Will they ever learn

You are 18. You are one of the top athletes in your respective sport. You are about to attend a major university (for free mind you) and be idolized by thousands of people. 

You decide to make a couple extra dollars selling drugs. You are an idiot and can remove the first part of this post and procede to the next part.

You are 18. You are on your way to jail and pissed away almost any future and success that you might have had. 

You are a jackass. The scholarship will be revoked and, hopefully, given to another student athlete that isn't an idiot. You are only 18 and deserve another chance, but I don't think that chance involves a full-ride to a university to participate in their athletics. 

Yep, the Vick boys HAVE NOT done well. Hall hasn't done anything more than run his mouth.......there are plenty of players that do that in the NFL. It doesn't make it right, but it doesn't make him a thug. And didn't you guys have that gun toting RB that was the star when you actually DID win a NC? Isn't he in a jail cell?

  I'm just glad this kid got busted before he actually started playing or even going to VT. It's a shame, but it's also happening at other universities........and it doesn't make sense. That's WHY they're going to school......to give themselves the opportunity to make money. Not piss it all away yto make a few bucks. Not very smart, and I'm glad he wont be in our program now.

Amherst HS is not an inner city school.  It's a fairly small rural school.  That makes this kid even more of a celebrity in his school and town.  One of the things that being a major sport star at any school, much less a small town school, is that they are given special treatment. 

Having been close to a state championship baseball team in a small town, I know that 2 of the star players were known to have drug issues.  They were even sent home by the coaches before a game when they showed up drunk and high.  The coach of the baseball team was also the Athletic Director of the school.  He had to know that these kids didn't have "the flu" like he was telling the rest of the team.  These kids were never disciplined any further than missing a game that was basically meaningless toward the overall success of the team.

My simple point is this...  We are creating a society where winning a championship is more important than the moral success of a person.  These two players on our baseball team were allowed to have their drug and alcohol issues go unresolved because winning a title was too important. 

Here's what happened to each of the two baseball players after our school won the state title.  Player #1 didn't have the grades to go to college and ended up helping his brother sell drugs and was arrested and put on probation the next year.  Player #2 went to college, made a Div II baseball team where he was later kicked off the team for failing a drug test. 

Coaches and Athletic Directors need to learn that letting a player continue to be a star despite their drug problems are not setting them up to succeed despite their problems, but are setting them up to have a bigger fall when their character issue flaws are discovered.  Parents need to realize that they need to be role models for their children (regardless of whether or not their kids are athletes or not) and show them that they can enjoy life and not use drugs.  And everyone needs to stop putting high school athletes on such high pedestals making the athlete to believe that are superhuman and above the law.