Washington County (Ga.) High School head football coach Joel Ingram dished his community's fans on a local radio station interview recently. He labeled the lack of attendance at his Golden Hawks' first round playoff game "atrocious". The game was played on the Golden Hawks' home field, which proved to be no advantage as the host team was downed by Spencer of Columbus 47-27. For a little background here, Ingram has led his troops to consecutive State Finals the past two seasons, only to walk away with runner-up hardware. During those past two seasons, and many seasons prior to those, the Golden Hawks have been privileged to great crowds both at home and on the road. To the credit of the fans, Washington County has enjoyed a great fan base during those winning years. It's no strange fact that in sports, and especially football here in the South, everyone loves a winner. It's much harder to drum up the same enthusiastic fan base during a losing season. Sure, the family and friends of players and the hard core football fans will still turn out, but the general populace often times will not be in attendance. That just the way it is. And it's that way in high school, college and the pros. For Coach Ingram to further state that the only fans he cares about are the ones who did show up during the tough losses, especially this last one, is a big risk at alienating the somewhat fragile fan base. It also seems unwise for someone whose salary is paid by taxpayers to "bite the hand that feeds you". Just my take...
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