Fair Game

To the many coaches out there playing a fair game, thank you; this blog is not for you, but for the many coaches who do not understand the meaning of "fair game."

Fair Game: A game in which all of the participants have equal expectation of gain.

Enough!

When my sons turn eighteen, they will (hopefully) be out of the house and on their way to college, the military, or somewhere in the working world. They will make their own choices and decisions, and fight their own battles; they will be considered "adults." 

Until that glorious age of eighteen comes, my husband and I are responsible for their well-being; they are "children." We are responsible for them, and as their parents, we are obligated to be their voice and defend their rights.

Adults are expected to and should expect other adults to stand up for any child being mistreated or discriminated against. As parents, it is our duty to speak up and speak out for the children entrusted in our care. If we don't, who will?   Fear of repercussions should not convince us to compromise our role as responsible parents. 

This blog was not created to whine and complain about playing time, but to let parents of athletes know it is NOT OKAY when your son/daughter is mistreated, overlooked, degraded, or verbally abused by someone who holds the title of COACH.

  From little league to high school and even on the college level, coaches have been permitted to make unfair decisions and choices not in the best interest of the team. Many of these unjust actions have been simply swept under third plate or looked upon as a "coaching decision." 


Well, one mama bear of a mistreated cub has made a command decision which is in the best interest of the team...enough is enough!

  From anger to advocate 

It's important for parents to be aware of their rights and to be knowledgeable of the proper steps to take when you believe your child is being mistreated. 

 "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good

men to do nothing." 

Edmund Burke

Discrimination

 “Discrimination against children can be more severe than that against adults because children often have less social power. In part, this can be attributed to the lack of recognition of children’s rights and children’s dependence on adults to make decisions for them, reinforced by society’s reluctance to relinquish that decision-making power until the child reaches the accepted age of consent.”

“Discrimination is the prejudicial treatment of a person or group based on class or category (or certain characteristics).”

“Discrimination is an assault on the very notion of Human Rights. Discrimination is the systematic denial of certain peoples’ or groups’ full Human Rights because of who they are, what they do or what they believe.”

 Read more

Your Loss

The sports world is full of bench warmers or side line players with great potential to become an exceptional athlete; however, when coaches choose a few players to instruct or give one on one correction to, not only does the team suffer, but players can lose confidence in their abilities, lose trust in the coach, and the desire to play to the fullest potential can be completely diminished.

Well, Coaches this is your loss! Instead of incorporating the talent of your entire team you choose to focus on a few players and settle for a defeated team.

This isn't always the case, but this blog was birthed from unfair treatment of an athlete who was known for his exceptional, athletic abilities, but was overlooked and received minimum play time.  YOUR LOSS!

DEFAMATION OF CHARACTER

At 16 years old, Javan Williams, a high school senior was falsely accused of initiating a fight with an opposing football team. As a result, he was kicked off his football team. His opportunity to play in his senior homecoming game, participating in senior night, a chance at being selected for the All-Star Team, and being seen by college scouts for possible scholarships was snatched from him. Let's not forget about the mere glory a high school senior feels just being a part of the Varsity football team his last year of high school. 

Javan is an outstanding athlete and WHY his skills were not used to help the team improve a losing season will never be answered.


Instead of offering this high school senior encouragement and preparing him for his future, he was lied on, looked over, and eventually kicked off the football team. No action was taken to correct this wrong, so the parents have decided to make a right out of this shameful wrong.

Definition of Defamation of Character

"Any intentional false communication, either written or spoken, that harms a person's reputation; decreases the respect, regard, or confidence in which a person is held; or induces disparaging, hostile, or disagreeable opinions or feelings against a person.

Defamation may be a criminal or civil charge. It encompasses both written statements, known as libel, and spoken statements, called slander."


 Comment by parent, P. Boyd, FL

You never know what will inspire a person. My son's coach said to him " No matter how much I yell at you, you don't get mad enough to play harder." My son of course shrugs because he's not that type of kid. Well, his Nana was hospitalized and he told her he would score 6 points for her in his next game. Low and behold, my son scored eleven points and his coach asked if we fed him some pepper. No, we didn't, but sometimes LOVE is all the inspiration you need.

Police Officials Identified #6

Written Oct 2012

“Police officials identified your son.” When a parent hears a statement like this, the alarms are sounded and the world stops. Thankfully, our son wasn’t in an accident, but he was kicked off his high school football team – his senior year.

 We immediately scheduled a meeting to find out the reason for Javan’s dismissal from the team.  During the meeting, we were told #6 was identified as the ring leader and initiated a fight between his team and another area team one Friday evening. Although several other players were present, only three players were kicked off the team. The punishment seemed a little severe, yet we respected the decision. We wanted to immediately defend our son, but when police officials identify your son what is there to defend? Not only was Javan identified by police officials, but we were told school officials and coaches from the other team identified him also. Wow….my husband and I were shocked. Maybe we didn’t know our son as well as we thought. In the meeting, I suggested to my husband that we get Javan tested for drugs. What we were hearing was completely out of character for him. He’s never been in a fight in his life, so to hear he initiated a fight with a football team was a big pill for us to swallow.  We know Javan gets extremely “in his zone” on game day. He wants to win and can get ostentatious, but is this a crime? After his games, he is upset and doesn’t want to be bothered. With a 1-7 record, he should be used to losing, but he has a winning spirit and doesn’t give up.

 It’s important to mention the said “fight” never escalated into an actual physical fight, but was just a lot of trash talking between the two teams. Coaches from both teams broke the ruckus up – not one punch was ever thrown. 

One day, while sitting around discussing the incident with Javan, he mentioned not seeing police at the scene. My husband told him he was too busy talking trash to notice the police – we still believed the alarming statement of him being “identified” by police.

I couldn’t sleep or eat and after a couple of days, I was led to do my own investigation. I contacted the head coach from the other team plus police officials present at the game and not one player was identified – NO ONE. The police weren’t even at the scene of the so-called "fight." No one even knew which team started the trash talking! So, why was our son kicked off the football team?

 My husband and I were outraged – downright pissed off.  Were we deliberately lied to or was this a big mistake? Surely they wouldn’t lie on our son, but would they lie on police officials? Regardless of any details, the bottom line is – our son was falsely accused.

 We were also told our son’s behavior was another reason for him being kicked off the team. Okay, make up your mind; what’s the real reason he was kicked off? I attend the football practices quite frequently and the things our son was accused of seems to be the norm of over half the team.  Are we defending our son? You better believe it! What are we supposed to do? Let him be accused of something he didn’t do and pretend it didn’t happen? Sweep it under the rug? We’re sorry, but the wrong child has been accused. We couldn’t care less about Javan getting back on the team; we want only his name cleared from this vicious lie, which doesn’t seem to be important to anyone except us.  

We refuse to defame anyone’s character by mentioning names. The reason for this blog post is because it’s what I do. I blog about my life and the sometimes crazy events that happen in my family. I was hesitant about sharing this, but I share everything else, so why not? My hesitation to blog about this was a red flag in my own character. Now is not the time to be quiet. It happened and those involved will answer to God just as my husband and I have to answer to how we handle this false accusation. We pray for direction, patience, peace, and wisdom. We even pray for the accusers. If we weren’t praying, we would have already called the local television station, newspaper, and a lawyer. Our son is off the team for no sound reason – he was falsely accused – period. Have we forgiven? We had to in order to be sane citizens and parents. We HAD to.   

This is not the end of the story. There is so much deceit going on behind this, our heads are spinning in disbelief. We’ll spare the details – clearing Javan’s name is our main concern. We hope this blog post will open the eyes of parents of athletes and to those athletes who have ever been mistreated or falsely accused, IT’S NOT OKAY. Flag on the play! 

Parents usually immediately defend their child when told of misbehavior, but we were careful not to immediately defend Javan; this was our first mistake. Unfortunately, someone else made a mistake and accused the wrong child. Javan, we are sorry we doubted you. We know your character and we will stand by you and behind you to clear your name from this false accusation and all the fallacious statements attached to it.   

Stay strong and keep your head up. You have done nothing to warrant being kicked off your football team. Remember, ALL things work together.  We love you and God has your back!

GOD KNOWS THE TRUTH!