Waubonsie Valley soccer star Bri Rodriguez, perhaps the state’s top player from the two-time defending state champion, will miss the first four games of the season in order to serve a suspension related to an athletic-code violation.
She is not alone.
This is the time of year when a spring athlete’s transgressions from the offseason catch up after a quiet time of training during the fall and winter. Rodriguez’s violation apparently happened last summer.
Glenbrook North pitcher-first baseman Jimmy Schmidt will miss at least two-thirds of the season usually handed out to second-time violators. Glenbrook South volleyball middle hitter David Johnson is out for the first seven matches.
Different schools handle athletic-code violations in different ways, some have a hard number of games to be missed depending on the sport. Others use a percentage of games related to the sport. It all balances out because the different sports have different lengths to the season.
Kids make mistakes and end up serving their punishment. The good teams must learn to carry on without star players, if only for a short time.
