Hitting the winning basket as time expires to give your team a dramatic win in the playoffs - it's the dream scenario for any high school kid, right? Well, that's what happened to Josh Wiltz, as his short jumper at the buzzer capped a comeback from seven points down with two minutes to play and lifted Lafayette High to a 50-48 victory over Destrehan High this past weekend and a place in the quarterfinals of the Louisiana state boys' basketball tournament.
The Times-Picayune in New Orleans had a nice story about the game and an interview with Wiltz. What was remarkably missing from the piece, though, was the main piece of drama surrounding the game and Wiltz's status. You see, the young man had been arrested the previous weekend on a variety of charges, including illegal use of weapons, possession of marijuana, illegal use of a controlled substance and illegal carrying of a weapon, and his status for the game was in doubt.
Now, just because the kid was arrested the previous weekend for having drugs and guns, it would have been easy to suspend him - but that's called taking the easy way out. Instead, Lafayette head coach Clifton Brown decided to make the tough choice and let his starter play despite the arrest:
"He will play tonight,'' Brown said Friday afternoon. "It's an in-house matter. We know the story. The administration and the team fully support the decision. It was a situation that took place off the campus. As far as the school is concerned, we're going to wait to see how it plays out in the legal system.
"We've addressed it here, because he is a part of the basketball team.''
See! It happened off-campus, so there's no need for his school activities (such as basketball) to be impacted by it! Next thing you know, they be saying that you have to sit out of football games just because you, say, drag your girlfriend down the stairs by her hair during a domestic dispute. That's crazy talk, and missing the point.
Don't believe me? Just ask Lafayette High Principal Patrick Leonard:
"This particular student went to the coach and said this is what happened and 'I don't want the team to be hurt by it.' The first thought he had was about the team being affected," Leonard said.
Leonard said discipline is intended to change behavior, "not to ruin lives."
"But to instruct, teach and make them a better person," Leonard said.
As for Wiltz...he "offered his thanks to a higher power" after cutting down the nets after the game. Well, I guess the "higher power" only cared about them getting past the quarterfinals, because word came out today that Wiltz would not play for Lafayette for the rest of the playoffs. The Times-Picayune story also has a little more detail about Wiltz's initial arrest:
Lt. Craig Stansbury, spokesman for the Lafayette Parish Sheriff's Office, said Wiltz was the driver of a vehicle that was stopped and that Wiltz gave permission to have the vehicle searched. The search turned up a weapon, and a small amount of marijuana was found on Wiltz, Stansbury said.
It doesn't appear that any new evidence has come to light against Wiltz. One can only assume that the coaching staff and administration at Lafayette High came to their senses, and realized what a distraction it was to have Wiltz continue to play, and what a poor message it sent to his teammates (and any youth sports athlete) about discipline and staying out of trouble.
Either that, or Wiltz was a bad match-up against the other team, and he was going to be on the bench anyway.
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