Football coach meant no harm
Our son is a member of the WCHS football team. We were at the game Friday night. Our son did not tell us of the halftime incident until we asked him after reading the paper.
After reading all your articles and listening to our son, we were sickened to know this unfortunate incident had occurred. We had already seen the improvements from the hard work of coach Tidwell and the team, and knew the damage the news of this would cause.
We still support Gerald Tidwell as the coach of the football team. Our hearts go out to the Pezzimenti family. We hope Mario recovers soon.
If this was our son, we would also be very upset. But from all accounts, this was an accident. We do not approve of what happened, but who among us has not done something that could have hurt someone if one thing had gone wrong? We are all human.
Obviously coach Tidwell is very sorry for what happened. He has apologized and has been punished, not to mention the embarrassment the publicity has caused.
Knowing his careless action has hurt a child will be hard enough to live with. Our team needs all the support it can get. We do not expect change to happen overnight. It will take a while to turn around our losing streak.
We feel coach Tidwell is putting more pressure on himself than what we in Warren County are putting on him. We were glad to see Mario at practice on Monday. He is playing for Warren County and the whole football team, not just coach Tidwell. He is an excellent player who we have enjoyed watching these past two years and is greatly needed. He is obviously talented and we would hate to have seen him perhaps give up a future scholarship.
We need to put this incident behind us and become the winning team we know Warren County can be.
Sincerely,
Rick and Rebecca Barnes
114 King St.
McMinnville