THE HIGH SCHOOLS\Compromise, not hair color, is key issue.

Byline: Gary Washburn

Times have really changed.

Tattoos are an afterthought, long hair a normal sight, earrings are considered fashionable headwear and baggy jeans don't rate a second look.

Today's teen-agers are certainly expressive if nothing else. More than ever, fashion and individual expression are the most important aspects of a young person's life, and of course that spills onto the athletic field.

Which brings up the never-ending saga of one Adam Kopulsky, a 15-year-old who just decided one day to dye his hair pink and show up to a Birmingham junior varsity basketball practice coached by one Al Bennett.

If Bennett runs a conservative offense, what do you think he said about Kopulsky's hair? You guessed right.

Bennett doesn't like NBA basketball period, let alone Dennis Rodman, the NBA's poster boy for rebellion. So when Kopulsky pointed out that Rodman was his role model, Bennett turned a shade of red that Kopulsky probably kept in mind for a future hair color.

Bennett refused to let Kopulsky play until he changed his hair to a more conventional color and now, with the school district behind him, Bennett fills the role of Sergeant Carter or Mr. Hand or any other stereotypical disciplinarian you could imagine.

Discipline is discipline and any team disruption should be dealt with. But Bennett seems to be using Kopulsky as a scapegoat for the rebellion of kids in general.

We all have problems with the manner of some teen-agers' appearance. But Adam Kopulsky is not one of those.

His tiny pink curls on a foundation of natural brown hardly offended me, and neither does his new blond look. I can honestly think of a lot worse fashion fiascos in my five years of covering high school sports.

Which brings up a question - when is it right to allow youngsters the opportunity to express themselves?

And are some of the fashions that teen-agers pick up actually inappropriate? Or are they offensive because we wouldn't dare attempt some of those new fashionable looks of today?

Let's get one thing straight. Total control over how a young person looks can seriously backfire. Too short of a leash can be as damaging as no leash at all.

"I don't care what a kid's hair looks like," North Hollywood coach Steve Miller said. "As long as he follows team rules, that's OK. I don't think hair color really matters."

Actually, hair color is pretty elementary in the teen-ager's handbook of fashion tricks. For years, some youngsters have toyed with their hair color, only to look at photos years later and become the laughingstock of high school reunions.

But they were allowed to express themselves. That is the important thing.

The fear that youngsters who are trendy will force authority figures to lose control is farfetched. That not only shows the overexaggerated power of the teen-ager, but the insecurity of those authority figures.

As strangely as some of them express themselves, today's teen-agers aren't really that much different than we were. They want to be respected, they want to be different and they want to test the waters on expression and taste.

And many of them feel they can do that and participate in activities like sports. And why shouldn't they be when they are productive citizens otherwise.

Let's face it, there could be a lot worse things Kopulsky could experiment with than hair color. More than in any era, today's youth have so many temptations and dangers that they have to be lauded for their resistance, not degraded for their individuality.

But as similar as teen-agers are to their predecessors, they must be handled very delicately by authority figures.

In my high school days, if a coach told me to run into a brick wall, my only question was how fast to run. Today's kids ask questions and want sensible answers. That's pretty reasonable because there are some shady people called role models out there.

But the bottom line is compromise. Sports is a fulfilling activity for everyone and no athlete should behave like he or she is a rare commodity. Anyone can be replaced.

The key is to have coaches and players agree on ethics and dress codes. Demanding normalcy instead of requesting normalcy is the wrong answer. If you talk to a teen-ager like an adult, you'll get an adult response - not total rebellion.