A month ago, Twin Cities television station KARE-11 aired a story about a seventh-grade boys’ basketball player from Eagan (MN) who was cut from his “C” traveling basketball team. He wasn’t the only kid cut at that level, but he was the only one who was recovering from cancer. The player couldn’t try out this year because he had casts on both legs, a byproduct of his illness. If I recall correctly, the policy of the Eagan Athletic Association is that if a player can’t try out, they go back to his performance from the previous season.  In this case, it was a season the player didn’t feel well and probably didn’t play well because he was battling cancer.

After the television story aired, the Eagan Athletic Association was flooded with angry e-mails and also a couple of offers for the player to join similar teams on neighboring communities.

There was a case in which Eagan could not win. Obviously, the association followed its policies. What about the other kids who were cut? Maybe they had extenuating circumstances that wouldn’t allow them to try out. On the other side of the argument is a call for compassion and common sense. Some call for compassion. Others call it preferential treatment. A no-win situation. 

The bigger question lurking is should you cut anyone at the “C” level? Some people don’t think so. I don’t think you can give a blanket answer one way or another without knowing all the circumstances and the number of players on the teams.

Sometimes, you just have to cut. If a player doesn’t make a traveling team, they most likely can play in an in-house program. That could motivate the player to work harder to try to make the team the following year.

I’m just glad the young man got the opportunity to play on a team this year. Clearly basketball is important to him. And in the big picture, life in more important than sport. But if sport helps one live his  life in the face of cancer, then sport is a good thing.

Here is a link to the KARE-11 story.

http://www.kare11.com/news/investigative/extras/extra_article.aspx?storyid=828711&catid=26 

  

 

 

This entry was posted on Friday, November 20th, 2009 at 10:00 pm and is filed under Officiating. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.