Once Again “It’s For the Kids”
Anthony Bonner was recently introduced to the media to assume a new position within the public school system as the Director of Community Outreach for the district and oh by the way Head coach for the Vashon Basketball team. While the Director of Community Outreach is a more important position when it comes to affecting more kids, the title of “Basketball Coach” is what we were all there for. I’ll get back to that in a bit. The new code word in the on going public embarrassment that we call the St. Louis School Board and it’s leadership is “for the kids”. Both sides in this ongoing soap opera have never had “the kids” at heart. If “the kids” were so important, why has it come to the innuendo, back stabbing and mud slinging both publicly and privately?
School Board president Veronica O’Brien has not done much right in this saga. She totally mishandled the Floyd Irons situation where as with one year left in his working and coaching career within the district, she thought is was a good idea to end the party early by reassigning him to a near entry level position that Floyd would not have anything to do with, not to mention the creative clause that would prohibit him from ever coaching. Nice move. Couple with fact that reams of smear that surfaced about Irons that included everything but the rising and falling cost of gas. To date, nothing has ever been officially leveled nor proven, but the fact of the matter is this could have been handled behind closed doors. It wasn’t because too many people wanted to flex.
For Floyd Irons, to say he has his detractors would be an understatement. He has people who resent him on how he handles his business on and off the court. And with that resentment, comes trouble. His work in bringing success to a much needed school district when it comes to winning state championships has not been overlooked. How he and his program have arrived to that status has been under scrutiny for years. It has nothing to do with his coaching on the court. No one questions that but how things take place before and after the games has made some wonder. Irons can be tough, caustic, not to mention hard to understand at times. With that brings a crack in the door that has allowed his critics to pile on and in, which is deserved in some cases. Floyd lost this battle the night he thought it was a good idea to protest in front of Veronica O’Brien’s house. It was game, set, and match at that point. If the tables were reversed, Floyd would have deep sixed Veronica, no questions asked.
The war between O’Brien and Irons has been unfortunate. It has dragged down a lot of people. It has been a waste of time and money on both parts and we have not heard the last from either although both have selectively elected to go the “no comment” route when it comes to an official statement. It will become more of a side show, but that is where it should now be… on the side.
If it is “for the kids”, then the focus should be on what Anthony Bonner has to do. The Outreach position is brilliant. He will have a chance to infuse new blood, ideas and connections to try and save a few kids early and hopefully it can be contagious. Bonner is a bright guy who figured it out long ago. It was never about posing for photo opps and standing at check presentations nor was it about letting everyone know what he was doing. He just went out and did it. He knows how to work under the radar and work his will. His work ethic has never been questioned, be it on or off the court so this will not be a kick back and chill out position for him.
Bonner has a lot of people watching to see how he will proceed. He will be the first to tell you that this is a work in progress so we shall all learn together. He will need time.
On the coaching front, this will not be a great of a challenge as one would think. The reason why is that Bonner will not try to pick up where Floyd Irons left off. How do you pick up after a legend? It does not work. What Bonner could do is implement some of the same principles that he too learned from Irons and start from there. While Bonner and Irons have not spoken, the messages have been clear on how one feels about the other. The one thing they should both feel is something “for the kids”. They should have that in common.
As for Floyd Irons, if he were to some way get his position back to finish out a celebrated career, great. I am not sure that is in the works though. What Floyd does from here is up to Floyd. He has three options… Support one of his former players. Work against the decision to install Bonner as the person who shall follow him, or just walk away and find a way to continue to teach the principles of basketball which are still needed. Two of the three are not bad.
Anthony Bonner has been put in charge with a real challenge that he can succeed at. The work will be hard but that is something that Bonner has no fear of as Floyd Irons helped bring that out of him early in his basketball career. The support early has been staggering with people who want to help. Now he needs time, patience and prayer. You pick the order. It will be all good some day soon.
