Playing for keeps

Sports | No-pass/no-play rules may be a hurdle in the way of the real goal: student achievement | Clint Rainey

When Mike Sansone coached high-school baseball in Salinas, Calif., players came and went, but one young man stuck in his mind: a promising centerfielder named Ricky Lopez.

As Mr. Sansone explains, Ricky, a leadoff hitter with a roll-off-the-tongue name that seemed destined for the Jumbotron, missed a Spanish test because he was looking for a part-time job to support his recently disabled father. Besides having scholarship potential and speed to round the bases, Ricky spoke Spanish fluently. "He would have aced the test if given the opportunity," Mr. Sansone says.

In Ricky's case, though, the missed test led to an F in Spanish, and because of a district-wide no-pass/no-play rule, he was kicked off the team. Mr. Sansone still doesn't understand. "If anything we should have rewarded him for making a tough, smart decision," says the former coach, now a copywriter.