Todd Thomas' decision to leave the football team seems to have caught everyone off guard. That apparently includes his Beaver Falls high school coach Ryan Matsook.
Per Jerry DiPaola of the Tribune-Review:
“I speak quite frequently with Chris Haering (Thomas' position coach at Pitt), and he never had anything negative to say,” Matsook said. “Todd is competitive. Every kid will get complacent, but the thing that always motivated Todd was if you put anyone in front of him or sat him for a quarter, he always responded positively.
“The more you dangle that carrot, the better Todd gets. “I am just surprised. It seems like a knee-jerk reaction.”
It's not surprising for Matsook to not know of Thomas' displeasure, but I thought the fact that he'd been in touch with the position coach very frequently and never heard any complaints was interesting.It's understandable that Haering might not open up and talk freely about Thomas to Matsook, but if there widespread problems, it's hard to imagine that wouldn't make it's way back to the high school coach. He really seems just as shocked by all of this as everyone else.
The other thing, obviously, was the fact that he discussed Thomas always responding well to discipline. Thomas' quotes from yesterday about the 'demotion' seemed to indicate as such. And when you consider that many believed the move to be strictly motivational, why would you really expect him to act any differently than simply re-focusing, playing harder, and reclaiming his former spot?
Just a weird, weird story.
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