Jarring News About a Gifted Student Athlete

The News & Advance
Published: May 21, 2008

Somewhere in the sad story about the Amherst County High School star football player’s being arrested on drug charges, there’s a valuable lesson.

It’s not a complicated lesson. Yet, it is one that all students must embrace and understand. It’s a lesson they can’t ignore. And if they do, the result will be jarring. Maybe not as jarring as the news late last week of the arrest of Peter Rose, but jarring nonetheless.

The lesson is such a simple one. It should be doubly easy for any athlete, especially one who has worked as hard as he did to become an all-star in his sport.

The lesson? Play by the rules — on the field and off. On the field, those who break the rules have to answer to the man in the black and white stripes who is there to enforce them. Off the field, there is a much higher standard, one that’s often embedded in the rule of law.

The courts will decide Rose’s guilt or innocence. That’s not the point here. The point is that the young man put himself in harm’s way by being close enough to the undercover drug transactions to leave himself and his future at risk.

He is one of seven students who were arrested last week on drug charges after a 10-month investigation in which a sheriff’s deputy posed as a student. The undercover deputy, whom Sheriff Jimmy Ayers has declined to identify, was enrolled at the high school as a senior at the start of this school year. The record shows that she made 18 purchases from the seven students, and seven of those purchases were made on school property, according to authorities.

Rose led the Lancers to their second straight Group AA, Division 4, state football championship last December.

The gifted athlete has already paid a high price even for being associated with those who broke the rules. The arrest on two counts of distribution of drugs within 1,000 feet of the school, both felonies, and two counts of distribution of marijuana has cost him dearly. The football scholarship offer from Virginia Tech has been withdrawn. He had signed a letter of intent to play for the Hokies in February.

In withdrawing the scholarship offer, Tech football coach Frank Beamer alluded to rules and standards in a statement released by the university. “Each scholarship offer we make is contingent upon a number of requirements, one of which is maintaining the high standards required of each recruit in their community, school and on the football field,” Beamer said. “I am disappointed that this action was necessary.”

Rose had no problem maintaining those high standards on the football field, where he followed the rules and excelled. By all accounts, he acquitted himself adequately in the classroom. But he has let his community down by allowing himself to become involved with the illegal distribution of drugs. The courts will decide the actual involvement and set a punishment appropriate under the law if, in fact, he’s found guilty.

What is clear at this point is that he somehow believed he could get away with breaking the rules, that perhaps his exalted and praiseworthy performances on the football field put him above the law.

The rules of life can be tough at times. They have come down hard on 18-year-old Peter Rose. Let us hope that he has learned something about the importance of abiding by them. And let us hope that other students who aspire to follow in his footsteps on the football field or in other arenas will learn from this sad story.