He said, she said and Vandebilt Catholic High School

The past week has been hectic — one of the more hectic ones in my career here at The Times.

We’ve gotten so many calls, texts, emails and social media messages about the situation regarding former Vandebilt quarterback Andrew Robison that it was literally impossible to return them all, so for that, I apologize in advance.

The Robison situation is difficult because it involves a kid being placed in a difficult position and that’s never anything that anyone roots for.

But, of course, there are rules and in the case between Hahnville, Vandebilt Catholic and the LHSAA, it’s pretty hard to deny that rules were violated, which is why we’re in the situation that we’re in.

I, as the Managing Editor of The Times decided this week that we would not run a story on this situation in our paper this week.

For one, things change so fast that by the time we put the paper to bed on Monday night, the entire picture could be different by Wednesday morning when we hit mailboxes.

And for two, I think this situation has overshadowed a lot of the good things that are happening around the local sports landscape, and to me, that’s unfair.

Andrew Robison is a senior and his final high school season is in question.

No matter who’s side you’re on, we can all agree — that’s a shame.

But if I, as the Editor of our newspaper, spent every second of my week dissecting every, single change in this case (and I easily could have, given how quickly things change), I’d have been neglecting the fine work of literally hundreds of local seniors who are doing things the right way and who deserve a little light to shine.

So instead of speculating and talking about the uncertain future regarding this case, I decided this week instead to tell you guys some things that I know. With these facts, I hope that you all can form your own unbiased conclusions.

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For starters, I know that the Vandebilt Catholic football program is made up of good people who have good intentions for the kids. Accusations have been made and I, quite frankly, don’t believe them to be true. Coach Jeremy Atwell is a good football coach and I believe he’s a good man. Has he been tough at times? Sure. What coach hasn’t? Do I think he’s ever been intentionally unfair to a kid? I don’t believe so. Over the past week, I’ve made friends with a lot of people in the Vandebilt community and several others I’ve known for decades. I trust these people. If something were crooked, I do not believe their children would be there. Words without proof hold little meaning. Just because someone says something, it does not mean that it’s true — especially when 100 others are backing up the other side.

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In addition to that, I would like to say that I now know why “the media” get a bad reputation from the masses. The coverage of the Robison case has been despicable. So much misinformation has been presented to readers and/or radio listeners and so much slant has been allowed to infiltrate into the story, which is clouding the waters. I am not a perfect reporter. God knows I’ve made mistakes. But one thing I have NEVER done and will NEVER do is let bias sneak into my work (except in my column where I am able to give my opinion freely). Some of the things that have been put out there are just shoddy work. We can do better. We should do better.

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I do not think the LHSAA has any “agenda” in this case. What does the LHSAA stand to gain suspending a prominent high school football player? Why should the LHSAA favor Vandebilt over Hahnville? I’ve heard on Twitter people talking about finances and how the LHSAA favors the “rich” private schools over the “poor” public schools. Poor? Have you guys ever been to Hahnville? It’s like a college campus. It’s gorgeous. The idea that the LHSAA favors any school over the other is crazy. Their job is to enforce the rules as they’re written. Maybe we can agree that some rules have to be made more lenient in some cases. But none of that applies to this case.

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I do know that I am happy for the Vandebilt Catholic football team. No matter what happened in the Robison case, none of that had anything to do with any of the players on the roster right now. This was homecoming week and instead of being able to focus on the joys that come with youthful bliss, this team had to be smothered with this cloud of uncertainty. And that’s just unfair. Thankfully, the Terriers overcame that adversity and rallied to come from behind against South Terrebonne to secure a homecoming win. I don’t root for anyone within the context of our paper. But I can admit that I was happy to see that result on Friday night.

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No matter how this shakes out, I do know that Andrew Robison is an awesome quarterback and I hope sincerely that he finds a spot at the next level. He’s handled this situation better than I ever could have at that age. That poise is scoring him a lot of points with college coaches, no doubt.

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If anything major changes, we will give updates. But for now, we’ll dedicate our pages to other things. There’s too much good going on to spend all our time talking about the one thing that’s not.

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