{"id":5856,"date":"2016-02-04T06:40:03","date_gmt":"2016-02-04T11:40:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/intramuralist.com\/?p=5856"},"modified":"2016-02-04T06:40:03","modified_gmt":"2016-02-04T11:40:03","slug":"too-good","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/?p=5856","title":{"rendered":"too good"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Every now and then a story comes along that prompts a bit of a pregnant pause. There\u2019s something that causes me to stop and take an extra glance. Granted, the reality is that in most of these stories, my perspective is limited as our information is incomplete. Such happened recently in the \u201cLand of 10,000 Lakes\u201d\u2026 in girls basketball, no less. According to the Minneapolis City Pages, \u201cthe definitive source of information for news, music, movies, restaurants, reviews, and events in Minneapolis\u201d\u2026<\/p>\n

\u201cMost children are encouraged\u00a0by parents and coaches to \u2018do your best\u2019 and \u2018give 100 percent.\u2019 One girls basketball team in Minnesota is being told\u00a0\u2018Hey, that’s way too much.\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n

The Rogers Area Youth Basketball Association girls high school team was booted from the\u00a0Northwest Suburban Basketball League for being too good\u00a0\u2014 seriously.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018We found out Friday at lunchtime that we\u2019re not going to be allowed because according to the league, our girls were too talented,\u2019 coach Jason Hanauska told Fox 9 News.<\/em><\/p>\n

Hanauska says three teams were threatening to forfeit games or leave the league, so RAYBA\u00a0was kicked out instead.<\/em><\/p>\n

Parents of RAYBA players received a letter from the head of their association\u00a0with this explanation:\u00a0\u2018The Northwest Suburban Basketball League has decided RAYBA does not fit into the league.\u00a0The main reason they made this decision is because other teams do not want to play RAYBA due to the skill level.\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018Are we supposed to play worse just to make them happy?\u2019\u00a0RAYBA player\u00a0Tessa McCarthy said.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

After a meeting was held to brainstorm potential solutions on Jan. 25th, the RAYBA team was banned\u2026<\/p>\n

\u2026For being too good<\/em>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

One editorialized report, in fact, read in conjunction with this post, suggested the following spin in regard to the girls\u2019 play:<\/p>\n

\u201cThey turned out to be monsters,<\/strong> crushing their opponents in the first two games.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

[Emphasis mine.]<\/p>\n

I get it. This is tough stuff. It\u2019s hard in the Little and littler leagues when one team dominates. It\u2019s challenging to face another opponent when the chances of winning are seemingly slim. But teenage girls as \u201cmonsters\u201d??<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a part of me, no less, that\u2019s highly tempted to scream and shout (as much as I actually do scream and shout),<\/em> wondering if this is a direct result of current culture\u2019s equality bandwagon going too far\u2026 having to limit the playing field\u2026 giving everyone a trophy\u2026 unable to acknowledge differences in performance\u2026 unable to affirm excellence in another.<\/p>\n

While it is certainly true that \u201call men were created equal,\u201d it is equally true that \u201call men\u201d do not possess equal ability.<\/p>\n

We have each been uniquely wired by our Creator, doing some things better than others\u2026. possessing some skills better than others\u2026 doing some things actually worse (\u2026 watch me ice skate sometime; I totally stink).<\/em> The reality is \u2014 which FYI, might actually be a better thing to teach teenage girls \u2014 that we are not all equal in terms of ability.<\/p>\n

I do confess, that if I was on the other side of that girls basketball team, having to face any so-called kind of \u201cmonster,\u201d that would be a hard for me; I don\u2019t like to lose.<\/p>\n

But I would also hope that another team being \u201ctoo good\u201d or more skilled than moi would never be cause for me to quit or them to be kicked out. Otherwise, this embracing of equality \u2014 and ignoring of unique ability \u2014 has gone too far.<\/p>\n

Respectfully\u2026
\nAR<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

            Every now and then a story comes along that prompts a bit of a pregnant pause. There\u2019s something that causes me to stop and take an extra glance. Granted, the reality is that in most of these stories, my perspective is limited as our information is incomplete. Such happened … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “too good”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5856","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-event"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5856","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5856"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5856\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5860,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5856\/revisions\/5860"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5856"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5856"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5856"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}