Olney teams banned from the playoffs for being too Good
http://www.myfoxdc.com/story/23773343/olney-youth-football-teams-exclude...
http://www.wusa9.com/sports/article/280261/25/Olney-boys-football-team-b...
We are talking about 8-11 year olds now that are being punished by adults for something they have no control over other than to go out and play the game
Its my understanding that many of the players that are in the second division this year played in the first division last year and were beaten extremely badly in almost every game, so the league had informed the Olney teams that they would be relegated to the second division this year. Now that they played in the second division this year, they get accused of stacking the deck and so 80 little kids are going to get told they cant play in the playoffs even though they won all their games. Just another bunch of whiny parents, and the worst part is that their kids are going to benefit from it this time by being able to play in the playoffs instead of these Olney teams. So tired of PC BS raising another generation of sissified Americans.
Comments
Can we do the same to FSU in the ACC this year?
They should just give the kids their championship trophies then. As you said, not their fault
If it is actually true that they were stacking the teams, I wonder if there are any quotes from parents on these teams that are apparently being built to be weaker and get destroyed on purpose? Either way punishing the kids is the wrong way to solve this, but if in reality they are stacking teams, then the situation is a little bit different than them just being so good they arn't allowed to play.
This is just disgusting in so many different ways. Whoever's idea this was should feel ashamed.
this will make us feel at least a little bit better
http://gma.yahoo.com/blogs/abc-blogs/football-program-no-more-participat...
Thanks for this....gives me a little pickmeup after hearing about the Olney thing on the radio this morning with the Sports Junkies
Thats a disgrace!!!!! Line'em up and let them play!!!!!
This is one of the biggest challenges I see in raising my kids. We have a society that is very rapidly moving away from the founding principles that made this country great and is trying to tell all these kids that there is no winning or losing and that just trying is great. What happens to these kids when they get their first bad boss or meet their first challenge in life? In life there are plenty of loses and plenty of wins and greatness and success are born out of both. It scares me to think that me advocating that for my kids will soon put me in the minority because I believe there SHOULD BE a bigger trophy for the winning team and sometimes the other team is just significantly better than yours and you have to learn how to improve yourself and deal with it.
I fear for this country if this becomes the norm as these kids become the future leaders and have been taught their whole lives that everybody wins and that we if it gets tough you just quit.
(steps off soapbox)
Can you please just shove this post into the face of every single parent you see? I can't believe what I hear from some of these people who just want to baby their kid and make sure little Timmy is happy all the time and don't give a crap about the kid actually developing some character, personality or toughness. And I'm not talking about "lock him in a freezer for 3 days so he'll stop bitching about the snow" toughness, I'm talking about "well, stuff didn't go my way this time, I need to figure out how to deal with it and move on" toughness.
Well the actions here might be justified. There are two brackets divisions in the age ranges. basically good and bad. What they're suggesting is that Olney is putting all their good players in the "bad" division to over match everyone and the not so good players are in the "good" division. This is evidenced by their team in the "good" division being winless and the team in the "bad" division being undefeated.
Couple that with the fact it's happening in BOTH age brackets, there is some pretty good evidence that they might be stacking the lower divisions with all the good players. I really wish the media would stop using misleading headlines. They make it seem like it's a team from one community that is undefeated and they aren't allowed to play when there is actually some sketchy business going on. The title should be:
"Lower division Olney team excluded from playoffs for possible team stacking"
My understanding is that the teams in the lower division are comprised of the same kids that got blown out in the upper division last year that played so poorly that the league wanted them relegated (and obviously their replacements in the upper division this year are playing just as poorly with their records), so the Olney teams took that guidance and relegated the kids from the previous season who are now winning games in the lower division. If the league wanted it balanced then they should have been more involved with the talent evaluation to determine the teams. If they didn't want to do that, then they shouldn't be coming back after the fact to feed the boohoo crybaby machine by punishing kids for playing the games.
After looking at the articles, I agree with .... whatever the hell your name is.
If Olney is really stacking the lower division teams, the good team will destroy everyone and the bad team will get destroyed by everyone. That's pretty low. And it's adults that are doing it, not the kids who go out on the field just to play.
If and when I have kids, I won't be enrolling them in any leagues that give out awards just for showing up. Assuming there will be leagues out there like that.
LT (Rank when I got commissioned)
RE (First two initials)
Peter (Part of my last name)
2000 (Year I went on active duty after graduating from Tech)
My Tech email back then was repeter, so I just extended it.
I think he was refering to ZOMB BBQ HAX up above
Probably right now that I look back at it.
If and when I have kids, I'll start one of those leagues with you.
Agree with most of what is said above. My opinion on why kids are being taught trying is ok is too many "poor winners" have been raised. Look at the Johnny Football idiot and his antics. Yeah yeah great athlete fun to watch until he goes all look at me! Too many athletes like this over the past decade which filters into little league, pee wee etc and all of a sudden parents don't like winning or losing. Win gracefully and the cycle turns around. I've been a golf professional for 26 years and we advocate winning and trying to win but you have to do BOTH right! Two cent mini rant over!
At some point the very parents complaining about this are the one's that are responsible. My job as a parent is to teach my kids how to win and lose with dignity and how to be a good sport. The problem is that parents are getting lazy and don't want to have to do this and expect the little league system to. It doesn't work that way.
As a competitor, I want to play that team. Why would I want to win a championship with full knowledge that the best team isn't playing for it? Maybe my team loses, but I want to play the best team every week and show them that I'm better than them. If you think a team is "too good" then move to Massachusetts and stop keeping score. I'm kind of ashamed of this too because I'm from about 40 minutes from Olney.
I think the old adage "To be the best you have to beat the best" is unfortunately just becoming lip service. Sure, people say it, but honestly I don't know many folks that would turn in their championship on the technicality that they didn't have to beat the other best team to get it. You think Bama will give back their crystal football last year just because they didn't have to play Oregon to get it?
The problem we are running into on a societal level is kids are being taught that "trying is everything", and then they hit the real world and find out that actually "winning is everything".
This leads to a lot of issues, not least of which is how "winning" trickles down to what job I have, what car do I drive, how big is my house, how much can I spend, which political "team" do I root for, etc. and goes way beyond sports. We need to figure out a way to balance the two so kids realize that putting forth your best effort in any and all endeavors is crucial...but also that sometimes you are just going to come up on the short end of things and that means its time to get back to work to get better.
This is why I'm glad I live in Blacksburg now instead of Maryland.
Kendall Fuller played HS football in Olney. Now all the little kids want to be a Fuller.
And this is what happened.