"Seriously. What the [insert your choice of swear word here]!?"

The title is borrowed from someone else. It was too good not to use, so my thanks.

Lebanon scares me:

LEBANON — Lebanon High School coach Rob Allen is among the latest residents to publicly ask the Lebanon School Board to bring back Bo Yates as high school athletic director.

...

Allen, who coaches varsity football and track and field, spoke at last week’s school board meeting, urging board members to reverse superintendent Jim Robinson’s nonrenewal.

He encouraged board members to renew the contract “to make sure our vision for this community can continue.”

This is bizarre. I would not expect the football coach to make such a public statement in this kind of situation, especially since Yates has the complaint lodged against him with the TSPC.

In fact, I am kind of curious why Allen made the statement. Occam's Razor suggests that Allen was just being honest, that he really does want Yates back as AD because he thought he did a good job. That's certainly possible, but I have a hard time believing that Allen didn't consider the fallout of his statements given the context in which they were made.

Perhaps Allen is so confident that Yates will be reinstated in the long run - whether or not Robinson eventually gets sacked - that he doesn't think any negative fallout will overcome the positive reaction he surely got from parents.

Or Perhaps Allen really wasn't thinking at all, and he just put himself in a tough spot. If Robinson is really as vindicative as his opponents claim, then surely Allen would be afraid for his job after making comments like that, right? Unless, of course, Robinson isn't actually that vindicative.

Maybe Allen sees the fallout but doesn't really care about it, since he's still high from coaching such a successful team last year. I can see wanting Yates back very badly if Allen is convinced that Yates was successful to the team's success.

In any case, there is one aspect of this that I find interesting. My understanding is that Robinson is well within his rights not to renew Yates' AD contract, especially given the very real need to have him full-time at Seven Oaks as an assistant principal. I had wondered previously why Robinson didn't offer Yates the AD job and find a new person for Seven Oaks, but maybe the complaint lodged with the TSPC by Robinson is the missing reason. Put in that light, his decision sounds entirely reasonable. In fact, given the potential outcome and severity of the complaint, it's possible that Robinson is being generous in not getting Yates out of the district entirely.

The tough part is that it's kind of hard to claim that Yates had nothing to do with Warrior Football's success last year. Even so, Robinson is well within his rights in letting go someone who allegedly broke quite a few rules. This is sounding more and more like a case of folks confusing their hatred of Robinson's style with his actual policies.

Or (and I think this would be worse) this sounds like people are so focused on the success of football in Lebanon they are willing to behave very poorly to get it.

This is Oregon, not Texas. Lighten the hell up, people. Football should not be exalted over all other sports here. And Yahweh help us all if this is really all about football. I think I'll start telling people I'm from the Lebanon in the Middle East. It'll be easier.

UPDATE: I just had a scary thought. If this really is about football, then Alexander is actually a pawn, and not a leader. He'd be a figurehead. Small-town roots do run deep...