“When violence hits people in general, it's very difficult to deal with.”
The former defensive coordinator for the Montana Grizzlies said this Tuesday while at the Big Sky Conference Kickoff, the annual media opportunity in Park City, Utah. Souers would know - he hadn't been in his new office long at NAU in 1998 when there was a shooting at an off-campus apartment.
Nine years later, former UM cornerback Jimmy Wilson is in jail on murder charges, having turned himself in to Los Angeles police on June 12. It's the kind of story that makes a sports writer cringe. This is not what I signed up for when I started doing this in 1986.
You can assume it's not what UM coach Bobby Hauck signed up for either. Or any coach.
“We all think we're bringing in the right kid,” said incoming Sacramento State coach Marshall Sperbeck. “And you've just got to stay on that. It's an educational process, all the way through. That's not an exact science, but you try to do the best you can.”
Inexact science - sounds a bit like journalism. In the silence from UM that followed Wilson's arrest, there have been stories questioning his background, his off-campus behavior and by extension UM's recruiting policies.
Talking with other coaches, both from UM and the rest of the conference, Hauck and his staff do their homework. We just didn't hear it from Hauck, who remains loath to talk about the situation.
“We've got college kids on our team, we get them through school and we get them so they're hopefully productive members of society,” is about all Hauck would say Tuesday. That and, “Next question or the interview is over.”
I guess his peers will have to do.
“I've always said as a football coach - and I'm a little older, so I can say this - that I've got 90 sons that I need to take care of,” said Rob Ash, who is taking over at Montana State from Mike Kramer, whose players' off-field behavior led to his dismissal. “You try to give them the best guidance, the best leadership you can. Š but somebody's going to have a problem.”
You hope the problem is limited to flunking a test, missing a class, illness and/or injury.
“I had one (a son of his own),” said Ash, smiling. “And we had enough issues with just him. Then you add 90 more. Š”
It's no longer fun writing about Jimmy Wilson, a player with NFL hopes, and that includes whatever mitigating circumstances may be behind Kevin Smoot's shooting death. Wilson's grandmother told the Antelope Valley Press that Smoot's death came at the end of a long period of abuse against Wilson's aunt, whom Smoot at one point allegedly urinated on.
Gloria Wilson also told the Palmdale, Calif., paper that it was Smoot who had the gun.
Either way, it's a difficult story that anymore is impossible to avoid.
“We deal with 100 kids a year, and when you look at sheer numbers and possibilities, something like this can happen,” Souers said. “When it does, it's tragic. I feel for everybody who has to go through this kind of experience.
“But to be honest, if you're in coaching long enough, it's inevitable when you're exposed to the culture as it is today. It's a violent society.”
Wish I could say it wasn't so.
Fritz Neighbor can be reached at 523-5247, or by e-mail at fneighbor@missoulian.com.
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