Texas Christian School and Strong Ethics

A five-game suspension hardly seems adequate punishment for a private high school six-man league football coach who brought in college-age players during an October game without telling anyone.

Herc Palmquist, head administrator and a coach at Texas Christian School near Houston, not only misled his opponents, he lied to his own team telling them the game was cancelled because of team injuries and they had the night off, the Houston Chronicle reported.

That is the height of unsportsmanlike conduct.

Palmquist is fortunate none of the players on the opposing team from Austin’s Not Your Ordinary School were injured.

An assistant coach at the Austin school told the Chronicle there were some pretty nasty hits on the game film but they had no idea they were not playing high school students.

The ruse was uncovered when the parent of a former Texas Christian player found a score on the Internet for the game he thought had been cancelled and contacted the Web master.

An investigation into the matter resulted in Palmquist’s suspension by the Texas Association of Private and Parochial Schools, which governs Texas Christian athletics.

It is hard to imagine why this ill-conceived plan was ever carried out.

Palmquist’s squad of guys with tattoos and full beards weren’t even good players. They lost 28-18 to the younger team.

Parents at the school Palmquist founded and incorporated under the Texas Christian Education Foundation in 1990 should be concerned about what is being taught to their children.