Glen B. Stewart,
is one of Our Men that Takes Action.
Today, he is supplicating support; at least ackowledgement of an injustice taking place in Florida, U.S.A., in 2010.
He reports:
banned from playing in state championships. The entire team was literally banned
from participating because of one girl that has been suspended for two games
showing up at a recent practice with her team team shirt on and sitting on the bench.
something special in their lives.
Glen tells me, Catherine…..”Your passion in life is to inspire women to achieve deeper levels of happiness and success in life.”
“My passion in life is parallel with the addition that I love to inspire kids in sports… and these kids for 25 miles from my house.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Furthermore,
Ray McNulty is a columnist for
Scripps Treasure Coast Newspapers, writes:
“Just when you thought it was safe to play
your way to the state tournament …
But as ridiculous as it was when the FHSAA’s executive director tried to disqualify your girls lacrosse team from last year’s state playoffs — citing a poorly worded rule limiting the number of games that may be played against out-of-state opponents, then concocting a trumped-up appeals process ultimately rejected by a circuit judge — this one is worse.
The FHSAA, relying on an incriminating photograph e-mailed from the weasel occupying the principal’s office at Neptune Beach’s Fletcher High, disqualified the Winter Springs softball team from the state tournament because an ineligible player was sitting in the dugout during last week’s regional final between the schools.
Winter Springs won the game, so Fletcher principal Dane Gilbert ratted out the ineligible player, who was suspended for running into the opposing catcher in a regional semifinal.
It didn’t matter that the suspended player didn’t play. Or that she was merely sitting in the dugout, watching the game while wearing a team jersey, jeans and flip-flops. Or that her presence had no impact on anything that happened on the field.
Nor did it matter that Winter Springs coach Mark Huaman was unaware of such a silly rule, which dates back to the 1930s, long before kids wore team jerseys to school.
Not to the FHSAA.
Certainly not to Dearing, a blowhard who never misses an opportunity to show everyone he’s the all-knowing and all-powerful boss of high school sports in Florida.
Just ask Lake Worth’s Trinity Christian Academy baseball team, which needed a court injunction last spring to override the FHSAA’s sanctions and resume playing in the state playoffs after being involved in a benches-clearing brawl.
Dearing, who doesn’t tolerate being dragged into court, promptly smacked TCA with a whopping $40,000 fine, which school is appealing.
Closer to home, the Indian River County School Board agreed in April to a money-driven settlement that included paying $11,000 in fines, vacating the Vero Beach girls lacrosse team’s 2009 state championship and being banned from playing outside the state for three years. In exchange, the FHSAA agreed to re-word its vague rule.
Now comes Winter Springs.
And another injunction.
As was the case with Vero Beach and TCA, the Winter Springs girls went to court — because they, too, had nowhere else to go.
“We went through the proper channels,” said Wendi Ward, an assistant coach whose daughter plays on the team. “We went to the FHSAA and asked for help and sympathy. They gave us none. We tried to appeal to the board of directors. We got no response.”
So a group of parents, with the help of an attorney who’s handling the case pro bono, asked a judge to intervene. And Ward said an injunction was granted late Tuesday, allowing Winter Springs to play Friday’s Final Four game against Palm Beach Gardens.
“We realize there might be repercussions later, but the girls were heartbroken,” Ward said. “You know, there really needs to be some room for discretion in these situations.”
Yes, I know.
I know it’s ridiculous to sentence teams to death — the death of their championship dreams, anyway — for minor violations that don’t amount to much more than jaywalking.
But that’s what Dearing does…
And if you challenge him, if you dare exercise your constitutional right to the due process too often denied by the FHSAA, he threatens you.
That’s something somebody, either FHSAA board members or the Florida Legislature, needs to look into.
Because that’s wrong.
That’s far worse than playing too may out-of-state games or sitting in a dugout while wearing a jersey, jeans and flip-flops.”
PUNISHMENT TO HARSH!!!!
A Celebration of Women
can only
Question Motive
and say,
“How HARSH”!
These are Children!
Ray McNulty is a columnist for Scripps Treasure Coast Newspapers. This column reflects his opinion.
For more of his thoughts on sports, you can follow his blog at: www.tcpalm.com/mcnulty.
He can also be reached at: [email protected] .
Glen B. Stewart: http://mankind2.com /
I mean literally heartless and cowardly to the bone to intentionally disqualify a team ofkids because of blind malice. And then to somehow accomplish that with asilly rule fromthe 1930s.
That so-called rule existed long before kids proudly wore their team T-shirts to school.
“Personally, to me it just stinks of the Tonya Harding incident on Nancy Kerrigan
at the Olympics…” says Glen.
