"The [plaintiffs] contend that paddling a high school student for a nondisciplinary reason cannot be tolerated in a civilized society," the court said. "The jury, however, was entitled to draw a different conclusion."

And they did.  In this 2009 Memphis court case, the complaint was that coaches frequently paddled athletes for "non-disciplinary" reasons such as poor performance on the field, poor grades, and so on.  Turns out, that's just fine, as decided by a jury and upheld by an appeals court.

Now, I'm not particularly in favor of spanking men under 18.  However, schools in some areas are now allowing high schools to offer unlimited courses for college credit, and in some places actually adding an optional two years for college credit to high school.  In enlightened locales such as West Texas this might bring some guys into contact with the sting of "the wood" at an age when it's developmentally appropriate and nowadays usually sadly lacking.

Incidentally, Texas law stipulates a dropout age of 19, and the age until which public schools must provide education to a student-21 or 22 in most states-is a whopping 26!

I don't know state rules on how old players can be, but you can bet coaches would love to get their hands on those 20+ year old players (for more than one reason!).  It used to be common in rural Texas to hold promising young men back a year or two so as to field a team of big, well-developed guys.  It produced better teams and redder butts to a later age.  Let's hope the future holds even greater achievement for Texas in this field.

Other athletes are going to benefit as well.  Swimmers say nothing feels like a well-sanded paddle, drilled with a neat grid of holes, on the wet seat of your speedos.

And let's don't forget regular old West Texas cowboys who may not play on a team but deserve every bit as much corporal...attention, whether or not the reasons are, strictly speaking, "disciplinary"!