Barton’s suspension unfair, Draconian

The suspension of Lynn English basketball coach Buzzy Barton by the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association is about as unfair as anything having to do with high school sports we have witnessed in years.

That the gratuitous complaints of a principal from East Boston could lead to Barton being benched and the Lynn English basketball program humiliated, is an injustice.

It is an injustice to Barton, who has been the heart and soul of some of Lynn English’s greatest recent sports moments on the basketball court and it is an injustice to English Principal Andrew Fila, who has worked so hard to take English to the top.

Building a winning basketball program is made up of many ingredients for schools like Lynn English and East Boston High School.

Schools in post industrial cities like Boston and Lynn tend to have student bodies that change overnight like the wind. So too do the teams change as players transfer from one school to another, tending to specifically keep to the system that allows for transfers.

In the insinuation that Barton stole a basketball player from East Boston High School and somehow coerced the basketball player to come to Lynn instead of remaining in East Boston is ridiculous.

There is a criteria for such transfers.

We believe Lynn English always followed the protocol and the criteria.

However, when a principal from East Boston chose to make fantastic charges against Barton and others, the MIAA collapsed in his presence and did just as he asked.

If there is any irony in this it is what might be discovered by the MIAA if the records at all major contending basketball programs in Massachusetts were put under the microscope that Lynn English was recently subjected to.

What would be found?

That the fellow from East Boston doth protest too much.

Shame on the MIAA.

Those who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones.

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