Do as we say, not as we do.

A story on underage drinking in last week’s newspaper included this quote from Cheshire Youth and Social Services Director Michelle Piccerillo: “The people who are drinking include successful athletes. That’s discouraging.”
Piccerillo was referring to an incident where police cited 35 teens for underage drinking at a house party several hours after the Cheshire High lacrosse team won the state championship. Several la-crosse players were among those ticketed.

You can be discouraged, but no one should be surprised. Raising two children reinforced the con-nection between sports and alcohol. My sons, now 15 and 17, became aware of the existence of beer thanks to the NFL. I’m sure others have noticed the same.
Each time a team wins a championship, they guzzle and poor champagne all over each other in front of millions of viewers, including children. Any child attending a game notices that the longest lines are the beer lines. Once they hit 13 or 14, they also become aware that adults are willing to pay a premium price for the privilege of sipping a beer as they watch their favorite team play.

The connections between sports and alcohol are too endless for me to mention. It is therefore inevitable that some high school athletes are going to drink after games, especially big wins. It’s commendable that Cheshire has spent so much money and time trying to curb the problem. But Cheshire doesn’t exist in a bubble. Until the professional leagues that make billions on beer advertising are willing to change their attitude, high school athletes will continue to drink. In fact, I’d suggest that the link between alcohol and sports probably makes high school athletes more prone to drinking. I haven’t been to many classical music concerts, but the ones I’ve attended didn’t sell beer. I’ve worked at newspaper for almost 25 year and can’t remember a story about members of the high school band being cited for drinking after winning a big statewide competition.

Let me know what you think