Oh for f-cks sake. I don't care if he screamed "Suck my taint!" as he crossed the line. Kids, and parents alike, need to have thicker skin. If you got beat, and someone points at the sky, SO FREAKING WHAT?!!! The better team won, and they should go to State. They didn't commit any crimes, and it's not like he walked over to the other team and try to shove his baton in their asses. This is silly.
No, sir. You are not the only one who finds this appalling. On a volunteer basis, I help out the cross country coach at a public high school in Washington, D.C. At our league championship meet last Fall, we failed to notice our No. 2 man had a small ear ring. While the race was in progress, officials were on the radio to each other talking about "getting the kid with the ear ring." The kid finished top five and was DQed in the chute.He stood quietly and watched kids who finished behind him walk up to the stage and be recognized with medals and applause.
I sent an e-mail to the league commissioner about this. As you would expect, she cited some rule in the purported interest of safety. I told her I'd come to her office and hand her $500 in cash if she could document one single incident in the long history of our sport in which a runner, from grade school to world championship level,sustained an injury as the result of wearing a very small ear ring. I haven't heard back. The sport can't take place without officials who give generously of their time,but a few are out to prove their authority, and the damage in such instances should not be lightly dismissed.
Life is hard enough for teenagers. We adults tell them to stay away from trouble and engage in wholesome activities. This kid is not a great athlete, but he comes to practice every day, gives a good effort and does everything we ask him to do. It should be a positive experience for the kid. Instead, the adults seize on some peccadillo to take away his moment and humiliate him. Who could blame the kid if he said screw it and quit the sport? It's worse than appalling; it's an outrage.
I heard of a kid who got kicked off the team for waving at the crowd as he came down the homestretch. Problem was, he wasn't winning (!)
Tyrants are everywhere. Get on board with me and we will put an end to this nonsense.
There's some sort of actual reason for the rules about jewelry, contrasting underwear, celebrating, etc. in extreme cases like elaborate body piercings that might injure someone, making it unclear who's a member of what team, taunting and bad sportsmanship, and so on.
The problem is that these kind of rules get enforced stupidly in trivial cases where there's no actual harm, like in this case. Or an opposing coach will object to jewelry for strategic reasons and so on.
Part of these sorts of rules needs to be a provision that you can only DQ an athlete if there has 1st been a warning from the official and then the athlete doesn't comply. This would presumably limit the rules to situations where the rules matter instead of being "gotcha" kind of rules like in this case.
Thank you for your thoughtful reply. I agree in some part, but not completely. Where I disagree, as I said in my earlier submission, is that I can't imagine jewelry being dangerous in a cross country race. Where I agree is in your insistence that there is room for common sense. Several posters here take the position that if there is a rule, it must be enforced. I disagree. In the example I gave, the officials would have exercised good judgement by simply not noticing the kid's ear ring. I am certain that had an official noticed the ear ring prior to the race, our kid would have removed it. I might add this is not sour grapes on my part: the outcome of the meet was not affected.
But wait, there's more: I am not involved with the girl's team, but midway through their race, one of our girls took off her hair tie, which was falling off. She slipped it around her wrist and was then DQed for wearing a bracelet. I'm not making this up. It shows the mentality we are dealing with.
dingle wrote:
I want there to be disqualifications for excessive shows of disappointment. If you drop your shoulders too much, you're out. If you cry, you're out. If you put your hands on your hips, you're out.
This
I disagree with the disqualification, but I hate "religious celebrations" and finger pointing so much. Yeah buddy, God chose you to win some worthless F-ing high school meet over the unenlightened, you better thank him. You're special.
When are all the old farts who came up with these ridiculous rules in 1958 going to up and die? Officials are there to ensure the integrity of the competition and the accuracy of the results...period.
I would move to empower a coach's association to rule on these issues and interpret these types of rules.
What about Ezekiel Kemboi's Chepchumba dance...after finishing in lane 8? Much more inflammatory than Bolt...
John O'Donnell wrote:
midway through their race, one of our girls took off her hair tie, which was falling off. She slipped it around her wrist
I've read this thread front to back and have seen no mention yet... did anyone ask the relays finishing behind the team who got DQ'ed if they felt disrespected? For a rule designed to protect the kids finishing behind the winners, the officials appear to have essentially disregarded the opinions of the people the rule allegedly protects. The officials seem more disrespectful in that regard than the athlete doing the pointing. I would be ashamed and embarrassed to be handed a win in this way, and even if I felt bad about a team who beat me celebrating, I would feel far more shame over taking what they earned.
Nobody has really addressed the runners' up.
Rumors going around other message boards was that the kid was approached by an official who cautioned him against doing the celebration and that he would be DQ'd at the state meet if he did it again. Supposedly the kid then smarted off to the official resulting in the immediate DQ. That story makes a bit more sense...though still a bad deal.
Celebrations should be encouraged not banned. They're fun and make people wanna watch the sport, you think Bolt would be as popular as he is if he wasn't good at celebrating after the win as he is at running the 100? Also sure some people will go overboard, but people should realize what the difference between taunting and celebrating is in these high school meets. Taunting is getting in people's face and showing up specific runner with intent. Celebrations are just fun. Also celebrating with the perfect amount of swagger is an art people should be able to experiment and learn that art in high school.
Now the story seems different:
http://www.runnersworld.com/high-school/dqed-prep-runners-finish-line-gesture-unrelated-to-faith
Not religious, and he "behaved disrespectfully" (to the official?).
This is why we need to do away with scoreboards and scoring in Track N Field. It should be for fun!! Someone losing (especially to a white kid) might make them feel inferior, how dare that kid shove his white privilege in front of everyone.
it occurs to me... wrote:
Now the story seems different:
http://www.runnersworld.com/high-school/dqed-prep-runners-finish-line-gesture-unrelated-to-faithNot religious, and he "behaved disrespectfully" (to the official?).
Sure would like to see the video that they saw.