There are some psychological truths every parent tries to teach their children and one of those bits of wisdom is that "life is not always fair.
This lesson helps in building character to overcome some of the many adversities that life challenges us with. Still, we should all try to make life as fair as we can, especially when it comes to how our school system treats our female student-athletes. Unfortunately, some in the Anne Arundel County Public Schools athletic administration seemed to drop the ball recently by abandoning basic principles to safeguard the health of our student-athletes, support the importance of academics and provide fair and equal treatment to all players.
In many ways, the Broadneck High School girls soccer team and other athletic teams were fortunate to be playing two weeks ago rather than struggling with the impact of Hurricane Sandy like our neighbors to the north. Unfortunately, some of our school athletic officials in Anne Arundel County poorly handled the rescheduling of the girls high school soccer playoff games that were reshuffled by the storm and seemed to put players health, academics and fairness in jeopardy.
As a parent of one of the players, it appeared to me that the school athletic department, coaches, parents and the team were all understandably stunned by the treatment they were given.
The team was originally scheduled to play about an hour and one-half away in Leonardtown on Oct. 30 but the game was rescheduled to Nov. 1 due to Hurricane Sandy. That didn’t seem like much of an issue except that the Maryland Public Secondary School Athletic Association allowed the Leonardtown school officials to book three games on their field that evening. This meant that the Broadneck Girls Soccer team had to leave their school at 3:30 p.m. for a game that did not actually begin until almost 8 on a school night!
This also meant that the team did not arrive back to their school until close to midnight and most players did not get home until even later. Since high school starts at 7:17 a.m., players had only a few hours of sleep after playing an intense tournament game before returning to school and facing end-of-quarter exams.
It got even worse from there. After the team defeated their opponent for their second round playoff win they were told that they had to play again in less than 18 hours against the No. 1 seed in their bracket. Many of the girls had major exams as a result of the decision to move the end of the marking period and not allow testing on the days immediately following the hurricane. Several of the girls tried to study all the way down on the bus and back. Those that got motion sickness studying on the bus said they had to study when they got home well after midnight. Assistant coach Anne McNulty pointed out, "These girls had their priorities straight. It was the adults in their lives that let them down.”
Coaches, parents and the Broadneck High athletic director pleaded with the MPSSAA and Greg LeGrand, the county school system's coordinator of athletics, to reschedule the game to Saturday as they had done with the boys games. The response to this seemingly self-evident request from LeGrand appeared dismissive to many of the parents.
Mr. Legrand wrote, “I completely disagree with your notion that trying to change the game date is the right thing to. The right thing to do is to honor the agreement and playing rules accepted when your team opted to play in the tournament. The rules are very specific. The right thing to do is to use this adversity as a life lesson and rallying cry to help the girls give their best effort in spite of some adversity.”
Similar types of inflexible responses were sent to other parents who tried to ask LeGrand for his support in promoting academics first and safeguarding their daughters' health by allowing for appropriate rest and access to care.
“I just wanted my daughter to focus on her end-of-marking period exams and get a good night's sleep before she had to play again” said Mary Beth Paganelli, mother of one of the players. "Their health and academics were compromised.” Another parent said that playing two intense playoff games so close together was unnecessarily physical, and generated emotional stress for the athletes during a critical academic period.
Also, by scheduling the game for the next day it restricted players who were experiencing pain or physical concerns from getting any help or seeing their doctor in the morning because county rules prohibit missing any school time on the day of a game. Had a player gone in for a medical consult they would have forfeited their hard-earned right to participate in the next round of the playoffs.
Allowing at least 24 hours between games should be expected in high school sports. The state of Maryland has adopted measures to ensure our athletes are safe during the tryout process by limiting the number of hours they can practice. In this bungled situation, the Broadneck girls ended one soccer match at 9:40 p.m. on Thursday and were required to return to the field the next afternoon after getting only a few hours of sleep and attending school. That unnecessarily intense schedule was clearly not in the best interests of these young ladies' physical or emotional health, much less their academic standing.
It would also appear to be blatantly unsportsmanlike, given that the other team they were going to play had more than adequate time to rest. After working so hard for months to be in the playoffs, didn't these female student-athletes deserve better than this? In fact, one wonders how the other team could even proceed in good conscience under such uneven and unsportsmanlike circumstances.
Although we cannot go back in time, parents would like some answers from the Anne Arundel County Board of Education and the MPSSAA as to why these girls were forced to play such an aggressive schedule when other scheduling alternatives were clearly available. This is especially relevant given that boys soccer games were moved to Saturday specifically so that they did not have to play back-back games as the girls were required to do.
What do these actions say about female athletics and the concern for protecting their health and academics? Also, where is the standard of fairness and equal treatment for participants who have been playing since August for the right to participate in the year ending state tournament? Why was no effort made to treat these players more fairly and why were the parents, coaches and athletic director's concerns dismissed with such arrogance?
Certainly, in his position as schools superintendent, Kevin M. Maxwell has issued many directives emphasizing student health and the importance of "academics first," yet these principles were ignored by the athletic officials involved in this poor decision.
It may be that these same officials who were so quick in their decision to compromise these young women' s physical and academic well-being will not be quite so quick in answering these questions! But then again, who said life was fair?