Monday, February 16, 2015

Competition by other means

Just win, baby. Or be a baby?
The Minnesota State High School League is investigating why the other teams boycotted the award ceremony after the Faribault Emeralds won the state high school high-kick dance tournament.

The Emeralds stood alone on the floor of Target Center on Saturday night to accept their first-place trophy and medals. When they went to join the other five teams in the tournament, to share hugs and high-fives, the other team members inched away until the Faribault athletes again stood alone.

“I felt really heartbroken,” Faribault senior captain Abbie Meehl said. “That kind of hurt me just knowing they’re not with us.”

The protesting teams were disqualified for “unsportsmanlike conduct” after they refused to line up for the awards ceremony. No second- or third-place trophies or medals were awarded.
As it turns out, the Faribault team apparently stole their routine from the Jackie Robinson West Little League. I might have that wrong, actually:
The teams, coaches and parents apparently were upset that the Faribault team’s routine looked suspiciously similar to a YouTube video of a performance by an out-of-state dance team. The team appeared to copy the video’s costumes, heavy eye makeup and music. They were also upset that the high school league had cleared the Emeralds of any rules violations.
Emphasis mine. The rules are one thing, the rulings are quite another. A few observations:
  • We've had a window into some of the posturing that goes on in competitive youth activities. The Benster played organized baseball for many years and Fearless Maria is involved in competitive marching band and now drumline at her high school. In Benster's case, he was not playing at the higher, traveling level, which in retrospect seems a blessing. Our coaches were, with maybe one exception, focused on helping the kids get better and not on winning the game at all costs. Even at the lower, less competitive levels, I saw some astonishingly bad behavior from other teams and coaches.
  • I think one of the reasons things get so competitive is because of the commitment involved in these activities. The kids in the band and drumline regularly practice for 3-4 hours at a session, 3-4 times a week, and then are gone all weekend for competitions. The end result is pretty remarkable -- if you watch the shows that the best high school programs put on, they are amazingly intricate and musically powerful exhibitions, with high levels of choreography and often with original music scored and arranged for the bands. And the financial commitment involved is north of four figures, when you take everything into account. For traveling sports programs, the cost is even greater. It's human nature to want to win under those circumstances and it's not particularly surprising that emotions run high if you don't win.
  • The challenge for both the Minnesota High School League and for the larger Little League organization is balancing the nature of the competition taking place. As tough as it was for the Jackie Robinson West kids to lose their title, it was clear that their sponsors did cheat, because you can't alter the boundaries of the league after the fact. The danger in Little League is that if you let people form regional all-star teams, you'll never see a smaller town have a chance. One of the teams that seems to be a perennial visitor to Williamsport is the team from Warner Robins, Georgia. Warner Robins is not an Atlanta suburb; it's actually a town about the size of St. Cloud outside of Macon. It's the sort of town that develops an outstanding youth program and goes from strength to strength. If the rules were changed and a bunch of little of suburban Atlanta Little League districts were to do what Jackie Robinson West did, they'd likely beat Warner Robins every year. If you don't have a chance to win, what happens?
  • The question for Faribault is murkier. While you could argue the Emeralds borrowed too many elements from a different high school's show, there's still the matter of getting your team to perform it properly. There are no real shortcuts; it's difficult work. The state high school league reviewed the Faribault show and compared it to the show from Utah. The league ruled that Faribault could compete. If you follow the rules and you win, that should be the end of it. It rarely is. I would assume that the parents and coaches of the schools that didn't win put in the same kind of hours and money that we do for the band program. There's going to be emotion involved when you fall short. Overcoming that emotion is part of what you should learn in competition. Apparently there's still some learning left to be done. 

7 comments:

Gino said...

we dealt with it when my boy played ball in high school. strange, how one 'local' public school not only went undefeated for 60 games, (humiliating all their neighborhood schools by obscene margins), but one class alone held three future NFL players... and most of the starters had out of district transfers, which are not easy to get.
the good ol boy system is everywhere.

youth organizations (high school, little league, etc...) are as rife with personal politics and corruption(rule 'bending' for the favored) as anything in the adult world. its 'The System'.
how you work that system to your advantage is a good lesson, best learned young.

Bike Bubba said...

Somehow I am reminded of Tonya Harding in all this....does listening to the same moronic song and doing the same routine for months lead to sociopathic responses?

And so glad to see that tax money is being used to teach girls to dance in a casino revue. Mom and Dad will be so proud....

Mr. D said...

Casino revue? That seems a bit harsh, Bubba.

The double-edged sword here — the experience of putting together these routines and working together has undeniable benefit for young people, but the nature of the competition has a lot of nasty undercurrents.

If I remember correctly, you live down in the southern part of the state, Bubba. If you get a chance, go see Waseca High School's marching band performances or their winter drumline and color guard; they do a very nice job. I'd also add that the tax monies that are spent on such things aren't very substantial; at Irondale the families involved pay most of the cost and it's a lot of money. Trust me on that.

3john2 said...

Live by the petard: The Faribault coach is now saying that the treatment his team received from the other schools constitutes bullying. The MSHSL is going to have even more trouble choreographing this!

Bike Bubba said...

Mr. D: I actually was in a pretty good marching band--Chesterton IN's Trojan Guard. What I noticed in Waseca is that they were high on gimmicks, weak on basics--like staying in step, in line, and memorizing their music.

So in a nutshell, not impressed by what I see today.

Same basic thing with the dance teams. Nothing against dance, but the makeup and routines for this are basically the same as you'd see for the Rockettes or in Vegas. Attire is more modest, to be sure, but at a certain point you've got to ask what we're trying to achieve with this.

Mr. D said...

I've not seen Waseca march in a parade, but Waseca's field show is well regarded; they won the mid-sized school competition at our show back in September, beating out Grand Rapids and River Falls, WI. My understanding is that Chesterton has competed at BOA and won it all back in the 1980s, so I'm sure you're judging the performance with a high bar. From what I see these days, the gimmicks you describe are standard operating procedure now.

Bike Bubba said...

Mark: actually, there were a lot of bands out there that minded their basics. It's a big change since then, really.

Always does my heart good to see someone doing the basics well and taking it to a top tier team that does not. :^)