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Parkland coaches certainly worthy of honor from ESPY Awards

Award shows in recent years have done more harm than good when it comes to unifying our nation.

Most times, celebrities will use an occasion where they ought to be thanking those who helped them achieve to instead go off on a tangent (sometimes expletive filled) about their thoughts on issues on which they are certainly not experts.

ESPN hasn’t been innocent in that regard either, especially with the awarding several years ago of its Arthur Ashe Courage Award at its ESPYs sports award ceremony to transgender woman Caitlyn (the former Olympian Bruce) Jenner that was seen by many as a political statement more than anything.

But this year, ESPN is giving an award for something off the field, court or ice that most everyone can agree is warranted.

The network has announced that the three coaches at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida who died shielding students from gunfire in a Feb. 14 attack — Aaron Feis, Scott Beigel and Chris Hixon — will posthumously receive the Best Coach Award at the July 18 event in Los Angeles that will air on ABC (The Walt Disney Co. owns both ESPN and ABC).

ESPN’s Vice President Alison Overholt told The Associated Press the men are being honored for “their immeasurable bravery in the face of danger and for their ultimate sacrifice to protect the lives of countless students.”

Absolutely.

Who knows how many more lives the attack would have taken if not for the actions of these three heroes?

And while the shooting at Parkland has become heavily politicized by both sides of the gun debate (including by many of the surviving students themselves), let’s hope the focus that night remains on what these men did to protect the sons and daughters of so many others.

Let us also hope that no teacher, coach, administrator or staff member at any school ever has to show such bravery again.

We think everyone can agree on that.

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