The Mundane One’s rant of the week
| May 31, 2010 | Posted by TheMundaneOne under iRant |
Ottawa kids soccer league stops blowout wins
A team that wins a soccer game by more than five goals will be declared the loser in an Ottawa children’s recreational soccer league.
Wha?
Cappon said he found out about the rule from the referee when he scored the last allowable goal for his team during a recent exhibition game, bringing the score to 6-1 early in the second half… His team spent the next 20 minutes just passing the ball and keeping it from their opponents, he recalled…
“I felt like I was mocking them sort of when I really didn’t want to … I didn’t feel good doing it, and I don’t think they felt good receiving it.”
WTF? They expect the kids to just stop TRYING? Is this supposed to be showing good sportsmanship? Because, telling kids NOT to do their best ISN’T good sportsmanship, it’s exactly the opposite.
Since the new policy went into effect, the league has received little feedback about it, (league chair) Cale said. In any case, he said, the league isn’t going to reverse its decision this early in the season just because because one or two parents aren’t happy.
Of course not. But we won’t point out the fact that they obviously didn’t PUBLICIZE this “rule” at all, right? It’s an excellent way to keep the complaints down: make some changes that people won’t like and hope that no one ever noticed that you did it.
Pardon my French, but this is fucking re-fucking-dicku-fucking-lous. Playing sports has become a complete joke – they don’t keep score for the younger kids, they discourage competition in team games, undermining the entire point of learning teamwork, and try and make every kid “feel good” regardless of their level of talent. But really, what does it accomplish? The kids who are not as good still KNOW they are not as good… do we really need to treat them like they are morons, too?
This kind of crap just burns my ass. Let the kids fucking play, and keep score. You know what I have never seen?
* Kids playing a game of baseball/soccer/hockey/football in a back yard and not keeping score…
* Kids who did keep score in their backyard game being somehow harmed by being on the losing team.
Could we PLEASE stop trying to protect kids by refusing to let them compete with one another?
I personally believe that this is the kind of shit that leads to MORE bullying, because now children need new ways to sort out their social hierarchies since they can’t classify by sports/academics/skills any more. What you end up with is a situation where the clear-cut playground leader is the kid who can be the biggest thug.
I love my children… I want them to succeed at life. But the definition of success includes overcoming adversity, and learning to lose fair-and-square builds character.
We need to stop turning children into little bundles of entitlement. You don’t always win in the real world, and hiding that fact from them until they’re adults does NOTHING to serve their ability to function in grown-up life.
This is a great post and may be one that ought to be followed up to see what the results are
A comrade e-mailed this link the other day and I will be eagerly awaiting your next page. Proceed on the first rate work.