I posted the article with no commentary of my own. I will admit I have mixed emotions about it. On one hand, it was relatively harmless - classless, but harmless. The league probably could have taken another action, but this one** isn’t too far off base** (see what I did there?)
On the other hand, the girls learned a valuable but also harmless lesson that could serve them well for the rest of their life.
They basically were saying “Fuck you,” correct? And they’re young teens? I know this is the 21st century, and the debasement of our culture is going full-throttle, but where do we draw the line,especially when it comes to minor children? Should we as adults – as imperfect a vessel as we surely are, collectively speaking – be teaching them them manners/deportment, respect for others, and so forth, both as individual grown-ups and as a community of adults? If so, then these kids were handled appropriately.
I know that it’s hard for kids that age to accept – especially given most of them are being raised in an extreme self-esteem-growing climate, many with parents who’ll argue with teachers over a grade that’s anything less than an ‘A’ – but it’s like Mr. Slowguy says: better they learn now, at their age and when the lesson will be relatively painless (though acutely hurtful in the present) over time than they find out some seriously hard facts of life (as all of us of a certain age have no doubt discovered for ourselves), such as this one:
If you guys were the decision maker, would you have DQ’d them for this? I wouldn’t have. Sure, give them a scare by spending a few days “considering” their expulsion, but in the end I’d have let them compete. They’re kids. Kids do dumb things. No one got hurt by the foolishness.
Not sure if I would have DQd the team or not. I don’t have lol the facts as regards the rules of the league or tournament, what kind of personal conduct rules exist, etc. I don’t know if this picture is the full team or not. Maybe disqualify just the players in the photo and not the entire team?
If you want to penalize this action, what are the options? Doesn’t seem like there are many. I’m not sure it makes sense to penalize them X number of runs or anything like that.
If you don’t DQ them, what lesson is taught? Seems to me that the lesson is that they can get away with whatever they want.
If you guys were the decision maker, would you have DQ’d them for this? I wouldn’t have. Sure, give them a scare by spending a few days “considering” their expulsion, but in the end I’d have let them compete. They’re kids. Kids do dumb things. No one got hurt by the foolishness.
Not sure if I would have DQd the team or not. I don’t have lol the facts as regards the rules of the league or tournament, what kind of personal conduct rules exist, etc. I don’t know if this picture is the full team or not. Maybe disqualify just the players in the photo and not the entire team?
If you want to penalize this action, what are the options? Doesn’t seem like there are many. I’m not sure it makes sense to penalize them X number of runs or anything like that.
If you don’t DQ them, what lesson is taught? Seems to me that the lesson is that they can get away with whatever they want.
“the Little League® International Tournament Committee has removed the Southeast Region from the 2017 Junior League Softball World Series for violation of Little League’s policies regarding unsportsmanlike conduct, inappropriate use of social media, and the high standard that Little League International holds for all its participants.”
And
“Coach Chris Mardigian added that the photo was in response to the treatment Atlee players received from members of the Kirkland American team during their visit. Kirkland serves as the host city for the tournament.”
The punishment is harsh but I don’t think it’s completely out of line. 12-14 year old kids shouldn’t be doing stuff like this regardless of what age we live in. Unfortunately I think or hope they learned a valuable lesson.
“the Little League® International Tournament Committee has removed the Southeast Region from the 2017 Junior League Softball World Series for violation of Little League’s policies regarding unsportsmanlike conduct, inappropriate use of social media, and the high standard that Little League International holds for all its participants.”
And
“Coach Chris Mardigian added that the photo was in response to the treatment Atlee players received from members of the Kirkland American team during their visit. Kirkland serves as the host city for the tournament”.
Talk about being punished.
“The team Atlee beat in the semifinals, Kirkland American, will replace Atlee in the championship game”
“the Little League® International Tournament Committee has removed the Southeast Region from the 2017 Junior League Softball World Series for violation of Little League’s policies regarding unsportsmanlike conduct, inappropriate use of social media, and the high standard that Little League International holds for all its participants.”
And
“Coach Chris Mardigian added that the photo was in response to the treatment Atlee players received from members of the Kirkland American team during their visit. Kirkland serves as the host city for the tournament.”
The punishment is harsh but I don’t think it’s completely out of line. 12-14 year old kids shouldn’t be doing stuff like this regardless of what age we live in. Unfortunately I think or hope they learned a valuable lesson.
It might have been wiser to suspend/expel the players in the picture. Seems a bit excessive to expel the entire team for the actions of a few bad apples.
Not sure the roster size of girls softball. Maybe they thought of expelling only the girls in the picture and that left the team with insufficient players do they just expelled the entire team.
“the Little League® International Tournament Committee has removed the Southeast Region from the 2017 Junior League Softball World Series for violation of Little League’s policies regarding unsportsmanlike conduct, inappropriate use of social media, and the high standard that Little League International holds for all its participants.”
And
“Coach Chris Mardigian added that the photo was in response to the treatment Atlee players received from members of the Kirkland American team during their visit. Kirkland serves as the host city for the tournament.”
The punishment is harsh but I don’t think it’s completely out of line. 12-14 year old kids shouldn’t be doing stuff like this regardless of what age we live in. Unfortunately I think or hope they learned a valuable lesson.
this definitely adds to the strength of the case, for me. this wasn’t just some players doing a bit of badassery during downtime - they were specifically directing this at another team, and were violating tournament rules.
it’s just a baseball game. maybe they’ll learn some bigger lessons about life.
“the Little League® International Tournament Committee has removed the Southeast Region from the 2017 Junior League Softball World Series for violation of Little League’s policies regarding unsportsmanlike conduct, inappropriate use of social media, and the high standard that Little League International holds for all its participants.”
And
“Coach Chris Mardigian added that the photo was in response to the treatment Atlee players received from members of the Kirkland American team during their visit. Kirkland serves as the host city for the tournament.”
The punishment is harsh but I don’t think it’s completely out of line. 12-14 year old kids shouldn’t be doing stuff like this regardless of what age we live in. Unfortunately I think or hope they learned a valuable lesson.
It might have been wiser to suspend/expel the players in the picture. Seems a bit excessive to expel the entire team for the actions of a few bad apples.
Not sure the roster size of girls softball. Maybe they thought of expelling only the girls in the picture and that left the team with insufficient players do they just expelled the entire team.
If they suspended the six girls in that picture, there would probably only be six girls left on the team.
It might have been wiser to suspend/expel the players in the picture. Seems a bit excessive to expel the entire team for the actions of a few bad apples.
This goes against the concept of ‘team’ in my opinion. You’re wearing the uniform and your actions affect the whole. If the girls were doing this off site, EX: at home, and not in uniform, I’d agree with you. However, they did this in the dug out while representing. You win as a team and lose as one, too. The other girls not in the picture will, hopefully, set them straight.
I don’t know, with everything that is out there these days, who cares. My bet it was men that made the dq.
Probably white men. Might as well attempt double “ism” score. Sigh.
Guy has a role in creating bad outcome for woman. Go to explanation: Sexism.
A white person has a role creating bad outcome re. a black person. Go to explanation: Racism.
Newsflash. Men are mostly pretty agreeable folks. Maybe we could give them the benefit of the doubt, eh?
The assumption if “ism” makes me want to puke.
Re. the little league rules said don’t post stupid pics of team flipping the bird on social media.
I’m sure the little girls all read the “little league social media rules” really carefully . Then a rep of the world little league federation gave them a brief that clearly defined “inappropriate” in the context of social media.
I bet no one at any level in the org had a clue what the heck the rules said about this. That someone got their panties in a wad over the pic, and that’s when they pulled the rule book out to see what it said.
Statement from the President of Atlee Little League.
Jamie Batten, the president of Atlee Little League, released a statement late Saturday night about the softball team’s disqualification due to an inappropriate Snapchat post. “We are deeply disappointed this social media post did not reflect the core values of Little League International or Atlee Little League,” he wrote. "We expect Little League International will take the time to fully investigate the matter, and we will comply with this investigation by providing all information about unpleasant interactions including the social media post and the time leading up to that event - not all of which were on the part of those on the Atlee softball team. “We desire to protect all youth who are recipients of inappropriate behavior both on and off the field, as we take very seriously our charge to impart the value of good sportsmanship.” Batten said those involved in the post are requesting privacy at this time. He continued: “These young athletes are part of Atlee Little League. As all young athletes are trained to do, they will brush themselves off after a loss, and try again - after having learned a most valuable lesson.”
Looks like there are 12 team members. 6 were in the picture. 1 took the picture. That makes 7 of 12 active participants. So, yeah, if they suspended only the active participants, there would be no members to field a team.
I bet no one at any level in the org had a clue what the heck the rules said about this.
Well, let’s set aside the fact that ignorance of the rules is not a defense. Do you think it’s not pretty reasonable to suspect, in a children’s sport league, that there might be rules against conduct that might reflect poorly on the league, or rules against blatantly poor sportsmanship, or…in this day and age, pertaining to use of social media when it could reflect on the league? I mean, these all seem like pretty predictable things to be covered by the rule book of a little league organization.
I bet no one at any level in the org had a clue what the heck the rules said about this.
Well, let’s set aside the fact that ignorance of the rules is not a defense. Do you think it’s not pretty reasonable to suspect, in a children’s sport league, that there might be rules against conduct that might reflect poorly on the league, or rules against blatantly poor sportsmanship, or…in this day and age, pertaining to use of social media when it could reflect on the league? I mean, these all seem like pretty predictable things to be covered by the rule book of a little league organization.
Well said.
Participation in organizations like Little League is a privilege, not a right. Being able to compete for a national championship is a privilege, not a right. All that happened to these little bundles of joy was that a privilege was taken away when they blatantly abused the privilege. Youth sports are supposed to teach sportsmanship and teamwork. They are also supposed to teach kids how to win and how to lose, which will happen over and over and over in life. Disqualifying this team furthered several core purposes of this youth sport.
