TheBanyanTree: Cheaters

[Margaret R. Kramer]

I have a million of creepy sports stories from my son’s day as a kid
athlete, a high school athlete, and a college athlete.  It’s amazing to me
how a simple premise of “have fun, enjoy the game, learn to work as a team,
and integrity” gets twisted on the athletic field.  I saw it happen when my
son was participating in sports and now I have a front row seat watching
happen with my grandchildren.

First, the kids don’t care.  They’re playing the game.  These little
football games are simple.  Five kids on a side.  The coach is out there
with them.  They get three downs to move the ball to the goal, which is
about 30 yards.  Half the time a referee doesn’t even show up.  It’s more
like scrimmaging, just running plays, than anything else.

But there are some parents who take a simple flag football game for five,
six, seven, and eight year olds and turn it into a Super Bowl.
Unfortunately, my grandsons’ team played a team like that yesterday.

The key to my grandsons’ team, the Cowboys, is that there is a kid, who
always wears a black stocking cap, he’s on defense, who has this amazing
ability to grab the offense player’s flag, no matter how fast that kid runs
or moves.  The Black Hat can grab anyone’s flag.

On the Cowboys’ offense, there is a kid who wears a white stocking cap who
runs like gazelle.  He flies down the field and no one, no one can catch
him.

The tension was thick yesterday.  I happened to be sitting on the opposition
’s side, because I was out of the wind and I wasn’t facing the sun, so I
could take better pictures.  Some of this team’s parents were dying a slow
death because the Cowboys were beating them.

So, out of nowhere, in comes this kid, who looks to be at least 10 years
old, and he has his flags tucked in his pants, so no one could grab them.
Oh, boy.  Well, the ref noticed the flags were missing, so he negated a long
running play, and made him put on his flags properly.  He was removed from
the game for a while, but somehow managed to sneak back in towards the end.

He tried to tackle White Cap, but he couldn’t, and ended up getting the wind
knocked out of him and laid crying on the ground.  I felt bad for how this
older kid was being used and I felt bad for the parents who are teaching
their kids the only to way to win is to cheat.  They are devaluing their own
kids’ efforts by bringing in the “big guns.”

I kept thinking through this game, if some of these parents who thought it
was so important for this team to win at all costs, would put forth the same
type of effort making sure their kids get good grades and graduate from high
school.  I doubt it.  For some groups of people, succeeding in a sport
represents the only way out of poverty.  Well, a five year old scoring a
touchdown doesn’t guarantee anything.  Besides, athletic competence is about
99% genetic.  If you don’t got the genes, you aren’t going anywhere.

Something has happened over the years since I was a kid to kids’ athletics.
My brother was in sports, but my parents rarely went to games.  He rode his
bike to and from, went to practices on his own, and generally enjoyed
himself.

Now, youth sports are a business with kids dressed in top notch uniforms
instead of T-shirts and parents salivating like rabid wolves on the
sidelines.

I drive by parks and see empty, unused baseball fields, except when there’s
a game.  Kids don’t grab a bat, ball, and glove and head to the park and
play.  They don’t ride bikes.  They don’t play tag.  They don’t go for
walks.  They can’t do anything unless it’s organized by parents.

No, the un-athletic kids sit home, huddled in front of the TV, chomping on
potato chips, gaining more and more weight every year.  They’re unwanted,
because they trip over their own feet, and in this frenzied competitive win,
baby win world of children’s athletics, they have no value.

So, instead of enjoying the game as I should, I just wanted to pack up my
lawn chair and camera, and go home and insulate myself from this over the
top attitude towards children’s sports.  But, I don’t.  I stay and applaud
both teams’ efforts, except the cheating.  It’s the parents, not the kids
who cheat.

Margaret R. Kramer
margaretkramer at comcast.net
margaret.kramer at polarispublications.com

'Tis now the very witching time of night,
When churchyards yawn and hell itself breathes out
Contagion to this world.
~William Shakespeare