Justified or petty?

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Ken Krause

Administrator
Admin
May 7, 2008
3,911
113
Mundelein, IL
If a girl is athletically on a bubble which this one likely was, and she chooses her priorities where softball comes second, then her decisions will have consequences. In this case they obviously did.

Actually, while she is hardly a superstar, she is athletically comparable to the other varsity players from last year and better than most of the new varsity players.

That same thing is going to happen to her all of her life, because it happens to all of us. We all want our cake and want to eat it to. It isn't any fairer for her to make Varsity and be singing in an air conditioned room while the other girls on the team work 2-4 hours per day on the field sweating, aching and grinding it out.

It's not like she's new to the varsity or to playing with these girls. She's been playing with most of them since the age of 10 or so. And it's not like she would miss every practice, just a few. She also probably put in more work in the off-season than most of them. Not that that's the issue here, but I point it out for information.

In my opinion it's not having your cake and eating it too. It's being a teen and taking part in various school activities, exploring your abilities. There will be plenty of time for specialization as an adult. School activities should support one another, not fight each other. Adults should be able to work out things between each other without punishing kids.


Or perhaps the girl had proven to be 100% committed to softball in the past, worked twice as hard during off season lifting/running, was a proven leader in the dugout and on the field, but got in trouble because the idiot she went on a first date with had something stashed under the seat of his car and then got pulled over for speeding and she got in trouble as a result.

First, the school allegedly has a zero tolerance policy. Second, the girl was caught drinking at a party, which is a violation of said policy.

To me, the message the school is sending is "If you want to play varsity softball, you are better off going to a party, getting roaring drunk and getting arrested by the police than participating in another school activity."
 

KAT

May 13, 2008
92
0
my opinion.....on kids drinking/drug abuse at school

I didn't even address the drinking thing. Yes all kids can make a mistake. If you don't make this mistake unpleasant for them what is to keep them from making that mistake again... so at our district they get a second chance only if they do what is layed out below...

ATHLETIC CODE
Each WIAA member school shall adopt reasonable
rules and regulations pertaining to the use of alcohol
or tobacco products. Penalties for use or sale of legend
drugs and controlled substances are:
• FIRST VIOLATION: Immediate ineligibility for the
remainder of the current sports season.

A participant who seeks and receives help for a problem with use of legend drugs (RCW69.41.010 identified substances) or controlled substances and controlled substance analogs (RCW 69.50.101 identified substances) shall be given the opportunity for assistance through the school and/or community agencies. In no instance shall participation in a school and/or community approved assistance program excuse a student athlete from subsequent compliance with this regulation. However, successful utilization of such an opportunity or compliance with athletic code by the student athlete
may allow him/her to have eligibility re-instated in that athletic season, pending recommendation by the school eligibility authority.

• SECOND VIOLATION: Ineligible for a period of
one (1) calendar year from the date of the second
violation.
• THIRD VIOLATION: Permanently ineligible for
interscholastic competition.
Schools may adopt additional athletic and student
conduct code policies.
In addition, a student who is ineligible in a member
school may not become immediately eligible at another
member school without completing the conditions
of ineligibility from the sending school.
 

Ken Krause

Administrator
Admin
May 7, 2008
3,911
113
Mundelein, IL
Sounds like a strict but fair code -- as long as they enforce it evenly. Do they have it posted somewhere on the district's Web site, or did you have to find this somewhere else? I tried searching our district's site out of curiosity but didn't find it. Not saying it's not there, but it certainly wasn't obvious. You would think it would be if they're going to take it seriously.
 

Ken Krause

Administrator
Admin
May 7, 2008
3,911
113
Mundelein, IL
For those who think the coach is justified in throwing the girl off varsity because she is choosing show choir over softball, I have another question: what if she was a basketball player and her team was trying to get to the state championship? Softball tryouts and early practice conflict with the state tournament. Would the softball coach still be justified, in your mind, putting this girl on JV because she chose to stay with the basketball team and try to win state over doing the tryouts and softball practice, thus missing the team building aspects? Do you think the AD would still support the softball coach if that was the case, now that the conflicts are all in his department?
 
Nov 1, 2008
224
0
Coaches or directors of various school activities should always be as understanding as possible when it comes to conflicts like this. When i was in high school in the mid 90's several boys were in the marching band AND played on the football team. Usually football took priority over band when it came to evening practice because some of band practice was taken care of during school hours in band class. At halftime, they simply took off the shoulder pads and somebody brought their instrument to the field for them. They performed the show and went to the locker room for the rest of halftime. I was gonna do this myself my junior year but my mother made me pick one or the other due to the cost of doing both.

Keep in mind this is a small school and at that time there were no "try-outs" to speak of. There were so few willing participants compared to larger schools they kept everybody......except when i grew my hair long and the coach decided i couldn't play baseball anymore. After a complaint to the BOE they decided i could "try-out" for the baseball team. The same team i started on the year before. Yeah, i'm still pretty angry about that one.
 

KAT

May 13, 2008
92
0
Ken,

That is our state policy "Washington Interscholastic Athletic Association" Washington Interscholastic Activities Association - Home Page. and yes this is the website. ....the district has to have at least that for the policy. They can actually have stricter ones if they would like. The policy is also available on our school district website in a PDF format but its on a student contract, that each athlete, choir participant, etc... must sign before they are allowed to participate.
 
May 7, 2008
235
0
Hey there!

My daughter played a game on Monday (Middle School), and six girls had to leave after the third inning for a choral performance. My daughter pitched the first three innings, and fortunately, we were ahead 12-0 when we left. Three of the six girls are strong eighth graders (travel ball players).

Originally when my daughter gave me the paperwork to sign for her music teacher, she informed me of the conflict between the game and performance. I suppose she responded to the look on my face when she said, "Mom, that's why they call me a student-athlete...student comes first." Two choral performances for the year each count for two semester grades. At the varsity level, if there is any desire to play ball in college, a student's GPA and SAT scores are as important as her ability on the field.
 
Apr 3, 2009
3
0
The coach should have the option to pick his/her team based on whatever reasons they choose. However, they should also be held accountable for winning but unfortunately this rarely occurs in Northern Lake county. High School softball teams in northern lake county rarely have the BEST 12 girls in the school on the varsity roster. Too many parents are allowed to whine and get a spot for their star on the varsity just because she is an upperclassmen. All of the in house little league parents can't imagine that a girl 2 or 3 years younger could be better than their little all-star.
 
Dec 28, 2008
389
0
In my opinion it's not having your cake and eating it too. It's being a teen and taking part in various school activities, exploring your abilities. There will be plenty of time for specialization as an adult. School activities should support one another, not fight each other.

To me, the message the school is sending is "If you want to play varsity softball, you are better off going to a party, getting roaring drunk and getting arrested by the police than participating in another school activity."

Ken,

Cake - (Ignoring what the other girl did and the hypocricy of the coach in the situation.) Saying that someone is a teen and wants to explore abilities doesn't change the fact that EVERY choice we make in life has consequences. Sometimes we don't like the consequences, sometimes the consequences aren't fair, but they are ALWAYS there none the less. I'd like to travel and do consulting to some of the worlds biggest/best companies and make tons of money. I think it totally sucks that doing that and experiencing all I could be so I could reach my full potential is in direct conflict with spending quality time with my wife and my daughters. But that is life. All I was suggesting was that while it stinks for her that she can't do both, it would also stink for the other girls on the team to be working their butt's off on the practice field and sacrificing other things in life that they would like to do as well but then allowing her to experience it all while they sacrifice. To me anyway ... there is nothing magical or special about any school activity that makes it any more/less important than anything else that teenage girls might like to pursue to experience her abilities in life in general. Chorus isn't nearly as important long term in life as baby sitting is and learning how to care for children. But certainly you wouldn't excuse baby sitting if you were the coach. Neither even comes close to the other girl in school who's family is dead broke and so she works at McDonald's every other night to help contribute to the family so that they can keep the roof over their heads. But certainly that girl wouldn't be excused from practices despite the fact that she might like to have that socialization and fun in her otherwise deadly serious, stressfull life. So I'm really not sure I see why her choosing chorus and the fact that it is done at the school makes it an acceptible excuse.

You didn't give specifics in your first post you simply mentioned that something had allegedly happened with the other girl. I tend to error on the side of the adults in a situation and didn't want to throw another girl, the coach or the AD under the bus out of a "hunch" of what may have happened. I was simply offering some suggestions regarding information that these adults may have regarding the situation that we don't have that might explain their behavior. If what you are now saying is true, then I'd agree with you 100% that the school AD/Coach are being pretty ridiculous in the message that they are sending. HOWEVER, the girl I'm most worried about is the one who did the drinking. Because they just told her that it is ok to drink and that she doesn't have to pay the consequences of doing so.
 

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