If you have ever watched CBS’s “60 Minutes,” you may have noticed that the program breaks news articles into segments. In this month’s article, there will be three segments: coaching basketball, defibrilators, and Mexican cartels.

About three to four years ago, the girls’ varsity and junior varsity girls’ basketball teams at Dunkirk High failed to field teams for that season. To me, being an ex-Dunkirk High School basketball coach from 1970 to 1974, it was somewhat shocking because from the 1970s for 50 years there was a girls’ varsity basketball program.

Girls’ coach Paul Olkowski had championship teams for girls’ basketball and so did Bob Uszacki. I’m not going to rate as to “why” except to say that during the last three years, girls’ basketball won three games. Last year, 2021-22, enter Coach Quinn Bankoski. When you are an old guy like me, one observes more and speaks less. I’ve never met Coach Bankoski, but maybe someday our paths will cross.

To take a program over, that no one really wanted, and rebuild it within two years, is astonishing to me. I say this because in my 30-year coaching career, I did it four times in high school, and one time in college, in 1977 in Medaille College. It isn’t easy and sometimes losing programs stay losing programs.

Medaille College in Buffalo was especially hard, because they wanted a basketball program, at the time, without putting any money into it I won’t tell you what the salary was because it was embarrassing. We had no gym, no players, no basketballs, no uniforms, no meal money, no vans.

To accept a challenge to start a college basketball program to play against teams like Mercyhurst, Pitt-Johnstown, Carnegie Mellon, Fredonia State, Buffalo State was insanity. Thank God for the 12 kids that came to play for me and accepted coaching.

We ended up 5-17, and the fact that we won five games was a miracle. The next year after all the hard work, they dropped the program.

My point is, that on any level, when a coach takes over a losing program and turns it into a success, give credit to the coach, and yes, the kids, too.

Coach Bankoski was willing to go through the pain of losing, knowing that many times some of the teams that she is playing are unbeatable at that time. John Wooden, the great UCLA coach used to say, “No one can win without talent, but not everyone can win with it.” So, coach, from one coach to another, it’s refreshing to observe an “old school” coach have a winning season so far. What you have been able to teach your kids is attention to detail, hard work and getting them to play better team defense. Beat someone in the sectionals that you probably shouldn’t and show your kids the movie, “We Are Marshall.” I’m just sayin’.

The next article deals with “AEDs,” defibrillators. We all watched Damar Hamlin’s recovery, due to the quick response of the EMTs during the first two minutes. Is it a miracle? In my mind, due to the preparation and organization of wonderful people and spiritually, yes it is. Unfortunately in this country, only 14 states have laws on the books dealing with ambulances and AEDs at high school sporting events for both men and women. Every two to three days in this country for both boys and girls from 12 to 18, someone goes down with cardiac arrest. The problem is that 44 states have no laws on the books demanding that AEDs and ambulances be present at sporting events for young people. More often than not, it’s at least 10 minutes before an ambulance arrives or an AED is found, even if they have one. An athletic director in a large school district, when interviewed by a sportscaster, said that he learned more about AEDs in 10 minutes and wasn’t sure if some schools even knew what they were. AEDs (defibrillators) cost $1,000 each and are guaranteed for 10 years. Many schools have an AED “somewhere” in the building. A 16-year-old McDonald’s All-American basketball player suffered the same thing that happened to Damar, and it took 10 minutes to find it and administer CPR. By that time, it was too late and this excellent student-athlete passed away, because of no priority for events such as cardiac arrest.

I think we are lucky in western New York that this has become a top priority and if I were still coaching and the school system didn’t invest in a number of AEDs, I’d buy my own and donate it to the athletic department. I’m just sayin’.

Finally, if you have never heard of the Mexican cartels, find a chair and brace yourself. Obviously. They started out west and have gradually moved to the midwest and now the eastern seaboard. I can now say as of this article, they are now in 50 states, pushing fentanyl and crystal meth. In Montana over the last three years, overdose deaths have increased 1,100%, yes, that is 1,100%. Families are being destroyed, young people with promising talents and abilities taken from us through dealers that are executed in other countries for causing death to users.

In more than 35 years, as a counselor, the dealers of old did not want to lose customers because this was their livelihood. Guys like me would try to put them out of business by getting our clients to commit to abstinence and put them out of business that way. The present group of dealers are in this for one reason only – money. They have no conscience when people overdose, because the current philosophy of harm reduction allows clients to keep using chemicals. As one dealer explained to me, who has now gone straight and is sober, “in western New York, the cartel is big. The busts are big, $400,00 in cash, 40 grams of fentanyl and crystal.” This is not some street corner dealer making a few hundred a week. The average dealer, using the cartel, can make $80 to $120,000 a year. If he or she goes down, there is another one ready to go. This has to be overwhelming for treatment centers in the future. Wiith the legalization of marijuana, the cartels and the current thinking that mental health will solve all these problems is ludicrous. We need more education in the schools like Chautauqua County Prevention Works.

We covered quite a bit in this article. As for AEDs, they average out to $100 per year. This is a small cost to save lives. As far as the cartels, we don’t hear that these drug busts are trying to break up the cartels, maybe for fear of reprisal or putting fear out there. Tell people the truth because law enforcement is often overwhelmed with this segment of the population.

Mike Tramuta, an REBT counselor, can be reached at 716-983-1592.