Former Dacula Star Dismissed From Razorback Football Team

As I have noted several times in previous blogs, many of the high school athletes in Gwinnett County, Georgia go on to have fine college careers, and for some, fine pro careers as well. But for some, the journey to success is delayed by self-inflicting set backs. Such is the case with former Dacula High School football player Khiry Battle.

Battle, a Sophomore LB on the Arkansas Football Team, was dismissed from the team today by Head Coach Bobby Petrino for violating team rules. The decision for dismissal was announced by Coach Petrino today.

"Khiry has been dismissed from the team for a violation of team rules," Petrino said. "Being a member of the Razorback football program requires responsible actions on and off the field." I don't know what Battle did to prompt Petrino to dismiss him from the team, but there must have been a series of repeat violations. Apparently Khiry Battle didn't get the message. There are some people, whether they be student-athletes, coaches or habitual offenders (plenty of those in the prison system) who only learn the hard way. This is a hard lesson for Khiry Battle to learn.

So where does Khiry Battle go from here? Could he go to nearby Georgia? Perhaps. But Mark Richt is a disciplinarian who has already severely disciplined one of his players, Bruce Figgins, by suspending him for half the season. Battle would be on a very short leash. If Battle wants to play right away, he will have to play at a Div. l-AA, Div. ll, lll or NAIA school because going to another Div. l-A would mean he must sit out this year. Khiry Battle could have saved himself from this mess if he just followed the guidelines set by Petrino for the Razorback Team. the guidelines set by a coach are not unreasonable and are not hard to follow.

Better for Khiry Battle to learn this lesson now than to make a greater mistake later in life. I don't want to enroll him into Idiot University yet, but he has already made his initial application. There were 30 current former Gwinnett high school football players playing in the SEC, now there are 29. Information in this article was obtained from the Arkansas Razorback web site http://www.arkansasrazorbacks.com/.