Upon Further Review: Pioneers have to pull together
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Many things go through a person’s mind when something like this happens. Some will forgive and forget, and you will always have a few who won’t.
Just to set the record straight from my own end of this whole situation, I don’t condone the actions of coach Tidwell — but I do support the man.
In what started as a halftime speech to fire his team up, one slip of his hand will hang over Tidwell the rest of his life. What happened with coach Tidwell happens every Friday night across the nation, but this time, a young man was accidentally injured — and for that one mishap a kind and honest young coach will have to try and put this accident behind him.
Coach Tidwell was suspended for one week, a punishment he himself admittedly felt was not severe enough, while making it clear he alone was accountable from his actions. He never tried to hide from the situation, and his main concern was for the health of his player.
I would like to give Pezzimenti and his family credit and support for talking things over with coach Tidwell, and for deciding to rejoin the Pioneer football team.
It takes a lot of guts and maturity on both sides to realize this was nothing more than an accident and coach Tidwell is very remorseful for his actions. I’m sure Pezzimenti and his family will need some time to let things settle down between themselves and coach Tidwell. And hopefully over the weekend they have come to realize this truly was an accident, with no intent to harm anyone.
This situation should never have happened, that is undeniably true. But it did, and we now have to be understanding on both sides, give all wounds time to heal, and move on.
Each and every one of us has done something in our life that we wish had never happened, or made a mistake that we couldn’t correct. And each and every one of us should remember that, and recall our own past mistakes, before we pass judgment on someone else.
We live in a society where we always assume the worst, and pass judgment before we truly understand the situation. But in this case, we must understand this was a staged act to get a team’s attention in the hopes of firing them up for competition, and that act ended with regrettable results.
Coach Tidwell has been coaching for 13 years, and has never been accused of any type of misconduct. From all indications, both during his process of applying and being accepted for the Pioneer coaching job, and during the past months of being associated with him while covering his team, Tidwell has never come across as anything but a fine person and a hard-working coach, who truly loves the game and only wants the best for the Pioneer football team. Friday night he was trying to play the “bad cop” role in a game of “good cop, bad cop,” and in the process accidentally injured one of his players.
Mario Pezzimenti is a fine young man, and a hard-nosed football player. He understands what it takes to win, and once again I congratulate him on sitting down with coach Tidwell and hopefully working out this situation.
Both sides have been hurt by this accident, and most of all, the Pioneer football team must now pull together as one family like it never has before.
It doesn’t matter about my opinion, or anybody else’s. The only people that matter in this situation are Tidwell, Pezzimenti, and the Pioneer football team.
There are no winners and losers coming from this incident, and hopefully we have all grown just a little bit over the past few days and will continue to support one another with patience and understanding.