benefit of the doubt. It takes a truly special person to lead a sports team or major extra-curricular program at ANY Federal Academy let alone either USCGA or USMMA where the Regiment of ~950 midshipmen, in addition to the rigorous academics and regimental programs field so many varsity sports teams and major programs like the USMMA Regimental marching Band. Coaches at USMMA tend to go two ways - stay a very, very short time and leave very frustrated or stay a very, very long time and retire knowing they contributed to the development and education of some of our nation's future leaders. We as parents probably cannot imagine how frustrating it must be to these folks who at another "regular college" would be able to handle everything with regards to their student-athletes entirely differently than they must do in order to ensure their teams achieve even a modicum of success on the playing fields usually competing against larger schools. As such, again please give these folks the benefit of the doubt, they aren't coaching at KP because that's where they will "get rich and famous". If they have been there more than a year or two, they are doing what they are doing because they have a love for what they do AND a big part of that is helping our sons and daughters develop into (to steal a phrase) "all they can be."
ANV and stay safe this weekend everyone.