[zaga_fan]

http://www.lex18.com/story/37475869/doss...iral-video


Not a good look and definitely not a way to make it go away anytime soon.

If it'd been entirely owned up to with a mea culpa and accepted by now, then this has probably already gone away.

The "scheduling conflict" is just a face-palm moment because it sounds like 'scheduling conflict' could be loosely translated into "because of our history and the incident that just occurred, they didn't feel it was safe/wise to come to Corbin and instead scheduled another team where issues like those leading to the cancellation are less likely to be a problem".

It's like the kid who fails out of college at Christmas and tells everyone they are moving out of the place their parents were renting for them due to "family problems"... those 'family problems' being "I failed out of school and my parents aren't going to pay for me to live here".

What's happening now is probably going to carry over with teams being very reluctant to play at Corbin in the future. While the sentiment may understandably be that some are stirring the pot, the gaffes in handling this on Corbin's side have done plenty to keep the discussion going.




Damage Control/PR Spin (that probably has this minimized and doesn't hinder future scheduling):

Step 1 (Coach/Corbin Admin PR statement): We are aware of the incident and find it unacceptable. Rest assured that those responsible will be punished. We understand the public’s sentiment for transparency, however, because the incident occurred outside of a school setting or event and due to applicable student privacy laws, we will have no further comment on this matter.

Step 2 (Player Statement): I made a comment in poor taste and am accepting my punishment. I apologize, and have reached out to the members of the opposing team who might have been affected and offered my apology, which I hope that they choose to accept. Otherwise, I wish to put this incident behind me, and at this time wish to decline any further questions or opportunities to comment on the matter.

Step 3 (Corbin AD/PR on Doss cancellation [if Doss was the one who wanted to cancel and Corbin was pressed into making a statement about it where this was an honest response]): Our school has received notice that Doss High School would like to cancel their upcoming game with us, which, at our discretion, we are willing to accommodate. Though we were prepared to take any necessary precautions to ensure that sportsmanship was respected at all times, we understand and respect Doss' decision. Further, we hope that this cancellation does not have an adverse effect on any future scheduling with Doss, who we will reach out to about future games at the appropriate time.



Someone correct me if I'm wrong or missing something, but is anything lost by any of the above statements (i.e., any kind of liability, any other teams who might wish to cancel, etc.)?

I understand that their may be some issues with breaking the contract, but it looks like Doss isn't coming, and I would imagine it'd be awful PR if Corbin went after them regarding the cancellation and things went public.

Let me say that I know nothing about the inner dealings of this situation. I know what I've seen reported online and I've seen the video.

But I'll speculate a bit...
Let's say Corbin's administration comes right out and says they know this was a racist statement and it was a mistake that won't be tolerated and they hammer the kid. Then, they are notified of a lawsuit with NAACP letterhead. They are already on the record saying there was wrongdoing. It's cut-and-dry at that point and you have to pay the piper.

As far as the game cancelation, unless Corbin just let's it slide, Doss probably has to pay for the cancelation. If it were me, I would cut my losses and not make them pay. As far as a statement, I wouldn't release one. If asked, I would say "Doss wanted to cancel this one and we're moving on to the next game."