The letter of the law or douchebag?

[BigRichard]

This guy is a douchebag if you ask me. What is your take?

F you if repost

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/201...nnbin&hpt=Sbin

Remember the story of the college softball player who hit the game-winning homer and blew out her knee as she trotted around first base, but was carried to second, third and home by opposing players -- even though she represented the decisive run in a game that determined the championship?

This is not that story.

This is the story of a high school pole vaulter whose successful leap in the last event won the meet and the league championship for her team -- until an opposing coach pointed out she should be disqualified for breaking a rule, reversing the outcome so that his team captured victory and the league title.

The girl's infraction? Wearing a friendship bracelet.

The debatable moment in sportsmanship occurred April 29 in South Pasadena, Calif., where the visiting girls team from Monrovia High was seeking its first-ever Rio Hondo League title against longtime powerhouse South Pasadena High.

With the teams separated by a few points and only the pole vault remaining, Monrovia needed a second-place finish in the event to secure the victory and obtain the title. Both teams gathered around the pole vault pit, loudly celebrating and agonizing over every clearance and miss. Although South Pasadena's Rachel Ma led at 7-feet-6, two Monrovia girls had cleared 7-feet to give their team the lead.

But South Pasadena's best vaulter, Robin Laird, had not competed yet. Now she stood at the top of the runway, preparing for her first vault of the long day -- an attempt at 7-feet-6 that could win the event, the meet and the league title. The crowd fell silent. A crosswind was blowing. Laird began to sprint down the runway through the gauntlet of spectators, but suddenly stopped; something didn't feel right.

"I was feeling nervous," she would later say, "because the whole league championship was on the line."

Laird walked back to the top of the runway, gained her composure, then took off again. This time everything was in sync. She planted the pole, lifted herself into the air and soared easily over the bar to give her team a 66-61 victory. While half the crowd cheered and the other half groaned, Monrovia coach Mike Knowles reacted by pointing to his wrist and gesturing toward Laird, who was wearing a thin, colorful string bracelet.

"This is my 30th year coaching track," Knowles said a few days later. "I know a lot of rules and regulations."

The rule in this case -- Section 3, Article 3 of the National Federation of State High School Associations -- is clear: "Jewelry shall not be worn by contestants." So is the penalty, and in the time it takes to read "the competitor is disqualified from the event," South Pasadena's win was transformed into a 65-62 victory for Monrovia.

South Pasadena coach P.J. Hernandez was dumbfounded.

"I said, 'Coach [Knowles], you really want it to come down to this?' " Hernandez recalled.

When Laird was informed that she had been disqualified because of her bracelet, she burst into tears.

"It wasn't so much that I had been disqualified, personally," Laird said. "It was that I had just lost the league championship that my coaches and teammates had worked so hard for ... I had just lost it with this little piece of string on my wrist."

When the ruling was announced, Monrovia's athletes and supporters erupted into a reflexive cheer and South Pasadena's reacted with stunned resentment. But people on both sides mostly retreated into schools of thought, pondering issues of sportsmanship vs. gamesmanship, the letter of the law vs. its spirit and what lesson to derive from what had just happened.

Even Monrovia athletic director Randy Bell struggled to process the outcome. "I don't think it was anything people were particularly proud of," he said. "A rule was invoked, and correctly so, but I don't think anybody was excited to win that way."

Knowles, 54, is in his first season at Monrovia, but he has won a lot during a career in which he coached Pasadena's storied Muir High to nine CIF-Southern Section championships, three California state championships and one mythical national championship.

"It's unfortunate, that's all I can say," Knowles said. "It's unfortunate for the young lady. But you've got to teach the kids that rules are rules."

South Pasadena's Hernandez doesn't dispute the technical validity of Knowles' call, Laird's obligation to have followed the rule or even the life lesson to be learned by everyone involved. But Hernandez thinks the scope of this teaching moment ought to be broadened to examine when the teaching could have best taken place.

"Mike Knowles was down by the pole vault pit, kind of waiting and sitting there, keeping an eye on our girl, waiting for her to attempt the vault and then make the call, " said Hernandez. "I am upset that he wanted to win so badly that he would do it that way. We feel sportsmanship is important, too, and that it is in question with him in this situation."

Knowles denied he was lying in wait.

"I didn't notice the bracelet until after she cleared the height and walked by," he insisted. "[I had] a sinking feeling for her. I didn't want to have to do it. But it's a real rule -- it's in the book -- not something I made up. About 10 years ago, I had a girl who wore an earring in the 4x400 relay and it ended up costing us a CIF title. I feel bad for what happened, but I guarantee you she'll never wear jewelry during a track meet again."

Laird, a senior who will be attending -- but probably not pole vaulting -- the University of Southern California next year, says, "I find it hard to believe" that Knowles did not see the friendship bracelet when she took that aborted trip down the runway. "But I don't want to say for sure that he saw it," she said. "It isn't my place to say that."

Laird disgustedly tore the friendship bracelet off her wrist after being disqualified, and she concedes that Knowles is right about her mistakenly wearing one again in competition -- or maybe ever.

"As of right now, I am not wearing one," she said. "Although I do still have a tan line on my wrist. That's my scarlet letter."

[Gadzooks]

Originally Posted by siberian khatru

. He's a good coach. This piddley kind of stuff happens in the NHL quite often when coaches question the length/ curve of an opposing player's stick.

[DaFace]

I do actually wonder about calling a friendship bracelet "jewelry" (as mentioned above). It's a piece of string. If you had fifty of them, it would be an arm band, which are worn all the time.

If they really wanted to press the issue, I'd wonder if it would be overturned. Not sure who is responsible for that stuff or what level of protest is allowed, though.

[LaChapelle]

and people want cat killers to get prison time
people ****ed up

[Predarat]

Originally Posted by Pestilence

Yeah but he wouldn't agree with REPOST!

Damn it i'm too slow lol its my leg that got swept in that one.

[BigRichard]

Originally Posted by DaFace

I agree. Hope the OP is OK with me adding one...

Go right ahead. I thought about doing it but decided against it.

[philfree]

So it was a piece of string? If it wasn't metal or didn't have jewels on it then I argue that it was a piece of string and not jewelry at all. How 'bout a rubber band? Is that jewelry too? If I were them I'd try an appeal before I let the douchebag have the victory.


PhilFree

[Iowanian]

I expect Mr T to come forward and Pitty this Fool!

[Predarat]

I think the other coach should have argued it was technicially not jewlery.

[philfree]

Originally Posted by philfree

So it was a piece of string? If it wasn't metal or didn't have jewels on it then I argue that it was a piece of string and not jewelry at all. How 'bout a rubber band? Is that jewelry too? If I were them I'd try an appeal before I let the douchebag have the victory.







PhilFree

LOL Reposted Repost!


PhilFree

[ClevelandBronco]

Originally Posted by frazod

If you've never seen That Championship Season, you should rent it sometime. Movie based on a play about the aftermath of winning at all costs.

Good stuff. Mitchum, Martin Sheen, Bruce Dern, Paul Sorvino. Haven't seen it in years.

[Param]

I bet there was HGH in that string. Good move by the opposing coach to point it out.

[DJ's left nut]

It's high school athletics -- douchebag.

Douchebag squared since there's no way in hell that coach wasn't watching and waiting for her to do it. You cannot convince me that the guy didn't know about the bracelet well before the jump.

It's like the pine-tar incident with George Brett. Billy Martin knew about the pine-tar the entire game (speculation is that he knew about it for weeks) but was going to wait until the right time to call it to the umpires attention.

Major league baseball -- okay. High School pole vault (a sport nobody really gives a shit about anyway) -- definitely not okay. And then to say "well she won't be wearing jewelry to another event, I taught her a lesson" is even less okay.

Douche move all the way.

[siberian khatru]

Originally Posted by ClevelandBronco

Good stuff. Mitchum, Martin Sheen, Bruce Dern, Paul Sorvino. Haven't seen it in years.

And written by Father Karras from "The Exorcist."

[Rain Man]

Originally Posted by Braincase

If the rule states "jewelry", than "jewelry" should be defined. Webster's Online defines jewelry as: objects of precious metal often set with gems and worn for personal adornment.

A piece of string is not jewelry. The coach is a douche.

That's an excellent point.



On another front, the other coach should demand to see whether any of the douche's girls have nipple or genital piercings. Rules are rules.

[ClevelandBronco]

I mean, it's not like she circumvented the salary cap or something.