Walking Out on Teammates, not a good thing in Basketball

Written Monday February 15th at 7:07 PM

This latest blog entry doesn't involve the Orion basketball team though but this may have implications once playoff time approaches in March.

Last Tuesday night the Orion girls basketball team was snowed out against Southfield Lathrup and that game has been rescheduled for Wednesday February 24th at Lake Orion High School

Anyway there were some games played on Tuesday night, and one of them was a total shame to the game of basketball. It was a girls basketball game between Rochester High School and Troy High School, at Rochester High School that has the attention of the Dragons Den.

In the third quarter, there was an offensive foul called against Falcons Senior power forward Megan Heiden. Heiden was so upset at the call that she got into an argument with not only the referees, but also with her head coach Adam Sheldon as she walked to the bench. Instead of just sitting there on the bench. Heiden upset, frustrated, and furious at both the refs and her own coaching staff grabbed her bag, and left the gymnasium. Rochester ended up losing the game to Troy 41-33, but the bigger story was Heiden walking out on her own teammates.

Her teammates had to be shocked and stunned at what they saw, even the coaching staff as well. They had to be just betrayed at what happened, and this is probably a new low for not only her but also her own teammates and the Rochester community as well. Just last season the Falcons went through so much, with the problems they had and also the ups and downs to their season. They haven't been the same team when Jeff Haney went down from coaching Varsity to Freshman. Unfortunately it has been a sad situation at Rochester because what had happened this past week.

Basketball is an emotional game, but walking out on your team is unacceptable and a disgrace to the game, sort of like what the Bay Boys did after the lost the 1991 Eastern Conference Finals to the Chicago Bulls.

Apparently according to sources Heiden got a two game suspension from Sheldon and his staff. However there are some people that want Sheldon to kick Heiden off the team for good for what she did Tuesday night. Sure you have people upset and frustrated with the way they are playing and the way the game is called like Heiden did, but walking out on your teammates is the ultimate betrayal because they work equally as hard as they do and it also showed a sign of selfishness in her part. Her teammates will still love her like a sister and a teammate, but can the coaching staff trust her right now? that's the question we do not know.

If she is out for a long period of time this severely damages Rochester's playoff hopes, in a loaded district with Lake Orion, Adams, Romeo, and Stoney Creek. This could not have came at a worse time for the Falcons. Nobody knows what will happen with Megan Heiden yet, but a punishment is coming soon for her, will she be out two games or the entire season, now is going to be the test for Adam Sheldon in his first year coaching to do what is not only right for his team but also the future of Falcon Basketball in Rochester.