Is Hitler a good motivator for athletes?

[Mermaidman]

Apparently, someone at a North Carolina school thought that playing a Hitler speech on the PA at the stadium would help the team . . .

Pregame Hitler speech stirs fury

LANGSTON WERTZ JR.
lwertz@charlotteobserver.com

[edited for brevity]
When Charlotte Catholic's boys' soccer team got to Forestview High School in Gastonia on Saturday night for an N.C. 3A playoff game, the Cougars heard something over the public address system they never would've expected: A 90-second portion of a speech from Adolf Hitler. "We were warming up," said Catholic coach Gary Hoilett, "and all of us stopped and looked up at the booth. We were just real shocked. It was obviously a Hitler speech. The voice was coming across clearly. Everybody knew."

Forestview's players took the field after the speech ended. But before the game, Hoilett said, some Forestview players were chanting something in German that means "On to victory," according to one of his players who speaks German. Hoilett, who is black, said that during the game some Forestview players directed racial epithets at his two black players. "It was one of the worst things I've seen," Hoilett said of the speech and the racial epithets.

Monday, Forestview Principal Robert Carpenter met with Gaston County Schools Superintendent Reeves McGlohon, Gaston County athletics director Butch Adams and Forestview soccer coach David Shearer. After that 40-minute meeting, Carpenter faxed a letter of apology to Charlotte Catholic officials. In the letter, Carpenter confirmed that a CD containing a Hitler speech was played over the PA system. He called it inappropriate. He said he was at the game but did not hear the clip. Carpenter said that it was the first time it had been played and that Shearer was not aware of it.

"Sometime back, coach Shearer and the team started using `On to victory' as a slogan," Carpenter wrote. "We have a German exchange student on our team. He taught our students to say it in German. Some of our more zealous students sought to capture this slogan in German and to play it on the PA. They copied it from a speech by Hitler but could not just copy the `On to victory' and got too much of the speech."

Carpenter's letter did not address the alleged racial epithets, and he did not return calls left by the Observer. Efforts to reach Shearer were not successful. Forestview athletics director Alan Stewart also attended the game but said he didn't hear the speech or any racial remarks.

"It's totally shocking to me," Stewart said. He said the school had started an investigation but did not expect to take any disciplinary action. N.C. High School Athletic Association spokesperson Rick Strunk said his office was investigating the incident. "It's one thing if someone uses the N-word on the field :roll:," he said. "It's terrible, but it's a private matter. To use the PA (to play a Hitler speech) is another thing entirely. It's really hard to fathom in this day and time. . . "

Forestview beat Charlotte Catholic 1-0 Saturday and will play Skyland Roberson in the third round Wednesday at Forestview.

Catholic's Hoilett doesn't think enough has been done since Saturday's incidents. "The letter was lame," Hoilett said. "I get the feeling like, `OK, we messed up and we'll talk about it,' and that's it. You don't toss something like that to the corner. I can't tell them what kind of punitive measures to take, but it doesn't look like there'll be any. But hopefully we can all learn from this and some good can come from it."

Paige Laurie, whose son Blake Laurie plays midfield for Charlotte Catholic, heard the pregame speech from the parking lot, where some of the team parents were tailgating. "We basically heard Hitler over the intercom and couldn't believe it," she said. "You know when you hear something and aren't sure what you heard? It's like, `Is that what I really heard?' Our boys (on the team) knew something was extremely wrong." Like Catholic's coach, Laurie doesn't think the letter of apology was enough. "Absolutely not. Personally, what I'd like to see is them forfeit their game on Wednesday to TC Roberson because they weren't following the (NCHSAA) code of conduct. . ."

So wrong . . .

 

[Goosemaster]

"It's terrible, but it's a private matter. "

heh...some people

 

[LordMorpheus]

Originally posted by: Goosemaster

"It's terrible, but it's a private matter. "

heh...some people

he's saying if a player calls one of his kids a slur, then it's terrible, but playing Hitler over a PA is something else entirely. I think he's got a point.

 

[sandorski]

hehe, not as bad as if they were serious, just a very bad judgement call.

 

[Brutuskend]

My dad was a college professor and minister all of his life (well he gave up the minister part eventually), teaching mostly speech and public relations. He said the ONE person he would most liked to have seen speak was Hitler.

Sure he was a madman, but he was an exceptional speaker and definitely had a knack for "motivating" people....

 

[iamaelephant]

Christ, who cares? Seriously....

 

[Ronstang]

Originally posted by: iamaelephant
Christ, who cares? Seriously....

Exactly. What is wrong for using an excerpt from a Hitler speech if the words used fit the occasion? I think it is funny actually, but I don't get offended.

 

[ThePresence]

Well, he certainly motivated Jesse Owens.

 

[darkswordsman17]

Originally posted by: Brutuskend
My dad was a college professor and minister all of his life (well he gave up the minister part eventually), teaching mostly speech and public relations. He said the ONE person he would most liked to have seen speak was Hitler.

Sure he was a madman, but he was an exceptional speaker and definitely had a knack for "motivating" people....

Supposedly he was such a great speaker that he gave people orgasms from just listening to him. I don't think people realize how much power he held over the German people because of his exceptional speaking talent. He could put a spell over them and get them to do anything he wanted. Thats why having a leader who is pretty incompetent when it comes to public speaking might be a blessing in disguise.

 

[SonnyDaze]

It's a shame to see Charlotte Catholic lose.....one of the better teams in the area.

 

[Staples]

These kids knew German?

 

[KB]

I guess it depends on the speech. If it mentioned killing or invoked racist tones then it was obviously wrong to play the speech; however, just because a man does bad things it does not mean everything he ever did was bad.

Of course since his speech was in German no one but German speakers would know he wasn't giving a racist speech. So it could be seen as in bad taste.