Dan Cromar / Roundup
Three weeks ago, the Pierce College football team set up what would ultimately be its championship winning game by defeating Valley College at home and reclaiming the Victory Bell from its cross-town rivals.
The Brahmas would eventually take their first conference title since 1985.
Despite all of this drama and buildup, it seems that Dean of Academic Affairs Nabil Abu-Ghazaleh is more concerned with our team’s reaction to their victory over Valley rather than the victory itself.
In a recent letter to the Roundup, Mr. Abu-Ghazaleh expressed his displeasure towards the Pierce players’ actions after the game, referring specifically to the way they charged across the field to retrieve the bell, as well as a remark by Head Coach Efrain Martinez related to the rivalry.
To quote the letter: “I would have preferred that he (Martinez) show hospitality and offer a handshake and a polite ‘Thank you’ for the return of the Victory Bell that we earned fair and square in a clean game.”
The quote to which Mr. Abu-Ghazaleh refers stated “If I had a daughter that worked in a brothel and a son that went to Valley, I’d get my son out first.”
While it is understandable that this could be interpreted as offensive, it is obvious that Coach Martinez did not mean this literally. It was simply meant as a humorous representation of the intensity of the rivalry between Pierce and Valley.
The accusation that the Brahmas acted poorly after the game, however, is completely off base.
This is a rivalry. Rivalries are based on intensity and the teams’ mutual dislike of each other. That’s what makes them so much more exciting than any other mathcup.
Look at the great rivalries in college football: Ohio State-Michigan, USC-UCLA, USC-Notre Dame, Georgia Florida, Oklahoma-Texas.
Do you think any of these teams would end a victory with a “thank you?” No. These teams play each other with fiery intensity and react to a victory as such. That’s the fun of it all, and that’s why people enjoy watching these games.
Why would anyone want to try to cheapen our Brahmas accomplishments by making irrelevant and frivolous accusations of unsportsmanlike conduct when they acted the same way any other team would in the same situation?
Mr. Abu-Ghazaleh also admitted that he did not even attend the game. How can he possibly make these claims if he was not on hand to witness them?
The team did not act in an inappropriate manner, and the actions reported in the Roundup were not meant in any way to imply that they did.
This team has earned something that no other football team at Pierce has earned in 24 years. While that does not make them infallible, they should not be attacked for having intensity and heart.