Pettine speaks about Central Bucks West scandal

FOR A LITTLE over 3 decades, Mike Pettine was Central Bucks West football.

It was a legacy of unparalleled excellence. That can never be erased. But yesterday's news that the Bucks' 2014 season was being canceled with two games left due to an alleged hazing scandal will assuredly have a widespread impact. And it won't be positive.

Nobody understands that more than Pettine, whose son Mike Jr., a West quarterback in the early 1980s, is the first-year head coach of the Cleveland Browns.

"Anybody that's ever been associated with the program is going to feel like they've been kicked in the butt here," said Pettine, who won 327 games and four state titles in 33 seasons before retiring at the turn of the century and still lives at least part of the year in Doylestown. "In time this is going to be so newsworthy, vs. any game they play next year . . . Unfortunately, this is a memory that's not going to go away real soon. And that's a shame. I know there's a lot of innocents that are going down with that. It's a lose-lose situation, for everybody.

"I know the coaches, and they're good guys. You can't be in the locker room, or the weight room, other places where these guys are, 100 percent of the time. You just hope you have good leadership. I always told my captains, 'You're an extension of the staff.' That's what we expected. And you hope you have the leaders to step up and say it's wrong, nip it in the bud. But [apparently] it wasn't there."

Pettine had to deal with his issues in another time, in a way that worked for him.

"It only takes a few bad apples," he said. "Back in '67, I inherited initiation. Some years, it was all in good fun, team-building stuff. But then, some years it always seemed one or two guys would come in and just want to go over the edge, with what they did. Then you had a problem. Then you've got to go, 'OK, forget initiation.' We're going to have a talent show [instead]. All in good fun. They even do that in the pro ranks. But even then, some of the veterans weren't thinking properly. They'd kind of manipulate some of the rookies to do things that were just uncalled for with the talent show.

"I felt as a coach it had to be black and white. In the latter part of my career, with which way the wind was blowing, we cut out everything. It evolved to the point where the only thing a rookie could do was get asked to carry out a guy's equipment. That was the extent of it. Did some take advantage, when I wasn't around? Probably so. You almost have to be lucky, as a coach."

For now, though, a once-proud program will have to deal with the embarrassment of this chapter in its history.

"Whether you like it or not, there's going to be a cloud hanging over everybody that played before, coaches and players," Pettine said. "In a way, it's unfair. That's life. The blanket is thrown over everybody.

"You would like a program to be remembered by the great successes we had. Now, at least in more modern times, it'll probably be remembered more for this. I've got to believe this is going to go national, and it'll piggyback right on top of [alleged hazing and sexual assault at] Sayreville."

And that's a long way from 59-game winning streaks.